November 2017

Statement of Commissioner Mignon Clyburn: FCC Majority's Assault on Pro-Consumer Policies Continues

Nov 16, the Federal Communications Commission majority will continue down its destructive path of adopting a series of actions that fail to put consumers first. They will make it more difficult for low-income Americans to access affordable communications services; they will adopt a so-called ‘voluntary’ television standard that has even more outstanding and unanswered questions than the February Notice of Proposed Rulemaking; they will shred consumer and competition protections in times of technology transitions; and they will open the door to massive media consolidation at the expense of l

The FCC is having a terrible month, and consumers will pay the price

[Commentary] Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai is setting a record pace for deregulating the communications industries. Believe it or not, things are about to get worse in Nov. Starting with the FCC’s open meeting on Nov 16, the agency is poised to approve or propose no fewer than four decisions that will deregulate consolidated industries, remove consumer protections, and widen the digital divide:

Pressure grows on FCC to kill state consumer protection laws

Mobile industry lobby group CTIA urged the Federal Communications Commission to preempt state laws on privacy and network neutrality in a recent meeting and filing. Comcast and Verizon had already asked the FCC to preempt such laws; CTIA represents AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile USA, Sprint, and other mobile companies. Carriers are urging the FCC to preempt states in the same regulatory proceeding that FCC Chairman Ajit Pai started in order to overturn the commission's net neutrality rules.