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I think that most of us find robocalls from advertisers to be fairly annoying and I at least don't enjoy having to check my voicemail more than is necessary, however, All About the Message (a marketing company that provides a 'direct to voicemail solution') is currently petitioning the FCC to declare that direct to voicemail Robocalls are not a call subject to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TPCA). https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/05/republicans-claim-1st-amendment-right-to-send-you-robo-voicemails/ So basically how this would work is that you would all of a sudden have a voicemail show up from a robot that is trying to advertise something and you would not have control over whether you receive this or not. To be perfectly blunt, this is an extremely bad idea and I'm really hoping the FCC denies this request, clarifies that these ringless voicemails are calls as per the TCPA and states that they have so stop the calls. I know it might be hard, but please try not to make your comments on this too political as it would be against the community standards.

I'd like to start by saying I couldn't find anything in the Tech News Section - so if there is an original article, I apologise. Sources: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-39973787 https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/05/net-neutrality-goes-down-in-flames-as-fcc-votes-to-kill-title-ii-rules/ Net Neutrality came into place in 2015 under the supervision of FCC Chair Man - Tom Wheeler. Well, 2 years later, it has been removed under the new FCC advisor Ajit Pai. The Commissioners at the FCC decided to vote 2:1 on whether or not to kill of Net Neutrality. My Pai has said on multiple times that: My quick note: Excuse me? What???? For those who don't know what net neutrality is, oh I'm sorry, Was: After looking through multiple articles: it's more the fact that this was a preliminary vote, A final vote is due later in the Year. My thoughts: WHAT THE ACTUAL F**K AMERICA?!?!? Net Neutrality was a great thing. it allowed for more fairness in a market controlled by the few big ISPs and allowed for all content to be delivered on an equal playing field - not a "Premium Fast Lane" Also - Surprise, Surprise - Ajit Pai was actually "Associate General Counsel" at Verizon Communications, a company that has always been against Net Neutrality. Something which shows that ISP's will do anything to get out of the Title 2 classification where they can't charge for such services. A chart found on the DailyDot website shows what companies are spending the most to dismantle Net Neutrality. And I have a feeling that most of that went on Lobbying all members of the FCC / Governement who are against the FCC. Here is another chart to show the momentum of which Lobbying has increased over Net Neutrality: I honestly think lobbying should be made illegal since its basically putting wallets before what is in the best interest of the people. Will it ever stop? No, not when there is money to be made - but it doesn't make it any more right. Your Thoughts? Please Leave them down below!

Save Net Neutrality.... Call the FCC https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/search/proceedings?q=name:((17-108)) Keep the internet neutral, free and open!!!!!!!!!!

In an article posted on Ars Technica, it is suggested that the FCC may be looking at doing away with the requirements in the US for people to be able to receive internet via hard line (cable, fiber, etc.) since they can receive it instead with mobile data services. The argument that is being made is that Mobile Internet at 10 Mbps up, 1Mbps down, is more than sufficient for what anyone needs for their home internet service. I'm kind of left speechless by this myself as this will cripple the deployment of true high speed internet within the US. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/08/maybe-americans-dont-need-fast-home-internet-service-fcc-suggests/ This doesn't even begin to get into the issue that even if you have a mobile data plan with 10 down, 1 up, after a certain amount of usage they will throttle your connection to a lot less... As it is, I feel lucky enough to be in an area where I can get 1 Gbps down, 50 Mbps up with 1 TB of data for only about twice ($175/month) what most mobile carriers would charge for a 22 GB plan... EDIT: Here is a bit of follow-up on some of the more than 300 comments that the FCC has received since putting this out to comment a couple of days ago... https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/08/mobile-broadband-cant-replace-fast-home-internet-americans-tell-fcc/

Well, with the comment period closing for the FCC's net neutrality rules and all of the comments and site activity this has received, there is apparently a fairly significant security hole in their Application Programming Interface that allows anyone to upload any type of file to their site... https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/08/fccs-public-comment-api-lets-you-post-just-about-anything-to-gov-website/ I would like to say that I'm surprised by this, but not really... Probably a lowest bidder contract to put together the comment system... If you do end up browsing any of the FCC comments, I would be cautious of any files that someone has uploaded... Seems like it might make for a fairly efficient attack vector with some of the contentious issues that are going on. Word Document that was uploaded: https://ecfsapi.fcc.gov/file/DOC-578d579d1f000000-A.pdf UPDATE: At least it appears someone fixed this in a nearly timely fashion... Don't like that it even existed in the first place as an obvious security hole. http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-41124831

Net neutrality ally Wheeler to quit FCC By: Brett Molina , USA TODAY Source: http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2016/12/15/fcc-chief-wheeler-step-down/95464232/ Lol, Yay. This guy is responsible for some pretty disrupting things at the FCC and I for one am happy to see him go away. Must be afraid that he was going to fired so he decided to step down before it could happen. Thoughts?

