Net Neutrality Expected To Win F.C.C. Approval To Regulate Internet As A Public Utility With No "Fast Lanes" For The Rich In "Perhaps The Biggest Policy Shift Since The Internet Became A Reality" As "Avalanche Of Public Support . . . Swamps Washington" And "Republicans Concede To Obama"

       Thursday, 26 February 2015, WASHINGTON, D.C. - In what is being seen as perhaps the biggest policy turnaround since the inception of the Internet with likely far-reaching consequences in preserving an "open" Internet for "the public good" the five-member Federal Communications Commission (F.C.C.) today is expected to line up a majority of its two Democratic Commissioners behind the proposal of its Democratic Chair Tom Wheeler (appointed by President Obama) to preserve "net neutrality" by regulating the Internet as a public utility with no "fast lanes" for the rich and also stopping intentional slowdowns by broadband companies, also known as "throttling", of Internet content providers' net traffic if they refuse to "pay up" to the broadband giants. The proposal also includes F.C.C. authority to intervene directly should any of the handful of wireless and broadband giants discussed below seek somehow to interfere with implementation of the proposal's prohibitions against "fast lanes" and "throttling".
       The original F.C.C. proposal, promulgated with little or no public comment but rather heavy pressure from the National Cable & Telecommunications Association said to be the second most powerful corporate lobby in D.C. with an "army of lobbyists" funded by the small handful of cable and telecommunications giants dominating wireless and including the three -- Comcast, Verizon Communications and Time Warner Cable --which dominate broadband, would have permitted the establishment of "fast lanes" for the rich and sluggish service for the general public as demonstrated graphically by President Obama sitting on his desk lamenting the endless spinning circle of doom on the tablet he held while singing the praises of municipal broadband at fair and reasonable prices for all Americans racing at over one hundred times the speed of present commercial internet service of much of the nation's population.
       The resultant public outcry overwhelmed Washington with President Obama reporting over four million comments against the original proposal as an opposing group of small and medium internet content providers and other activist groups helped facilitate the above-mentioned avalanche of passionate and engaged Internet users and consumers besieging the F.C.C. and elected officials for months. This then came to the point last October as described in the New York Times article linked to below of activist tech group Fight for the Future acquiring the direct telephone numbers of about 30 F.C.C. officials circumventing switchboards which resulted in the officials receiving about 55,000 direct phone calls from the public in about six weeks before the group "turned off the spigot".
       Congressional Republicans' opposition to net neutrality meanwhile reportedly has faded in the face of the public onslaught leading to the concession of Republican leaders earlier this week to Obama and Democrats now lining up behind him supported by a very vocal public that they no longer wished to take independent Congressional action. As recently voiced by Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota, Republicans did not wish to proceed legislatively without bipartisan support and now reputedly also favor the same things, no fast lanes and no "throttling", that are contained in F.C.C. Chair Tom Wheeler's proposal to be voted on today. Therefore today's only public Republican opposition to the proposal apparently is widely expected to be two votes against net neutrality by the F.C.C.'s two Republican Commissioners.
       For interested readers a second New York Times article published today of technology news analysis entitled "The Push for Net Neutrality Arose From Lack of Choice" also is linked to beneath the above-referenced article linked to directly below.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/25/technology/path-clears-for-net-neutrality-ahead-of-fcc-vote.html?hpw&rref=technology&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/26/technology/limited-high-speed-internet-choices-underlie-net-neutrality-rules.html?hpw&rref=technology&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

Copyright 2015 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved

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)

LAST DAY PLEASE COMMENT NOW! Stop FCC Stealth Kill Of Your Internet For Big Business Control! Hands Off Our Internet Public Utility Of, By, And For The People! Drown the FCC in NO THANK YOU! Comments By Today Tuesday, 15 July 2014

       Sunday, 13 July 2014, WASHINGTON, D.C. - UPDATED. Fascinating if not so blatantly corrupt how the State never fails to "allow" the People the absolute least time possible to stand up and stop the biggest giveaways of the most valuable public property of our lifetimes. No excuses internet users indeed all Americans must now stand up to the corrupt State and Big Business thieves by the Tuesday, 15 July 2014 arbitrary deadline today and utterly drown the FCC with comments like those below NO THANK YOU! FCC State scum no killing off our internet public utility for one more huge permanent Big Business giveaway just like the State did with our TV and radio airwaves and railroad rights of way before that and so many other public resources that belong to the People alone. Stop these greed-crazed bums right here right now or we all surely will regret not taking but a minute to act now so as not to spend out our painfully slow lives idly waiting like slaves on blank screens while Big Business just keeps getting richer ripping us all off as it rams its "priority" trash through our internet that we let go. The reliable and WORKING internet EQUALLY accessible to all has come to define the great present-day public utility at the heart and core of our modern-day uncensored free network it holds us together and powers the unfettered exercise by all the People of the rights of religion, free speech, assembly and all our others with direct worldwide connection to all Peoples of our world as never before seen. But the very fear of the People claiming their vast freedoms which are their true birthright under the Constitution such that the State and Big Business cannot control and run roughshod over them makes the false of spirit weak at the knees and shake in their boots for they finally are exposed. The truth sets the People equal and free. And that drives the State and its Big Business bedfellows to madness. Do not let them steal one more public resource that is so vital. Do not let them steal your internet.

URGENT: Tell the FCC: Don’t kill the Internet Tom Wheeler, President Obama's newly appointed chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), recently proposed adopting rules that will end Net Neutrality and kill the Internet as we know it. The fate of the Internet at stake, and we have three days to speak out by submitting public comments to the FCC before the July 15 deadline. Dear Martin, Tom Wheeler, the president's newly appointed FCC chair, recently proposed rules that would allow Internet service providers (ISPs) to divide the Internet into fast lanes for wealthy corporations and slow lanes for the rest of us. If adopted, these rules would amount to nothing less than the corporate takeover of the Internet and the death of Net Neutrality. However, because of a massive public backlash from open Internet supporters like you, Chairman Wheeler was forced to keep the door open for the change we really need -- reclassifying the Internet as a public utility, which is the only way to establish Net Neutrality regulations with teeth. The FCC is now accepting public comments on this proposal, but the current comment period ends this Tuesday. We need to make sure Chairman Wheeler and the rest of the FCC commissioners feel overwhelming pressure from the public to take the necessary step of reclassifying the Internet as a public utility. Click here to submit a public comment today. Net Neutrality is important because the Internet is an essential service Americans rely on to conduct our most basic daily affairs, from applying for a job to finding a home, to running a small business. And our right to communicate freely and be heard lies at the heart of our ability to participate equally in our democracy. A string of federal court cases has made it abundantly clear that the FCC has the power to enforce strong Net Neutrality rules, but only if the FCC goes through the process of undoing a terrible Bush-era decision to deregulate broadband instead of treating it like the vital public utility it has become. Chairman Wheeler says that he wants to preserve the open Internet. But his proposal explicitly states a preference for not reclassifying broadband -- the one and only thing that will allow the FCC to protect Net Neutrality and ban discrimination on the Internet. The public can’t be silent in the face of this. You can bet that Chairman Wheeler will be hearing from the army of lobbyists who work for the big telecoms intent on destroying Net Neutrality. We need to make sure he also hears from us. Don't delay. Click the link below to submit a public comment today. http://act.credoaction.com/go/5117?t=5&akid=11166.5397176.2sAwTE Thank you for speaking out to stop the corporate takeover of the Internet. Becky Bond, Political Director CREDO Action from Working Assets Add your name: Learn more about this campaign Share on Facebook Post to your wall Tweet this Post to Twitter © 2014 CREDO. All rights reserved.