Senator Thune Begins Pushing A 'Net Neutrality' Bill That's Likely To Kill Net Neutrality
from the with-friends-like-these dept
While Trump, the GOP and new FCC boss Ajit Pai really want to kill net neutrality protections for AT&T, Comcast and Verizon, it likely won't happen at the FCC. As it stands, rolling back the rules via the same FCC process that birthed them would require showing the courts that things have dramatically changed since the FCC's major court win last year. Such a process would also involve another lengthy public comment period, during which the record-setting four million public comments filed during the rule creation could appear diminutive.
So if you're an ISP lobbyist looking to kill net neutrality rules, how do you accomplish this without causing a massive public shitstorm? Why you table ghost write (corrected, thanks commenters) a bill that pretends to save and protect net neutrality, while wording it to do the exact opposite, of course!
It's widely believed that the GOP intends to table a net neutrality bill sometime this year, either as a standalone bill or part of a Communications Act rewrite (with a heavy emphasis on killing the FCC's consumer-protection authority). The man likely to lead that effort is Senator John Thune, who last week took to the op-ed pages of Ars Technica to begin making his public case for such a proposal. Thune begins his sales pitch with, unfortunately, a lie:
"I am quite confident that the online experience for the overwhelming majority of users has not really changed for better or worse because of the new regulations. The Internet’s future, however, is uncertain because of ideological bureaucrats at the FCC who adopted a misguided regulatory approach that has chilled investment and offers no protections against excessive bureaucratic interference in the years ahead.
...These regulations are already having a negative impact on Internet infrastructure. While not a problem in places like Silicon Valley or New York City, 34 million Americans today lack access to broadband services at home, and there is evidence that the FCC’s onerous regulations have chilled the capital investments that are needed to deploy broadband throughout the country."
As we just got done saying, the claim that net neutrality "chilled investment" simply isn't true, no matter how many times large ISPs (and the politicians that love them) claim otherwise. Data showing growing CAPEX and earnings are all public, so it's not really particularly debatable (The Consumerist just got done doing a fantastic job once again debunking this canard). After starting with a repeatedly-debunked lie, Thune proceeds to his real goal, selling people on the idea of a new net neutrality law built by Congress:
"While the FCC’s 2015 rules may soon be consigned to the dustbin of history, the last few months have shown us all that political winds can and often do shift suddenly. The only way to truly provide certainty for open Internet protections is for Congress to pass bipartisan legislation. Rather than heavy-handed and open-ended regulations that stifle the Internet, we need a statute offering clear and enduring rules that balance innovation and investment for all parts of the Internet ecosystem."
So yes... in a perfect world, Congress would simply pass a net neutrality bill and enshrine the concept into law, avoiding the partisan pattycake that plagues the FCC with every administrative shift. But this world not being ideal, and one where companies like Comcast, AT&T and Verizon have incredible power over lawmakers, the chance of Congress passing useful net neutrality protections is virtually non-existent. Thune, as a major recipient of telecom industry cash, of course knows this. But Thune dismisses this reality to insist he's nobly prepared to spearhead a legislative effort to save neutrality once and for all:
"The certainty of bipartisan law transcends administrations. Over the past few months, many of my Democrat colleagues have grown to appreciate this more. Regardless of what happens at the FCC with the 2015 rules, I again stand ready to work on legislation protecting the open Internet that sets forth clear digital rules of the road for both the Internet community and government regulators."
You shouldn't buy it. Thune previously tried to kill the FCC's tougher rules with a similar proposal last year -- one that professed to "enshrine net neutrality into law," but which was so intentionally saddled with loopholes as to be useless. In fact such proposals are worse than useless in that they pre-empt the existing, more effective rules, cover only some net neutrality violations (outright blocking of entire websites, something no ISP intends or wants to do anyway), while ignoring the myriad of fronts where the real neutrality fights are happening now (zero rating, interconnection, usage caps and overage fees).
The plan is to introduce a new net neutrality law that kills net neutrality while professing to save it. When lawmakers point out that the bill does more harm than good, they'll likely be derided for refusing to "compromise." Granted with the ACA and other Congressional kerfuffles currently taking priority, this bill may take some time before large ISP lobbyists and lawmakers can finally table such legislation. But those of you that care about net neutrality need to understand one thing: net neutrality's death will come disguised as a 2017 bill pretending to save it. Likely with Thune leading the parade.
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Filed Under: ajit pai, congress, fcc, john thune, net neutrality
Reader Comments
The First Word
“I think this is the biggest part of the problem right here. Senator Thune is conflating "the Internet" with "Internet service providers." Given their long history of abusive behavior, yes, we absolutely do want to "stifle" them as much as possible, for the good of the (actual) Internet!
