net neutrality

House GOP members and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) leaders attacked the Biden administration’s broadband policy at Thursday’s FCC oversight hearing.   After two years without a fifth commissioner, FCC Democrats have started the process to reinstate Obama-era net neutrality rules. The 3-2 vote reinstated the policy that brings internet service providers under the jurisdiction of the FCC as telecommunications carriers. The FCC repealed net neutrality in 2017 under the Trump administration.  “The…

Some of the biggest internet service providers in the U.S. have come crawling on hands and knees to the Federal Communications Commission, signing a joint petition asking the agency to cut them some slack with new requirements that they report all their fees to consumers.A Transformer Is Headed to the MoonAll commercial food in the U.S. is expected to contain a breakdown of ingredients and basic dietary facts. The FCC took a page from the Food and Drug Administration’s playbook when it issued new rules requiring internet…

Photo: Pool (Getty Images)Gigi Sohn, Joe Biden’s pick to end a nearly two-year deadlock in the Federal Communications Commission, withdrew her nomination Tuesday. The exit, which Sohn blamed on stonewalling from dark money groups, means the FCC will remain without any one-party majority for the foreseeable future. That 2-2 commissioner gridlock will prevent Democrats from pushing even moderately progressive policy priorities forward because they would need Republican commissioners’ cooperation.Sohn didn’t leave the…

Photo: chrisukphoto / Shutterstock.com (Shutterstock)Last week, Texas introduced a bill that would make it illegal for internet service providers to let users access information about how to get abortion pills. The bill, called the Women and Child Safety Act, would also criminalize creating, editing, or hosting a website that helps people seek abortions.If the bill passes, internet service providers (ISPs) will be forced to block websites “operated by or on behalf of an abortion provider or abortion fund.” ISPs would also…

New broadband labels break down prices and hidden fees. Screenshot: FCCInternet service providers will soon have to publish “nutrition labels” that prominently display the actual costs of their services, breaking down hidden fees, data caps, speed promises, and information about when discounts expire, the Federal Communications Commission announced Thursday. The labels will make it far easier to comparison shop in a market where real prices are often shrouded behind hidden fees and confusing bills. The FCC mandated label…

Photo: Kamil Urban (Shutterstock)If there’s one thing Americans seem to agree on, it’s that they don’t like their internet service providers. They have a lot of good reasons to be frustrated, according to a survey of US broadband service from Consumer Reports released Thursday.Consumer Reports collected and analyzed over 22,000 internet bills in an unprecedented study scrutinizing 500 internet service providers from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The studyuncovered…

Photo: Chip Somodevilla (Getty Images) Do you remember net neutrlaity? It may seem like ancient history now, but there was a time when regulators actually came together to put in place guardrails preventing greedy telecoms from segregating internet access to the highest bidders. Then Trump and Ajit Pai happened. Now, nearly five years after the Federal Communications Commission voted to gut net neutrality protections, a handful of Democratic lawmakers are working to codify the protections into law. This week Democratic S…

Europe's highest court on Tuesday gave its backing to the European Union's net neutrality rules which require telecoms operators to treat all Internet traffic equally, dealing a blow to the telecoms industry which wants a less restrictive regime.Adopted in 2015, the rules, which have got strong backing from large tech companies and consumer groups, prevent telecoms operators from blocking or slowing down traffic, or offering paid fast lanes.Telecoms operators have been pushing for less stringent rules to allow them to…

The US Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 on Tuesday to maintain its 2017 repeal of Obama-era net neutrality rules, even after a federal court directed a review of some provisions of the repeal.The 2015 net neutrality rules barred Internet service providers (ISPs) from blocking or slowing Internet content or offering paid "fast lanes." Under President Donald Trump, the 2017 FCC order granted ISPs sweeping powers to recast how Americans use the Internet, as long as they disclose changes.A federal appeals court in…

Two US Senate Democrats active in internet issues are working on a bill to restore landmark "net neutrality" rules that would bar telecommunications companies from blocking or throttling traffic or offering paid fast lanes.Senators Edward Markey and Ron Wyden plan to introduce a bill this summer that would put broadband under the umbrella of a telecommunications service, which means that providers would be subject to stricter Federal Communications Commission (FCC) oversight, a source briefed on the matter told Reuters.…