The majority of today’s teachers routinely make homework assignments with the expectation that students will go online to complete the work. But students don’t have equal access to high-speed broadband. One straightforward way increase access to high-speed broadband is a spectrum auction to repurpose a currently-underutilized spectrum band and open up more wireless capacity for everyone, including for educational use.
Op-eds
Privacy Topping Public Policy Priority List, At Last, With FTC Hearings
Protecting consumer privacy online and consumer data is not a flash in the pan. It will require constant vigilance — by the FTC, by all companies in the internet ecosystem and, of course, by consumers.
Congress Needs to Put the Net Neutrality Debate to Rest to Help Close the Digital Divide
The statutory designation of broadband as a Title I information service is one key to putting the net neutrality debate to rest, and it’s also essential to creating a regulatory climate appropriate for broadband investment in rural areas.
Congress Got This One Right – Retire Old Regulations
Virtually all American businesses have access to BDS. There is simply no justification for intrusive regulation in a market that, by the FCC’s own data, is working and competitive.
FCC Should Follow Signposts for Change With Mobile Broadband
A new survey shows just how fast the market for broadband is changing. Consumers no longer see mobile and fixed internet access alternatives as fundamentally different but use different types of broadband access in similar ways. In other words, mobile and fixed broadband are now functional substitutes.
Mississippi Has a Significant Stake in Outcome of Net Neutrality War
The door is open once again to large-scale broadband investment, but some in Congress are now urging a return of the heavy-handed regulatory treatment imposed on broadband in 2015. That would be a major mistake for the country at large and particularly punishing for broadband investment in our rural regions.
Falling Fiber Gap Further Supports FCC’s BDS Decision
Last year, the FCC reformed how it regulates the business data services market to better reflect the real competition that now exists in that sector — and their decision was correct.
It’s June 11, and the Internet Still Works
IIA Co-Chairwoman Kim Keenan discusses why rolling back net-neutrality rules is the right step forward.
How Congress Got Telecom Competition Right, 22 Years Ago
IIA Co-Chairman Bruce Mehlman discusses his support for the US Telecom Association’s petition requesting forbearance from certain regulations in the 1996 Telecom Act, now that competition is thriving in those areas.
Net Neutrality: Congress Should Step In
Former Congressman Rick Boucher discusses the need for everyone in the internet system to rally around adopting in a statute the core principles of an open internet and strong, uniform privacy protections that apply equally to everyone at every point in the internet continuum.
Putting First Things First: Prioritizing Traffic On The Internet
IIA Co-Chairman Bruce Mehlman argues that policymakers should encourage innovation by letting network managers decide how to prioritize the packets that need priority.
U.S. Should Lead, Not Follow Europe, on Privacy
Former Congressman Rick Boucher argues that the practical effect of the privacy rules proposed by former FCC Chair Tom Wheeler would do little to protect Americans on basic privacy issues and be harmful to the advertising business model of internet edge providers.