Jon Brodkin

While the Federal Communications Commission said it has 18,000 carrier responses to network neutrality complaints, the National Hispanic Media Coalition says it has only received 823 pages worth. 

"The FCC has not produced any additional documents since we filed an Application for Review [on November 14]," said NHMC Special Policy Advisor Gloria Tristani. Besides carrier responses, "we are missing other documents as well, such as attachments to consumer complaints, consumer rebuttals, etc." The FCC has not explained why it didn't provide those documents, according to the NHMC.

Charter Communications is really excited to tell you about all its new broadband network investments. "Increasing Flagship Broadband Speeds; Giving Customers More For Less," is the title of the company's latest announcement on this topic.

AT&T recently said  the company has never blocked third-party applications and that it won't do so even after the rules are gone. Just one problem: the company fails to mention that AT&T blocked Apple's FaceTime video chat application on iPhones in 2012 and 2013. AT&T blocked FaceTime on its cellular network when users tried to access the application from certain data plans, such as unlimited data packages.

Comcast is defending its changed net neutrality pledges in the face of criticism from Internet users. The deletion of a net neutrality promise immediately after the Federal Communications Commission started repealing its net neutrality rules is just a "language" change, the company says.

The impending repeal of net neutrality rules is being used by Charter Communications to fight a lawsuit that alleges the company made false promises of fast Internet service. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in February filed the lawsuit against Charter and its Time Warner Cable subsidiary.

An examination of how Comcast's net neutrality promises have changed over time reveals an interesting tidbit—Comcast deleted a "no paid prioritization" pledge from its net neutrality webpage on the very same day that the Federal Communications Commission announced its initial plan to repeal net neutrality rules.  Starting in 2014, the webpage, corporate.comcast.com/openinternet/open-net-neutrality, contained this statement: "Comcast doesn't prioritize Internet traffic or create paid fast lanes." That statement remained on the page until April 26 of this year, according to page captures from

The most obvious reason that network neutrality violations have been rare since Comcast's throttling of BitTorrent is that the Federal Communications Commission has enforced net neutrality rules since 2010 (aside from a year-long interlude without rules caused by a Verizon lawsuit). But to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, this just proves that the rules aren't necessary. "Because of the paucity of concrete evidence of harms to the openness of the Internet, the [2015 net neutrality] Order and its proponents have heavily relied on purely speculative threats," Pai's proposal says.

For years, Comcast has been promising that it won't violate the principles of network neutrality, regardless of whether the government imposes any net neutrality rules. That meant that Comcast wouldn't block or throttle lawful Internet traffic and that it wouldn't create fast lanes in order to collect tolls from Web companies that want priority access over the Comcast network.

AT&T and Comcast have convinced a federal judge to nullify an ordinance that was designed to bring more broadband competition to Nashville, Tennessee. In 2016, the Nashville Metro Council passed a "One Touch Make Ready" rule that gives Google Fiber or other new ISPs faster access to utility poles. The ordinance lets a single company make all of the necessary wire adjustments on utility poles itself, instead of having to wait for incumbent providers like AT&T and Comcast to send work crews to move their own wires.

Net neutrality rules are popular with Americans who use the Internet. It was thus no surprise to see a huge backlash to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai's plan to eliminate the rules. While most of the 22 million public comments on the plan were spam and form letters, a study funded by the broadband industry found that 98.5 percent of unique comments supported the current rules. Net neutrality supporters organized an "Internet-wide Day of Action to Save Net Neutrality" in July and plan more protests in the coming days as a final vote draws near.