Net Neutrality Archive

  • Federal Court Tells FCC It Does Not Have Authority To Enforce Net Neutrality

    Federal Court Tells FCC It Does Not Have Authority To Enforce Net Neutrality

    Posted on April 6, 2010 | No Comments
    This morning, the U.S Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia dealt the FCC a major blow in its drive to impose net neutrality on the nation’s broadband providers. A panel of three judges ruled that the FCC did not have the authority to order Comcast to slow down BitTorrent traffic, and, more, broadly, that the FCC does not have the authority to enforce net neutrality. The case started as a result of Comcast selectively slowing down certain types of traffic in 2007 — namely, BitTorrent — leading the FCC to order Comcast to stop the practice. Comcast challenged the order, claiming that the FCC didn’t have the authority to mandate net neutrality policy. Today’s ruling affirms Comcast’s stance. This will strike a blow to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s recently released broadband plan, but it was not entirely unexpected, and the FCC can still fight back.

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  • Ralph de la Vega promises fix for San Francisco and Manhattan coverage, plans to ‘address’ heaviest data users

    Ralph de la Vega promises fix for San Francisco and Manhattan coverage, plans to ‘address’ heaviest data users

    Posted on December 9, 2009 | No Comments
    Love that Pandora app? Well, we've got good news and bad news for you. The good news is that AT&T's wireless head honcho Ralph de la Vega says it's hard at work at improving service in San Francisco and Manhattan, where it sees especially high smartphone penetration -- and coincidentally a higher concentration of whiny tech journalists. The bad news, though, is that it might end up hitting you in the pocketbook. Speaking to investors today, de la Vega mentioned that the company is well aware that downtown New Yorkers are suffering, specifically calling out the area for "performing at levels below [its] standards" expressing confidence that it's going to get the problem resolved. In the same breath, though, he assured attendees that independent testing conducted by Global Wireless Solutions shows that a test of over 415 markets (which probably means 416 markets) has AT&T coming out on top for network speed -- something that we found in our testing as well -- and is "within two-tenths of 1 percent of the highest score among major providers" for dropped calls at 1.32 percent averaged nationally. Anyway, about that bad news -- the company has noticed that a huge chunk (some 40 percent) of its broadband is consumed by just 3 percent of smartphone users, and it's suggesting that it'll "address" that through a combination of usage meters (no complaints there) and likely a tiered pricing model that sticks it to the heaviest users "in a way that's consistent with net-neutrality and FCC regulations." At a glance, that sounds "fair" -- we'd rather they not increase data fees across the board to average out a very small number of users -- but the long-lost term "unlimited" still gives us a warm fuzzy that we're hoping to win back sooner or later. When LTE shows up, perhaps?

    Ralph de la Vega promises fix for San Francisco and Manhattan coverage, plans to 'address' heaviest data users originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • This is what it sounds like when Net Neutrality dies

    This is what it sounds like when Net Neutrality dies

    Posted on October 28, 2009 | No Comments
    The Net Neutrality argument is fairly nebulous for the average user but this image from a Reddit reader shows the effects of the law in a way everyone can understand. If you're tired of paying tiered pricing for stuff like cable and Internet access, how would you like to pay tiered pricing for the websites you visit. Want to watch Hulu? Add $10. Need eBay, even for a month? $5, please.

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  • Beware the ‘r word’ when reading up on Net Neutrality

    Beware the ‘r word’ when reading up on Net Neutrality

    Posted on October 23, 2009 | No Comments
    The beauty of the Drudge Report right now is that Mr. Drudge is working against his very interests. He's got some ridiculous headline right now, JULIUS AT FCC WANTS TO 'REGULATE' INTERNET, that's meant to wile up his easily excitable readership. What's going on is that the FCC has moved one step closer to bringin Net Neutrality to fruition, and has invited the public to weigh in until January 14.

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  • Google, Verizon team up to throw support behind FCC’s net neutrality push

    Google, Verizon team up to throw support behind FCC’s net neutrality push

    Posted on October 21, 2009 | No Comments

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    Google and [insert any wireless carrier here] are the last two entities in the world that we'd expect to issue a joint statement on net neutrality, seeing how Google firmly believes the FCC should enforce it regardless of medium while carriers generally want to be exempted -- but Verizon and The Goog have put their differences aside for just one day to put together a thoughtful, lengthy piece on the subject. There aren't any surprises in the piece other than the fact that CEOs Lowell McAdam and Eric Schmidt are personally attributed to the statement, but it echoes what most ISPs have been saying since new FCC chair Julius Genachowski came into play: they generally acknowledge that a free, unhindered internet has led to a better world and that it's in everyone's best interest to make sure that it continues to be that way. They go on to say that "there will be disagreements along the way" -- Google and Verizon don't see eye-to-eye on the finer points, for example -- but that they're all looking forward to a spirited debate with the folks over in Washington. Ultimately, the FCC's ability to effectively police true neutrality on wireless networks ties in deeply with its ability to free up a lot more spectrum -- something the CTIA's been pushing for lately -- and Genachowski recently mentioned that they'd be looking into it, so this could all end up working out without any broken hearts or black eyes.

