Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler on Thursday introduced a proposal to subsidize Internet access for low-income Americans, marking the agency’s strongest and most recent recognition that broadband services are an essential public utility. The plan seeks to expand the FCC’s $1.7 billion Lifeline program, which has helped more than 12 million low-income households pay…
The United States lags behind much of the rest of the highly developed world in terms of Internet speeds. Estimates vary but a study from Akamai — one of the world’s largest cloud content delivery companies — found that the US ranked only #12 in average Internet speeds and #17 in peak Internet speeds. Even…
We have long had a debate in the United States about the proper balance of government regulation. Some of these debates are legitimate concerns about government overreach; others have been perpetuated in the private sector to advance narrow economic interests, often at the expense of the general public. Right now, we are having a debate…
Responding to the call of millions of Americans and years of grassroots campaigning, President Obama on Monday took what net neutrality proponents called a “major step” towards the protection of the Internet by issuing a statement calling for the safeguarding of “one of the most significant democratizing influences the world has ever known.” Obama’s new…
