White House FCC Abandons Efforts To Make U.S. Broadband Fast And Affordable
Trump FCC Abandons Efforts To Make U.S. Broadband Fast And Affordable
White House FCC Abandons Efforts To Make U.S. Broadband Fast And Affordable
Trump FCC Abandons Efforts To Make U.S. Broadband Fast And Affordable
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From the article: Section 706 of the Telecom Act requires the FCC to determine whether broadband is being deployed “on a reasonable and timely basis” to everyone. If the answer is no, the law says the FCC must “take immediate action to accelerate deployment of such capability by removing barriers to infrastructure investment and by promoting competition in the telecommunications market.”
For decades, the FCC has tap-danced around this mandate. Corruption and regulatory capture has resulted in a U.S. telecom sector that’s barely competitive, highly consolidated, and dominated by a handful of regional telecom monopolies. Those monopolies don’t have to try very hard to expand access, lower prices, or improve speeds. The FCC has been historically feckless about doing anything about it.
Every so often the FCC tries to do the absolute bare minimum to improve on this dynamic. Like during the Biden administration, when the Biden FCC last year boosted the definition of broadband to a still pathetic 100 Mbps downstream, 10 Mbps upstream, pledged to hold gigabit access as a future goal, and made a thin pledge to maybe take a closer look at why U.S. broadband is so expensive.
Not surprisingly, the Trump administration is killing all of that.
In a flimsy explanation, Trump FCC boss Brendan Carr claims that having meaningful standards and ensuring that broadband is affordable are “extraneous” matters. To further prop up his agency’s apathy, he points to the recent Loper Bright Supreme Court ruling that curtail the FCC’s authority to do anything that might upset a big U.S. corporation:
*“The Carr FCC’s proposal points to a Supreme Court ruling that limited the ability of federal agencies to interpret ambiguous laws. Given that ruling, “we believe it is most prudent to strictly adhere to the statutory text,” the proposal said.”*
Precursor to declaring fast and affordable broadband woke and illegal.
If you really care about broadband internet access in a place where there’s no infrastructure, you’d just buy a starlink terminal.
>and made a thin pledge to maybe take a closer look at why U.S. broadband is so expensive.
Here, I’ll help you out – the US is big. Trenching fiber dozens of miles from a POP to serve a community of 30 households isn’t economically feasible.
The answer is LEO.
I would be pretty indifferent to this kind of news, except that the government wastes tax money on it
Abandoned a program that was completely ineffective and hamstrung by previous judicial rulings and corporate lies. It was about as effective as Californian High Speed Rail. Stick a fork in it.
Authoritarians don’t like it when their citizens are informed.
Yeah lol. I have a place in rural MN. We were slated to get fiber this year. Got a call from our ISP saying the plan was cancelled. Was like welp I guess elections have consequences….
It is incredible to witness how MAGA is really about making the US worse for practically everyone, much of our current success as a nation has been based on our intelligence, our research, being the place where talented people across the world wanted to migrate to, and giving people access to technology to achieve great things. MAGA, in a matter of months, has destroyed it all – now the US is a pariah, the world’s talent doesn’t want anything to do with us, we have killed our research prowess, are driving away even our homegrown talent, and now ripping out opportunities for those in rural areas. High speed internet, is practically a fundamental human right in any developed country in order for a person to participate and contribute to society. Next thing will be basically K-12 school will be deemed not a right.
its obvious the current administration in the shite house doesn’t care about you
I’m sure this has nothing to do with broke ass AT&T who took billions of dollars for ‘rural broadband’ and did jack shit for it.