WASHINGTON, December 8, 2009 – Legislation dealing with the health care system and the upcoming climate change summit in Copenhagen are only providing executives at Comcast and NBC-Universal a brief respite from oversight on their proposed merger, senators said on Tuesday. Keep Reading
There are two compelling sides to the Net Neutrality issue before the Federal Communications Commission that can be solved by cutting through the rhetoric and making a few common sense and objective decisions about what is at the crux of the problem. First, Internet Service Providers are at the center of the debate, and rightfully… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, December 2, 2009 - Comcast announced Tuesday the pilot market launch of a data usage meter the company plans to soon roll out nationally. The meter is meant to help make customers aware of how much data they consume in a month, Jason Livingood, executive director of internet systems for Comcast, wrote on a company blog. Comcast has a company policy against excessive use of bandwidth or currently data usage above 250 Gigabytes per month per Comcast high-speed internet residential customer account. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, November 25, 2009 - The rhetoric surrounding whether the Federal Communications Commission should move forward with rules to regulate internet access to support the principle of network neutrality took on new legs this week when a government official – a former top policy official at Google – conflated net neutrality, free speech and anti-government censorship in the same discussion. It comes at a time that the FCC has already moved away from the controversial term “network neutrality” to focus instead on the importance of ensuring that an “open internet” exists going forward. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, November 23, 2009 - In an interview for C-SPAN’s “The Communicators” series, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski spoke of the national broadband plan that is currently being put together, as well as the short term progress that has happened in relation to broadband. The broadband “platform,” according to Genachowski, is a platform that everyone takes part in; from communicating with friends and family, to communicating for working purpose. Even now, engaging with the government and its services is done on this platform. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, November 22, 2009 - Speakers at a telecommunications law conference held last week touched on the importance of having unfiltered access to the Internet around the world. "The freedom of speech implies a freedom of access," said Jeremie Zimmermann, co-founder of La Quadrature Du Net. "This is a form of participating in politics and with other citizens,” he continued at the second annual University of Nebraska College of Law’s Space and Telecom Law Conference held in Washington on Thursday. Keep Reading
The New York City Council should pass a resolution that favor of strong network neutrality regulations, the advocacy group Public Knowledge said in a statement at a Friday's hearing in New York City. Keep Reading
A group representing journalists of color has come out in support of the concept of network neutrality. The Federal Communications Commission is currently considering proposed rules to regulate Internet access in an attempt to keep the Internet more open and support so-called Net neutrality principles. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, November 19, 2009 - The United States has lost a lot of ground concerning internet expansion, adoption and affordability – ranking below the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Korea – according to experts at a telecom conference on Thursday. Additionally, said Debra Lathen, board member of British Telecom, the U.S. is plagued by battles over efforts to intrude upon network neutrality. That is not the case in the United Kingdom, she said. Such a problem does not exist in England. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, November 18, 2009 - The opening speaker of a summit focused on improving broadband penetration to minority and low-income areas of the country, and criticized advocates of Net neutrality for being out of touch with the needs of minorities, as he attempted to enlist the mantle civil rights leader Martin Luther King into his cause. “[L]et us remember the worlds of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., ‘All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face-to-face with another problem,’” said Julius Hollis, the founder of the Alliance for Digital Equality, in prepared remarks. “If we fail to find common-ground on the issues before the U.S. Federal Communications Commission relative to the rulemaking governing broadband adoption, the financing of broadband infrastructure and the over-arching issue of net neutrality, the long-term socio-economic chaos that will be inflicted upon our society would be far too devastating to comprehend,” warned Hollis. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, November 17, 2009 - The consulting firm Empiris LLC joined a host of cable and phone broadband network related entities on Tuesday when it slammed a recent study from Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society on broadband policy. In July the Federal Communications Commission commissioned the Berkman Center to review the existing literature and studies on broadband deployment and usage throughout the world to inform the FCC’s development of a National Broadband Plan. The FCC is sought public comment on the study through November 16. Keep Reading
November 16, 2009 - Speaking in a country known for its internet censorship policies and heavy-handed government involvement in communications technologies, President Obama repeatedly took the time to voice his support for an “open internet” in Shanghai on Monday. “So I'm a big supporter of not restricting internet use, internet access, other information technologies like Twitter. The more open we are, the more we can communicate. And it also helps to draw the world together,” said Obama. Keep Reading
