Go suck a satellite

That's the message to adjacent landline redlined households seeing this tree placard pitching satellite Internet service. That's Comcast cable on the nearby utility pole. Dateline: El Dorado County, California.

Can The States Really Pass Their Own Net Neutrality Laws? Here’s Why I Think Yes.

Wetmachine Tales of the Sausage Factory Can The States Really Pass Their Own Net Neutrality Laws? Here’s Why I Think Yes.

This is Harold Feld's analysis of the question. Feld concludes that states can in fact regulate advanced telecom services. Feld reasons that while advanced telecommunications are clearly interstate, the scope of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission's jurisdiction isn't absolute and thus may not allow it to preempt the states should they enact statutes that codify the FCC's 2015 Open Internet rulemaking. The FCC is in the process of reversing the rulemaking that placed advanced telecommunications under Title II of the federal Communications Act, designating it as a common carrier utility.

The rulemaking's so-called "net neutrality" provision barring providers from blocking or throttling traffic over their networks has drawn concern that the providers might abuse their monopoly control over networks extract revenues.

That's a prospective concern that is less relevant and pressing in many states than the lack of advanced telecommunications infrastructure that leaves many homes, schools and small businesses unable to obtain service or offered substandard service options because their areas have been redlined by legacy incumbent telephone and cable companies. The FCC's Open Internet rulemaking requires service be provided upon reasonable customer request and specifically bars discriminatory redlining.

These mandates -- and less so net neutrality -- is why the providers and their trade associations will strongly oppose any proposed state legislation based on the federal rulemaking. State lawmakers are hearing far more vocal complaints from constituents that they've been refused service or forced to use pricy, substandard wireless services that don't meet minimum FCC requirements for advanced telecommunications than concerns providers will in the future block or throttle content. The volume and urgency of those complaints have been growing over the past decade or so. In addition, during that period and increasingly in recent years, state representatives have declared advanced telecommunications infrastructure critical to support commerce, government and education.

Soros gets it wrong: Telecom infrastructure is a monopoly, not Facebook and Google

Soros slams Facebook and Google as 'menace' to society, 'obstacles to innovation' - Business Insider: Facebook and Google effectively control over half of all internet advertising revenue. To maintain their dominance, they need to expand their networks and increase their share of users' attention. Currently, they do this by providing users with a convenient platform. The more time users spend on the platform, the more valuable they become to the companies. Content providers also contribute to the profitability of social-media companies because they cannot avoid using the platforms and they have to accept whatever terms they are offered.

The exceptional profitability of these companies is largely a function of their avoiding responsibility for — and avoiding paying for — the content on their platforms. They claim they are merely distributing information. But the fact that they are near-monopoly distributors makes them public utilities and should subject them to more stringent regulations aimed at preserving competition, innovation, and fair and open universal access.

Soros's position here is misguided. Facebook's and Google's online platforms are not natural monopolies like landline telecommunications infrastructure that delivers them to end users in their homes, businesses and institutions. Most people can choose between one and maybe two providers: a legacy telephone or cable company. These are truly public utilities since they are hardwired infrastructure unlike online social media platforms. They require fair and open universal access called for by Soros.

Facebook's and Google's online platforms are clearly hugely successful. But there's no guarantee they'll be around for decades like the telecom infrastructure that delivers them. Consumer preferences change and innovators create new services. It's a lot easier to do that with programming code and bits and bytes compared to relatively permanent telecom infrastructure as shown by the ongoing problem of service gaps that leave many premises unserved by landline infrastructure.