You read the topic title right. There is a push by Ajit Pai and the FCC to expand the definition of Broadband to include cellphone data from telecom services. Effectively making the internet virtually unusable at a fast paced capacity. Cellphone services are pretty slow, and making their services broadband will make it so that so you'd have to pay more to even have multiple people on one internet service. The attack on our internet seems to be continuing. However, I have a feeling that this'll backfire, whether it passes or not to make cell data broadband.
When he was arguing for repealing Net Neutrality, one of the promises Pai (may he be anally violated with a garden rake) made was that deregulation would allow ISPs to expand high-speed service to rural areas. It now appears that he intends to accomplish this by simply redefining what high-speed service is. After all, a sudden huge increase in available broadband service after the repeal of Net Neutrality would look fantastic on a bar graph.
In Canada, there's also a push to make cellphone service broadband. This is actually a good thing, though. In particular, this would be amazing, since broadband prices and features are regulated by the CRTC. In short, you'd end up having 100GB of data on your cellphone plan for some $50/mo. It seems the US is different.
The difference is, he's not talking about actually making the services broadband. He just wants to change the terminology, and call the currently available cell services "broadband." Ajit Pai promised that repealing Net Neutrality would (somehow) allow ISPs to expand broadband service to rural areas. By changing the definition of broadband, they'll be able to show maps and graphs showing a massive increase in broadband coverage, when in fact all they did was slap a new label on already-available cell services. It's kinda like if I had bowl of sh#t and a single piece of chocolate, ate the chocolate myself, and wrote "chocolate"on the bowl to share with everyone else. I mean, it clearly says it's chocolate in the bowl. Eat up.
None of this is gonna get past congress, his actions are so obviously only to benefit himself because he is gonna get a big fat paycheck if it all goes through. Everyone knows that.
That's the problem. They don't. Pai may be a lot of things, but he isn't stupid. He knows that the GOP party line basically boils down to "Obama=Bad," so he's sold most of them on the idea that Net Neutrality is just more unnecessary Obama-era regulation.
Trump would just veto it. However, if this does open the eyes of the populace to the fact that there are a lot of these representatives that represent business donors and not constituents, that would be a good thing. We need people to represent the people, not to represent the largest donors to their campaign only.
If all goes well, this *squee!* with expanding the term broadband to cover cell data will not need the presidential veto. Not if the house has anything to say about. Considering that we already have a majority of the senate already posed to lay the smackdown on the Repeal. There is no way in hell that this would get through easily. However, Ridley said it himself Ajit Pai is a smarter than he will ever let on. But I know this and the Repeal will not get through without a serious political battle.
Interesting news. Ajit Pai and the FCC have suddenly backed down from classifying cell data as broadband. There is speculation that they are backing off due to the heat against them from the repeal. While this is welcome news, it does raise some suspicions about what they will do next. Though with many states already rising up to oppose and sue the FCC in court, they will most likely will focus on defending their case in keeping the repeal in motion.
