AT&T, the Republican-led FCC, and telecoms everywhere are in the midst of litigating a variety of net neutrality fights from coast to coast. One of the more publicized and perfectly karmic is the battle around California’s considerably stricter net neutrality laws, the ones it recently—democratically—voted on and passed. It’s karmic because, unlike the Obama-era FCC’s more light-touch net neutrality protections, California’s laws would provide a lot more consumer protections; and consumer protections are exactly what the big telecom companies that installed Verizon shill Ajit Pai wanted to be rid of. Now, with a Democratic House and a Republican Senate, telecoms are making their move to cut the baby in half.
AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson spoke at a tech conference and, according to Ars Technica, the Waaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhmmmbulance had to be called.
"There are a number of states that are now passing their own legislation around privacy and, by the way, net neutrality," Stephenson said in an interview at a Wall Street Journal tech conference (see video). "What would be a total disaster for the technology and innovation you see happening in Silicon Valley and elsewhere is to pick our head up and have 50 different sets of rules for companies trying to operate in the United States."
And here’s more hand-wringing care of the Wall Street Journal.
“We don’t really have legislative clarity,” he said, adding that companies “should not be able to block you from getting to Netflix or whatever you want to get to.”
Internet service providers “should not be allowed to throttle somebody else’s content,” he said, referring to the practice of slowing internet speeds. And he said any device should be allowed to connect to the internet without interference.
“There should be no blocking,” said Mr. Stephenson.
Who does this guy think he is? Sen. Jeff Flake?* The play here is that AT&T and others don’t want consumer protections, but they definitely do not want to have to negotiate various states’ decisions on net neutrality protections. My guess is that Stephenson realizes that having uniform net neutrality regulations is better than a patchwork of individual ones. However, Stephenson and others in his position would like particularly light net neutrality laws, and having a Republican Senate that could help declaw a Democratic-driven House bill on the matter might be the best course of action. One thing big businesses like is certainty.
*Dad joke