Petition Demanding FCC Not Let ALEC, Koch Brothers, AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner, Big Telecommunications, Cable Nor Anyone Else Grab Your Internet Bandwith Or There Will Be No Getting Net Neutrality Back

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• •        Monday, 26 January 2015 - The Ninth Amendment editorial board urges that all readers and Americans strongly consider taking this one historic opportunity to save "Net Neutrality" as supported by President Obama and demand in huge numbers that the FCC not cave to ALEC, the Koch Brothers, AT&T, Verizon,Comcast, Time Warner, other big telecommunications and cable nor anyone else by letting them grab publicly-owned internet bandwith. For the reasons set forth below by CREDO Action it is vital that open public access for all people regardless of wealth, position or power be preserved or restored where it already has been "awarded" to a single provider locally as to all public bandwith at a reasonable and fair price because  if it is lost history shows there will be no going back once big money interests become entrenched in their "life in the fast lane" paying off politicians with the same money that pours in to them from their latest monopolistic grab of public bandwith that those same politicians would unfairly award them. Readers might as an analogy conceive of other public utilities such as water or power were consumers regularly have to endure on a daily basis "brownouts" of electricity or unavailability of the public water supply daily during peak hours of need by the biggest businesses, the richest and the most powerful. 
    
  •        The historic actions of the FCC as to public airwaves available for broadcast radio and television are instructive here as they were put in place seeking to prevent single entities from taking over large swaths of publicly owned airwaves across the country by periodic public bidding as well as limits on ownership so that the voices of many could be heard rather than just a few dominating the public airwaves.     Nevertheless all are familiar with the takeover by single entities forming "networks" or even ownership of very large local stations such that they have became too rich and powerful at the public's expense to ever be displaced from those limited public airwaves again. If not for the foresight and tenacity of Clifford Durr in particular member of the FCC at that time there may not even be the one true radio and television station serving the public interest that Americans still have today, that of course being the non-commercial NPR and PBS owned by the People.
   
  •         All the American people should not settle for spending the rest of their lives looking at a spinning arrow as they endlessly wait at their computers while the communications of the richest people and biggest corporations speed past at up to 100x that in the"priority" lanes that belong to and must be bandwith forever available to every American including all individuals and small business at a reasonable and fair price regardless of wealth or power.
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  •        Americans must make their voices heard now at this one historic opportunity to save their bandwith preserving the opportunity for reasonable and fair access to broadband for all or they may find themselves so fed up watching the circle of frustration spinning endlessly on their computer screens that they end up going down to the pony express station to send and receive their private communications the "fast way".
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  Josh Nelson, CREDO Action
 
• Jan 24 at 9:34 AM

To Ninth Amendment Readers

Stop AT&T, Verizon and Comcast from blocking fast and affordable Internet access. Sign the petition to the FCC: “Americans want more access to fast and affordable Internet service, not less. The FCC must preempt state laws that ban municipalities from selling Internet service.” Add your name: Dear Ninth Amendment Readers, Imagine having affordable, lightning-fast Internet access at your home that is 50-100 times faster than the national average.1 That could soon be a reality, but the shadowy American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is working to make sure it never happens.2 Nearly 20 states already have laws on the books stopping cities from providing fast, publicly-owned Internet access – and other states could soon follow suit. President Obama just urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to make it illegal for states to block cities from providing affordable and fast Internet access – and the FCC is expected to make a decision very soon. Tell the FCC: Protect our access to fast and affordable Internet service. Click here to sign the petition. ALEC – a shadowy corporate front group that works to enact discriminatory voter ID laws, weaken gun safety laws and eliminate environmental regulations – is now pressuring state legislatures around the country to ban cities from offering broadband Internet access. ALEC is pushing its anti-municipal broadband agenda through model legislation it has developed, which one municipal broadband advocate described as “the kind of language one would expect to see if the goal is to protect politically powerful cable and telephone company monopolies.”3 Many perennial funders and members of ALEC, including AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Time Warner,4 stand to gain financially from these state laws because they eliminate the possibility of competition from city-run broadband services. According to recent surveys, nearly a quarter of Americans don’t have broadband Internet access at home.5 By pre-empting state laws that block municipal broadband, the FCC could help cities and municipalities provide fast Internet access to millions of Americans who don’t have it, and help create less expensive and faster Internet access options for tens of millions of others. The FCC is planning to make a decision on President Obama’s proposal to protect municipal broadband in February.6 Before then, let’s make sure Chairman Wheeler and the other commissioners know that Americans want more access to fast and affordable Internet service, not less. Sign the petition to the FCC: Protect our access to fast and affordable Internet service. Click here to sign the petition. Thanks for fighting for faster Internet access. Josh Nelson, Campaign Manager CREDO Action from Working Assets Add your name: 1. "Obama calls for cities to build government-run high-speed internet," Vox, January 14, 2015. 2. "How ALEC Helps Big Telecom Change State Laws for Corporate Gain," PR Watch, February 14, 2014. 3. " Who wants competition? Big cable tries outlawing municipal broadband in Kansas," Ars Technica, January 13, 2014. 4. "List of members of the American Legislative Exchange Council," Wikipedia. 5. "Census: Computer ownership, internet connection varies widely across U.S.," Pew Research Center, September 19, 2014. 6. "FCC To Vote Chattanooga, Wilson Petitions on Feb. 26," Multichannel News, January 14, 2015. Copyright 2015 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved (no claim to CREDO action content)