WA's Gov. Jay Inslee announces that WA will enforce net neutrality, no matter what
Last edited Fri Dec 15, 2017, 12:15 AM - Edit history (4)
the FCC decides.
Democrats are in control of both houses of our legislature -- but members of both parties are preparing legislation to protect net neutrality.
And a court case in 2016 that disappointed net neutrality proponents at the time will HELP the Dems in WA state defy the new FCC decision, because it supported a "states rights" point of view.
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2017/dec/13/washington-will-keep-net-neutrality-in-state-if-fc/
If the commission approves the current draft rules, or something close to them, Washington will try to keep ISPs that offer service inside its borders from changing, Inslee said.
The state could bring consumer protection actions against ISPs that take those steps, could refuse to contract with those that aren’t net neutral, or could ask the Utilities and Transportation Commission to deny them access to utility poles and work with public utility districts to provide internet service in areas they serve, he said.
Reps. Drew Hansen, D-Bainbridge Island, and Norma Smith, R-Clinton, are each preparing legislation for the coming session that would offer net neutrality protections to Washington consumers if the FCC changes the national rules. Smith said that if the phone and cable companies truly support an open internet they should not object to the legislation.
Sen. Manka Dhingra, D-Redmond, newly elected from the district that contains Microsoft and many other tech companies, said she is working on legislation to make sure Washington remains a good place for tech start-ups “to thrive and grow.”
Sarah Bird, chief executive officer of the Seattle-based internet marketing and analytics company Moz.com, said smaller tech companies might be shut out of the preferable rates and faster speeds that ISPs will offer the largest companies. “You’re going to have ghetto-ized internet,” she predicted.
FROM 2016, when the FCC was supporting net neutrality and some states were not:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/08/10/the-government-just-lost-a-big-court-battle-over-public-internet-service/?utm_term=.722ac7e2f91b
Federal regulators just suffered a major setback in their efforts to help cities build Internet services that compete with large providers such as Comcast and Time Warner Cable.
In a federal-court decision Wednesday, the Federal Communications Commission was told that it doesn't have the power to block state laws that critics say hinder the spread of cheap, publicly run broadband service.
SNIP
Last year, EPB and other so-called municipal broadband providers asked the FCC to intervene on their behalf, and the agency agreed. Invoking a part of its congressional charter that it said would allow it to act against the states, the FCC tried to neutralize those state laws. The states responded by suing the agency, claiming it had no right to come between the historical relationship between states and the cities within their jurisdiction. This week's ruling, then, rolls back the federal government's attempt to intervene.
SNIP
"In my statement last year dissenting from the commission's decision, I warned that the FCC lacked the power to preempt these Tennessee and North Carolina laws, and that doing so would usurp fundamental aspects of state sovereignty," said Republican FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai. "I am pleased that the Sixth Circuit vindicated these concerns."
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But you're more than welcome here.
industry. Except for the rain 
, always liked it.