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Copyright © 2015 E. William Horne. All Rights Reserved.

The Telecom Digest for Feb 5, 2015
Volume 34 : Issue 23 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
FCC strikes in Net neutrality war: Run Internet like a utility (Neal McLain)
FCC's Wheeler aims to update Title II for new net neutrality rules (Neal McLain)
It's official: the FCC intends to reclassify broadband (Neal McLain)

Sir, I wish you to understand the true principles of the government. I wish them carried out. I ask nothing more.  - William Henry Harrison

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Date: Wed, 4 Feb 2015 14:16:56 -0800 (PST) From: Neal McLain <nmclain.remove-this@and-this-too.annsgarden.com> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: FCC strikes in Net neutrality war: Run Internet like a utility Message-ID: <fd8422bf-81a8-439f-9a8b-693daafbedc7@googlegroups.com> By Marguerite Reardon and Roger Cheng, CNET, February 4, 2015 The new rules would prohibit speeding up, slowing down or blocking broadband Internet traffic, under a rule that dates back to the early days of the telephone business. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler is ready to shake up the Internet. Tom Wheeler, chairman of the FCC, wants to reclassify broadband as a utility in order to protect the open Internet. CNET/Marguerite Reardon Wheeler confirmed on Wednesday that he intends to bring wired and wireless broadband services under utility-style rules based on Title II of the Communications Act of 1934. He said Title II would bring to end the debate over how to ensure that the Internet remains open to everyone, a concept known as Net neutrality. Title II has the potential to radically change how the Internet is governed, giving the FCC unprecedented authority. The provision originally gave the FCC the power to set rates and enforce the "common carrier" principle, or the idea that every customer is treated fairly, on telephone service. Wheeler hopes to apply that principle to Internet traffic, preventing broadband providers from favoring one bit of data over another. "I am submitting to my colleagues the strongest open Internet protections ever proposed by the FCC," he said in an op-ed published Wednesday on Wired.com. http://www.cnet.com/news/fcc-chairman-wheeler-to-use-utility-style-rules-to-enforce-net-neutrality/?tag=nl.e404&s_cid=e404&ttag=e404&ftag=CAD1acfa04 -or- http://tinyurl.com/pfujbd5 Neal McLain
Date: Wed, 4 Feb 2015 14:18:08 -0800 (PST) From: Neal McLain <nmclain.remove-this@and-this-too.annsgarden.com> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: FCC's Wheeler aims to update Title II for new net neutrality rules Message-ID: <e9dbc0a2-99b8-44e1-92ea-67d89ac7883b@googlegroups.com> By Sean Buckley, FierceTelecom, February 4, 2015 FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler revealed that his proposed new net neutrality rules will reclassify broadband as a telecommunications service under Title II of the Telecommunications Act. Wheeler laid out his thoughts in an op-ed article in Wired. In the op-ed, he provides more details on what he told attendees at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January--that he is leaning toward proposing net neutrality rules where broadband providers will be reclassified as utilities under Title II of the Communications Act. He noted that he originally believed the FCC could codify net neutrality regulations using a standard of "commercial reasonableness" under Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act. Wheeler wrote that while a federal appeals court decision in January 2014 seemed to point the FCC toward that approach, he "became concerned that this relatively new concept might, down the road, be interpreted to mean what is reasonable for commercial interests, not consumers." http://www.fiercetelecom.com/story/fccs-wheeler-aims-update-title-ii-new-net-neutrality-rules/2015-02-04?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal -or- http://tinyurl.com/p2qbyba Neal McLain
Date: Wed, 4 Feb 2015 14:13:49 -0800 (PST) From: Neal McLain <nmclain.remove-this@and-this-too.annsgarden.com> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: It's official: the FCC intends to reclassify broadband Message-ID: <01280180-4770-4592-a0f0-f544371b199f@googlegroups.com> By Brian Santo, CEDmagazine, 02/04/2015 FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler today said explicitly what the FCC has been rumored to be intending for months: the FCC will propose reclassifying broadband under Title II of the 1934 Communications Act. The FCC intends to vote on the plan during its public meeting on February 26. He plans to raise network neutrality principles from general tenets to explicit rules. "These enforceable, bright-line rules will ban paid prioritization, and the blocking and throttling of lawful content and services," Wheeler said in a statement. Furthermore, the rules will explicitly include mobile broadband for the first time, he said. The industry is steadfast against any regulation. Service providers threatened that investment in networks would dry up, or that innovation would cease, or both. They claimed that the FCC would start regulating prices. They claimed that old laws shouldn't apply because they're old. They have been repeating themselves over as if repetition would make it so. They conscripted their vendors to echo them. Service providers failed to provide any explanation of why investment would cease, or why innovation would lag. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson made diminishing network investment sound less like function of economics than a retaliatory option when, during his third quarter call with analysts, he threatened AT&T would stop investing in its networks if the FCC tried to reclassify broadband. During his fourth quarter call, he pulled back from the implicit threat, saying instead that if broadband were reclassified, AT&T would have to re-evaluate its investment strategy. http://www.cedmagazine.com/news/2015/02/its-official-the-fcc-intends-to-reclassify-broadband?et_cid=4398995&et_rid=652835436&location=top -or- http://tinyurl.com/m5zv3dq Neal McLain

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