The New York City Council Committee on Technology in Government plans to hold a public hearing to consider the Federal Communications Commission's proposed rules to regulate Internet access. The hearing will examine so-called Net Neutrality or open Internet principles and whether they “would effectively obtain the goal of maintaining a free and open Internet.” The council will also consider a resolution that asks the FCC and Congress to go forward with Net Neutrality regulations. The council said it plans to draft a letter to the FCC on the issue of net neutrality with citywide input. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, November 6, 2009 - While the U.S. takes steps to make so-called Network Neutrality principles mandatory under official rules, the European Union moved forward this week with its own set of internet access requirements. Under the proposed EU rules, “national telecoms authorities will have the powers to set minimum quality levels for network transmission services" so as to promote Net neutrality or "net freedoms" for European citizens. Keep Reading
A video posted last month on YouTube from Jesse Dylon of FreeForm in support of Net neutrality wants to touch your heart and has the music and images to boot. “This is a video we made about free and open web access. An Open Internet should be a right for all people, of all backgrounds, with all interests. Net Neutrality is for all of us,” reads the last moment of the screen with the sound of the piano. Starring in the video are Net neutrality advocates Lawrence Lessig, a professor at Stanford Law School, Gigi Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge, Vint Cerf, chief internet evangelist for Google, and Christopher Libertelli, senior director of government and regulatory affairs for Skype, among others. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, November 3, 2009 - The Internet could provide vital links between people and institutions to keep government running and businesses operating during an outbreak of H1N1 influenza, said a report released in October by the Government Accountability Office. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, November 2, 2009 - Stephen Liu, the designer and architect of Cisco System’s myPlanNet, and a senior marketing manager at Cisco, discussed the company's new computer game that puts the common man in the shoes of the broadband executive. Edited excerpt of his interview with Winter Casey, Reporter, BroadbandCensus.com, are as follows. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, November 2, 2009 – Cisco Systems has released a new computer game that puts the common man in the shoes of broadband executive making deployment decisions. The company’s myPlanNet game attempts to make broadband deployment easy to understand – and perhaps forces broadband activists to walk in the shoes of the network executive grappling with tough issues like the underserved and Net neutrality. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, October 31, 2009 - This week Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., added to the growing number of network neutrality-related bills when she filed legislation that would ban the Federal Communications Commission from regulating internet access, as proposed last week by Chairman Julius Genachowski. Blackburn’s measure, H.R. 3924, is intended “to prohibit the FCC from further regulating the Internet.” In a statement, she said FCC rules “ironically would make the Internet less neutral by allowing the FCC to regulate it in the same way it regulates radio and television broadcasts.” Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, October 29, 2009 – Microsoft and Yahoo on Thursday gingerly weighed into the Federal Communications Commission’s proposed rules governing internet access – otherwise known as “Net neutrality” – that were announced last week. The two companies offered up, to BroadbandCensus.com, carefully crafted comments splitting the difference between the hardening battle lines between Google and AT&T. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, October 28, 2009 - Google told the Federal Communications Commission Wednesday that its Google Voice service currently is restricting calls to fewer than 100 specific phone numbers that it believes are involved in the business of adult sex chats. Google provided a detailed response Wednesday to questions posed by the FCC concerning Google Voice’s practice of preventing calls to certain telephone number prefixes. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, October 26, 2009 - Absent from the notice of proposed rulemaking released by the Federal Communications Commission Thursday is the charged term of “network neutrality” that has been discussed over the years. Instead, the paper is focused on the need to preserve an “open internet” through government intervention. Keep Reading
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on Thursday introduced legislation prohibiting the Federal Communications Commission from implementing the Network neutrality rules that it kicked off on Thursday. The two-page bill is a naked prohibition upon the FCC: the agency “shall not propose, promulgate, or issue any regulations regarding the Internet or IP-enabled services.” Click here for a copy of the bill. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, October 22, 2009 - The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday approved controversial proposed rules governing internet access during its monthly public meeting. Commissioners on all sides of the debate stressed the importance of having an open internet, and in engaging in constructive dialogue on the issue going forward. The move marked the beginning of a formal phase of regulating internet access. Although the FCC in August 2005 adopted a policy statement pledging fidelity to four Net neutrality principles, such a policy was never binding upon all broadband providers. Additionally, the proposed rules go beyond those four generally-accepted neutrality principles. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, October 21, 2009 - As the Federal Communications Commission nears the monthly meeting slated for Thursday to consider new regulations regarding Net neutrality, e-mail boxes across Washington are being flooded by all manner of interest groups staking their claim over neutrality and freedom on the Internet. Keep Reading
