FCC tries to help cable companies avoid state consumer protection rules
7 replies, posted
[quote][IMG]https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/charter-spectrum-vehicle-800x533.jpg[/IMG]
The Federal Communications Commission is intervening in a court case in order to help Charter Communications avoid utility-style consumer protections related to its phone service in Minnesota. The FCC and Charter both want to avoid a precedent that could lead other states to impose stricter consumer protection rules on VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phone service offered by cable companies.
...
Charter argues that the case hinges on just one question: whether Charter's VoIP phone service is an information service under the federal communications statute.
...
Minnesota is the only state in Charter's footprint that "seeks to extend its regulatory reach to encompass advanced services," the company wrote. "Its approach not only ignores text and precedent, but would allow every state to impose idiosyncratic rules, creating a nationwide patchwork of requirements that would frustrate the FCC's longstanding policy of insulating advanced services from such a regulatory morass," Charter wrote.
Charter got support from other telecom companies that want to avoid stricter regulation of VoIP phone services. The brief filed by AT&T, Verizon, and USTelecom argues that VoIP is an information service because it converts voice signals from one format to another in order to carry phone calls to and from traditional landlines. AT&T and Verizon both offer utility landline phone services but are shifting toward VoIP services and want to shed the utility regulations that have long applied to phone networks.
Cable industry lobby group NCTA-The Internet & Television Association similarly filed a brief supporting Charter. "Preventing the imposition of utility regulation on VoIP will promote continued competition and benefit consumers," NCTA wrote.
[/quote]
[URL]https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/11/fcc-tries-to-help-cable-companies-avoid-state-consumer-protection-rules/[/URL]
Never forget the two years the FCC got it right
There's gotta be a way to remove these cunts from power and restore the FCC to what it actually is
[QUOTE=The Rifleman;52870356]There's gotta be a way to remove these cunts from power and restore the FCC to what it actually is[/QUOTE]
Remove the cunts who give them power.
[QUOTE=AnnieOakley;52870373]Remove the cunts who give them power.[/QUOTE]
Exactly. Disestablish the establishment, yo. Tear down Trump's administration (Mueller's doing a pretty bang-up job of this) and vote out the senators and representatives owned by corporate lobbyists.
There is exactly one way to get the FCC back and that is to elect a pro-net neutrality Democrat as President in 2020
[QUOTE=Bob The Knob;52870422]There is exactly one way to get the FCC back and that is to elect a pro-net neutrality Democrat as President in 2020[/QUOTE]
Elizabeth Warren MUST run. She is fantastic and would no doubt be massively in favour of Net Neutrality.
[QUOTE=Dan The Man;52871647]Elizabeth Warren MUST run. She is fantastic and would no doubt be massively in favour of Net Neutrality.[/QUOTE]
There are surely better options available than Warren. She did abysmally in 2016, and for good reason.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.