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posted by martyb on Friday August 31 2018, @10:54AM   Printer-friendly

Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956

The fight to secure net neutrality protections for Californians keeps showing how far ISPs and their surrogates will go to make a buck off of ending the free and open Internet. The latest maneuver is a flood of deceptive robocalls targeting seniors and stating that net neutrality will raise their cell phone bills by $30 a month and slow down the Internet. It's not just a lie, it's proof that you've successfully put them on the defensive by contacting your representatives about net neutrality.

The robocalls don't mention net neutrality by name. Instead, they simply assert that S.B. 822 will raise their bills and slow down their Internet. If ISPs decided to make this true by coordinating to raise prices in reaction to net neutrality legislation it would probably be illegal under federal antitrust law. There is no evidence that says net neutrality harms ISPs to the point where they must raise prices to make money. In fact, the evidence says the exact opposite.

[...] This year, the two major wireless and wireline providers (Verizon and AT&T) that are leading the effort to oppose California passing net neutrality legislation are expected to receive an additional $7 billion in cash in hand from Congress' tax cuts. (Verizon - $4 billion, AT&T - $3 billion). That's after having their 2017 net income receive a one-time jump of approximately $38.7 billion ($20 billion to AT&T, $18.7 billion to Verizon) in deductions from those tax cuts. Yet these high profits augmented by tax policy changes give them no pause in deploying their surrogates to falsely state that they must raise everyone's bills simply because they do not like consumer protection.

[...] When talking to their stockholders, ISPs have never claimed that net neutrality has forced them to raise their prices. Not one single legal document or financial disclosure report that carries a potential liability for lying have large ISPs represented that net neutrality will require them to raise prices. In fact, at least one ISP flat out admitted that the entire 2015 Open Internet Order with its legal landscape change in ISP privacy, competition, and consumer protection did little to affect their business plans.

[...] The FCC's decision to abandon the 2015 Open Internet Order and surrender oversight over the ISP industry will go down as the biggest mistake in Internet policy history. Already the U.S. Senate has voted to reverse the FCC and, with enough pressure, the House of Representatives may follow in September. An overwhelming number of businesses, education institutions, civil rights activists, and individuals across the political spectrum weighed in opposition but were ignored by the federal agency. It should come as no surprise that dozens of states have introduced bills with many having enacted various protections.

California stands on the brink of passing what many have called the "gold standard" of state-based net neutrality laws. You've already beaten back big ISPs' attempts to gut and kill this bill once, and you can do it again. If you live in the state, take the time to call your state representative today before the bill is voted on this week. Real voices, not ISP robocalls, need to be heard. Tell your California assemblymember to vote "yes" on S.B. 822.

Source: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/08/when-isps-tell-seniors-net-neutrality-laws-will-increase-their-bills-theyre-lying


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 31 2018, @02:01PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 31 2018, @02:01PM (#728738)

    In other news, water is wet. </sarcasm>

    It's not as wet in California as it is in other places, of course.