Cities across the United States are warning of what they say is an illegal assault on the public’s right of way, facilitated by state and federal authorities on behalf of major telecommunications companies. At issue is the rollout of new infrastructure for the next generation of ultrafast wireless Internet. To operate this fifth-generation (5G) network, companies are developing fleets of antennas that need to be densely arranged and near the ground - around one per city block, often on light poles or traffic signs.

FCC plans to tilt a spectrum auction toward T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon.

California Governor Jerry Brown today signed net neutrality legislation into law, setting up a legal showdown pitting his state against Internet service providers and the US government. The California net neutrality bill, previously approved by the state Assembly and Senate despite protests from AT&T and cable lobbyists, imposes rules similar to those previously enforced by the FCC.

The new industry-backed regulations are likely to attract lawsuits from state and local government groups that worry they will cost them revenue, make it easier for internet providers to sue them and do little to address the digital divide. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved sweeping regulations on Wednesday for 5G wireless infrastructure, significantly curtailing the authority of states and localities.

Millions of Californians are waiting for Gov. Jerry Brown to affirm their call for a free and open Internet. After Congress reversed the Federal Communication Commission’s 2015 Open Internet Order, states have had to step up to ensure that all traffic on the Internet is treated equally. Gov. Brown’s signature would make California the fourth state to pass a law offering net neutrality protections to its residents.

The Federal Communications Commission's plan for spurring 5G wireless deployment will prevent city and town governments from charging carriers about $2 billion worth of fees. The FCC proposal, to be voted on at its meeting on September 26, limits the amount that local governments may charge carriers for placing 5G equipment such as small cells on poles, traffic lights, and other government property in public rights-of-way.

Reports today show that a DC District Court judge has ordered the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to disclose previously-unreleased information that will assist the public in understanding how millions of fake comments were submitted to the FCC using stolen names and addresses during the agency’s 2017 proceeding to repeal net neutrality.

A report by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) has confirmed what others have reported for years: that official data on internet access across the country greatly over estimates availability and competition. The report [PDF] is focused specifically on tribal lands – small semi-autonomous areas of the United States governed by indigenous tribes – but its conclusions are directly applicable to the rest of the country.

Have you ever noticed web content performing poorly out of the blue? Video footage becomes blurry. Web pages take longer to load. If so, your internet service provider might be slowing down your data on purpose. It’s known as “throttling,” and it’s a way for a provider to ease congested network traffic. But when one type of network traffic—say, video streaming—is throttled more than another, this is called differentiation. And according to Dave Choffnes, assistant professor of computer and information science at Northeastern, differentiation is also “what most people would refer to as a net neutrality violation.”

We’ve repeatedly tried to make it clear that while everybody tends to focus on the death of net neutrality itself, the Pai FCC’s “Restoring Internet Freedom” order killing net neutrality had a farbroader impact than just killing net neutrality rules. As part of the repeal, Comcast, Verizon and AT&T also convinced FCC boss Ajit Pai to effectively neuter FCC authority over ISPs entirely, making it harder for the agency to hold giant ISPs accountable on a wide variety of issues ranging from privacy to transparency (the recent fire fighter kerfuffle being a prime example).

Last year’s FCC decision to repeal net neutrality was arguably the most unpopular tech policy decision in the history of the modern internet. The repeal not only resulted in an unprecedented public backlash, but prompted numerous states to immediately begin exploring new state-level alternatives in the wake of the FCC’s retreat. Now, instead of one fight on the federal level, telecom giants like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast face countless state-level efforts to keep their monopoly power in check.

California’s legislature has approved a bill being called the strongest net neutrality law in the US. The bill would ban internet providers from blocking and throttling legal content and prioritizing some sites and services over others. It would apply these restrictions to both home and mobile connections.

After months of grueling committee proceedings, the California State Assembly on Thursday passed Senate Bill 822, all but ensuring that residents will soon enjoy the strongest net neutrality protections in the country. “Today’s vote is a huge win for Californians everywhere,” State Senator Scott Wiener, the bill’s principal author, told Gizmodo. Having been amended considerably, S.B. 822 will now return to the Senate, where it is expected to pass for a second time before being sent to Governor Jerry Brown’s desk for his signature or veto.

Two proposals by California legislators would establish the strongest net neutrality rules in the country, preventing internet service providers doing business in the state from blocking, speeding up or slowing down websites and video streams, or charging websites for faster speeds.

With all the headlines about the lack of broadband in rural America, you’d be forgiven for thinking that all small towns are stuck in the dark age of dial-up internet. The untold story of rural broadband is that over the past seven years, independent broadband networks have proliferated. Today, some of the fastest, most affordable internet in the country can be found in communities like Oskaloosa, Iowa (population:11,500); Powell, Wyoming (6,400); Red Wing, Minnesota (16,500); and Springfield, Vermont (9,000). According to a 2016 Federal Communications Commission data release, more than 1,100 rural fiber broadband...

Verizon officials were contrite and apologetic during a California State Assembly committee hearing that was convened Friday to examine mobile Internet throttling experienced by firefighters during recent blazes. "We all make mistakes from time to time, the true measure of leadership is how soon we admit it, own it," Rudy Reyes told the Select Committee on Natural Disaster, Response, Recovery, and Rebuilding after reading from a statement that the company released hours earlier.

Broadband providers have spent years lobbying against utility-style regulations that protect consumers from high prices and bad service. But now, broadband lobby groups are arguing that Internet service is similar to utilities such as electricity, gas distribution, roads, and water and sewer networks. In the providers' view, the essential nature of broadband doesn't require more regulation to protect consumers. Instead, they argue that broadband's utility-like status is reason for the government to give ISPs more money.

Political divisions may be fierce, but there is at least one issue that most Americans agree on: net neutrality. That’s the simple idea that internet service providers should not control or influence what we do online. Net neutrality rules ensure an equal playing field on the web for everyone, from the start-up to the tech giant.

When John Oliver urged viewers of "Last Week Tonight" on May 7, 2017, to file net neutrality comments to the FCC's website, the system was soon overwhelmed. Traffic, in fact, increased by 3,116%. But the next day, the FCC issued a press release blaming the slowdown of the system on denial of service attacks -- or "deliberate attempts by external actors to bombard the FCC's comment system with a high amount of traffic to our commercial cloud host."

Despite the ample hype over gigabit fiber and next-gen (5G) wireless, the reality is there are huge swaths of America where broadband competition is actually getting worse. In countless markets nationwide, phone companies like Frontier, Verizon, and CenturyLink have all but given up on upgrading aging DSL lines at any real scale, pivoting instead to business services or flinging video ads at Millennials. This apathy has gifted cable giants with a greater monopoly over broadband than ever in many areas, especially at faster speeds.