
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai accused of cherry-picking data to repeal net neutrality - joeyespo
http://www.androidauthority.com/fcc-pai-cherry-picking-data-repeal-net-neutrality-803801/
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hsod
Net neutrality was dead the moment Trump won the election. Pai was
specifically chosen in order to repeal it. Public comments and hearings and
reports are all theater.

If we wanted Net Neutrality to stick around, we shouldn't have elected a
President who openly opposes it
([https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/53260835850816716...](https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/532608358508167168?lang=en)).

~~~
dgllghr
While Pai and the FCC will do whatever they can to repeal Net Neutrality, the
FCC operates with well defined stipulations. Once the FCC repeals Net
Neutrality, it will be sued. And when it is sued, the burden will be on the
FCC to prove that they had good reason to repeal Net Neutrality. That is why
these public comments are so important, not because of Pai's actions, but
because of the court case that will follow. If the prosecutors can show that
the FCC did not act within the best interest of consumers, there is a very
good chance that Net Neutrality will remain law.

Congressman Don Beyer did a very helpful town hall on the subject along with
former Chairman Wheeler and former FCC General Counsel Jon Sallet:
[https://www.facebook.com/RepDonBeyer/videos/1940174359562352...](https://www.facebook.com/RepDonBeyer/videos/1940174359562352/)
(the video is long but very informative).

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shmerl
Pai and his ISP masters know that. That probably was their plan all along. Get
sued, then ask the Congress to pass a "law" that would "put the debate to
rest", while not actually preventing any anti-competitive abuse because of all
the holes in that law. Given current situation in the Congress you should
expect that. The same Congress just voted for Pai.

~~~
r00fus
GOP needs a solid defeat in 2018 or the Internet will become a lot more
"comcastic".

~~~
shmerl
I think the only way to really prevent that is strong and disruptive
competition that will spook all the current slumbering monopolists. Google
Fiber pretended to aim at that, but now it slowed to a crawl (it did cause
some good ripple effects).

Will Starlink from SpaceX fix it? Who knows, but I have little expectation
from the Congress to do anything of value about it. When was the last time
they did something good about technology polices? DMCA-1201 and CFAA aren't
repealed. There is no meaningful copyright reform on the horizon, and so on.
Net Neutrality will be another victim of this dysfunction.

~~~
matt4077
I was going to write "the ISP market is a natural monopoly", but then I
noticed that's missing the point in this case.

Because the fear of Non-Net-Neutrality goes far beyond the usual "there's only
two ISPs where I life and they both offer the same deals".

It's something in completely its own category of nefariousness because they
could be as anticompetitive as they want, and the market could not solve it.
Even if SpaceX did its thing and broke the speed limit on light.

That's because the injured party isn't their customers, who could take their
business elsewhere, or at least loudly complain on the internet (if they have
any).

It's someone not part to the ISP<->customer contract, namely that unknown
video startup in Nantucket, or the e2e-encrpyted messenger app your friend
Lauren is working on. They're going to be forced into paying ISPs if they ever
want to reach the ISPs' customers. And there's no risk to the ISP, because
nobody is going to change ISPs for some startup they've never heard about.

~~~
Retric
Satellite internet sucks because it's in Geosyncranis orbit at ~26,200 miles
and you need to make the trip 4 times. LEO satellites would add ~250 miles
worth of ping x4 which is a massive difference. Still not low enough for pro
gamer doing FPS games, but just about anything else should be fine.

The problem is need a lot more satellites and your receivers need to be able
to track satellites.

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davesque
Honestly, I feel that the repeal of net neutrality protections is basically a
foregone conclusion at this point. It's fairly clear that Pai has known what
he plans to do all along and is perfectly willing to ignore and/or fabricate
evidence.

 _Update_ : To be clear, I'm not saying people shouldn't comment. I did, in
fact, submit a comment (perhaps even two) during the comment period to the FCC
arguing in favor of net neutrality rules.

~~~
dwringer
That's definitely what those in favor of repealing the protections want you to
think. Silencing dissenters by creating the illusion that their voice means
nothing is one of the oldest tricks in the book.

~~~
convolvatron
..maybe their voice doesn't actually mean anything?

~~~
awakeasleep
Yes, if you believe this administration is so competent they'll never make a
mistake

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acomjean
Chairman Pai was just approved to his 5 year term by the US senate this week
sadly. It retroactive so he's got 4 years left.

The party that holds the presidency chooses 3 of the five FCC members, but
they still need to be approved.

[https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/10/ajit-pai-gets-
ne...](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/10/ajit-pai-gets-new-term-on-
fcc-despite-protest-of-anti-net-neutrality-plan/)

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tehwebguy
This might be the worst thing he's done so far, but it's not even the
stupidest thing he's done this week.

Five days ago he put out a statement congratulating himself for demanding that
Tim Cook turn on an imaginary iPhone radio to help the people of Puerto Rico.

~~~
acdha
That’s less far-fetched than it sounds when you know that the iPhone did have
FM tuners in the hardware for every model prior to the iPhone 7, which removed
the headphones used as an antenna, and groups like
[http://freeradioonmyphone.org/](http://freeradioonmyphone.org/) have been
trying to get the FCC to mandate opening up hardware access for many years.

~~~
tehwebguy
That entire organization appears to be built on a misconception. This is the
most detailed description I can find:

> I’ve dug around, and what I’ve been told is that there is an FM radio chip
> in older iPhones, but it’s not connected, and there’s no antenna designed
> for FM radio. The chip is just part of a commodity component part, and Apple
> only connected the parts of the chip that the iPhones were designed to use.
> No iPhone was ever designed to be an FM radio, and there is no “switch” that
> can be “flipped” — nor software update that could be issued — that could
> turn them into one. It’s a complete technical misconception.

[https://daringfireball.net/linked/2017/09/28/fcc-fm-
iphones](https://daringfireball.net/linked/2017/09/28/fcc-fm-iphones)

~~~
acdha
Yeah, I’m definitely not endorsing them, only noting that this isn’t a new
issue Pai came up with recently. Gruber’s theory certainly sounds plausible
and I’d assume that if this was doable in software one of the jail breaking
teams would have done it by now since that community loves to find cases where
they remove Apple’s limitations.

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shmerl
I'd say he doesn't operate with data at all. His claims that deregulating the
anti-competitive ISP market helps innovation is some toxic Kool Aid. And
politicians who repeat it with glee while voting for Pai are simply
disgusting.

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betterunix2
This is hardly news; I pointed out as much in the comment I submitted a few
months back. The fact is that Ajit Pai had decided to repeal net neutrality
and only accepted public comment because the law requires him to do so. His
NPRM is riddled with half-truths and outright falsehoods; cherry-picked
examples; and false dichotomies. The commentary he sought was a litany of
leading questions meant to support his decision to end net neutrality
(ironically, some of the questions did not even accomplish that despite
clearly being intended to do so, likely because his decision making process
never involved a serious effort to understand the technical details of the
Internet).

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thewhitetulip
This is one incidence where I feel proud that India is better than the US. FB
tried bribing its way into India for their Free Basics which was kicked off by
the TRAI.

At least we have that level of institutions.

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nnfy
Am I the only one bothered by the reclassification of ISPs as
telecommunications companies? For this reason, net neutrality drastically
expands the reach of the federal government, and opens up the internet to
legal regulations drafted decades before the internet was even an idea.

