Radio News: FCC Chairman Ajit Pai seems to favor corporations

Jan 28, 2018 10:50 pm
Ars Technica reports that the mayor of San Jose, California quit the Federal Communications Commission's Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee Jan. 25 because the recommendations of the comittee favor the interests of private industry over municipalities. The problem, "became particularly apparent at our most recent meeting in Washington, DC," Sam Liccardo told FCC Chairman Ajit Pai in his resignation letter. "One working group, which did not have a single municipal representative among its 30-plus participants, created a draft model state code that included provisions to eliminate all municipal control over when, how, and whether to accept industry applications for infrastructure deployment. Another working group had an industry representative dramatically re-write its draft municipal code in the eleventh hour, pushing aside the product of months of the working group’s deliberations. The result, in each case, were provisions that plainly prioritized industry interests." Vice's Motherboard got a copy of Pai's schedule in the months leading up to his vote to rollback net neutrality, and it seemed to back up Liccardo's claim. Their reports says, "From July 1, 2017 through December 21, 2017, Pai met or spoke with high level executives from Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile three times each. He met with AT&T twice, and Charter twice as well. These included calls and meetings with: T-Mobile CEO John LeGere; AT&T CEO John Donovan; Craig Silliman, the executive vice president—public policy and general counsel at Verizon; Hans Vestberg, Verizon's executive vice president and president of Global Networks and Chief Technology Officer; Kathryn A. Zachem, Comcast’s executive Vice President, Regulatory and State Legislative Affairs; and Executive Vice President of Field Operations at Charter, Tom Adams. All top-level FCC officials meet and talk to corporate honchos regularly, "but his schedule definitely shows a preference for large corporations over consumer advocacy groups," the Motherboard report says. One of the Democrats on the FCC commission, Mignon Clyburn, also recalled the same issue. "I noticed that there was an expressed preference for industry over municipalities in broadband deployment efforts. As I have said many, many times before, one size does not fit all, and private industry infrastructure investments do not always flow to communities that are most in need."
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