Five public interest groups led by Free Press said the FCC should investigate MetroPCS’s recently announced low-cost data plan, which would apparently preclude users from using Skype, Netflix and other popular services (WID Jan 5 p2). But customers would be able to watch YouTube videos. The Center for Media Justice, the Media Access Project, New America Foundation’s Open Technology Initiative and Presente.org signed the letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.

Key parts of the National Broadband Plan still require action by Congress. A potential roadblock for the commission as it implements the plan remains that the commission cannot control if or how quickly Capitol Hill moves forward on its parts.

Key parts of the National Broadband Plan still require action by Congress. A potential roadblock for the commission as it implements the plan remains that the commission cannot control if or how quickly Capitol Hill moves forward on its parts.

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.

A $1.2 million indecency fine against 44 ABC affiliates was vacated Tuesday by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. The decision cited a Supreme Court ruling sending back to the FCC its policy that fleetingly indecent content could be found indecent. The 2nd Circuit also revealed that it recently turned down a U.S. government request that the court rehear en banc its affirmance of its earlier Fox ruling (CD July 14 p1). That puts all eyes back on the Supreme Court, which the government is expected to ask to hear Fox, said advocates on both sides of the issue.

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.