American Broadband Policy: Information over Manipulation

While it’s true that Americans aren’t dancing in the streets over ISP customer service, it’s unrealistic to claim that replacing them with municipal utility providers will change this dynamic at all.

April 20, 2017 0

Voluntary Net Neutrality: Holy Grail or Total Hoax?

If net neutrality is what its supporters say it is – the best overall way of setting expectations and managing Internet service agreements, it should be expected to become self-executing at some point. I think we passed that point about ten years ago, but we will see what we will see.

April 13, 2017 0

Wireless First: A Winning Strategy for Rural Broadband

The nice thing about focusing on wireless for the final leg of the extended broadband system is that it doesn’t duplicate effort or waste money. Despite the glory of fiber optic networks, people want mobility. So wireless is going to be part of the solution regardless. Why don’t we just accept that and concentrate on building the best wireless networks first and fill in with fiber only when and where it’s truly needed?

April 11, 2017 0

Congress is Watching You: What to Look For in the House Internet Privacy Debate

Yes. Does Google track you outside of google.com? Yes. Does Google share sensitive data about you with third parties it collects from sites like edmarkey.com and standtallforamerica.com? I don’t know that it does, but it’s entitled to by its privacy disclosures. And the same goes for a dozen other trackers unleashed on web users who visit these two sites.

March 28, 2017 0

What’s a Tracker Network and What Can it See?

In Wednesday’s Senate floor debate over the Congressional Review Act resolution on the Wheeler FCC’s privacy regulations, each Democratic Senator made the same claim: ISPs can see all the web…

March 23, 2017 0

San Francisco’s Cultural Divide

Co-chair Susan Crawford (right) leads a panel discussion about the plan to wire San Francisco with high-speed Internet service.

The failure of Google Fiber to connect America’s cities to ultra-fast gigabit networks took a bizarre turn this week: San Francisco, the incubator of the apps economy, is seriously considering…

March 16, 2017 0

Digital Broadband Migration Conference

This is one of my regular stops and will continue to be one for the foreseeable future. If you’re in Boulder next February and interested in Internet policy, check it out.

February 21, 2017 0

Mysteries and Loopholes in the Open Internet Order

The claim that Internet regulation can only be carried out by an agency with rulemaking power remains to be proved because we don’t actually have concrete rules yet.

February 15, 2017 0

A Fresh Look at Internet Management

The FTC takes action to stop and prevent unfair business practices that are likely to reduce competition and lead to higher prices, reduced quality or levels of service, or less innovation. Anticompetitive practices include activities like price fixing, group boycotts, and exclusionary exclusive dealing contracts or trade association rules, and are generally grouped into two types: agreements between competitors, also referred to as horizontal conduct; and monopolization, also referred to as single firm conduct

February 9, 2017 0

Internet Issues Front and Center in Ross Confirmation Hearing

Questions asked of prospective Commerce Secretary show how important the Internet is to American commerce: spectrum, broadband, and cybersecurity dominated the discussion.

January 19, 2017 0