INEQUALITY MEDIA - Why We Must Protect Net Neutrality

Why We Must Protect Net Neutrality
Inequality Media
Robert Reich

INTERNET - The 'Terrorist' Attack on Net Neutrality

"Killing net neutrality means no one is looking out for consumers’ interest, says FCC Commissioner" PBS NewsHour 12/12/2017

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The FCC is expected to roll back net neutrality rules on Thursday, a move that could have significant implications for Americans' access to the internet.  FCC chairman Ajit Pai is pushing to kill the Obama-era rules, which ensure that internet providers treat all content on the web equally.  Mignon Clyburn, a Democrat on the commission, joins Judy Woodruff to explain why she opposes the change.

REF: "How will rolling back net neutrality affect consumers? You’ll have to read the fine print." PBS NewsHour 11/21/2017

INTERNET - Net Neutrality's Future Threatened, Price of Access

"How will rolling back net neutrality affect consumers?  You’ll have to read the fine print." PBS NewsHour 11/21/2017

The bottom line is $Big profits of mega telecoms that sacrifice FREE consumer choice.  Note the key word.

The telecoms want to charge customers more for what we get at a standard rate now.

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The Trump administration could potentially change how consumers access video, music, web stories and other online content by rolling back many of the net neutrality rules passed by the Obama administration.  FCC Chairman Ajit Pai says the government should stop "micromanaging" the web.  What does that mean for consumers?  Jeffrey Brown takes a closer look with Kim Hart of Axios.

TRUMP AGENDA - Robber Barons of the Internet

"FCC chair Ajit Pai explains why he wants to scrap net neutrality" PBS NewsHour 4/27/2017

First, as a retired Computer and IT Technician I understand the internet.  I support 'NET Neutrality' because the internet delivery businesses WILL eventually give in to greed, to wanting bigger profits, at internet users expense.  The telecoms are NOT in business for your benefit.

Also, the Trump Administration LIES!

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Ajit Pai, President Trump's new FCC chairman, has plans to do away with net neutrality rules that have been in place for the last three years.  Pai argues the rules are too burdensome and that they stifle innovation and competition.  William Brangham discusses the changes in oversight with Pai.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  A political fight is brewing about access to the Internet.  The new head of the FCC, the Federal Communications Commission, wants to clear away regulations about who controls and polices the flow of content on the Internet.

William Brangham has that.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM (NewsHour):  We're talking here about what's known as net neutrality, not the easiest concept to grasp, so bear with me.

Almost all of us in America get our Internet access via one main provider.  These are the telecom and cable giants like Verizon, Comcast, Charter, Time Warner.  They provide the infrastructure that delivers the bounty of the Web to our homes and phones; sites and apps like Google, Netflix, Facebook, Instagram, you name it.

The telecoms build the highway.  The others guys are like the cars traveling that highway.

The idea of net neutrality is that the telecoms have to treat that highway as an open road.  They can't pick and choose which Web sites or services get to you faster or slower.  The fear is that, if they do have that power, they will be tempted to favor their content, their sites, their own videos over a competitor's.

But the telecoms argue that's not fair, they should be able to control that flow, and be able to charge more for faster access.

In 2014, the Federal Communications Commission under President Obama wanted to lock in these net neutrality rules, but it faced intense pushback by the industry.

The fight even spilled into pop culture, with this from HBO's John Oliver:

JOHN OLIVER, Host, “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver”:  If we let cable companies offer two speeds of service, they won't be Usain Bolt and Usain Bolt on a motorbike.  They will be Usain Bolt, and Usain bolted to an anchor.

(LAUGHTER)

WILLIAM BRANGHAM:  But those net neutrality rules did pass and have been in place for the last three years.

But Ajit Pai, President Trump's new FCC chairman, now wants to get rid of those rules, arguing they're too burdensome.  And this week, he began the process of rolling them back.

And FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai joins me now.

Welcome to the NewsHour.

AJIT PAI, Chairman, Federal Communications Commission:  Thank you for having me.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM:  So, you, I understand, are not a fan of these net neutrality rules from a few years ago.  What is your principal concern?

AJIT PAI:  Well, I favor a free and open Internet, as I think most consumers do.

My concern is with the particular regulations that the FCC adopted two years ago.  They are what is called Title II regulations developed in the 1930s to regulate the Ma Bell telephone monopoly.

And my concern is that, by imposing those heavy-handed economic regulations on Internet service providers big and small, we could end up disincentivizing companies from wanting to build out Internet access to a lot of parts of the country, in low-income, urban and rural areas, for example.

