20-02-2017, 08:11 PM
Donald Trump wants you to pay more for your Internet, either in money for high-speed service or by forcing you into an Internet traffic jam where pages load with all the speed of a rush hour commute after a traffic accident.
That's what could happen under the new Trump-appointed chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Ajit Pai.
Pai, a former attorney for telecom and Internet behemoth Verizon, has already undone recent FCC actions that helped consumers. The FCC recently blocked nine companies from providing cheap Internet to the poor. Pai called that "might regulation," evidently under the theory that outgoing presidents have only limited powers after each election, a position not found in our Constitution.
The agency also halted investigations into Verizon, AT&T, Comcast and T-Mobile favoring services affiliated with their companies.
But what Pai most wants is to eliminate net neutrality rules that prevent providers from blocking or slowing internet traffic. (For a great explanation of the issues, see John Oliver's acclaimed take on the subject.)
Pai has also opposed the Obama administration's decision to regulate broadband service as a utility. The Obama administration saw access to the Internet as service like electricity or the telephone that all Americans should have, not a luxury for the well-heeled.
That's what could happen under the new Trump-appointed chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Ajit Pai.
Pai, a former attorney for telecom and Internet behemoth Verizon, has already undone recent FCC actions that helped consumers. The FCC recently blocked nine companies from providing cheap Internet to the poor. Pai called that "might regulation," evidently under the theory that outgoing presidents have only limited powers after each election, a position not found in our Constitution.
The agency also halted investigations into Verizon, AT&T, Comcast and T-Mobile favoring services affiliated with their companies.
But what Pai most wants is to eliminate net neutrality rules that prevent providers from blocking or slowing internet traffic. (For a great explanation of the issues, see John Oliver's acclaimed take on the subject.)
Pai has also opposed the Obama administration's decision to regulate broadband service as a utility. The Obama administration saw access to the Internet as service like electricity or the telephone that all Americans should have, not a luxury for the well-heeled.
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass