June 11, 2019 was the one year anniversary of the Ajit Pai led repeal of net neutrality regulations. Pai is the Trump appointed Chair of the FCC and a cable industry insider – a former Associate General Counsel at Verizon, among other positions. After being appointed Chair of the FCC, he closed an investigation of Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile. According to a Courage Campaign Mailer, the repeal of net neutrality has facilitated “throttling” (slowing internet speeds for non-premium customers) by cable companies, some of it dangerous to life and property:
During California’s worst-ever wildfire, Verizon throttled the Santa Clara Fire Department’s unlimited data plan, putting lives in danger.(1) T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T were caught throttling access to YouTube and Netflix, and AT&T zero-rated its own video service to encourage customers to use it.(2,3) CenturyLink forced customers who had already paid for internet to watch ads before unthrottling their speeds.(4)
[Citations in quote at end of article]
On Tuesday, advocacy groups pushed a bill to restore net neutrality in the Senate. Predictably, Republican Senators blocked it.
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Citations in Courage Campaign quote:
1. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/08/verizon-throttled-fire-departments-unlimited-data-during-calif-wildfire/
2. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-04/youtube-and-netflix-throttled-by-carriers-research-finds
3. https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/18/18146186/att-time-warner-streaming-video-net–neutrality
4. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/12/centurylink-blocks-internet-access-falsely-claims-state-law-required-it/