And that, I think, is something that nobody would benefit from.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM:  Is there evidence, though, that these rules have disincentivized those companies?  There are — businesses are doing very, very well.  They're spending billions on the spectrum.

AJIT PAI:  There is significant evidence that investment in infrastructure has gone down since the adoption of these rules.

For example, there is a study by a highly respected economist that says that among the top 12 Internet service providers in terms of size, investment is down by 5.6 percent, or several billion dollars, over the last two years.

And amongst smaller providers as well, just literally this week, 22 Internet service providers with 1,000 customers or less told us that these Title II regulations have kept them from getting the financing that they need to build out their networks.  And, as they put it, these net neutrality regulations hang like a black cloud over our businesses.

And so what we're trying to do going forward is figure out a way that we can preserve that free and open Internet that consumers want and need and preserve that incentive to invest in the network that will ultimately benefit even more consumers going forward.

INTERNET - Net Neutrality Rules Update

THE PEOPLE ARE WINNING!  To understand, see short video at bottom.

"F.C.C. Net Neutrality Rules Clear Hurdle as Republicans Concede to Obama" by JONATHAN WEISMAN, New York Times 2/24/2015

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Senior Republicans conceded on Tuesday that the grueling fight with President Obama over the regulation of Internet service appears over, with the president and an army of Internet activists victorious.

The Federal Communications Commission is expected on Thursday to approve regulating Internet service like a public utility, prohibiting companies from paying for faster lanes on the Internet.  While the two Democratic commissioners are negotiating over technical details, they are widely expected to side with the Democratic chairman, Tom Wheeler, against the two Republican commissioners.

And Republicans on Capitol Hill, who once criticized the plan as “Obamacare for the Internet,” now say they are unlikely to pass a legislative response that would undo perhaps the biggest policy shift since the Internet became a reality.

“We’re not going to get a signed bill that doesn’t have Democrats’ support,” said Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota and chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee.  “This is an issue that needs to have bipartisan support.”

The new F.C.C. rules are still likely to be tied up in a protracted court fight with the cable companies and Internet service providers that oppose it, and they could be overturned in the future by a Republican-leaning commission.  But for now, Congress’s hands appear to be tied.

The F.C.C. plan would let the agency regulate Internet access as if it is a public good.  It would follow the concept known as net neutrality or an open Internet, banning so-called paid prioritization — or fast lanes — for willing Internet content providers.

In addition, it would ban the intentional slowing of the Internet for companies that refuse to pay broadband providers.   The plan would also give the F.C.C. the power to step in if unforeseen impediments are thrown up by the handful of giant companies that run many of the country’s broadband and wireless networks.

Republicans hoped to pre-empt the F.C.C. vote with legislation, but Senate Democrats insisted on waiting until after Thursday’s F.C.C. vote before even beginning to talk about legislation for an open Internet.  Even Mr. Thune, the architect of draft legislation to override the F.C.C., said Democrats had stalled what momentum he could muster.

And an avalanche of support for Mr. Wheeler’s plan — driven by Internet companies as varied as Netflix, Twitter, Mozilla and Etsy — has swamped Washington.

“We’ve been outspent, outlobbied.  We were going up against the second-biggest corporate lobby in D.C., and it looks like we’ve won,” said Dave Steer, director of advocacy for the Mozilla Foundation, the nonprofit technology foundation that runs Firefox, a popular Web browser, referring to the cable companies.  “A year ago today, we did not think we would be in this spot.”

The net neutrality movement pitted new media against old and may well have revolutionized notions of corporate social responsibility and activism.  Top-down decisions by executives investing in or divesting themselves of resources, paying lobbyists and buying advertisements were upended by the mobilization of Internet customers and users.

“We don’t have an army of lobbyists to deploy.  We don’t have financial resources to throw around,” said Liba Rubenstein, director of social impact and public policy at the social media company Tumblr, which is owned by Yahoo, the large Internet company, but operated independently on the issue.  “What we do have is access to an incredibly engaged, incredibly passionate user base, and we can give folks the tools to respond.”

Internet service providers say heavy-handed regulation of the Internet will diminish their profitability and crush investment to expand and speed up Internet access.  It could even open the web to taxation to pay for new regulators.

Brian Dietz, a spokesman for the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, said the pro-net-neutrality advocates turned a complex and technical debate over how best to keep the Internet operating most efficiently into a matter of religion.  The forces for stronger regulation, he said, became viewed as for the Internet.  Those opposed to the regulation were viewed as against the Internet.

