overcooked

9 ปีที่แล้วdiscuss

The claim made in the quotation is also simply inaccurate. As footnote 153 in the NPRM notes, the FTC was already stripped of jurisdiction over ISP privacy practices, regardless of the classification of broadband. (The FTC Act includes an exemption for common carriers based upon their status. Most ISPs are common carriers based upon their other businesses (telephone) and thus exempt.)

overcooked

9 ปีที่แล้วdiscuss

Appointing the chairman is one of the few ways that a president can influence the FCC. The FCC chairman runs almost all of the commission's functions, including managing the agency's hundreds of employees and setting enforcement priorities. One of the few major things that Chairman Pai cannot do alone is adopt new regulations. It is fair to say that Pai is Trump's FCC chairman and thus it is Trump's FCC.

edit: At least to the extent that any independent agency can belong to a president.

overcooked

9 ปีที่แล้วdiscuss

A couple things: 1) While AT&T was not the only provider left standing, it was the largest and had scale advantages against its competitors. The Kingsbury Commitment was designed to halt AT&T's expansion and ensure that those competitors were able to compete. However, it failed: AT&T was able to continue to improve its dominant position by selling subscribers in certain areas while purchasing competitors in more strategically advantageous areas. 2) One of the reasons for "natural" monopoly regulation is that we do not want telephone wires, railroads, and pipelines running everywhere. Building a utility requires gaining access to rights of way. Society subsidizes all private utilities by creating rights of way and infringing upon the rights of property owners along the route. 3) The scores of companies running railroads everywhere were subsidized even further. At least in the West, the federal government gave land along the route to the railroad companies for construction. [1] In some ways, building a railroad was more about land speculation than private construction of transportation infrastructure.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Railroad_Acts

overcooked

9 ปีที่แล้วdiscuss

Appointing the chairman is really one of the few influential bits that the President can do with the FCC. The chair sets the agenda for commission meetings, manages the commission's ~1700 employees, and sets enforcement priorities. Other than actually adopting new regulations (which requires a vote by all commission members), the FCC chair IS the FCC.

Also, while Commissioners Pai and O'Rielly were nominated by Obama, they were chosen in consultation with Republican congressional leadership (because the FCC must remain bipartisan by law). I'm not sure that one can say that they are "Obama appointees" in the same way that judicial appointees are.

overcooked

9 ปีที่แล้วdiscuss

After reading the actual complaint, it sounds like your problem is similar to some of the affected NY customers. Broadband demand is constantly increasing over time. Cable operators have to split service groups to keep providing higher tiers of service. If they do not, then congestion will reduce the speeds received by customers. Check out pgs 37-40 of the NY AG's complaint: https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/summons_and_complaint....

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