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  2. August 2018

August 2018

Congress is set to grill Chairman Pai for falsely claiming his agency was hit with a cyberattack — here's how it could affect the war over net neutrality

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai is set to testify Aug 16 in front of a Senate oversight committee. He's certain to have to respond to questions while there about false statements he and some of his subordinates made to lawmakers about an incident in 2017 in which the agency's computer systems got overwhelmed during the comment period for its then-ongoing net-neutrality proceeding. Chairman Pai has tried to distance himself from those false statements, blaming them on the agency's former chief information officer, David Bray.

Should LTE provide 5 Mbps speeds, 10 Mbps or something else? FCC to investigate

The Federal Communications Commission is opening a new proceeding to investigate the state of telecommunications in America, and as part of that effort the agency will seek comment on how mobile networks should perform across the country. Specifically, the FCC will investigate whether wireless carriers should provide 5 Mbps downloads/1 Mbps uploads, 10 Mbps downloads/3 Mbps uploads, or some other speed. The goal, the agency said, is to determine “whether advanced telecommunications capability is being deployed,” as required by the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

FCC's Enforcement Bureau OK With Ending Sinclair-Tribune Hearing

The Federal Communications Commission's Enforcement Bureau says it has no issue with the FCC's administrative law judge (ALJ) terminating a hearing into Sinclair's representations about the now-imploded Tribune deal. The FCC docket was still open. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai had recommended referring the deal to ALJ Richard Sippel, citing allegations that Sinclair had been less than candid in its representations--Sinclair flatly denied any of it--and that some TV station spin-offs could still leave it in effective control of some of those stations.

Big tech is still violating your privacy

[Commentary] First came the scaremongering. Then came the strong-arming. After being contested in arguably the biggest lobbying exercise in the history of the European Union, the General Data Protection Regulation became fully applicable at the end of May. Since its passage, there have been great efforts at compliance, which regulators recognize. At the same time, unfortunately, consumers have felt nudged or bullied by companies into agreeing to business as usual. This would appear to violate the spirit, if not the letter, of the new law.

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