Vice

Restore Net Neutrality, Or Facebook Will Dominate The Internet Forever

The White House has nominated public interest advocate Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society] to become the fifth commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission, and acting chair Jessica Rosenworcel to remain as the agency’s permanent chair. The way lawmakers vote in their Senate confirmation hearings will reveal whether they really want to crack down on monopoly power and Big Tech abuses—or whether that’s just an empty slogan to stoke their fundraising efforts.

Starlink Won’t Be the Broadband Game Changer You Think

It’s unlikely that Elon Musk’s Starlink, a next-generation satellite broadband service, is the silver bullet for the country’s broadband access woes.

T-Mobile Investigates Customer Data Breach

T-Mobile is investigating a forum post claiming to be selling a mountain of personal data. The forum post itself doesn't mention T-Mobile, but the seller told Vice they have obtained data related to over 100 million people, and that the data came from T-Mobile servers. On the underground forum the seller is asking for 6 bitcoin, around $270,000, for a subset of the data containing 30 million social security numbers and drivers licenses.

Biden Broadband Plan Weakened by Lobbying and ‘Bipartisan Compromise’

The Biden administration’s broadband plan has been steadily scaled back by “bipartisan compromise” and telecommunications lobbying. While Congress is finalizing a $65 billion version that contains some excellent improvements, experts say it falls well short of fixing the real problem: broadband monopolization and the high prices that result. Roughly two thousand companies and organizations have been lobbying Congress to impact the infrastructure proposal, telecommunications giants among them.

FCC Investigates Whether Cuban Government Is Jamming HAM Radio

The federal government is investigating mysterious signals coming from Havana that are jamming popular frequencies. HAM radio operators in Florida have said that Cuba is jamming radio frequencies that prevent them from communicating with operators in the country since anti-government protests began.

Some ISPs Exploited Covid Broadband Relief Program to Make an Extra Buck

In May, the government began offering Americans struggling during the pandemic a $50 discount off of their broadband bill. But some US broadband providers are already exploiting the program to drive consumers to even more expensive broadband plans. Verizon, for example, was forcing customers to sign up for more expensive plans if they wanted the benefit. Charter, which sells broadband under the Spectrum brand, has been forcing eligible customers to opt in to full-price plans at sign up.