FCC to vote on Net Neutrality

[Maxmars]

Just a "head's up" for those who follow the edicts of the intelligentsia at the FCC....

Reported at PhoneScoop: FCC to Vote on Net Neutrality, Sale of Location Data
Source: FCC Announces Tentative Agenda for April Open Meeting
 

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The FCC is preparing to vote on broad regulations affecting all broadband providers, including all cellular service providers. Many of the specific regulations are not new; the FCC is simply reclassifying mobile data as a "commercial mobile service" instead of an "information service".

This action has the effect of restoring many key FCC regulations that were in force until 2017, but currently only apply to traditional voice service. The effects of this action would be wide-ranging, including restoring "Open Internet" rules, AKA "net neutrality".

This would effectively mean the FCC (re-)adopting "bright-line rules to prohibit blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization" of specific data traffic over mobile and fixed commercial networks.

It also restores "heightened restrictions on carriers' use, disclosure, or provision of access to customers' customer proprietary network information — including customer location information — without consent." The vote will take place on April 25th.

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Should be interesting to see what they actually "restore" as opposed to "make friendly for Big Tech profit taking" ...

[Blaine91555]

This would effectively mean the FCC (re-)adopting "bright-line rules to prohibit blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization" of specific data traffic over mobile and fixed commercial networks.

It also restores "heightened restrictions on carriers' use, disclosure, or provision of access to customers' customer proprietary network information — including customer location information — without consent." The vote will take place on April 25th.

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Should be interesting to see what they actually "restore" as opposed to "make friendly for Big Tech profit taking" ...

If those two things were the sum total of what they want, I'd be fine with what they are doing. I imagine that's not what they really want though?

Privacy is a huge concern. Our rolling over and letting companies eliminate our privacy is incredibly naive, and I wonder how people are going to react when they realize what the end game truly is and that the companies involved are in bed with the government.

[Maxmars]

I kind of find it telling that they are restricting the dialogue to "voice" services... separating them from "information services," where all bets are off (and all profit-taking is on.)

The devil is in the details on this one, and seeing as how they are only "tentatively" setting the agenda, we might see all manner of back-pedaling.

I probably won't bother joining the discussion, as these "open" things are more for appearances than allowing for common input.  But you never know... maybe some "good" can come of it.

[Maxmars]

Tangental, but related...

From ArsTechnica: FCC chair rejects call to impose Universal Service fees on broadband
 

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The Federal Communications Commission chair decided not to impose Universal Service fees on Internet service, rejecting arguments for new assessments to shore up an FCC fund that subsidizes broadband network expansions and provides discounts to low-income consumers.

The $8 billion-a-year Universal Service Fund (USF) pays for FCC programs such as Lifeline discounts and Rural Digital Opportunity Fund deployment grants for ISPs. Phone companies must pay a percentage of their revenue into the fund, and telcos generally pass those fees on to consumers with a "Universal Service" line item on telephone bills.

Imposing similar assessments on broadband could increase the Universal Service Fund's size and/or reduce the charges on phone service, spreading the burden more evenly across different types of telecommunications services. Some consumer advocates want the FCC to increase the fund in order to replace the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), a different government program that gives $30 monthly broadband discounts to people with low incomes but is about to run out of money because of inaction by Congress.

The Universal Service funding question is coming up now because, on April 25, the FCC is scheduled to vote on reclassifying broadband as a telecommunications service in order to re-impose the net neutrality rules scrapped during the Trump era.

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I wonder if the tentative agenda of the April 25th meeting will include this discussion.  

More "fees" proposed... which tells the cynical little boy living inside me that communication service costs are "not profitable" enough for carriers... and they will now embark on a lobbying safari to push for freedom to change that.  You see, even if they are denied the freedom to offset their "cost of operation" with tax dollars, they will simply nudge their prices higher for whatever excuse they can muster... COVID? AI? "deconfabulationizing" technology?... 

We need less monopoly and more commerce.

Perhaps the FCC will grow a pair and start acting out of the mandate of the governed, instead of a mandate of the master business.

[theshadowknows]

[Nikita]

We need less monopoly and more commerce.

Amen to that, Mr. MaxMars!