FCC to limit ISP monopolies on apartments
The Federal Communications Commission has announced rules that will give tenants in apartment buildings and office complexes more transparency, competition, and choice in broadband service options.
In a press release published Tuesday, the FCC announced that the new rules would prohibit certain internet service providers (ISPs) from entering into revenue-sharing agreements designed to keep competitors out of buildings. Providers must also inform tenants in simple, easy-to-understand language, the existing exclusive arrangements "that is readily accessible."
"One third of this country live in multi-tenant buildings where there often is only one choice for a broadband provider, and no ability to shop for a better deal," said Chairwoman Rosenworcel in the FCC's statement. "The rules we adopt today will crack down on practices that prevent competition and effectively block a consumer's ability to get lower prices or higher quality services."
Finally, the FCC clarified the rule on the installed wiring inside buildings that supply the internet bandwidth. They cannot be part of sale-and-leaseback arrangements that would block access to incoming competitors' wiring.
This is just the latest of a series of pro-net neutrality policies by FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel. In January, Rosenworcel was appointed acting chair of the Commission, vowing to enact net neutrality.
Rosenworcel was first nominated to a Commissioner role within the FCC in 2011. She voted in favor of reclassification of the Internet as a Title II utility back in 2015. She also voted against the Restoring Internet Freedom initiative that rolled back protections to support net neutrality under Ajit Pai's tenure as FCC Chair in 2017.
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In a press release published Tuesday, the FCC announced that the new rules would prohibit certain internet service providers (ISPs) from entering into revenue-sharing agreements designed to keep competitors out of buildings. Providers must also inform tenants in simple, easy-to-understand language, the existing exclusive arrangements "that is readily accessible."
"One third of this country live in multi-tenant buildings where there often is only one choice for a broadband provider, and no ability to shop for a better deal," said Chairwoman Rosenworcel in the FCC's statement. "The rules we adopt today will crack down on practices that prevent competition and effectively block a consumer's ability to get lower prices or higher quality services."
Finally, the FCC clarified the rule on the installed wiring inside buildings that supply the internet bandwidth. They cannot be part of sale-and-leaseback arrangements that would block access to incoming competitors' wiring.
This is just the latest of a series of pro-net neutrality policies by FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel. In January, Rosenworcel was appointed acting chair of the Commission, vowing to enact net neutrality.
Rosenworcel was first nominated to a Commissioner role within the FCC in 2011. She voted in favor of reclassification of the Internet as a Title II utility back in 2015. She also voted against the Restoring Internet Freedom initiative that rolled back protections to support net neutrality under Ajit Pai's tenure as FCC Chair in 2017.
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Comments
Oh great. Another taxpayer funded, poorly run government "service" that is better handled by private enterprise. Because governments at every level have shown that they are able to keep up with technological advances and consumer hardware.
If service availability was uniform across all areas with a wide variety of choices at all price levels, sure, make the ISPs compete to earn your business. Unfortunately that is not the case in a lot of markets.
1) The argument that apartment tenants have no ability to shop for a better deal neglect the fact that they can shop around for different apartment complexes that have different rules. It assumes the poor tenants are entirely helpless against "greedily and ruthless" landlords, which is a bit of a stretch. It's a disingenuous argument and plays to prejudice. One can also make the argument that market forces should be permitted to work.
2) The FCC appears to be infringing on the rights of apartment complex owners to manage and operate their properties as they see fit. The FCC stepping into apartment regulation risks increasing overhead costs for compliance and verification of compliance. Complying with Government regulation isn't just about compliance. You typically have to show documented proof of compliance, which may involve undergoing the occasion audit. It is not unreasonable to assume that these costs will be passed on to renters when the lease is set to renew. This would be true for all apartment complex owners, regardless of whether they permit access to multiple ISPs or not. There's no free lunch.
ISPs, telcom and cable companies are all giant corporations with lumbering bureaucracies. Pick any one of them, combine its name with the words "customer service" in a search box, and you will find endless laments and horror stories that are as bad or worse than any comparable complaints about government bureaucracies. Whether the MBA dogmatists like it or not, broadband internet service necessarily functions as a basic infrastructure utility.
Government rightfully operates or heavily regulates utility infrastructure because the national economic interest lies with assuring that everyone has equal access to these resources. It is incredibly ironic that the libertarian impulses of folk living in red-state flyover country works hard against their own interests and flies in the face of the fact that, based on purely private-market considerations, they are in an even weaker bargaining position than poor urban folk in deep blue territory. From an ISP's perspective, if there's enough population density, providing cheap service to poor city dwellers is vastly more lucrative than stringing fiber for miles and miles just to hook up a handful of suburban sprawl dwellers or more rural customers, even if those folks are more affluent and can afford to pay a premium over standard full-price. It's the same as the loonies who want to privatize the post office, claiming FedEx is much more efficient, and not considering that sending a birthday card to grandma costs between 40 to 80 times more with FedEx than it does with USPS, depending on where grandma lives.
Likewise, it's ironic that any libertarian-minded person would object to requiring increased competition of ISPs in apartment buildings. The density argument noted above means that apartment buildings naturally lend themselves to greater ISP competition. It's worth stringing the relatively short lines to compete for relatively large numbers of customers. The only reason that doesn't happen is because the apartment building owners prefer to block that competition in order to scrape money from the ISPs by granting 'exclusive access' to those relatively large numbers of customers. ISPs benefit because, rather then competing through price and service for only a percentage of a building's customers, paying a single, hefty tribute to the landlord gives them all the building's customers, with no need to offer competitive pricing to any of them. Landlords win, ISPs win, and screw the tenants.
Tell us again how is it private enterprise always handles things better?
The road of technology is littered with the husks of brankrupted private enterprises, and the cries of frustration from consumers who have been failed by them and lost money to them.
^ Found the Libertarian! The free market will regulate itself, except when it doesn't which is pretty much always as has been shown over and over in history, and those who are most vulnerable being the biggest losers in the end. It's hard to believe we're still hearing people making this kind of argument in the face of myriad evidence to the contrary.
https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/slippery-slope
I'm gonna take a wild guess you're against renters' rights laws and other consumer protections, too.
He just called bull to the bull. That's all.