Family Learning Center

Posts Tagged ‘Fcc Rules’

FCC net neutrality rules enter drafting process, face McCain challenge

Our old friends at the FCC have started to put words into action, as the net neutrality regulations proposed by Chairman Julius Genachowski have now entered the rule-drafting stage. The provision of most import here is that broadband providers would be forbidden from traffic discrimination or “management,” and compelled to provide equal access and services to their users, irrespective of the type or bandwidth uptake of their internet activity. Of course, this is hardly a bumpless road, with Senator John McCain proposing the Internet Freedom Act of 2009, whose sole reason for existing will be to prevent the FCC from putting those rules through. Even if things do go smoothly, though, “reasonable network management” will still be an available recourse for telecoms, where it is necessary to block spam and illegal content, such as child pornography. Which sounds kinda like censorship to us. Look, we have no more interest in child porn than we do a pair of Lady Gaga Heartbeats, but any time we hear of internet providers having either the right or responsibility to block content, we get an uneasy feeling in the pit of our libertarian stomachs. Anyhow, the great big gears of regulation have finally started turning, and we can look forward to more political wrangling as the rules take shape over the coming months.

Filed under: Internet

FCC net neutrality rules enter drafting process, face McCain challenge originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Oct 2009 06:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Read the whole story…

FCC chair Julius Genachowski unveils plan for improving mobile Internet

Julius Genachowski, the Federal Communications Commission Chairman appointed by President Barack Obama, said today that he’s committed to improving mobile broadband service, and outlined a four-part plan to make that happen.

Mobile data will become increasingly important as more and more people buy smartphones with mobile Internet access, and also access those networks using laptops and netbooks, Genachowski said at the CTIA wireless conference in San Diego. At the same time, that’s naturally going to put a strain on the wireless carriers — something Genachowski may have personal experience with, since he’s an iPhone user.

“What happens when every mobile user has an iPhone, a Palm Pre, a Blackberry Tour or whatever the next device is?” he said. “What happens when we quadruple the number of subscribers with mobile broadband on their laptops or netbooks?”

You can read more details about Genachowski’s statements at the Wall Street Journal and ZDNet, but here are the big four points in his plan:

1) “Unleash” the wireless spectrum for faster 4G networks.
2) Reallocate some of the spectrum used currently for other purposes to wireless broadband.
3) Develop rules that ensure everyone’s wireless traffic is treated fairly. (Genachowski made a similar proposal recently to formalize the FCC’s rules on network neutrality.)
4) Empower the consumer, so they feel like they’re shopping for broadband in a transparent, competitive market.

Read the whole story…

FCC Proposes New Rules to Ensure Net Neutrality – Launches OpenInternet.Gov

FCC Chaiman Julius Genachowski outlined a number of new principles today that will guide the commission’s rulemaking with regards to net neutrality. As Genachowski points out, openness was a key factor that made the Internet the success it has become. While the FCC never adopted any formal rules with regards to net neutrality, the commission adopted a set of four policy principles in 2005. Today, Genachowski announced that the FCC will begin the rulemaking process to formalize these principles and also announced two additional principles that should guide this process: non-discrimination and transparency.

Sponsor

In addition, the FCC also announced the launch of OpenInternet.gov, a site that will track the progress of this undertaking.

Why Do We Need Net Neutrality?

In his speech, Genachowski lists three reasons for why we need to be concerned about the future of the Internet:

• limited competition among service providers
• broadband providers, who also generally sell phone service and cable TV subscriptions, have “rational bottom-line interests may diverge from the broad interests of consumers in competition and choice”
• as the Internet has grown, technologies for managing networks have become more sophisticated, but these tools “cannot by themselves determine the right answers to difficult policy questions — and they raise their own set of new questions”

Back in 2004, then-Chairman Michael Powell proposed a set of four principles (PDF) based on the idea that ISPs should not be allowed to prevent users from accessing any lawful part of the Internet or from attaching “non-harmful” devices to the network. Today, Julius Genachowski proposed to add two more principles to this list.

Principle of Non-Discrimination

The fifth principle is one of non-discrimination — stating that broadband providers cannot discriminate against particular Internet content or applications.

This means that ISPs would not be allowed to block or degrade lawful traffic over their networks or favor some content or applications over others. An ISP could not, for example, give its subscribers faster access to its own streaming video site, but slow down similar content from another site that is owned by a competitor.

Principle of Transparency

The sixth principle is a transparency principle — stating that providers of broadband Internet access must be transparent about their network management practices.

Today, we often have to wonder if our ISP is actually shaping traffic and purposely slowing our torrent downloads. Google even got so worried about this topic that it released a number of tools that allow consumers to check if their ISPs are engaged in traffic shaping. If adopted, this would mean that broadband providers will have to disclose what kind of protocols they are blocking and how they are managing traffic on their networks.

According to Genachowski, the FCC has “an obligation to ensure that the Internet is an enduring engine for U.S. economic growth, and a foundation for democracy in the 21st century. We have an obligation to ensure that the Internet remains a vast landscape of innovation and opportunity.” While he acknowledges that some parties would argue that innovation and investment are exactly the reasons why the government shouldn’t adopt open Internet rules, Genachowski argues that an open Internet will ultimately benefit both consumers and businesses and that an open Internet “is the best thing we can do to promote investment and innovation.”

As Kevin C. Tofel notes on jkOnTheRun, it is important to note that all of these principles will apply to all platforms that access to Internet – including mobile devices. This could have major ramifications for mobile ISPs. For more about this, see Tofel’s blog post which focuses on exactly what these rules could mean for mobile service providers and consumer.

Join the Discussion

If you want to join the discussion, the new OpenInternet.gov site allows for (moderated) comments. What’s your point of view? Should the government take a more active role in keeping the Internet free and open, or is this an oxymoron and we should just let the market regulate itself?

Discuss

Read the whole story…