Today, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski received a strong message from Congress: Do whatever it takes to protect the Internet and put the FCC's authority over Internet providers like Comcast and AT&T back on firm legal ground.
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, sent a letter to Genachowski giving him the green light to "reclassify" broadband under Title II of the Telecommunications Act -- the only way the FCC can protect an open Internet and get high-speed service to low income and rural America.
A federal appeals court recently ruled that, because of decisions made by the Bush-era FCC, the agency doesn't have the authority to regulate broadband. But Genachowski does have the power to reverse the old decisions that put the Obama administration's entire technology agenda in jeopardy.
The question is whether the chairman has the political courage to make such a move. The signs aren't entirely good: The congressional letter comes just days after a Washington Post article reported Genachowski may be siding with the nation's largest cable and phone companies by not moving forward with reclassification.
Since that article was published, people across the nation -- from Silicon Valley companies to activists to law professors -- have mobilized, blogged, written or called the FCC and White House demanding that the FCC make good on President Obama's promises of Net Neutrality and universal Internet. In recent weeks, nearly 250,000 people have told Genachowski they support reclassification, and phones in the chairman's office are reportedly ringing off the hook.
Waxman and Rockefeller's letter sends a clear message that reclassification isn't a "radical" request, as the phone and cable companies claim. It is a policy approach similar to what is already in place in Canada and Europe, and it is the reason that those nations are way ahead of the United States in Internet speed, adoption and affordability. Bottom line: The lofty goals of the FCC's National Broadband Plan are DOA unless Genachowski stands up against the cable and phone industry and reclassifies broadband.
In his inaugural speech, President Obama said, "The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works."
The FCC chairman's decision will reflect whether the president's speech was just rhetoric or real substance. Today, all eyes are on Julius Genachowski.
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Assuming that the FCC Chairman's proposal is reasonable, it's a clear signal that the FCC is backing away from the cliff, and charting a path toward a sensible broadband policy framework that will protect consumers and promote universal access.
""In essence Network Neutrality argues that no bit of information should be prioritized over another.
To draw a simple example, take two content providers such as the Verizon website and the University of California website.
If net neutrality were upheld, both entities would pay their monthly fees to the network provider and if all else equal, any bit of information from the Verizon website will make the same trek as one from say the UC Berkeley website. There would be no roadblocks or shortcuts any of the websites can take to make the end user desire their content more.
However, without a neutral stance in what is carried over their pipes, network providers can choose to discriminate and decide how fast data will be transmitted and at what quality. So in our example, say Verizon (which is also a network provider) chooses to prioritize their data over that of UC Berkeley. Information from Verizon will then be more desirable to the end user since it is so much faster than the UC website. "
http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~raylin/whatisnetneutrality.htm
If Google wants to jam the pipes, ATT&T, Comcast says, let them pay for the pipe, Google syas no, make the consumer pay, we want FREE access.
Net neutrality is just a google subsidy. Don't be fooled, you will pay if this goes further.
Don't be fooled, indeed. Unless Chmn. Genachowski acts, we will all, as you say, "pay."
This has nothing to do with google either. Your lack of education on this subject is astonishing.
Other countries subsidize education costs for their students. Including:
http://beforeitsnews.com/news/21311/Sallie_Mae_Sells_Out_Students_Safety_and_American_Jobs.html
Natch.
Aren't we supposed to be keeping ourselves educated and "competitive"?
I'd subsidize costs to get you educated as well. Heck, we're supporting the entire world it seems and I don't mind that either - or wouldn't mind if we weren't dismantling ourselves in the process. Helping others is great, but at some point to donate both lungs at once is rather, you know, stupid...
http://rationalwiki.com/wiki/Not_even_wrong
Originally it meant scientific research on mistaken assumptions. Now it is used for offtopic nonsequiturs.
Eg. 2+2=5 is wrong.
(2 + zebra)/glockenspiel = homeopathy works is not even wrong.
Also, "Don't do, do well" is not wrong, it is not even wrong.
http://www.savetheinternet.com/
It only takes a minute to help keep big business from ruining what has been the greatest tool for the free exchange of information the world has ever known.
Our internet is medieval.
Remember November!
V is for Victory!
Keep babbling my new big friend! LOL
Are you using a big lap top for for you V satirical victory?
The printing press dramatically changed the world, and made the Age of Enlightenment, Democracy, and civil and social freedoms possible.
The Internet will have an even more immediate and drastic impact on our world, bringing down all the old regimes that have relied on the control of information to control power and people.
So who exactly are these old regimes?
Look at who is trying to control the Internet. That's them.
discusses the implementation of the badge-system of moderation
with appropriate attribution, of course.
Thank you, Moshe.
Shalom.
We are so behind ,is not a joke anymore while those corporations charged US money for the garbage they are selling monopolizing the market
And here we are.