1. Monthly archive
  2. December 2017

December 2017

If Net Neutrality Is Repealed, What Will It Mean For People Who Don't Have Broadband Yet?

Right now, cities and towns have a little bit of leverage when talking to cable companies about installing fiber networks, according to Harvard law professor Susan Crawford. "Through saying, 'Look, come and build this network for us. But you can only build it by providing equal service to everybody in town and at a low price,' that's how that particular direction is being carried out in Massachusetts,” Crawford said. But she said towns may not be able to do that anymore. “The great uncertainty created by the recent FCC order is that Mr.

FTC, FCC Outline Agreement to Coordinate Online Consumer Protection Efforts Following Adoption of The Restoring Internet Freedom Order

The Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced their intent to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) under which the two agencies would coordinate online consumer protection efforts following the adoption of the Restoring Internet Freedom Order.  “The Memorandum of Understanding will be a critical benefit for online consumers because it outlines the robust process by which the FCC and FTC will safeguard the public interest,” said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai.

As net neutrality repeal looms, Boulder takes closer look at city-owned broadband

It's going to cost somewhere between $70 and $140 million, officials estimate, to build out the underground fiber-to-the-premises network that Boulder (CO) needs to make community-wide broadband a reality. The question for the City Council has never been whether this pursuit is worthwhile, as voters and elected leaders clearly agree on the value of open-access, affordable, high-speed internet — the introduction of which would put pressure on the incumbent Comcast-CenturyLink duopoly to lower their prices and offer higher speeds.

Verizon’s ‘Clunky, Squishy’ 5G Talk Fails to Impress Street

Shares of Verizon Communications are up after the company held its annual analyst day meeting, a centerpiece of which was the company’s plans to roll out broadband wireless service in select U.S. markets in 2018 using the newer “5G” wireless technology. However, the presentation on 5G service to the home seems to have landed with something of a thud amongst those who listened to the presentation. Craig Moffett of the eponymous Moffett-Nathanson boutique research firm this morning writes that there appears to be less than billed in the 5G announcement.

How Email Open Tracking Quietly Took Over the Web

As recently as the mid-2000s, email tracking was almost entirely unknown to the mainstream public. Then in 2006, an early tracking service called ReadNotify made waves when a lawsuit revealed that HP had used the product to trace the origins of a scandalous email that had leaked to the press. The intrusiveness (and simplicity) of the tactic came as something of a shock, even though newsletter services, salespeople, and marketers had long used email tracking to gather data.

Net neutrality is on its way out. But that might not be so bad for Sacramento

[Commentary] Some of you might recall that in Nov, Verizon announced it would make Sacramento the first city in the country to have 5G – or fifth-generation – residential wireless broadband service. We beat out at least two other cities for it, following a few months of being a test market. Now if all goes well, many more Sacramentans will be able to tap into the ultra-high-speed service with their smartphones, tablets and computers by the second half of 2018. The deal, in part, is the culmination of another one inked in June.

This is the future if net neutrality is repealed; the creeping, costly death of media freedom

[Commentary] If you’re scared of a future America without network neutrality, I want to terrify you. The potential repeal of what should be a civic right should chill you to the bone. After spending twelve years running a company that helps millions of people to break through the barriers of censorship imposed by oppressive governments, I am quite familiar with the ramifications of such repressions.

© 1994-2026 Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. All Rights Reserved.