Ars Technica

Donald Trump's election has put Republicans in position to eliminate network neutrality rules and gut the Federal Communications Commission's authority to regulate broadband providers. But Trump voters need the consumer protections provided by the FCC as much or more than anyone, said Tom Wheeler, whose resignation as FCC chairman takes effect Jan 20.

In making the case for continued net neutrality rules and consumer protections, Wheeler pointed out that Trump voters in rural areas are vulnerable to the actions of major broadband providers. "The Trump administration campaigned that they are the voice of the forgotten," Wheeler said. "Well you know, the half-dozen major carriers [lobbying against FCC regulations] are hardly forgotten." The people who are forgotten are the "two-thirds of consumers in America who have one or fewer broadband choices," Wheeler said. "Where are those choices most limited? In the areas where Donald Trump got the strongest response, in rural areas, outside of major cities. If indeed this is an administration that is speaking for those that feel disenfranchised, that representation has to start with saying, 'we need to make sure you have a fast, fair, and open Internet because otherwise you will not be able to connect to the 21st century.'"

AT&T has raised its non-contract phone activation and upgrade fee from $20 to $25, the latest increase for a fee that didn't even exist until July 2015. As the mobile carrier switched from contracts to device payment plans, AT&T initially did not charge an activation and upgrade fee for customers who brought their own phone or bought one from AT&T on an installment plan. But in July 2015, AT&T started charging a $15 activation fee to customers who don't sign two-year contracts. (AT&T also raised the activation/upgrade fee for contract customers from $40 to $45 in July 2015.)

The activation fee for non-contract customers was raised from $15 to $20 in April 2016 and was just raised again to $25. The $25 fee is charged for new activations or upgrades when customers purchase devices on installment agreements, AT&T says. Customers who bring their own phone to the network are charged the $25 fee when they activate a new line of service, but not when they upgrade phones on an existing line.

Since Election Day, President-elect Donald Trump has taken an inordinate interest in some of the minutia of defense policy. His tweets (particularly about the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and the Air Force One presidential aircraft replacement program) have sent shockwaves through the defense industry. The same is true of the cyber realm—particularly in his treatment of the intelligence community that currently dominates the US' cyber-defense capabilities.

The one thing that is certain is that Trump wants more muscle in both departments, urging an increase in the number of troops, ships, planes, and weapons deployed by the Department of Defense; the end of defense budget sequestration; and an expansion of the US nuclear and ballistic missile defense arsenal. And he has also pledged a new focus on offensive "cyber" capabilities, as outlined by his campaign, "to deter attacks by both state and non-state actors and, if necessary, to respond appropriately." That sort of aggressive posture is not a surprise. But the policies that will drive the use of those physical and digital forces are still a bit murky. Considering the position Trump has taken regarding the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and his attitudes toward Russia, Trump's statements may hint at a desire for a Fortress America—armed to the teeth and going it alone in every domain of conflict.

New privacy rules that protect the Web browsing data of broadband subscribers went into effect just two weeks ago, but they could be overturned shortly after Republicans gain a majority at the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC voted on the rules on Oct 27, and they partially took effect on Jan 3. Also on Jan 3, trade groups representing Internet service providers filed petitions asking the FCC to reconsider the rulemaking, said an FCC public notice issued Jan 17. Normally, these petitions for reconsideration would be rejected by the FCC, and ISPs' next option would be to sue. But in this case, the privacy rules were passed 3-2, with three Democrats voting for the rules and two Republicans voting against them. Those two Republicans, Ajit Pai and Michael O'Rielly, will enjoy a 2-1 majority after President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration Jan 20.

Once the public notice is published in the Federal Register, supporters of the privacy rules will have 15 days to file oppositions to the petitions for reconsideration. After that, there will be another 10 days allotted for replies to oppositions. Commissioners Pai and O'Rielly will presumably then get the process for overturning the rules moving. Even if the FCC does eliminate the privacy rules in response to the petition for reconsideration, that action could be appealed in court by supporters of the privacy rules.

President-elect Donald Trump's transition team is reportedly pushing a proposal to strip the Federal Communications Commission of its role in overseeing competition and consumer protection. Harold Feld, senior VP of consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge, called this plan "a declaration of war on the most basic principles of universal service, consumer protection, competition, and public safety that have been the bipartisan core of the Communications Act for the last 80+ years."

Feld argued that this proposal would "poison the well for any serious effort to update the Communications Act." Feld also worries about the impact on rural areas, which are given special protections in the Communications Act, he said. Feld said that the FCC itself has "considerable latitude" to limit its own enforcement actions "and to use rulemakings and forbearances to strip itself of authority," but it still has to meet the requirements of the federal Administrative Procedures Act. Moreover, the proposal to shift FCC competition and consumer protection authority to agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission would require the writing of extremely complicated legislation in Congress, he said. "This level of radical restructuring makes the 1996 [Communications Act update] look trivial," Feld said.

