https://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2018/db0125/DOC-348866A1.pdf
"I'll give you another example of how this has worked in the real world. Since
the 1930s, the FCC has required broadcasters to ship paper copies of certain
contracts to the agency so that they could be available-in hard copy-in the
Commission's reference room. In the intervening 70 or so years, there's been
this invention called the Internet. So there's no reason to continue putting
broadcasters through the expense of shipping reams of documents to the
Commission."
Fair enough. That's not the same as wholesale, indiscriminate abolishment of
all regs, as this FCC seems to be attempting.
"Last year, for instance, I met with small and rural broadband providers that
told me that the Commission's paperwork and reporting obligations alone now
consume 23 weeks of work per year or five months of full-time labor. I heard
from a small wireless provider that they have to take one of the few people
they employ off of a customer service job or marketing effort and sit them in a
room to complete FCC paperwork. These small businesses are not corporate
behemoths. They do not have, and
simply cannot afford, an army of regulatory lawyers. If we can eliminate these
wasteful regulations, small businesses can get back to doing what they do best:
serving their customers and creating jobs."
Yes, and yet, these same small companies told you that they did NOT want
neutrality guarantees to be abolished. Did you listen? No. Single-minded,
stubborn, corrupt FCC, looking out only for the interests of 3 or 4
megacompanies.
There have to be at least a few Republicans who are not either employed by the
3 or 4 megacompanies, or on the take from those, or so freakin' stupid that
they can't think beyond simplistic slogans. Monopolies do not self-regulate
properly. This should not be a partisan issue. Monopolies *are* what we are
dealing with here, and regulations have little to do with this reality. Even
Commissioner Carr seems to have some clue, when he goes on to explain about the
realities of 5G:
"In what might be the Year of Infrastructure in Washington, the FCC has its
work to do. We must modernize the federal, state, and local regimes that govern
infrastructure deployment. 5G is going to involve a 10- to 100-fold increase in
small cells in addition to millions of miles of new fiber and other high-speed
connections. The current regulatory regime is not designed to support or
process deployments on this type of scale. It costs too much and takes too
long. So we need to drive the unnecessary regulatory costs out of the system,
and we need to speed the timeline for obtaining regulatory approvals."
Thinking beyond your mindless slogans, the problem you have described is why
there is inadequate competition for fixed broadband, or really, any type of
broadband that scales to very high capacities. The small companies have already
told you that the cost of conforming to Title II is not the problem. It would
be even less of a problem if this FCC were not so corrupt as to undo all
neutrality guarantees, wholesale, as opposed to just some of the provisions of
Title II. The main issue here is ROI. Regs are a side issue.
"The Obama-era FCC's failed experiment with heavy-handed, utility-style
regulation of the Internet is just one example. In the wake of that decision,
capital expenditures by broadband providers declined for the first time ever
outside of a recession. Less investment meant less deployment and, by one
estimate, tens of thousands of lost jobs."
No, Commissioner. You are merely parroting the lies spouted by the Chairman. No
one has demonstrated what you claim to be fact. On the contrary, investment
kept going up, and the neutrality guarantees were wildly popular among the very
vast majority. And yes, broadband *is* a utility service, in the minds of the
vast majority of consumers, just as telephone service has been. No one but the
Chairman thinks that Internet service is like cable TV service. So, that's all
that SHOULD matter to the FCC.
Stupidity will be duly rewarded by November. Trump should weigh in here and put
an end to this level of corruption by his appointee. Needless to say, this has
become a big issue. As was utterly predictable.
Bert
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