Daily Digest 12/14/2017 (FCC Votes on Net Neutrality Today)

Rep Mike Doyle (D-PA), the Ranking Member on the House Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, announced that he and 117 other Members of Congress had sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission urging the Commissioners NOT to vote on FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s “Restoring Internet Freedom Order” at the Commission’s scheduled meeting Dec 14. Congressman Doyle organized the letter to the FCC urging the Commission to delay its vote on the Restoring Internet Freedom Order – in other words, to not vote on the draft order tomorrow. He announced that if the FCC does vote to adopt the Restoring Internet Freedom Order tomorrow, he would introduce legislation to overturn it.

In a letter sent to the Federal Communications Commission , 18 attorneys general from around the country called on the agency to delay the Dec 14 vote on a repeal of net neutrality protections. The 11th-hour letter, sent by the Oregon attorney general and signed by representatives of 17 states and DC, follows a high-profile press conference from the New York attorney general, who said the FCC had declined to investigate net neutrality comments posted under stolen identities. “As state Attorneys General, many of our offices have received complaints from consumers indicating their distress over their names being used in such a manner,” the attorneys general write. “While we will investigate these consumer complaints through our normal processes, we urge the Commission to take immediate action and to cooperate with law enforcement investigations.” The letter requests an “immediate delay” so investigations can be conducted. “While not all of us may agree on any given policy, we stand together today as prosecutors of fraud and as defenders of the democratic process,” the letter concludes. “It is essential that the Commission gets a full and accurate picture of how changes to net neutrality will affect the everyday lives of Americans before they can act on such sweeping policy changes.”

The Federal Communications Commissions' public comment period on its plans to repeal net neutrality protections was bombarded with bots, memes, and input from people who don't actually exist. So, with the FCC declining to investigate its own comments, we decided to undertake an analysis of our own. We confirmed six bots and 11 form letters.

The Federal Communications Commission's own chief technology officer expressed concern Dec 13 about FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's plan to repeal the network neutrality rules, saying it could lead to practices that are "not in the public interest." In an internal e-mail to all of the FCC commissioner offices, CTO Eric Burger, who was appointed by Pai in October, said the No. 1 issue with the repeal is concern that internet service providers will block or throttle specific websites, according to FCC sources who viewed the message.  "Unfortunately, I realize we do not address that at all," Burger said in the e-mail. "If the ISP is transparent about blocking legal content, there is nothing the [Federal Trade Commission] can do about it unless the FTC determines it was done for anti-competitive reasons. Allowing such blocking is not in the public interest." The warning challenges the FCC's official line on the planned repeal of the net neutrality rules, set for a vote Dec 14. While the agency is poised to scrap the rules preventing internet providers like Comcast and Verizon from blocking or throttling web traffic, the FCC's Republican majority argues consumers won't see a difference online. An FCC official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the internal deliberations, said Burger's concerns have been addressed since his message the morning of Dec 13. The discussion, the official said, is part of the normal back-and-forth process of editing an FCC order.  The official said that some clarifying language was added to the order and that Burger replied the afternoon of Dec 13 to say his concerns were "fully addressed." The official also noted that the CTO was focused on one section of the order and not the part that dealt with the rules. Burger referred a request for comment to the FCC's media relations office.

The Federal Communications Commission is expected to vote on Dec 14 to dismantle the so-called net neutrality rules, which prohibit internet service providers from blocking or charging websites for higher quality delivery to consumers. It would also dial back the government’s stance that broadband should be regulated like a utility. The three Republican commissioners, including Chairman Pai, have said they will vote for the proposal, which would secure a majority over the two Democratic commissioners. Passing the plan would be the biggest victory in Pai’s eventful 11-month tenure as the head of the FCC, helping secure his reputation as one of the most effective chairmen in decades. Under his leadership, the agency has already opened the door for more media mergers, curtailed a high-speed internet program for low-income families and allowed broadband providers to raise rates to business customers. All of this activity has made Chairman Pai, 44, a former lawyer for Verizon and a longtime government bureaucrat, the target of many angry protests. But Pai’s changes have also won him political accolades and distinction as a high achiever in the Trump administration’s rush to shed regulations. The effects of his decisions have rippled across the industries Chairman Pai oversees. “In every way,” said Mark Cooper, a staff member of Consumer Federation of America, “his decisions are bad for consumers and good for big corporations.”

[Commentary] A comparison of the regulatory regime in place on January 17, 2014 (the day after Verizon v. FCC) and the anticipated regulatory regime as it will exist on January 17, 2018, and the Top 3 Ways They Are Totally And Completely Different In Ways That Make Consumers Worse Off. Even if we take the most literal and favorable interpretation of “we are just rolling things back to what they were before 2015” to mean “specifically, we are setting the regulatory way back machine to that magic day of January 17, 2014, the day after the D.C. Circuit in Verizon v. FCCstruck down the FCC’s non-discrimination rule but not the transparency rule,” this statement is still false to fact in 3 fairly important ways:

1. The FCC Always Asserted It Had Authority To Protect Consumers Online and Present Blocking of Content, Even When It Did Not Have Rules In Place. Pai Is The First FCC Chariman Ever To Reverse This Bipartisan Consensus.
2. Since The FCC Classified Broadband As An “Information Service” In 2002, Every FCC Chairman – Republican and Democratic – Has Stated That The FCC Will Enforce Consumer Protection Aganst Broadband Providers. The PAI Order Explicitly Reverses This 15 Year Bipartisan Consensus.
3. There Was Absolutely No FCC Preemption of State Law With Respect To Broadband On January 17, 2014. On January 17, 2018, The FCC Will Preempt Any State Law “Inconsistent” With the “Deregulatory Policies” The FCC Adopts in The Order.

