What does the phrase "bright-line rules" mean?
FCC Chairman: This Is How We Will Ensure Net Neutrality
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Re: FCC Chairman: This Is How We Will Ensure Net Neutrality
#12Well, I believe this kicks off the biggest lobbying effort seen in a long time to get this to not happen. I certainly hope that the US internet gets Title II.
Re: FCC Chairman: This Is How We Will Ensure Net Neutrality
#13Holy shit. We did it.
There's a republican congress that will shut this down. No we didn't.
The FCC is an 'independent' agency which means that while congress can ask questions, make suggestions, apply pressure, and vote on members of the commission it cannot force the FCC to introduce, accept, or reject any proposed rule-making. Like most regulatory agencies, the purse power is limited since the FCC is funded by regulatory fees (I say limited and not zero because I believe the fees are paid by industry to the treasury and then allocated by congress). Also, like most regulatory agencies the makeup of the commission is statutorily party-balanced with the president selecting the chairman.
The commission still has to vote on this proposed rule-making though.
Re: FCC Chairman: This Is How We Will Ensure Net Neutrality
#14What does the phrase "bright-line rules" mean?
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002367.h...
>>bright-line rule = a judicial rule of decision that is simple and straightforward and that avoids or ignore the ambiguities or difficulties of the problems at hand. The phrase dates from the mid-20th century. The metaphor of a bright line is somewhat older than the phrase bright-line rule - e.g.: "The difficult part of this case comes with regard to ... the activity of the Board of Temperance ....A bright line between that which brings conviction to one person and its influence on the body politic cannot be drawn." Girard Trust Co. v. I.R.C., 122 F.2d 108, 110 (3d Cir. 1941)./"[T]he McCambridge majority opinion ... agrees that the Kirby bright-line-rule is but a mere formalism ...." J.G.Trichter, Bright-Lining Away the Right to Counsel, Tex. Law., 6 Nov. 1989, at 26. Cf. hard and fast rule.
Re: FCC Chairman: This Is How We Will Ensure Net Neutrality
#15What does the phrase "bright-line rules" mean?
Re: FCC Chairman: This Is How We Will Ensure Net Neutrality
#16"there will be no rate regulation, no tariffs, no last-mile unbundling" Translation?
Title II includes several sorts of provisions that apply to "common carriers" very similar to, e.g., how railroads were regulated back in the day. The government sets the prices for carriage (rate regulation), and carriers have to lobby the government to change prices (tariffs). Last-mile unbundling means that carriers must lease out their physical infrastructure to competitors at some wholesale price.
These things are bad, which is why the FCC is saying it will not apply these provisions. For example, even today most municipalities set a regulated rate for basic cable service. It averages about $20/month nationwide, and doesn't come close to covering the cost of actually building a modern cable network out to a neighborhood.
Unbundling kills investment into the network, because why spend billions of dollars on infrastructure that you'll have to lease out at wholesale prices to your competitors?[1]
My theory is that unbundling is what killed DSL as a competitor to cable here in the U.S. FTTN has been quite successful in the U.K.,[2] as a gradual scheme for building fiber further into the network, with a last-hop of VDSL that can get faster as it gets shorter. There has been little FTTN deployment here in the U.S., because there's just no way for telcos to recoup the billions of dollars spent on fiber if they're forced to lease the VDSL at the other end to competitors for a song.
[1] See this Brookings Institute (not exactly a conservative hotbed) analysis, which calls the U.S. experiment with unbundling "disastrous" and concludes that it reduces capital investigate. http://www.pff.org/events/eventpowerpoints/022207BrusselsCom....
[2] Unbundling is part of the strategy in the U.K. too, but it's structured so that the prices BT charges to competitors are guaranteed to generate a substantial profit.
Re: FCC Chairman: This Is How We Will Ensure Net Neutrality
#17What does the phrase "bright-line rules" mean?
It's a clear line with little (or, ideally, none) room for error or ambiguity. Think big, bright line in the sand that you can't miss; you're either on this side of it or you're not.
Re: FCC Chairman: This Is How We Will Ensure Net Neutrality
#18No last mile unbundling: does it mean that every operator has to deploy its own cable from street to home?
I read it to mean that FCC will not force last mile unbundling. Whether they go further and write a rule that will act to prevent state a local unbundling rules is another matter.
Re: FCC Chairman: This Is How We Will Ensure Net Neutrality
#19Using this authority, I am submitting to my colleagues the strongest open internet protections ever proposed by the FCC. These enforceable, bright-line rules will ban paid prioritization, and the blocking and throttling of lawful content and services. I propose to fully apply—for the first time ever—those bright-line rules to mobile broadband. My proposal assures the rights of internet users to go where they want, wh…
Tom Wheeler has really outdone himself with this announcement. It'll apply to mobile networks as well! Turns out this dingo knows how to stand up for what's right!
I know it's early but this is a great step forward.
Re: FCC Chairman: This Is How We Will Ensure Net Neutrality
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Looks like the opposite of that. Every operator will be able to use the single connection from exchange to home. "Local loop unbundling (LLU or LLUB) is the regulatory process of allowing multiple telecommunications operators to use connections from the telephone exchange to the customer's premises." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local-loop_unbundling
So if there is none of that...
It means that any competitor isnt guaranteed access to the line that is already provided. This makes sense as your local loop (in the internets case) may be fiber optics, may be coaxial cable, may be telephone. So if you get FiOS, comcast won't be granted use of the fiber by law, they'll have to get verizon to agree to use of it in a separate contract.