A few days before Donald Trump’s helicopter shrank into the air, we got an early indication that the telecommunications companies’ pig style under Trump’s FCC was coming to an end. Last week, Charter Communications, the company behind Spectrum, withdraw his petition to compile data cards: basically his attempt to restrict customers’ internet use to force them to spend more money. The FCC announced yesterday that the Charter withdrew its petition, which it submitted in June, only a few months after the pandemic.
The Democratic FCC under Obama initially banned Charter Communications from imposing data caps until 2023 as a condition of the merger with Time Warner Cable in 2016. The idea was to prevent the company from gaining a profit past the competition. Trump appointed FCC President and Telecommunications President Ajit Pai said it was ‘about the government that micro-manages the internet economy.’ Preventing pricing of a broadband business is not a small business, but it is the type of lingo that Pai uses across the board for the basic functions of the supervisory body.
In sy petition, Charter argued that everyone is now streaming everything, and that data capital has not harmed competitors such as Comcast, AT&T, Cox and Altice, ergo ‘the market works.’ Advocacy groups like Stop the Cap! argued that consumers hate data patches, citing ‘time shock’ fines of Time Warner’s finesages. Charter argued that consumers actually like data caps because it offers a “cost-effective alternative” to unlimited plans.
In a statement sent to Gizmodo by email, Charter explained that the timing was only related to the pandemic. “Given the continuing seriousness of the global pandemic and its impact on our customers, we want to assure them that they will continue to benefit from unrestricted broadband access and the associated financial security it has during these difficult times. offers, “it said,” and therefore we have withdrawn petition. “
This is a reversal of Charter’s previous position that the pandemic should have no bearing on a decision to allow it to impose data caps, namely because Charter waived fees and increased pay for front line workers. An FCC submission literally reads: ‘Charter provided substantial assistance to subscribers during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing no justification for continuing the terms. ‘
G / O Media can get a commission
It’s all but certain that Charter would have had a better chance of getting data caps under Chairman Pai, who summarized himself early in his term as chairman with a comfortable crack about himself as a “Verizon puppet” and then he lived up to the legend.
Pai recently told the Wall Street Journal that the Republican’s anti-regulatory approach increased broadband access and accelerated infrastructure construction. In May 2020, Democratic FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel pointed out that the actual extent of the expansion is immeasurable because ISPs did not provide accurate data. He recalled net neutrality, makes it easy for ISPs to revelations buried, abandoned attempts to set up frighteningly high costs of prison calls, and signify in the direction of repealing Article 230 to appease Republicans (although there was no realistic way to do so). Fight for the Future’s Executive Director call him “One of the most corrupt government officials of the century.”
We have a longer performance overview here. He announced in November that he will step down as chairman today and the official Twitter account is gone.
The FCC has not necessarily been corrected. It currently includes two Democrats and two Trump appointments, both of who supports the IDP’s agenda to suppress Article 230. (One of them, Nathan Simington, believes he helped draft Trump’s senseless executive order to punish Twitter). President Biden’s nominated candidate for chairman must be approved by the Senate. The Biden FCC has a lot of damage to undo, but we can hope for a more transparent, affordable and fairer internet.