{"id":321397,"date":"2017-08-12T13:42:38","date_gmt":"2017-08-12T12:42:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/republicans-consider-relaxing-constraints-on-telecom-giants\/"},"modified":"2017-08-12T13:42:38","modified_gmt":"2017-08-12T12:42:38","slug":"republicans-consider-relaxing-constraints-on-telecom-giants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/republicans-consider-relaxing-constraints-on-telecom-giants\/","title":{"rendered":"Republicans Consider Relaxing Constraints on Telecom Giants"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><span class=\"wf_caption\" style=\"display: block; max-width: 640px; width: 100%;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.truth-out.org\/images\/images_2017_08\/2017_0811telecom.jpg\" alt=\"Federal Communication Commission Chairman Ajit Pai (2nd right) prepares to deliver remarks and participate in a discussion at The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research May 5, 2017 in Washington, DC.  (Photo: Chip Somodevilla \/ Getty Images)\" width=\"640\" style=\"width: 100%; margin: auto;\"\/><span style=\"text-align: left; margin-top: 3px; display: block;\">Federal Communication Commission Chairman Ajit Pai (2nd right) prepares to deliver remarks and participate in a discussion at The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research May 5, 2017, in Washington, DC. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla \/ Getty Images)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is reinterpreting a key law to consider relaxing constraints on telecoms giants.<\/p>\n<p>Republican Chair Ajit Pai\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/transition.fcc.gov\/Daily_Releases\/Daily_Business\/2017\/db0808\/FCC-17-109A1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" data-slimstat=\"3\">this week<\/a>\u00a0invoked Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act to argue that smartphones alone could help broadband providers meet statutory requirements on access and deployment.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We propose to incorporate both fixed and mobile advanced telecommunications services into our Section 706 inquiry,&#8221; agency filings said on Tuesday, in a notice of inquiry. The FCC will accept comments on the proposal for two weeks starting on September 7.<\/p>\n<p>Democratic Commissioner Mignon Clyburn criticized the inquiry, describing mobile and home broadband as &#8220;complements, not substitutes.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Consumers who are mobile only often find themselves in such a position, not by choice but because they cannot afford a fixed connection,&#8221;\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/transition.fcc.gov\/Daily_Releases\/Daily_Business\/2017\/db0808\/FCC-17-109A1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" data-slimstat=\"3\">she said.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>According to research cited by the Republican majority, 73 percent of Americans subscribe to fixed broadband, while only &#8220;13 percent of Americans across all demographic groups are relying solely on smartphones for home internet access.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Section 706 of the 1996 Telecommunications Act requires the FCC to ensure that &#8220;advanced telecommunications capability is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The move to reclassify mobile internet access comes amid agency efforts to reinterpret Section 706 rules on competition.<\/p>\n<p>The Commission\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apps.fcc.gov\/edocs_public\/attachmatch\/FCC-17-43A1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" data-slimstat=\"3\">in April<\/a>\u00a0said that only one broadband provider in a service area satisfies antitrust requirements under the law. The declaration could grant telecoms monopolists the authority to charge higher rates to businesses.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/information-technology\/2017\/08\/one-broadband-choice-still-counts-as-competition-after-court-decision\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-slimstat=\"5\">this week<\/a>, a federal judge refused to enjoin the new interpretation while a lawsuit&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.truth-out.org\/news\/item\/41588-republicans-consider-relaxing-constraints-on-telecom-giants\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Federal Communication Commission Chairman Ajit Pai (2nd right) prepares to deliver remarks and participate in a discussion at The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research May 5, 2017, in Washington, DC. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla \/ Getty Images) The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is reinterpreting a key law to consider relaxing constraints on telecoms giants. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":321398,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-321397","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}