Regulatory classification

An open internet provides a bedrock on which local news providers can build stable, accessible, and independent structures. Net Neutrality will not solve the problems facing local news. Doing so will require hard work and ingenuity from journalists, community members, entrepreneurs, and local governments. But net neutrality gives those actors the space to try and solve these problems. In a world without net neutrality, that space will shrink. 

A Q&A with Christopher Mitchell, director of Community Broadband Networks for the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. 

In an interview Dec 11 about the coming Federal Communications Commission vote over whether to repeal landmark network neutrality rules, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai took aim at a different group — the Web platforms themselves.

Video plays a growing role in the education of students who turn to videoconferencing, streaming lectures, and other forms of high-tech distance learning to complete or extend their educations. But the looming end of net neutrality could make life harder, or at least more expensive, for such students. 

[Commentary] I was lucky enough to see up close the excitement of fired-up startup founders building things that never existed before. I got inspired enough to leave behind a great job with healthcare and put my savings into building my dream. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai’s short-sighted plan will crush that dream for future would-be founders.

Since most folks won’t plow through 5500 words of legal analysis, I’ve gotten some requests to specifically address the claims by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai and others that the Federal Trade Commission can address blocking as easily as the FCC and prevent any Internet service provider from blocking any content or application. My short answer is: “No.

On Thursday, December 7th, five internet service providers alleged to Chairman Pai that the current legal framework for Open Internet rules had curtailed their investment and harmed their operations. While the presentations are rife with vague statements and outright errors, there is one thing notably absent from all of them: dollar signs, deployment data, and any other quantifiable metric demonstrating the supposed impact of Title II.

[Commentary] Dec 14's the day that the Trump administration will overturn former President Obama’s rules protecting consumers from greedy telecom companies manipulating internet access and pricing. I got a preview of what’s to come over the weekend as my Spectrum internet bill soared by 20% — and as I encountered the take-it-or-leave-it policy imposed by Spectrum’s owner, Charter Communications, which purchased Time Warner Cable in 2016.

As the FCC prepares to rightfully restore internet freedom with Title I internet rules, it’s good to know that these powerful commissions are working together to protect consumers from any unfair or anticompetitive practices. The FTC has successfully provided those essential protections for decades, and we are confident they will continue to do so. Today’s announcement from the FTC and FCC is a positive move for consumers and the internet ecosystem.

Today’s agreement between the FCC and FTC underscores the absurdity of Chairman Pai’s proposal to eliminate net neutrality and his plan to abandon the FCC’s statutory responsibilities as the expert agency overseeing our communications networks.  Chairman Pai’s plan not only leaves consumers fending for themselves, it is now creating a bureaucratic nightmare with no one left in charge when things inevitably go wrong.  And by acting before the Ninth Circuit decides whether the FTC has any authority over broadband providers, this MOU is effectively worthless.