1. Monthly archive
  2. May 2019

May 2019

House Commerce Committee Hearing on LIFT America Act

The House Commerce Committee dove into the omnibus Lifting Infrastructure for Tomorrow's (LIFT) America Act, which includes $40 billion for broadband buildouts. Ranking Member Greg Walden (R-OR) said rebuilding infrastructure was a bipartisan priority, as was the agreement on better mapping to prevent "rampant overbuilding." Witness Mignon Clyburn, principal, MLC Strategies, LLC, and former commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission, said the FCC should not be using current, bad, broadband coverage maps to determine who needs broadband.

Telecom friendly House Democrats are pushing a letter to undermine net neutrality

Apparently, a handful of Democratic Reps are shopping around a letter that echoes internet service provider lobbyist talking points, incorrectly claiming that the Save the Internet Act to restore network neutrality is dead and calling for the creation of a disingenuous “bipartisan working group,” modeled after the one created in the Senate by Sens Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), who are widely seen as enemies of the effort to restore net neutrality. The group is rumored to be led by Reps Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) Scott Peters (D-CA) who together have taken hundreds of thousands

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New America

Date 
Wed, 06/05/2019 - 16:45 to 18:00

“There is an epidemic sweeping the world,” the Nigerian Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, said. “It is the epidemic of fake news. Mixed with hate speech, it is a disaster waiting to happen.”

Some argue that the disaster has already happened. But who should decide whether content should be removed from platforms, or which users should be kicked off?


Bipartisan Bill to Build National 5G Strategy, Protect US Telecommunications Infrastructure from National Security Threats

Rep Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) led the introduction of a bipartisan bill to protect next-generation telecommunications systems and mobile infrastructure in the United States. Rep Spanberger introduced the legislation alongside Rep Susan W. Brooks (R-IN), Tom O’Halleran (D-AZ), Francis Rooney (R-FL), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), and Elise Stefanik (R-NY).

AT&T Has Become a New Kind of Media Giant

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson’s strategy [to synergize all of the company properties] is breathtaking in scale and scope, the largest transformation underway at any company in the Fortune 500. AT&T’s main traditional competitor, Verizon, has chosen an entirely different path, and Stephenson’s new rivals are in markedly different businesses. Stephenson marvels, “I spend as much time thinking about Amazon and Netflix as I do thinking about Verizon and Comcast now.”

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