Analysis The FCC has released a revised version of its plans to tear up net neutrality – and unwittingly revealed the extraordinary influence that the cable industry has over the process. The new "notice of proposed rulemaking," which was approved in a 2‑1 vote last week, completely ignores hundreds of thousands of critical comments …

A "toolkit" provided to House Republicans to defend US comms watchdog the FCC's recent decision to tear up net neutrality rules was written by the cable lobby. In just the latest example of special interests literally dictating what lawmakers say on significant policy issues, the "Draft Member Toolkit" [PDF] stretches to 24 …

The US Representatives who just weeks ago repealed privacy rules for ISPs now want to enact a new set of restrictions. Tennessee Republican rep Marsha Blackburn is sponsoring the bill [PDF], known cheekily as the "Balancing the Rights of Web Surfers Equally and Responsibly (or BROWSER) Act of 2017." The bill would explicitly …

A wrongly updated whitelist was behind the five-hour nationwide outage of AT&T's emergency 911 service in March, a report by America's phone regulator, the FCC, has revealed. The whitelist of IP numbers plays a critical role in AT&T's backend systems, but was listed as containing only "customer" rather than "infrastructure" …

As expected, on Thursday America's broadband watchdog, the FCC, voted 2-1 to start the process to gut net neutrality rules. Also as expected, it was a fiery affair with protestors outside the building and harsh words inside as the only Democrat on the commission, Mignon Clyburn, slammed her fellow commissioners for trying to …

Analysis Despite more than a million comments opposing it, tomorrow at around 12:00pm Eastern time, the three FCC commissioners will vote 2-1 to approve a so-called "notice of proposed rulemaking" and start on the rocky path to rescinding net neutrality rules. Just as it was three years ago, it is going to be a long and tortuous …

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has agreed to rehear a critical case on data privacy – one that may reset how Uncle Sam treats phone companies and internet giants, and may even prevent another ten years of fights over net neutrality. If the decision is reversed, it would provide clarity over which federal …

Comment Some theoretical physicists have advanced the hypothesis that we may be living in a simulation, a kind of computer game. I wonder where they got that idea? Here on Earth, online politics has been a game for some years. Long before gamification was a buzzword, the first "Googlewash" demonstrated how politics could be turned …

Almost all female Democrats in the US Senate have come out against the push by FCC chairman Ajit Pai to tear up America's net neutrality regulations, arguing the rules are important for women nationwide. In a letter [PDF] sent to the federal comms regulator, 14 of the 16 female Democratic senators take issue with Pai's …

Vid Problems faced by consumers hoping to submit comments to the Federal Communications Commission over the weekend were caused by a denial of service attack, the US government agency admits. In a statement, FCC chief information officer Dr David Bray blamed issues with the FCC’s Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS) on …

Special report When Obama pushed the FCC into extending Title II rules over US internet services in 2014, I described the President as "writing out a cheque he knew he couldn't cash". To no one's surprise, that cheque bounced last week, when the FCC chairman formally began the process to replace those rules. Title II has been a dead duck …

Oracle's co-CEO has sent another bizarre love letter to the head of America's communications watchdog, the FCC. Following March's sloppy kiss – in which senior Oracle VP Ken Glueck, acting on behalf of co-CEO Safra Catz, praised FCC chairman Ajit Pai for his leadership for no apparently good reason and on topics that have …

In the latest display of FCC-Senate two-step dancing, Senate Republicans have proposed new legislation that would eliminate net neutrality rules in America – just days after the federal regulator's chief announced he would fight to do the same. On Monday, Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) put forward a law that would kill off the FCC's …

Blowback from the decision to reopen net neutrality rules in America is continuing, with cities, the Washington courts and presidential advisors all piling in. Several large city mayors are not impressed by the move; the DC court of Appeals has refused a telco legal challenge; and one of President Trump's telco policy advisors …

Special report This week, Ajit Pai, chairman of America's broadband watchdog, decided to reignite the contentious debate over net neutrality – by proposing scrapping the country's open internet safeguards. The move was not unexpected. But what was surprising was how FCC chair Pai decided to relay it: rather than outline the logical policy …

On Wednesday, Ajit Pai, the boss of America's broadband watchdog, decided to reopen the decade-long debate over net neutrality, despite rules having been finally decided back in 2015 and held up by the court last year. FCC chairman Pai decided that rather than walk through the problems with the current rules and argue for …

The head of America's telecoms regulator, the FCC, has vowed to kill off his nation's net neutrality safeguards. Speaking in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, Ajit Pai said he will, next month, set out proposals that will, by the end of the year, axe today's net neutrality rules. In particular, Pai focused on the classification …

America's favorite watchdog the FCC has suggested a set of new rules for installing hardware for 5G wireless broadband networks. The communications regulator's notice (PDF) of proposed rule-making sets out new guidelines for carriers and places the burden for blocking small cell antenna units on the city and state authorities …