The Center for Public Integrity (CPI) wants to find out exactly how competitive the US broadband market is. To do that, it needs access to the raw data collected by the FCC, but the agency has refused to turn it over on the grounds that it could give a competitive advantage to other companies. CPI now finds itself in a District Court battle against the agency, which is being supported by AT&T, Verizon, and the three major industry trade groups: NCTA (cable), CTIA (wireless), and USTA (telephone).
But the agency’s methods for generating these reports have come under scrutiny, and CPI wants to take a look for itself. When talking about broadband deployment, for instance, the FCC says that any particular ZIP code has broadband access if even a single cable or DSL connection exists there. It also classes “broadband” as anything above 200kbps—a woefully low standard for any true broadband connection.
CPI filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the FCC on August 24. After the statutory 20 business days had passed without any word from the agency, CPI filed suit on September 25, 2006. That apparently got the FCC’s attention; the FOIA request was officially denied the next day.
The matter is now in the hands of a federal judge, and the FCC is trying to have the case dismissed.
What’s all off this nonsense about the FCC protecting the “competitive advantage” of the current broadband status quo? Since when is it the government’s job to stifle competition?
If they are so afraid, Why not just Publish it to Everyone…
Since when is it the government’s job to stifle competition?
Somewhere between 1776 and 2007?
Problem is, I took Broadcast Law, and about fifty percent of the things people are asking/the FCC is deciding to do are NOT part of their mandate.
J/P=?
REALLY???
I love gov agencies that DO/DONT do, what there job IS’. Now we add that they are Over stepping their JOB description.
Just like the Republican party the FCC is bought and paid for by special interests. You will seldom see the FCC rule against them. When they do rule against them you can be sure that it is only because sufficient pressure was brought to bear to shame them into doing it.
It’s what you get when the government reports only to corporations and corporations report only to their bean-counters and boards.
What I want to know is this: why is it that 5 letters from some nutball ultra-right-wing-Christian group can get a show pulled off the air, but thousands upon thousands of letters requesting the FCC stop colluding with big business to screw us go unheeded?
Does THAT tell you something about the agenda of this whole administration (don’t give me any BS about the FCC being ‘independent’, either)? “We will control what you say, see and, eventually, think…and we will assist in charging you for the privilege.”
Is it even possible for our country to become any more broken than it is right now? Seriously…
wtf! The FCC is probably afraid that the corporations will kick their ass once it’s out in the open how miserable the state of internet access is.
arghh!
I think #7, Elwood is right. He beat me to saying the same thing.
Well, all except for the arghhh part. I would have just growled.
#6 – Is it even possible for our country to become any more broken than it is right now? Seriously…
Well… Yes… Actually it is possible…
That’s the thing that is terrifying.
#6 – its because they are christian… its the religious wackos that run this country – hasnt it been readily apparent? jebus pay attention
You wouldn’t consider 200kbps broadband? That’s 4 times as fast as a modem, and about 10 times as fast as what I get.
It’s not the FCC’s job to stifle competition, but it’s also not their job to unfairly destroy existing companies’ investments, as you would have them do.
#11 – NO, 200Kb is not broadband. It may be much faster than a modem but it’s not broadband.
In Europe and much of Asia, the average Joe Twelvepack can get 20Mb for about half what the average American pays for 3-5Mb. That’s a problem.
#11 – don’t know about the States… but here in Canada 512 is considered “minimum broadband”. All “high speed DSL providers” here in Canada provide a minimum of 1.5 Mb… and a 3 Mb “ultra” alternative. Most of the cable providers provide 5 Mb with a 10 Mb option.
Just wondering if anybody has tried CellSwapper (http://www.cellswapper.com)
to get out of their phone contracts without paying any early termination
fees?