On Tuesday July 29 2014 at 7pm the Internet Society New York Chapter (ISOC-NY) is happy, along with our colleagues at Legal Hackers NYC, and Launch LM, co-sponsored Tech Tuesdays at the Seaport: Net Neutrality in a Non-Neutral Net at the South Street Seaport NYC. Panel: Bruce Kushnick, Executive Director, New Networks Institute; David Pashman, General Counsel, Meetup; Jonathan Askin, Founder/Director, Brooklyn Law Incubator & Policy Clinic; Althea Erickson, Policy Director, Etsy. Moderator was Nilay Patel, Editor-in-chief, The Verge. Video is below.
The New York State Public Service Commission is seeking public input on the Time Warner Cable and Comcast merger proposal. Under the proposal, Comcast will acquire Time Warner Cable’s equity in exchange for Comcast class A shares. As previously announced by Governor Andrew Cuomo on May 19, the commission is conducting an investigation to determine whether the proposed merger is in the best interest of Time Warner’s New York customers and the state as a whole.
In June 2014 three separate hearings were held in Buffalo, Albany and New York City, giving the public an opportunity to present their comments. Transcripts are available, and ISOC-NY recorded video of the NYC hearing. See Below.
June 16 – SUNY Buffalo Student Union Theater, Buffalo NY
Beyond the three hearings, the commission will also accept public input via email, mail or phone call. Comments should be sent in no than July 31, but will be accepted throughout the proceeding. Comments may be sent by email to secretary@dps.ny.gov.They can also be mailed or delivered to Hon. Kathleen H. Burgess, Secretary, Public Service Commission, Three Empire State Plaza, Albany, New York 12223-1350. Comments should refer to “Case 14-M-0183, Petition of Comcast Corporation and Time Warner Cable Inc.” The public may also call the commission’s opinion line at 1-800-335-2120. This number is designed to take comments about pending cases from in-state callers, 24 hours a day. Callers should press “1” to leave comments, mentioning the Comcast/Time Warner merger.
Today, Thursday, January 31st, 2013, Brooklyn Law Incubator and Policy Clinic (BLIP) and the New Networks Institute will host a Reverse ALEC Legal Hackathon at Brooklyn Law School. The invitation-only event, something of an emergency meetup, brings together experts, lawyers, advocates, technologists and competitors, who are concerned with the state of telecommunications in the United States. The goal is to create consensus and build a campaign to define principles for model regulation, pursue legal actions, and create a working path to accomplish the following goals
• Reverse the ALEC-state-based telecom and cable infrastructure deregulation, which has passed in varying degrees in multiple states.
• Stop the immediate threat: AT&T has petitioned the FCC to remove all telecom regulations and keep broadband networks closed, based on concepts in the ALEC-state based ‘model legislation’ that is now used in states and will be presented to Congress.
• Create a proactive, pro jobs and economic growth alternative model that is based on the principle that everyone in America is entitled to a very high speed broadband service that can handle cable, internet and phone services, where the customer selects the providers they want.
Participants include Susan Lerner (Common Cause), Bruce Kushnick (New Networks), Jonathan Askin (Brooklyn Law), Earl Comstock, and David Rosen. The morning plenary session will consist of three panels to outline the issues which, I am happy to report, ISOC-NY has arranged to webcast live via the Internet Society Chapters Webcasting Channel. There will be an opportunity to participate remotely via the livestream chat. No live captions, sorry.
What: Reverse ALEC Legal Hackathon webcast When: Thursday, January 31st, 2013 – 0930-1300 EST | 1430-1800 UTC Where: http://www.livestream.com/internetsocietychapters Twitter: #reverseALEC Agenda:
Panel 1: Opening Remarks.
Panel 2: Dialogues for Working Towards Consensus.
Panel 3: Panel 3: Reversing ALEC – What Do You Want to Discuss?
More information
AT&T, Verizon and Centurylink, working with the American Legislative Exchange Council, ALEC, have been able to pass “model deregulatory legislation” in 23 states and there will be more attacks in the remaining states. While these bills vary, their target is to close down all major telecom regulations and obligations including ‘carrier of last resort’ –where the company no longer has to provide phone service, much less upgrade the networks. At the same time, on the federal level, AT&T has petitioned the FCC to use this ALEC-based approach to close down the networks nationwide and has got the FCC to set up a ‘task force’ to make this happen.
While couched as “Internet freedom”, in reality this is only freedom of regulation for the communications companies. 50% of the US will be pushed into ‘digital dead zones’ as AT&T and Verizon are not upgrading about half of their territories; even wireless services are impacted as most cell sites and Wi-Fi hot spots connect to a wire.
As of this writing
• AT&T has submitted a Petition to the FCC to start the process of ‘transitioning the networks’. Comments are due on Jan 28th, 2013; Reply comments February 25, 2013
• Greg Walden of the House Telecommunications Subcommittee has announced hearings starting February 5th, 2013. We expect he will be proposing legislation in Congress to finish the job.
Alongside this, 19 states legislatures have closed municipalities’ ability to offer competitive broadband services and more are expected.
Giving the wired companies monopoly controls over their wires also impacts everything from competition and innovation to the price of service – or even who gets service, and customers will have no recourse. It also means no plans for major upgrades, thus no cable or even broadband competition. And it gives control over all aspects of service, from Net Neutrality or bandwidth caps, to acting as a policeman of content or blocking innovative services.
Kushnick’s Law states:”A regulated company will always renege on promises to provide public benefits tomorrow in exchange for regulatory and financial benefits today.” In this interview he explains how AT&T’s recently announced plan to spend $14 billion to upgrade its network in exchange for a rescinding of regulation should be approached with skepticism, and how citizens and communities might respond to protect their interests.
On Tuesday July 29 2014 at 7pm the Internet Society New York Chapter (ISOC-NY) is happy, along with our colleagues at Legal Hackers NYC, and Launch LM, co-sponsored Tech Tuesdays at the Seaport: Net Neutrality in a Non-Neutral Net at the South Street Seaport NYC. Panel: Bruce Kushnick, Executive Director, New Networks Institute; David Pashman, General Counsel, Meetup; Jonathan Askin, Founder/Director, Brooklyn Law Incubator & Policy Clinic; Althea Erickson, Policy Director, Etsy. Moderator was Nilay Patel, Editor-in-chief, The Verge. Video is below.
The 
Today, Thursday, January 31st, 2013,
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