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FCC accused of colluding with Big Cable to game 5G legal challenge
- inetknght 8y ago> the letter alleges that FCC staff – almost certainly from Pai's office – put pressure on the big telcos to challenge an order that is designed to benefit them as a way of gaming the judicial system so the case didn't end up in a court likely to overturn it.
- bhhaskin 8y agoThe FCC is so corrupt. FBI really should be brought in to clean house.
- kryogen1c 8y agoAs much as everyone hates Trump, he has been outstanding in highlighting the absurdly corrupt system. Can't drain the swamp you didn't know existed.
- ceph_ 8y agoNo one should be thanked for promoting such levels of blatant corruption. They're undoing the reforms already in place to stop them.
- JustSomeNobody 8y agoAs well as resetting the bar that Americans are willing to tolerate, sadly.
- grawprog 8y agoTrump appointed Ajit Pai as FCC chair...
- oxide 8y agoThe swamp is overflowing and the drain is not only clogged, but non-functional. If you really believe Trump is part of the solution and not another cog in the problem machine, I'd appreciate if you elaborate why.
- snickell 8y ago> Can't drain the swamp you didn't know existed. I.e the corruption has become so blatant as to be more widely acknowledged. I think there's an interesting possibility of "hitting rock bottom" and recovering, vs the probably rampant but less overt corruption in past decades.
- afiori 8y agoI have heard an interesting point (relating to the FBI al least). Disclaimer, I do not necessarily agree: since trump has been under investigation for almost his whole presidency he cannot fire people because it would now be obstruction of justice. https://youtu.be/y5-br83GlLc https://youtu.be/y5-br83GlLc
- prklmn 8y agoEveryone knows corruption is rampant. He’s just the first one to talk about it so much. Too bad he’s only worsened the problem.
- Tsubasachan 8y agoUhm no America has been corrupt for a long time and people have been talking about it for a long time. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tammany_Hall https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tammany_Hall
- pas 8y agoHe doesn't talk much about anything, just word-vomits a lot on camera and on twitter. Drain the swamp was a campaign slogan and Trump repeated it a lot, but haven't really talked about systemic corruption. (See the rootstrikers movement for some serious effort on the topic.)
- fivegeeohgee 8y agoLike the FBI isn’t equally corrupt.
- JustSomeNobody 8y agoAjit Pai is corrupt. There are good people still at the FCC.
- RcouF1uZ4gsC 8y agoThis seems like a very consumer friendly move. The last thing we want for 5G rollout is for it to be hampered by NIMBY cities. Clearing barriers for 5G equipment to be rolled out is a good thing.
- fivegeeohgee 8y agoConsumer friendly would be making telecoms pay for it, not taxpayers.
- WillPostForFood 8y agoTelecoms do pay for it. They pay for hardware, install, and rent for the pole space. This ruling just limits how much local govt can charge for pole rent. It is consumer friendly because it helps accelerate a stable roll out and keeps costs down. It also limits the ability of NIMBY cities to block rollouts by over charging.
- ztjio 8y agoIgnoring the local economics is the same as getting a huge discount which is the same as the taxpayers paying the difference.
- deogeo 8y ago> keeps costs down For the telecoms. They're only regulating how much municipalities can charge telecoms, not how much the telecoms can charge consumers. But I'm sure the benefits will trickle down.
- thereisnospork 8y agoIt is not very consumer friendly to allow every tin pot municipality to price gouge and stonewall infrastructure development. The local control you are arguing for is the same that has caused the underdevelopment and monopolization of the current internet infrastructure (to say nothing of housing and mass transit). So please explain how it is in my interest, as a consumer, to let my town - present and future - extort or strangle* service providers? *These are not hypotheticals, see Mill Valley, CA where cell phone towers cause cancer and 5g is persona non grata.
- beautifulfreak 8y agoWhat kind of job could one of these alleged FCC sellouts expect to get when they go into the private sector? I mean, what does it cost to capture the FCC?
- dylan604 8y agoA future board member of TelCo?
- metaphor 8y agoSo if I'm understanding this game of thrones correctly: 1. Pai's commission pushed regulation fixing the cost of establishing 5G cell sites to the benefit of big telecom and economic dismay of cities--in particular, those known for their high cost of living. 2. Cities litigate in the Ninth Circuit, which has a history of overruling in favor of local governance. 3. Before the Ninth Circuit can reach a decision, the 4 largest telecom companies in the country file comparable yet independent suits in different circuits; their national presence suggests they could have filed anywhere. Their suits claim ommission of "deemed granted" provisions which would grant cell site auto-approval if cities fail to respond to permit requests within an allotted 3-month window, but eyebrows are still raised at why these companies would place direct legal backpressure against regulation that already favors their bottom line overwhelmingly. 4. Cases were consolidated, triggering a procedural lottery to determine which of 5 circuits--including the Ninth--these cases would be heard in. Tenth Circuit gets it and appellants were instructed to migrate accordingly. 5. A plea to delay the migration order was rejected by the Tenth Circuit; Commissioner Carr, a former legal advisor to Pai during his Verizon days, publicly cheers, dropping a hint of shrouded legal maneuvering. 6. Tenth Circuit nevertheless decides that the cases be moved to the Ninth Circuit. Telecom companies push back hard. 7. A Democrat-controlled House Commerce committee gets wind of the possibility that the FCC has leveraged its influence to game the judicial system by colluding with the companies that they oversee. A communications data dump and accomplice shit list is requested. Not gonna lie...it's a dirty yet clever gambit.
- fivegeeohgee 8y agoIs it too late to force the fcc to back out of 5g approval?
- tylerjwilk00 8y agoThe dream is over. Corruption has seeped it's way to the highest office and some of the most important government organizations. What would be earth shattering 20 years ago is just business as usual these days. Can we find our way back to the light?
- Zarath 8y agoGotta call the plumber every now and then if you catch my drift.
- chrisbennet 8y agoBrazil, IMDB https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088846/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088846/
- afiori 8y agowhat would have been hearth shattering was not the corruption but the widespread acceptance of it. a lot of what changed is that now people are a lot better at being corrupted leaving little or no evidence
- yeahitslikethat 8y agoYou mean 20 years ago when the DMCA passed, giving OSPs like youtube and facebook immunity from copyright law, who then make billions selling ads on pirated content in exchange for divulging your private information to the government and other similarly corrupt corporations and political institutions who have upset the balance of world power? That 20 years ago?
- cannonedhamster 8y agoYes but it would take a president like Garfield to do it. Whichever person disrupted the corruption would end up dead. I'd be willing to do it, but don't have the money to run. Garfield was a complete fluke. Surprisingly Arthur, someone who benefited from corruption ended up paring it back in memory of Garfield.
- expathacker 8y agoSo essentially the republicans are trying to force (telephone pole) rent control onto cities ? Commies.