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FCC Rescinds Claim That AT&T, Verizon Violated Net Neutrality (arstechnica.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the back-and-forth dept.

jriding writes: The Federal Communications Commission's new Republican leadership has rescinded a determination that ATT and Verizon Wireless violated net neutrality rules with paid data cap exemptions. The FCC also rescinded several other Wheeler-era reports and actions. The FCC released its report on the data cap exemptions (aka "zero-rating") in the final days of Democrat Tom Wheeler's chairmanship. Because new Chairman Ajit Pai opposed the investigation, the FCC has now formally closed the proceeding. The FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau sent letters to ATT, Verizon, and T-Mobile USA notifying the carriers "that the Bureau has closed this inquiry. Any conclusions, preliminary or otherwise, expressed during the course of the inquiry will have no legal or other meaning or effect going forward." The FCC's Wireline Competition Bureau also sent a letter to Comcast closing an inquiry into the company's Stream TV cable service, which does not count against data caps. The FCC issued an order that "sets aside and rescinds" the Wheeler-era report on zero-rating. All "guidance, determinations, and conclusions" from that report are rescinded, and it will have no legal bearing on FCC proceedings going forward, the order said. ATT and Verizon allow their own video services (DirecTV and Go90, respectively) to stream on their mobile networks without counting against customers' data caps, while charging other video providers for the same data cap exemptions. The FCC under Wheeler determined that ATT and Verizon unreasonably interfered with online video providers' ability to compete against the carriers' video services.

6 of 197 comments (clear)

  1. Sold out by zieroh · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well, gentleman, we've been sold out.

    --
    People who say "sheeple" have about as much sophistication as an AOL user, and in fact are probably actually AOL users.
    1. Re:Sold out by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Trump begins to prove he is just another liar in office. Any claim of any desire to "make America great again" is now revealed to be nothing more than a ploy to acquire the power to help the rich get richer, and everyone else get poorer.

    2. Re:Sold out by acrimonious+howard · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Well, gentleman, we've been sold out.

      What do you mean? If you like net neutrality (something that obviously has helped small companies and the internet grow all these years), then you should already know Republicans have always been against it, and you should have been against Trump especially. There should be no surprises here. But it should be a wake up call: Republicans are on track to kill net neutrality soon.

    3. Re:Sold out by Billly+Gates · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You think the republicans are the 'bad guys' and the 'democrats' are the good guys?

      Let me introduce you to Ty Harrell. Former Democrat representative for north Carolina. One of the early net neutrality proponents. Then the republicans took over. He got thrown out. Guess who loved net neutrality now and thought it was the devils work? When one year earlier it was the polar opposite. This is nothing more than we are being played by lobbyist who write our bills bribe our representatives and then pretend it is a partisan issue. You think Hillary would have done better? Some of her biggest donations came from AT&T, Verizon, TW, and Charter.

      http://stopthecap.com/2011/03/...

      Yes keep up the fight against it. But do not pretend those people in Washington support you. None of them do. Not one of them. Your real enemies are the very people you pay for internet access.

      Funny under Obama under Wheeler the FCC stopped rubber stamping bills written by the monopolies and started enforcing net neutrality. You all thought Trump would support you and he would end H1B1 visas. Well you were wrong, he does not care.

      --
      http://saveie6.com/
    4. Re:Sold out by jtgd · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Trump will make America great again, as long as you accept the definition of "great" as maximizing corporate profits while screwing the citizens.

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      J
  2. Re:Its Open Season on the Little Guy by PMuse · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Let us not forget that his very first executive order jacked up mortgage costs for home buyers. It's hard to find a total price tag reported for that move, but a naive* calculation suggests 750000 loans x $500/year x 30 years = $11 billion on loans taken out in 2017, with more to follow for next year's loans. All of it straight out of the pockets of the little guy.

    *I defer to some one who actually understands present value calculations on loans.

    --
    "We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals." --The American President (20.1.2009)