FCC Refuses to Back Down From Plan to Strip Phone and Internet Subsidies for American Indians; Gizmodo, July 7, 2018

A.J. Dellinger, Gizmodo;

FCC Refuses to Back Down From Plan to Strip Phone and Internet Subsidies for American Indians

 "Late last year, the Federal Communications Commission under Ajit Pai voted to make it harder for American Indians to receive subsidies for broadband internet service. Despite legal challenges, the commission decided this week not to reverse its position, opting instead to continue to deny expanded assistance for phone and internet access... 

The FCC under Ajit Pai has taken particular interest in dismantling much of the Lifeline program, which helps to make broadband internet and both landline and mobile phone services available to low-income Americans."

FCC Republican faces ethics complaint after calling for Trump’s re-election; Ars Technica, February 26, 2018

Jon Brodkin, Ars Technica; FCC Republican faces ethics complaint after calling for Trump’s re-election

"Two Republican members of the Federal Communications Commission face accusations that they violated government ethics rules during appearances at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai was given the National Rifle Association's Charlton Heston Courage Under Fire Award at CPAC Friday. Accepting the award is almost certainly a violation of government ethics rules, according to Walter Shaub, who was director of the US Office of Government Ethics from 2013 to 2017. Pai has not publicly responded to the accusation.

Also on Friday, FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly called for the re-election of President Donald Trump during his appearance at CPAC. Advocacy group American Oversight called for an investigation of O'Rielly, saying that he violated a rule against "engaging in partisan political activity while on duty.""

The least connected people in America; Politico, February 7, 2018

Margaret Harding McGill, Politico; The least connected people in America

[Kip Currier: A must-read primer on the State of the Digital and Tech Divides in America AND a compelling call for long-promised, long-overdue action on Broadband Internet access for all Americans.]

"As broadband internet becomes more and more important in the U.S. — the way Americans do everything from apply for jobs to chatting with their relatives to watching TV — one gap has become more glaring: the difference between those who have broadband and those who don't. An estimated 24 million people, about 8 percent of Americans, still have no home access to high-speed internet service, defined by the Federal Communications Commission as a download speed of 25 megabits per second. (That's what the FCC says allows telecommuting or streaming high-definition video.) The overwhelming majority of those people live in rural areas, like farms or in big, poorly served areas like this one.

The shorthand for fixing this problem is “closing the digital divide," and FCC Chairman Ajit Pai says it's his top priority. But it has been a high-priority problem for years and remained persistently out of reach for reasons rooted in the structure of our telecommunications system itself. Internet access in the U.S. depends almost entirely on private companies; unlike other crucial services like postal delivery or electric power, it isn't considered the government's job, and isn't regulated as a public utility. But the limits of that system have become painfully apparent: Companies can't make money by running expensive wires to few customers, and a complex tangle of incentives offered by the government hasn't solved the problem in towns like Orofino.

Nowhere is the lack of broadband access more acute than in places like this: Rural Indian reservations have lower rates of coverage than anywhere else in the nation. About 35 percent of Americans living in tribal lands lack broadband access, according to the most recent report by the FCC. In Idaho, the FCC estimates that 83 percent of the tribal population lacks broadband, making the Nez Perce tribe among the least-connected groups in the country."

FCC WON'T REDEFINE 'BROADBAND;' MOVE COULD HAVE WORSENED DIGITAL DIVIDE; Wired, January 18, 2018

Klint Finley, Wired; 

FCC WON'T REDEFINE 'BROADBAND;' MOVE COULD HAVE WORSENED DIGITAL DIVIDE

"The FCC announced Thursday that it will continue to define home broadband as connections that are 25 megabits per second (mbps). The commission also established a new standard for mobile broadband as a connection of 10mbps or higher, and said it had rejected the idea—which it had floated last year—of labeling mobile internet service an adequate replacement for home broadband.

Consumer groups and advocates for rural communities had worried that changing the definition of broadband would enable the government to minimize the so-called digital divide, between communities with speedy internet access and those without."

F.C.C. Invokes Internet Freedom While Trying to Kill It; New York Times, April 29, 2017

Editorial Board, New York Times; 

F.C.C. Invokes Internet Freedom While Trying to Kill It

"Under Mr. Pai’s proposal, broadband companies would probably use their gatekeeping position to give themselves a leg up. AT&T, for example, already encourages people to buy the streaming video service of its DirecTV subsidiary by allowing customers to watch it on AT&T’s wireless network without incurring data charges. Verizon and Comcast have similar practices. Over time, such corporate policies will make it harder for smaller companies to compete with the telecom giants.

Big internet businesses like Amazon, Facebook, Google and Netflix will probably be fine under Mr. Pai’s plans, because they are well established and have the money to cut special deals with broadband companies.

Smaller firms and start-ups — some of which may never get started — will not be as lucky.

Ultimately, though, the real losers will be all Americans, because there will be fewer choices and less innovation."

No, Republicans didn’t just strip away your Internet privacy rights; Washington Post, April 4, 2017

Ajit Pai and Maureen Ohlhausen, Washington Post; No, Republicans didn’t just strip away your Internet privacy rights

[Kip Currier: In light of recent controversial online privacy developments, I'm particularly intrigued to hear what Maureen Ohlhausen, acting chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, has to say at a Thursday, April 6 lunch I'll be attending during the 32nd Annual Intellectual Property Law Conference.]

"Ajit Pai is chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. Maureen Ohlhausen is acting chairman of the Federal Trade Commission...

The FCC’s regulations weren’t about protecting consumers’ privacy. They were about government picking winners and losers in the marketplace. If two online companies have access to the same data about your Internet usage, why should the federal government give one company greater leeway to use it than the other?...

In short, the Obama administration fractured our nation’s online privacy law, and it is our job to fix it. We pledge to the American people that we will do just that."

Public interest groups urge officials to protect net neutrality; The Hill, March 7, 2017

Harper Neidig, The Hill; 

Public interest groups urge officials to protect net neutrality

"A coalition of 171 public interest groups sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission and Senate leaders on Tuesday urging them not to dismantle the net neutrality rules from 2015.

The ACLU, Greenpeace, MoveOn.org and Public Knowledge were among the groups signing on to the letter favoring the regulations, which prohibit internet service providers from discriminating against traffic to certain sites.

“Protecting net neutrality is crucial to ensuring that the internet remains a central driver of economic growth and opportunity, job creation, education, free expression, and civic organizing for everyone,” the letter reads.

The message was addressed to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.) and Ranking Member Bill Nelson(D-Fla.)."