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FCC is Hurting Consumers To Help Corporations, Mignon Clyburn Says On Exit (arstechnica.com)
Former Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, who left the agency this month, has taken aim at it in an interview, saying the agency has abandoned its mission to safeguard consumers and protect their privacy and speech. From her interview with ArsTechnica: "I'm an old Trekkie," Clyburn told Ars in a phone interview, while comparing the FCC's responsibility to the Star Trek fictional universe's Prime Directive. "I go back to my core, my prime directive of putting consumers first." If the FCC doesn't do all it can to bring affordable communications services to everyone in the US, "our mission will not be realized," she said. The FCC's top priority, as set out by the Communications Act, is to make sure all Americans have "affordable, efficient, and effective" access to communications services, Clyburn said. But too often, the FCC's Republican majority led by Chairman Ajit Pai is prioritizing the desires of corporations over consumers, Clyburn said. "I don't believe it's accidental that we are called regulators," she said. "Some people at the federal level try to shy away from that title. I embrace it."
Clyburn said that deregulation isn't bad in markets with robust competition, because competition itself can protect consumers. But "that is just not the case" in broadband, she said. "Let's just face it, [Internet service providers] are last-mile monopolies," she told Ars. "In an ideal world, we wouldn't need regulation. We don't live in an ideal world, all markets are not competitive, and when that is the case, that is why agencies like the FCC were constructed. We are here as a substitute for competition." Broadband regulators should strike a balance that protects consumers and promotes investment from large and small companies, she said. "If you don't regulate appropriately, things go too far one way or the other, and we either have prices that are too high or an insufficient amount of resources or applications or services to meet the needs of Americans," Clyburn said.
Clyburn said that deregulation isn't bad in markets with robust competition, because competition itself can protect consumers. But "that is just not the case" in broadband, she said. "Let's just face it, [Internet service providers] are last-mile monopolies," she told Ars. "In an ideal world, we wouldn't need regulation. We don't live in an ideal world, all markets are not competitive, and when that is the case, that is why agencies like the FCC were constructed. We are here as a substitute for competition." Broadband regulators should strike a balance that protects consumers and promotes investment from large and small companies, she said. "If you don't regulate appropriately, things go too far one way or the other, and we either have prices that are too high or an insufficient amount of resources or applications or services to meet the needs of Americans," Clyburn said.
An argument is a connected series of statements intended to establish a proposition. It isn't just contradiction.
Guy? Who knew? Next time RTA.
Wow, you are posting a link from the the policy director of a telecom with a straight face and other morons on the site are agreeing with you. My only hope is that you're being paid for this drivel and I guess everybody has their price - a fitting situation in a capitalist society I suppose.
Decades ago this is how it worked, more or less. You had a telecom that you bought you line from and an ISP you bought your service from. At the time a typical area had dozens of broadband ISPs, with new ones able to pop up fairly easily and lots of small ones filling niche needs. It was really great. But then there was too much money to be made wrapping the two parts up, and even more money if you bound up telecom, ISP, and media provider, so they got the rules changed. It would be nice if we could go back, but fighting telecoms is difficult and expensive.. they can afford better lawyers than the federal government.
Remember that. It doesn't matter if the "Democrats" or "Republicans" are in charge, they have not represented the average American citizen for a long while.
Go on, citizen, stamp the vote card. R or D, your choice.
Actually that's horseshit, given the makeup of the panel Obama was securing a conservative to keep it equal per the norm. Trump does not appoint anyone but Trump sycophants. That's a huge difference. Trump is a traitor.
Pai is a moron.
Is it your position that Obama's selection of the "conservative moron" Pai to keep it equal per the norm is in any way a defensible selection?
"Our side can do no wrong" is but the stance of a zealous parrot who lacks the funds to pay attention.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
I am an old trekkie
blatent pandering to the slashdot crowd, deduct 10 points for misappropriation of star trek
Nullius in verba
The reason Democrats have lost so many seats is that they try to keep the norms while the Republicans are always pushing to the right. Reagan's policies would be denounced as a communist plot by today's Republican Party.
And that was before they rallied around a multiple divorced cheating degenerate gambler narcissist egomaniac. I can't vote Republican anymore.
I suppose someone should tell you: NN has nothing to do with when you can or cannot upgrade your network.
and I'd argue it made no difference which one he appointed. To be blunt, while the Dems often side with mega corps over the working class I literally can't think of a single time when a Republican, any Republican, didn't unless they knew it was safe to do so (e.g. the Senate vote on Net Neutrality when they knew damn well it won't pass the House let alone get signed by Trump). The Republicans are completely pro corporate. If you're OK with that, then carry on. But if not you'd better start voting for the Bernie wing of the Democratic party, because they're the only credible threat to the status quo. I think after Trump staffed his cabinet with the same Goldman Sachs people, got caught making deals with the UAE to get elected and started supporting TPP it's pretty safe to say he's not doing jack for shaking things up.
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This started in New Zealand with the government forcing the incumbent telco to provide price regulated wholesale broadband to retail ISP's over their copper network - They either had to sell services to ISP's or allow the ISP's to install their own DSLAM's in their exchanges so they could run their own DSL services over the existing copper.
The incumbent then got split in to two separate companies providing wholesale network services in one and retail services in the other.
We now have the choice of dozens of different ISP's, all offering their own benefits and low cost of switching between companies.
Infrastructure investment hasn't stopped either. By 2022 87% of the population will have fibre to their home.
Over 40% of people who have fibre available have already switched and the rollout is running ahead of schedule.
they're the "Bernie" Wing of the party. They're the only ones that refuse corporate PAC money. It's a requirement to join. Show up at your primary. There's plenty of candidates there and your vote is incredibly powerful in a primary because hardly anybody votes in them.
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...one side of the aisle is more to blame than the other...
Well, that's an odd way to run a country.
You can this set of wealthy oligarchs, or that set over there.
Come on America, get yourself a better system of Government.
outweigh the needs of the few.
I really had hope this would work out.
But...
Trump and his ilk have sold America to the highest bidder.
We exist now to feed the profits of the few; is it so mysterious that the suicide rate is thru the roof, and opiate drugs are sweeping the land?
Birth rates are down, because what sane creature would bring a life into this world to be so exploited?
Trump is a symptom of the rotten core of what used to be America; I'm just waiting for all the kids to take themselves out, then who will they have?
Welcome to Trump's America. You earned it.
Truth isn't Truth - Guliani
learned this years ago (in germany): the Federal Ministry of the Environment does not exists to protect the environment, it is here to allow the max amount of damage and the maximum amount of exploitation of the enviromnent by private orgs before people start to riot against the current government. translate to other agencies and you know whats up.
When the Republican majority senate wouldn't even consider an Obama appointee for the Supreme Court I don't think "clearing the Senate is a low bar". You have to remember that the main Republican strategy for the 8 years of the Obama administration was - oppose anything the president wants.