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In an interview just prior to leaving the FCC this month, former Commissioner Mignon Clyburn took aim at the agency where she worked for nearly nine years, saying it has abandoned its mission to safeguard consumers and protect their privacy and speech.
Clyburn, a net neutrality proponent who served as interim FCC chief in 2013, equated the FCC's mission to the Starfleet Prime Directive, saying the agency's top priority is to ensure "affordable, efficient, and effective" access to communications—a directive it has effectively deserted under the new administration, working instead to advance the causes of "last-mile monopolies."
Clyburn spoke to Ars Technica's Jon Brodkin during a phone interview shortly before she left the agency this month.
"I'm an old Trekkie," she said. "I go back to my core, my prime directive of putting consumers first."
Clyburn said that, whereas some of her colleagues shied away from their role as a government regulator, she had embraced it, particularly when it came to internet service providers (ISPs).
"Let's face it," she told Ars, ISPs are "last-mile monopolies."
"In an ideal world, we wouldn't need regulation," Clyburn continued. "We don't live in an ideal world, all markets are not competitive, and when that is the case, that is why agencies like the FCC were constructed. We are here as a substitute for competition."
Source: https://gizmodo.com/fcc-commissioner-says-the-agency-is-a-shill-for-isps-as-1826203464
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 24 2018, @07:05PM (4 children)
You think service can't get worse? Have you never experienced the TSA?
Realistically, the federal government would just outsource it to Comcast and CenturyLink. They'd become government contractors. They would quickly learn to just do the letter of the contract and nothing more.
If the federal government avoided contractors though, which doesn't seem likely, then it'd be like the TSA.
Local government is a better choice, particularly if they can be discouraged from contracting everything out to the same company. Local government can screw up badly, but people can do something about it. It is practical to move to the next town (instead of the next country), and it is practical to go chew out the city manager.
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Thursday May 24 2018, @07:21PM (3 children)
You are correct in my use of the word nationalization. I would want this to be done at the local government level and not at the federal level.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 24 2018, @07:27PM (2 children)
The local governments granted those monopolies, and ultimately control them.
Comcast, et al., already are de fact contractors for governmental infrastructure.
What you hate is the coercive nature of government.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 24 2018, @07:57PM (1 child)
As a contractor, they would only have one customer to bill. They would not bill individual homes.
They would also not own the equipment.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 24 2018, @08:56PM
The government contracts to them the customer administrivia as well.
Alternatively, you can just view them as being even more governmental in nature.