AT&T wants the Federal Communications Commission to dissolve federal and state rules requiring universal, reliable, affordable and open networks. This will jeopardize existing communications infrastructure that carries our conversations, family connections, ideas and commerce. AT&T promises this sweeping deregulation will bring substantial consumer benefits, but there is overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Free Press, Public Knowledge and the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute notified AT&T of their intent to file a formal complaint against the company. In the complaint, the three organizations will assert that AT&T is violating Net Neutrality by blocking the popular video-conferencing application FaceTime. The groups will file the complaint with the Federal Communications Commission in the coming weeks.
The Federal Communications Commission filed this brief on Sept. 10, 2012, in response to Verizon's claim that the FCC lacks the authority to craft and enforce Net Neutrality rules.
Comcast recently announced major modifications to its so-called “excessive use” policies for Internet users. The company scrapped its 250 gigabyte (GB) per month usage cap, and said it will trial new 300 GB monthly allotments in two markets. The trials come with steep overage fees of $10 as soon you exceed this arbitrary cap. These changes follow the uproar over Comcast’s decision to exempt from the cap its own “Xfinity” streaming video on the Xbox while subjecting competitors’ streaming video services like YouTube and Netflix to the cap.
The FCC has decided to make our complaint a "restricted" proceeding, which means the public doesn't have a place to comment on VZW's anti-consumer practices, but only bad decisions get made behind closed doors. FP sent this letter explaining why we believe this issue deserves more scrutiny.
Free Press sent these letters to the Senate and House Commerce Committees urging them to holding hearings, send letters and use their bully pulpits to investigate Verizon Wireless's violations of network neutrality.
Free Press filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission against Verizon for violating of the rules that govern of the licenses for its LTE network. Licensees of the C Block of the upper 700 MHz block, over which Verizon runs its LTE network, may not “deny, limit, or restrict” the ability of their customers to use the applications or devices of the customers’ choosing.
Though the debate around network neutrality is heated and contentious, all sides agree that the abstract quality of “openness” is the defining characteristic of the Internet, and is why the Internet has risen from its original status as an obscure technology to become an essential infrastructure in a matter of years, not decades.
Free Press, along with the Center for Media Justice, Media Access Project, New America Foundation Open Technology Institute and Presente.org, filed a letter with the Federal Communications Commission urging the agency to investigate claims that new service plans being offered by mobile provider MetroPCS block and discriminate against Internet content, applications and websites.