    Google, Verizon team up to throw support behind FCC's net neutrality push originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 21 Oct 2009 22:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Who’s ‘right’ in the Net Neutrality debate?

    Who’s ‘right’ in the Net Neutrality debate?

    Posted on September 26, 2009 | No Comments
    This past week saw the resurrection of Net Neutrality as a divisive issue. Some folks (people like Google, and, well, us) are in favor of Net Neutrality, while other folks (primarily the ISPs) are against it. Not long after the FCC announced its intentions, six Republican senators, three of which who received quite a lot of money from AT&T, proposed an amendment to a bill to stop the FCC in its tracks. The senators later rescinded their amendment, saying that they were now open to a “dialogue” with the FCC.

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  • AT&T’s GOP senators back off anti-Net Neutrality stance, now open to ‘dialogue’ with FCC

    AT&T’s GOP senators back off anti-Net Neutrality stance, now open to ‘dialogue’ with FCC

    Posted on September 24, 2009 | No Comments
    A bit of an update to that whole AT&T-linked senators story from the other day. Well, our complaining must have worked because the senators will no longer try to block Net Neutrality. USA!

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  • How should Net Neutrality affect the mobile Internet?

    How should Net Neutrality affect the mobile Internet?

    Posted on September 22, 2009 | No Comments
    The Big Deal yesterday was the FCC's announcement of two additional proposals to its enforcement of Net Neutrality: non-discrimination (ISPs can't play favorites when it comes to network traffic), and transparent management (ISPs should be upfront with their network management practices, like blocking BitTorrent during peak hours). That's all well and good—I don't think you'll find anyone across the Crunch Network who doesn't support Net Neutrality—but this is thought to apply to “traditional” ISPs: Comcast, Time Warner, etc. The question becomes, then,how should Net Neutrality affect the wireless Internet? Should AT&T be subjected to the same regulations that Time Warner is vis-à-vis the iPhone? What about Sprint and the Palm Pre (and Pixi!)?

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  • Music is forever changed: Sony Ericsson’s MH907 headphones sense when they’re in use

    Music is forever changed: Sony Ericsson’s MH907 headphones sense when they’re in use

    Posted on September 22, 2009 | No Comments
    We (well, I) completely forgot about the BIG Sony Ericsson announcement that went down yesterday. It may have to do with the fact that nobody e-mailed us (well, me) about it, and that the FCC announced its Net Neutrality deal. Be that as it may, we now know, definitively, what Sony Ericsson was on about last week: yes, it's a pair of headphones that sense when they're in use. People are dancing in the streets already.

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  • Comcast responds to FCC’s Net Neutrality proposals: Slow down, partner, let’s talk about this

    Comcast responds to FCC’s Net Neutrality proposals: Slow down, partner, let’s talk about this

    Posted on September 21, 2009 | No Comments
    My God in Heaven! It's been about four hours since the FCC announced its intention to add two more pillars to its idea of Net Neutrality: one, ISPs should not be allowed to wily nilly permit/disallow traffic on their networks (non-discrimination); and two, traffic management should be done is as transparent a manner as possible, so you don't wind up with people discovering that their software is being tampered with, without their knowledge or consent, after the fact. I don't know about yous guys (not a typo), but that seems pretty reasonable to me. And if you disagree, then you're probably a high-ranking executive at Comcast.

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  • Yup, the FCC supports Net Neutrality all right

    Yup, the FCC supports Net Neutrality all right

    Posted on September 21, 2009 | No Comments
    As expected, the chairman of the FCC, Julius Genachowski, announced today his agency's support for Net Neutrality. Odds are if you're reading us then you have a basic idea of what Net Neutrality is, but if not it can be summed up like this: ISPs will be expected to treat all data equally, and not favor 0s and 1s from Company A or Company B, no matter what sweetheart a deal may be in place. The idea is that, since all data is treated equally, consumers will have better, unfettered access to the sites and services they choose to support.

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  • Guess why the big ISPs have refused broadband stimulus money

    Guess why the big ISPs have refused broadband stimulus money

    Posted on August 14, 2009 | No Comments
    There's two ways to look at the story that many of the country's biggest ISPs have refused government stimulus money for broadband infrastructure investment. One, the ISPs patently don't need the money, and are more than capable of delivering broadband to as many Americans as possible with their own capital. Two, the ISPs could use the money, but they'd prefer not to accept it lest they be beholden to all sorts of government-imposed restrictions, one of which relates to net neutrality.

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