The Internet companies, he said, sometimes mislead their customers, and in some cases, are misled on the intricacies of the policy.

“Many of the things they have said just belie reality and common sense,” he said.

In April, a dozen New York-based Internet companies gathered at Tumblr’s headquarters in the Flatiron district to hear dire warnings that broadband providers were about to obtain the right to charge for the fastest speeds on the web.

The implication:  If they did not pony up, they would be stuck in the slow lane.

What followed was the longest, most sustained campaign of Internet activism in history.  A swarm of small players, like Tumblr, Etsy, BoingBoing and Reddit, overwhelmed the giants of the broadband world, Comcast, Verizon Communications and Time Warner Cable.  Two of the biggest players on the Internet, Amazon and Google, largely stayed in the background, while smaller participants — some household names like Twitter and Netflix, others far more obscure, like Chess.com and Urban Dictionary — mobilized a grass-roots crusade.

“Our community is the source of our power,” said Althea Erickson, director of public policy at Etsy, an online craft market, where users embroidered pillows and engraved spoons promoting net neutrality.

INTERNET - President Obama on NET Neutrality

"Why is Obama weighing in on net neutrality?" PBS NewsHour 11/10/2014

Excerpt

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  The President’s focus may be on Asia, but earlier today, he surprised many by weighing in on the future of the Web.

The subject?  NET neutrality, or the idea that all traffic on the Web should be treated equally.  It’s been the focus of a major debate and battle for years, as the Federal Communications Commission must decide how to treat broadband providers.  Some of the biggest ones have argued there’s a place and a need to offer premium service at a different price, while still maintaining vital access for all.

The White House released a video in which the president made his most direct comments yet about how he thought the FCC should proceed.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA:  They should make it clear that whether you use a computer, phone or tablet, Internet providers have a legal obligation not to block or limit your access to a Web site.  Cable companies can’t decide which online stores you can shop at or which streaming services you can use, and they can’t let any company pay for priority over its competitors.

To put these protections in place, I’m having the FCC to reclassify Internet service under Title II of a law known as the Telecommunications Act.  In plain English, I’m asking them to recognize that for most Americans the Internet has become an essential part of everyday communication and everyday life.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  We get a deeper explanation of the President’s move and look at the reaction to it with Megan Smith.  She’s the chief U.S. technology officer at the White House.

INTERNET - Is Net Neutrality a Myth?

"Net Neutrality Fans Aren't Going To Like This Chart" by Gerry Smith, Huffington Post 5/22/2014

When news broke in February that streaming giant Netflix would pay Comcast for direct access to the cable company's broadband network, some experts said it marked the beginning of the end of net neutrality.

Yet a new report says that such deals are far more widespread than many realized at the time.

Many large tech companies -- including Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and Facebook -- have quietly brokered deals with Internet providers to ensure their content is not slowed as it travels through their networks, according to a blog post published Wednesday by telecom analyst Dan Rayburn.

It's unclear whether these deals were brokered before or after a federal court in January struck down rules that maintained net neutrality, which is the principle that all Internet traffic should be equally accessible to consumers.  But Rayburn, an analyst at the research firm Frost & Sullivan, said such arrangements between web companies and Internet providers are nothing new.

"There are a lot of these deals in the market and have been for many, many years," he wrote on his blog.

Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and Facebook did not return requests for comment.

Netflix, for example, accounts for roughly 30 percent of all web traffic.  Because data-heavy videos can create traffic jams on broadband networks, the company is paying Comcast to ensure its videos are streamed to customers more smoothly.

Such deals pertain to how Internet traffic flows between your Internet provider and third-party middlemen who operate the backbone of the web.

Those deals are technically beyond the scope of the Federal Communications Commission's recent proposal to allow Internet providers to charge web companies more to deliver their content via a "fast lane."  The FCC's proposed fast lanes only relate to the so-called last mile of online traffic that flows directly to customers' homes.

On Tuesday, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler told a congressional panel that the FCC would start looking more closely at the type of deals that Rayburn highlighted.

In his blog post, Rayburn said the deals are fair.  If companies like Netflix didn't pay extra to ensure their content was delivered smoothly, Internet providers would be forced to raise prices on customers by passing on the extra cost of handling the increased traffic from all of Netflix's streaming videos.

This chart from Rayburn's blog indicates deals between tech companies and Internet providers: