benton's blog

As the debate over Network Neutrality nears its climax with the Federal Communications Commission’s scheduled vote on February 26, there has been increasing attention on one relatively small sub-issue, so-called “zero rating” of certain mobile wireless digital services. Zero rating is currently the subject of intense debate in Europe as well, and has long been controversial in the developing world.

This Week's Wireless Warnings 

The Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and the United Kingdom’s Ofcom all weighed in on wireless Internet issues this week. The three big takeaways: 1) Wi-Fi is important; 2) the Internet of Things has some trust issues to work out; and 3) throttled Internet is not unlimited Internet. As Warner Wolf used to say, “Let’s go to the tape.”

Give Us More Wi-Fi – And Don’t Block What We Got

Better Communities through Better Broadband
A Coalition of Public and Private Interests Affirms the Need for Local Internet Choice

President Barack Obama will deliver the State of the Union address on Tuesday, January 20. But a funny thing happened in the run up to the speech: the President delivered all the punchlines. Well, maybe not all the punchlines and, for thems that watch telecommunications policy, it wasn’t all that funny.

Blair Levin
Brookings Institute
Metropolitan Policy Project
Kansas City Gigabit Summit
January 12, 2014

Kansas City Gigabit Summit
As Prepared for Delivery

It is an honor to kick off this First Gigabit City Summit.

The arc of history is long but every now and then, its curve steepens and you can see the actual moment, not just the gradual sweep, of change.

We are at such a moment.

It entails the creation of a new commons—an information rich commons—that will define a generation of cities.

Happy 114th Congress! On January 6th, the new Congress was sworn into office. Just who are these people are what will they do to impact our communications future? Well, we’re glad you asked.

I believe deeply that our media and telecommunications can and must serve the public interest and enhance our democracy. On this bedrock faith, the Benton Foundation seeks policy solutions that support the values of access, diversity and equity; demonstrates the value of media and telecommunications for improving the quality of life for all; and provides informational resources to policymakers and advocates to inform communications policy debates.

We start off the new year with the good news that the Federal Communications will likely vote on net neutrality at its late February meeting. So we might—just might—be on the cusp of a decision to reverse the disastrous misclassification of broadband that the FCC made in 2002 for cable modem and a couple of years later for the rest of telecommunications.