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AT&T Calls For Net Neutrality Laws After Fighting To End FCC Rules (engadget.com)

Posted by msmash on from the not-the-onion dept.

Few people would call AT&T a champion of net neutrality, but that isn't stopping it from trying to claim the title. From a report: CEO Randall Stephenson has posted an open letter calling on Congress to write an "Internet Bill of Rights" that enforces "neutrality, transparency, openness, non-discrimination and privacy protection" for American internet users. They would not only defend consumer rights, Stephenson argues, but establish "consistent rules of the road" that give internet companies and telecoms an idea of what they can expect. The company chief also insisted that AT&T honored an open internet and doesn't block, throttle or otherwise hinder access to content.

The problem, as you might suspect, is what the company isn't saying. The US already had protections for net neutrality that do what it's asking for, but AT&T and other telecoms have spent years fighting net neutrality regulation whenever it comes up. The carrier spent over $16 million in lobbying just in 2017, and it maintained its anti-regulatory stance throughout the FCC's repeal process.

5 of 126 comments (clear)

  1. It's a TRAP!!!!! by bongey · · Score: 5, Insightful

    AT&T just wants its merger to go through.

    1. Re:It's a TRAP!!!!! by jwhyche · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That and AT&T has probably seen the writing on the wall. They fought to end net neutrality at the federal level and now they are looking at a lot of state and local laws getting passed. So instead of one set of rules they might end up with hundreds of rules.

      Well boo fucking ho. They crawled in bed with this crap. No sympathies.

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  2. All part of the master plan. by derinax · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sure, encode the "new" net neutrality as a law drafted by AT&T lobbyists. Set things in stone and neuter any future liberal FCCs.

  3. This is just so they can override the States by rsilvergun · · Score: 5, Informative

    Nothing more, nothing less.

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  4. Re:Don't trust by rahvin112 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    They want to block individual states passing their own laws because federal law has priority over state law. When they removed the federal net neutrality rules and reclassified internet again the FCC removed their authority to block state level actions.

    What ATT wants is a watered down NN that doesn't block "fast lanes" (masquerading as slow lanes for everyone that doesn't pay) and prevents state laws. In other words they want the federal NN gone because they were too strong but they still want federal rules, just really silly easy ones that they can ignore so the states can't pass their own rules.