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Table
US English - to table something means to take it off the table so it will not be acted on.
Please use disambiguated words so your article makes sense both on the meaningful side of the pond, and the other one. (Choose your side and this sentence still works).
E
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I think this is the biggest part of the problem right here. Senator Thune is conflating "the Internet" with "Internet service providers." Given their long history of abusive behavior, yes, we absolutely do want to "stifle" them as much as possible, for the good of the (actual) Internet!
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Don't forget the last word....
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I don't know, if I were the big Internet companies I'd be adding another zero to my lobbying gun against this shit.
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For an interesting insight into the realities of Congress, watch the movie "Charlie Wilson's War."
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https://www.aclu.org/
https://www.eff.org/
https://www.freepress.net/
also you can set them as your charity on https://smile.amazon.com/
also write to your House Representative and senators
http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/
https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information /senators_cfm.cfm?OrderBy=state
and the FCC
https://www.fcc.gov/about/contact
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Re:
There's the problem - it's been bad enough to confuse people on tech forums who can debate openly. Now, imagine how skewed the view of a congressman is going to be when all he has is the views of industry lobbyists.
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Re: Table
Under most circumstances the ambiguity is not enough to cause that much confusion, but unfortunately sometimes the reader will have to put forth some effort to interpret based on the context.
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The comments on original article are great
Sad our "Democracy" is so openly corrupt. If enough voter & Press attention gets focused on this (prior to voting) it could get killed (about the only thing that causes legislators to legislate in the interest of the average American these days).
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Re: Re: Table
Not quite right. It CAN be ambiguous, but is damn sure is not by definition.
Politicians & Lawyers just write laws that way to sucker people into thinking they did something good for you while actually not.
Kinda like the whole history of the FCC. They helped create this problem but you sycophant keep running to the FCC like they are the blessed God of net neutrality or something.
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Re: Re: Table
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Re: Re: Table
And terms of art, by definition, are specific and clearly defined.
We are talking about a bill in the US Senate. In the US Senate, to table means to remove from consideration, which is the opposite meaning of Karl's usage in TFA. Karl's usage isn't just ambiguous; in this context it's wrong.
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Re: Don't forget the last word....
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Re: Table
Thanks Ed... without you I would have never known the difference.
Seriously?
Now I am off to get British car sites to stop calling the hood a bonnet.
And for the love of G why oh why do you call french fries chips? Let's stop that k? K. The only chip that matters is a Merikan greasy potato chip. And the silicone kind, but you cant eat them.
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Re:
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Re: Re: Don't forget the last word....
Low-orbit routers, mesh networks, transmit internet via ground water...something is eventually going to gain traction.
The telco-monopolies will, at some point, end up raising prices to the point that something else will be profitable.
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Re: Re:
From what I've read, phone calls are a lot more effective than letters.
A search for guide to calling representative will produce some useful tips.
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Re: Table
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Re: Table
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Re: Re: Re: Don't forget the last word....
Satellite technology suffers from both frequency congestion, and latency issues, which is why the telecoms industry has gone with undersea cables and fibrin links, which probably cost more that satellites to install and maintain.
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NN: "Fraud and extortion are bad, mmkay?"
ISPs and those they pay: "Nuh-uh."
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Re: The comments on original article are great
If the press does report on the facts of the NN debate, it will be decried by our current leaders as "Fake News!"
Sad. Terrible ratings.
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Re: Re: Table
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pick a bundle - surf with ease.
http://i.imgur.com/5RrWm.png
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Re: Re: Re: Table
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Don't forget the last word....
Today.
And actually, not really even today. I used to work at a place that had a laser-optical connection between two offices about 1/4 mile apart. There was an array on the top of each building and the connection was as fast as having run a fiber cable.
Oddly, the decision had been made to go this route because the local cable provider would not run fiber between the two locations without a charge that was almost twice what the laser system cost.
That's the kind of thing likely to kill the telco monopolies. Another "fringe" technology will come along but we prohibitively expensive, but the price of the technology will drop while they continue to raise their prices and eventually it will be cheaper and easier to switch to something new.
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Re: Re: Table
What you Americans call "chips" we call "crisps," because they're, like, crispy.
I particularly like the cheese and onion variety.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Don't forget the last word....
Also, linking two building for internal traffic is not the same as linking you and your neighbors to the Internet, where you need access to the backbone infrastructure, where that much higher data density of a fibre bundle becomes very useful.
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