As the Federal Communications Commission prepares to tackle the issue of Network neutrality at its October 22 meeting, major telecommunications carriers have all been sending letters to the FCC and newspapers in an effort to influence the agency actions. AT&T top lobbyists Jim Cicconi, Senior Executive Vice President at the company, recently sent out a memo to all of the company’s managers criticizing Net neutrality. Keep Reading
The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a Washington-based group calling itself a "non-partisan public policy think tank committed to articulating and advancing a pro-productivity, pro-innovation and pro-technology public policy agenda," has released a "WebMemo" asking "Are We Ready to Act on New Neutrality?: 10 Key Question that Need Answers." Keep Reading
In a possible rebuke to President Obama and his new FCC chairman, Seventy-two House Democrats signed on to a letter sent Friday to the five members of the Federal Communications Commission asking them to reconsider a proposal to adopt "network neutrality" rules. Keep Reading
Public Knowledge's sixth annual "IP3 Awards" - which celebrates information policy, intellectual property, and internet protocol - drew a crowd of Washington's technorati to the Sewell-Belmont House in Washington on Thursday evening. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, October 14, 2009 – Net neutrality emerged as a major theme at the Future of Music Coalition conference last week at Georgetown University here, with speeches on the subject by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski and Senator Al Franken, D-Minn., who described the Internet as the modern town square. Keep Reading
The non-profit advocacy group Consumers Union on Wednesday issued a letter to members of Congress commending the Federal Communications Commission for its efforts to enact stricter Net Neutrality rules. The letter said that the Internet has been governed by principles of openness and consumer choice from its inception. Keep Reading
Net neutrality fans on Wednesay praised the decision by AT&T to reverse course and allow customers to use broadband voice services on the service plans they have that use the Apple iPhone. The decision followed a Federal Communications Commission investigation into the practices of wireless broadband industry. Keep Reading
The Free State Foundation on Tuesday released a new book entitled “New Directions in Communications Policy,” which is critical of arguments for Net neutrality. The book is based upon a panel discussion on the national broadband plan, broadband stimulus funding, and Net neutrality, or the requirement that carriers not be permitted to offer speedier internet delivery to paying business customers. Keep Reading
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski brought his rallying cry for Net Neutrality to the Future of Music Conference in Washington today. Noting the musicians that have supported this cause - from Bruce Springsteen to R.E.M. and Pearl Jam - Genachowski said, "With a free and open Internet, you don’t have to have big-time, star-power leverage over record labels, publishing companies, commercial radio stations, or particular retailers to get your music to the public. In today’s broadband world, the artists themselves can be self-empowering -- they are free to connect with audiences, paying customers, and musical social networks in ways previously unimaginable." Keep Reading
On Monday afternoon Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, responded to the comments made by the Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and urged the Federal Communications Commission to continue to press for Net neutrality rules. Keep Reading
The Federal Communications Commission is taking an aggressive posture with its approach to Network Neutrality, releasing the "tentative agenda" for its next full commission meeting that highlights a single item: “ Open Internet: A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on policies to preserve the free and open Internet.” The FCC also plans to release a “Commission Meeting Agenda” one week before the meeting with the specific, detailed items that will be placed on the agenda. Keep Reading
The Federal Communication Commission's proposed net neutrality rules could hamper innovation on the Web, said David Farber, as guest on a panel held Friday at the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation. Farber is a professor of computer science and policy at Carnegie Mellon University and a former chief technology officer for the FCC. Keep Reading
ARLINGTON, Va., September 26, 2009 - Whether internet service providers will accelerate early efforts to prioritize bandwidth, and what impact such measure might have upon the open internet, were actively discussed by panelists at the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference here. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, September 23, 2009 – Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski's announcement of his intention to codify the commission's 2005 Internet Policy Statement into actual, enforceable federal regulations using a valid legal process drew expected reactions from the usual parties. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, September 22, 2009 - Network neutrality principles outlined by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski on Monday found industry groups and Congress drawing strong lines in reaction to his proposal. Keep Reading