Once in the minority position of FCC decisions under
the Wheeler administration, the new Chairman, Ajit Pai, is working quickly to
dismantle/unravel some of those previous decisions.
First up…nine (of the 900) ISPs sanctioned to
provide subsidized communication services to low income households through the
FCC’s Lifeline program have been stopped from doing so. The FCC wants to address fraud in the program
before advancing it further.
Second up…not pushing cable providers, at the moment,
to unlock the set-top so that others could interconnect their own boxes with TV
programming. If it ever came to pass,
the “competition” would take a huge bite out of the lucrative monthly cable box
rental fees enjoyed by the cable guys. And,
while that sounds too good to be true, it is.
Copyright and technical issues have to be addressed for it to work and
be fair.
Third up…stopping inquiries into zero-rating plans
thought to be anti-competitive. On the
issue, Pai said “Going forward, the
Federal Communications Commission will not focus on denying Americans free
data. Instead, we will concentrate on expanding broadband deployment and
encouraging innovative service offerings.”
Is Net Neutrality next up?
