MetroPCS’s changes to its 4G service plans make clear why all FCC net neutrality rules should apply to wireless, Free Press said Tuesday. MetroPCS’s $40 per month service, unveiled Monday, allows Web browsing and use of YouTube, but appears to create a “walled garden,” excluding such popular services as Skype and Netflix, the group said.
The FCC has fallen months behind its aggressive schedule for issuing follow-up orders to the National Broadband Plan. By the FCC’s latest count, 21 of 68 action items set up by the report remain incomplete. The agency has made “incremental progress” on two others, an agency spokesman said Friday. Two items which were scheduled to be wrapped up by the end of June remain on the FCC’s to-do list. Critics of the net neutrality order approved by the agency Dec. 21, including Republican Commissioners Robert McDowell and Meredith Baker, say the agency’s months’ long focus on that order is in part responsible for sometimes slow progress implementing the plan.
Only a fifth of likely U.S. voters want the FCC to regulate the Internet “like it does radio and television,” according to a Rasmussen poll. Rassmussen Reports phoned voters shortly after the FCC approved net neutrality rules, and found that 21 percent supported Internet regulation, 54 percent opposed it and 25 percent weren’t sure. Rasmussen polled 1,000 likely voters, and there was a plus-or-minus 3 percentage point margin of sampling error with a 95 percent level of confidence. Most Republicans opposed regulation, while Democrats were split, Rasmussen said. More than half of all voters said they believe “more free market competition” protects Internet users better than “more government regulation.” Rasmussen said 56 percent believe the FCC would use its power to “promote a political agenda,” while only 28 percent think the FCC would be unbiased. However, as to whether Americans are following the net neutrality issue, 20 percent said they are following the matter “very closely” and 35 percent said they're following it “somewhat closely,” Rasmussen said. The poll is misleading,said Andy Schwartzman, senior vice president of the Media Access Project, because under the commission’s order “the FCC isn’t regulating the Internet at all … The new rules regulate carriers’ conduct, not the Internet, and in no event contemplate content regulation such as that used for radio and TV."
Only a fifth of likely U.S. voters want the FCC to regulate the Internet “like it does radio and television,” according to a Rasmussen poll. Rassmussen Reports phoned voters shortly after the FCC approved net neutrality rules, and found that 21 percent supported Internet regulation, 54 percent opposed it and 25 percent weren’t sure. Rasmussen polled 1,000 likely voters, and there was a plus-or-minus 3 percentage point margin of sampling error with a 95 percent level of confidence. Most Republicans opposed regulation, while Democrats were split, Rasmussen said. More than half of all voters said they believe “more free market competition” protects Internet users better than “more government regulation.” Rasmussen said 56 percent believe the FCC would use its power to “promote a political agenda,” while only 28 percent think the FCC would be unbiased. However, as to whether Americans are following the net neutrality issue, 20 percent said they are following the matter “very closely” and 35 percent said they're following it “somewhat closely,” Rasmussen said. The poll is misleading, said Andy Schwartzman, director of the Media Access Project, because under the commission’s order “the FCC isn’t regulating the Internet at all … The new rules regulate carriers’ conduct, not the Internet, and in no event contemplate content regulation such as that used for radio and TV."
Negotiations among commissioner offices on the Comcast-NBC Universal order are unlikely to get started in earnest until next week, FCC sources said Monday. Advisers to the commissioners, many of whom are taking this week off, will likely use the next few days to start to delve into the main details of the order, which was circulated Thursday, but which runs several hundred pages, officials said.
The benefit of consideration of a Congressional Review Act resolution to nullify the FCC’s net neutrality order may be to rally opposition and send a broader signal to the commission, said a former congressional committee counsel. Incoming House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said last week they may attempt to rebuke the FCC by introducing resolutions of disapproval under the Act (CD Dec 22 p5). The procedure has advantages over other lines of attack, but the likelihood of a presidential veto makes it a difficult road, current and former Hill aides said in interviews.
The benefit of consideration of a Congressional Review Act resolution to nullify the FCC’s net neutrality order may be to rally opposition and send a broader signal to the commission, said a former congressional committee counsel. Incoming House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said last week they may attempt to rebuke the FCC by introducing resolutions of disapproval under the Act (WID Dec 22 p5). The procedure has advantages over other lines of attack, but the likelihood of a presidential veto makes it a difficult road, current and former Hill aides said in interviews.
Legal challenges of FCC net neutrality rules appear all but certain, but where they will come from remains unclear. Verizon is the leading candidate, industry and FCC officials said. Other industry players, including mid-sized wireline-only carriers, also could challenge. Public interest groups who lost their fight to get the commission to reclassify broadband transmission under Title II of the Communications Act also appear to be considering an appeal.
Legal challenges of FCC net neutrality rules appear all but certain, but where they will come from remains unclear. Verizon is the leading candidate, industry and FCC officials said. Other industry players, including mid-sized wireline-only carriers, also could challenge. Public interest groups who lost their fight to get the commission to reclassify broadband transmission under Title II of the Communications Act also appear to be considering an appeal.
The FCC on Tuesday approved net neutrality rules under Title I of the Communications Act, over scathing dissents by Commissioners Robert McDowell and Meredith Baker. Democrats Michael Copps and Mignon Clyburn also lobbed criticisms at the rules, saying they do not go far enough. The vote, after weeks of negotiations and months of build-up, was anticlimactic, since Copps and Clyburn had announced Monday they would not oppose the order (CD Dec 21 p1).