New America

After Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced an Oct 27 vote to reaffirm the 2017 repeal of net neutrality, Joshua Stager, senior counsel at New America’s Open Technology Institute said: “This is an October surprise that nobody wanted except for AT&T and Comcast lobbyists. A federal court ruled that the FCC was 'unhinged from reality' when it repealed net neutrality in 2017, and yesterday's announcement shows that Chairman Pai's perspective remains unhinged.

New America’s Open Technology Institute recently published The Cost of Connectivity 2020, a new study showing that the cost of broadband service is higher in the United States than in Asia or Europe—and that US consumers are in the grips of a broadband affordability crisis. This research is consistent with our past submissions to the Commission regarding the dismal state of competition in the broadband marketplace, which has all the hallmarks of an oligopoly. 

New America’s Open Technology Institute (OTI) and Access Now filed comments urging the Federal Communications Commission to recognize the inadequate state of broadband availability in the United States.

New America's Open Technology Institute sent a letter to the House of Representatives in advance of a hearing on oversight of the Federal Communications Commission, highlighting many failures and lost opportunities over the past four years at the agency, including:

Consumers in the US pay more on average for monthly internet service than consumers abroad—especially for higher speed tiers. This report examines 760 plans in 28 cities across Asia, Europe, and North America, with an emphasis on the US. Key Findings:

In comments submitted to the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee as they develop their party platforms for 2020, New America’s Open Technology Institute (OTI) made recommendations on the following:

Twenty years ago, policymakers set aside the 5.9 GHz band of frequencies specifically for auto safety and vehicle-to-vehicle radio communications. Unfortunately, the band remains almost completely unused. While Wi-Fi is saturating the band immediately below 5.9 GHz and generating hundreds of billions of dollars in consumer welfare annually, the set-aside of 5.9 GHz for a specific auto industry use case and technology has proven an abject failure.