A local attorney has sued the City of Chicago and numerous police officials in a proposed federal class-action lawsuit, claiming that he and countless others were unconstitutionally searched when the police used a cell-site simulator without a warrant. In the suit, Jerry Boyle, who describes himself as an “attorney and longtime volunteer legal observer with the National Lawyers’ Guild,” alleged that while attending the “Reclaim MLK Day” event in Chicago nearly two years ago, his phone was targeted by the Chicago Police Department’s device, better known as a stingray. Boyle argued that his Fourth Amendment and First Amendment rights were violated as a result.

Stingrays are used by law enforcement to determine a mobile phone's location by spoofing a cell tower. In some cases, stingrays can intercept calls and text messages. Once deployed, the devices intercept data from a target phone along with information from other phones within the vicinity. At times, police have falsely claimed the use of a confidential informant when they have actually deployed these particularly sweeping and intrusive surveillance tools. Often, they are used to locate criminal suspects.

Verizon Wireless is now charging a $30 upgrade fee when customers switch to a new phone, up from the previous fee of $20. The $30 upgrade fee must be paid "if you purchase a new device at retail price or through [Verizon's] device payment program," Verizon notes. The fee increase went into effect on January 5. In another change, Verizon stopped offering two-year contract renewals and device subsidies to existing customers (Verizon had already stopped offering contracts and subsidies to new customers).

When asked why the upgrade fee was raised, a Verizon spokesperson said, "These fees help cover increased cost to provide customers with America’s largest and fastest 4G LTE network." But Verizon's wireless capital expenditures have decreased, according to the company's latest earnings report. In Q3 2016, Verizon Wireless capital expenditures were $2.77 billion, down from $2.92 billion in Q3 2015, a decrease of 5.1 percent. The decrease was even bigger when looking at the first nine months of 2016. In that period, Verizon Wireless capital expenses were $7.78 billion, down from $8.47 billion for the first nine months of 2015, a drop of 8.2 percent. Verizon's total wireless operating expenses also declined more than 5 percent between 2015 and 2016. Verizon’s wireless operating revenue also declined in 2016, a fact that may help explain the fee increase.

Canada's telecommunications regulator declared that broadband Internet must be considered "a basic telecommunications service for all Canadians" and created a fund to connect rural and remote communities. With this decision, high-speed broadband is now treated as an essential technology similar to voice service. All Canadians should be able to purchase home Internet with 50Mbps download speeds and 10Mbps uploads, and they should have the option of purchasing unlimited data, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announcement said.

A new fund will make $750 million available over the next five years to support projects in areas where that level of broadband isn't available. Money will be distributed to applicants based upon a competitive process. Funding can be used either for fixed broadband service or to upgrade mobile networks, but the goals of 50Mbps/10Mbps and unlimited data for all is specifically for home Internet service. Currently, about 18 percent of Canadians, representing 2 million households, don't have access to 50Mbps/10Mbps service.

The Federal Communications Commission's two Republican members, Commissioners Ajit Pai and Michael O'Rielly, told Internet service providers that they will get to work on gutting network neutrality rules "as soon as possible."

Commissioners Pai and O'Rielly sent a letter to five lobby groups representing wireless carriers and small ISPs; while the letter is mostly about plans to extend an exemption for small providers from certain disclosure requirements, the commissioners also said they will tackle the entire net neutrality order shortly after President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration on January 20. "[W]e will seek to revisit [the disclosure] requirements, and the Title II Net Neutrality proceeding more broadly, as soon as possible," they wrote, referring to the order that imposed net neutrality rules and reclassified ISPs as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act. Commissioners Pai and O'Rielly noted that they "dissented from the Commission's February 2015 Net Neutrality decision, including the Order's imposition of unnecessary and unjustified burdens on providers."

AT&T and Verizon on Dec 16 urged the Federal Communications Commission to drop a network neutrality investigation into the companies' practice of exempting their own video from mobile data caps while charging competitors for the same exemptions. The wireless carriers have a good chance of avoiding any punishment because the FCC next month will switch to Republican control under President-elect Donald Trump, an opponent of net neutrality rules. For now, the companies are cooperating in the case, with each carrier sending replies to the FCC by the commission's deadline. AT&T lets its subsidiary DirecTV stream video without counting against AT&T mobile customers' data caps, while Verizon's Go90 video service doesn't count against data caps on the Verizon Wireless network. Other video providers must pay AT&T or Verizon to get the same data cap exemptions, also known as "zero-rating."