FCC chief guts net neutrality under the banner of 'freedom'

Over the past 8 years the FCC has had a consistent habit of overstepping its mandate to control the use of radio spectrum and communications. The FCC has stepped into areas that are, by law, regulated by other agencies. They have stepped so far outside their bounds as to dictate to private organizations who may or may not be included on their Board of Directors, what they may or may not say or do and even withheld authorizations for organizations that have criticized them for their overbearing regulations in areas where they have no authority other than their interpretation of their own regulation which has never been approved by Congress. Ajit Pai is rolling back some of the rulings and interpretations of what the Commission was directed to implement by the Executive Branch even though the Commission answers only to Congress and not the White House.

My my, "overstepping," "out of bounds," "dictate,""overbearing," "answerable only to Congress"? The head of the FCC is a Presidential appointment?! I guess we'll see. The FCC is in place to assure that the telecoms exist in a manner useful and fair to the American consumer. We will surely see how all this affects them.

I guess ones point of view hinges on the question of if ISP's are little more than a "Communications Utility" like days of past for companies like AT&T, Verizon, and little regional communications companies etc. that have since the advent of the "Al Gore" Information Super-Highway have ventured into "Digital Data" transmission.

If amiture radio stations want to transmit digital data from one amiture station to another (at least in the United States) that data transmission it's subject to FCC rules.

If digital data from a commercial company is transmitted via earth-satellite-earth communications, it's subject to FCC rules.

The question boils down to does the FCC have any legimate control over a transmission media that doesn't go over the air like radio & TV stations before the advent of cable.

For radio and TV stations that converted to High Definition, Over The Air traadmission they are continued to be controlled via FCC rules.

Whew....

Why Canada's net neutrality fight hasn't been as fierce as the one in the U.S.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/us-canada-net-neutrality-p...
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The Federal Communications Commission today released the final version of its net neutrality repeal order, three weeks after the December 14 vote to deregulate the broadband industry and eliminate the rules.

You can read the entire order here:

https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/FCC-1...

, though it is similar to the draft that has been available since November.

Small edits aren't uncommon after FCC votes, and they don't require a second vote. The edits generally respond to concerns raised by commissioners, as we wrote earlier this week.
Further Reading
Ajit Pai’s FCC is still editing the net neutrality repeal order

"In this document, the American public can see for themselves the damage done by this agency to Internet openness," FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat who voted against the repeal, said today. "Going forward, our broadband providers will have the power to block websites, throttle services, and censor online content. This is not right."

Prease to read more here:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/01/fcc-releases-fin...