The National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) is prepared to seek judicial review of the Federal Communications Commission’s Network Neutrality repeal to ensure that Latinos and other marginalized communities continue to have access to an open Internet. Carmen Scurato, vice president of policy and general counsel said: “Chairman Pai’s repeal of Net Neutrality rules is a frontal attack on Latinos and other communities of color, who already face substantial barriers in getting online, staying online, and having high quality Internet. With its repeal of Net Neutrality, the FCC will effectively erect additional barriers which will impact our ability to speak and be heard online. By handing over control of the Internet to powerful corporations, this Trump FCC will stymie our voices and our opportunities. We also have uncovered evidence that the Net Neutrality consumer protections set in place by the FCC in 2015 allowed consumers to reach out to the agency which helped facilitate responses and resolutions. Now the FCC is set to remove those protections without even taking a look at the over 50,000 Net Neutrality complaints filed by consumers over the last two years. This is a fatal error in the process, and the FCC’s lack of acknowledgement or analysis of these complaints leaves a gaping hole in the record. NHMC will challenge the FCC’s repeal in court and continue to fight for Latinos and people of color for whom access to an open Internet is a basic human right.”

Let’s talk about the end of net neutrality in terms of a hellscape everyone knows: airport security lines. Imagine Verizon and Comcast are running the security lines—and websites and services are the ones trying to get through. With net neutrality, all those sites pass through at the same speed. But of course, airport security these days is all about a pecking order. There’s regular security and there’s the faster “TSA Pre” line. Then at many airports, if you pay extra there’s a “Clear” line, a “priority” line for pilots and first-class passengers, and even a super-fast celebrity line that comes with organic seaweed snacks (really). Without the neutrality rules, Internet providers could set up their own fast lanes—meaning certain websites could buy first-class treatment, while others are stuck in cattle class. Providers could sell Internet service in packages, like cable-TV bundles. Service providers would also have the right to set up their own no-fly lists, blocking certain websites that they don’t like or compete with their own business.  For you, certain websites could slow to a crawl. Or perhaps they wouldn’t show up at all. The problem isn’t what happens to Silicon Valley companies who can afford special treatment. The deepest impact will be invisible: small businesses stuck in the slow lane. We could lose what what makes the Internet so useful in the first place. Without net neutrality, many new ideas just won’t ever take flight.

• Since November 28, cable news has given net neutrality minimal coverage: approximately four minutes each on CNN and Fox News and more than eight minutes on MSNBC.
• Since November 28, broadcast news networks have given net neutrality minimal coverage on their morning and evening news programs and Sunday political talk shows: more than eight minutes on NBC and a little more than two minutes on CBS. ABC did not cover net neutrality in this time period.
• Since November 20 when news first broke on the upcoming Federal Communications Commission (FCC) vote on a proposal to dismantle net neutrality regulations, the six networks have devoted a combined one hour and 39 minutes to the story, with MSNBC leading in coverage with nearly 55 minutes.

Netflix helped spark the debate over net neutrality three years ago by raising concerns about how its internet traffic was being handled. But as the US government prepares to repeal the rules, the video giant has been less vocal on a key issue. That is because its concerns over so-called interconnections—the places where web traffic is passed from one company to the other—have largely been addressed by commercial deals. And some telecom and other companies that were calling for more government oversight of these links have stepped back from the discussion. Netflix, after serving as the standard-bearer for the FCC’s stronger rules to protect web companies from unfair treatment by carriers, says it is less at risk now that it is big enough to strike favorable deals with telecom companies. The company did just that, reaching several deals in recent years to pay broadband providers for ample bandwidth into their networks. “Where net neutrality is really important is the Netflix of 10 years ago,” Chief Executive Reed Hastings said. “It’s not our primary battle at this point.” Netflix has since eclipsed many of the broadband providers it once battled. Its domestic subscriber based has doubled over the past four years to 53 million, while its market value quadrupled to about $80 billion.

[Commentary] As the chairman of both France’s regulatory agency for telecommunications and the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications, or BEREC, I believe it is my duty to share some evidence about net neutrality protections from Europe. Net neutrality rules are not deterring telecommunications and cable companies from investing in networks. Net neutrality is not about preserving internet as it is. It is about keeping doors open to reshuffle it again and again. Net neutrality is a worldwide responsibility for democracies. [Sébastien Soriano is the chairman of ARCEP, the French national regulatory authority for telecommunications. He is also the chairman of the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications.]

Shoring up the notion that home internet service penetration is plateauing, about 84% of US homes now get that service, up 1% from 2012’s levels, and up from 74% in 2007, Leichtman Research Group found in a new broadband-focused study. However, “broadband”-class service (i.e., non dial-up) now accounts for 98% of homes with internet service at home, and 82% of all homes get a broadband internet service – that’s up from 76% in 2012, and 53% in 2007. Additionally, some 75% of adults access the internet on a smartphone, up from 44% in 2012, LRG found in the study – Broadband Internet in the U.S. 2017, which was based on a telephone survey of 1,203 U.S. homes. It is LRG’s 15th annual study on the topic. Among other findings, LRG said 16% of homes only get internet service at home, down from 41% in 2012. And some 91% of all homes access the internet either at home and/or on a smartphone, up from 85% in 2012.