On Thursday, the FCC sent separate letters to both AT&T and Verizon expressing their concerns over zero-rating. For those who don't know, zero rating is when an internet service provider allows certain data to not be counted towards a general usage limit. Net Neutrality advocates are strongly against this practice, as it allows ISP's to give their own media services (AT&T's DirectTV now and Verizon's Go90) an advantage over other media streaming sites. This issue is currently at the forefront of the Net Neutrality debate, due to the 2015 FCC ruling that prohibited much of the worst kinds of behavior. This ruling, however, left rules about zero-rating programs vague. Opinion: The FCC is trying to assert itself ahead of the Trump administration, which is strongly against the 2015 ruling. I can only hope that the 2015 ruling is allowed to stand, but it should be noted the one of the Republican FCC commissioners who was against the 2015 ruling was quoted as saying: Personally, I expect that once the Trump administration is in control, there will likely be a deadlock in the fight for net neutrality. The 2015 ruling will stand, although they may choose not to enforce it as strongly as they should. On the other hand, net neutrality advocates will likely be unable to make any advances against stopping zero-rating programs. Sources: http://www.businessinsider.com/fcc-verizon-att-zero-rating-net-neutrality-letter-directv-now-2016-12

Ars Technica ( https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/10/up-to-9-5-million-net-neutrality-comments-were-made-with-stolen-identities/ ) reports that the NY Attorney General's office estimates that 9.5 million net neutrality comments were made under assumed identities and is looking into the possibility that the comments were made automatically by those in the Telco lobbying industry, among others. Lots of subpoenas have been issued and there's still a deep, ongoing investigation, but the scope has been broadening with each little nugget of information that comes out of the office. Unsirprisingly, letters that were not obviously from a form-filler appear to have been quite positive: This comes after the NY AG's office estimated that two million of these were from fake/stolen identities last year, a more than four times increase in the sheer number of fraudulent comments made to the FCC. -- Thoughts: I'm not surprised. Is anyone surprised? Wait, hold on, I am a little surprised: Nine million comments is a lot of comments. I'm not surprised that there were quite this many comments, however. I wonder how much crow that oversize Reese's mug can hold?

Source: Gizmodo New York Attorney General - Complaint TL;DR: 35 states, including New York, have told the FCC to do something as robocalls continue to rise, estimated at 30.5 billion in 2017. Media: Quotes/Excerpts: My Thoughts: I'm sure I'm not the only one who Googles numbers that call me. I'd say 75% of all calls I get are spam. I'd be glad to see an overhaul of the American telephone system.

Sources: CNET ArsTechnica TL;DR: Ajit Pai has finally admitted the DDoS claims on the FCC comment system were false, blames Obama Administration Quotes/Excerpts: My Thoughts: Well at least we know for a fact what Ajit Pai thinks of Net Neutrality supporters though despite lawsuits already occurring for things we said would happen.

Source: Tech Spot TL;DR: Only have one ISP providing service in your area? The Court system states they can set their price however high they want, as long as a smaller ISP doesn't provide service. Quotes/Excerpts: My Thoughts: This definitely is a bit unreasonable. The costs of expanding infrastructure for smaller ISPs is very high, even if only half a mile, even so much as $15,000 (charged directly to the customer in some cases) upon allowing the existing ISP to charge whatever they want.

Source: Ars Technica TL;DR: An error by the US District Court for the District of Columbia may invalidate the AT&T and Time Warner Merger. Media: Quotes/Excerpts: My Thoughts: A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one. With AT&T and Time Warner being the only major providers in some regions I'm glad to see a possible reversion of the merger. Both AT&T and Time Warner are large companies with a large amount of control. I will be glad to see this, potentially, reversed.

So while cleaning up my laptop I accidentally broke the ribbon cable (fcc 12 pin) that connected the touchpad to the motherboard. After installing a new one, bought from ebay, the computer wouldn't turn on. When removed, the pc starts up normally. Is the cable damaged? Why would something like that happen, aren't these cable standardized? Thank you for your help

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2018/3/29/17178126/spacex-satellite-broadband-internet-fcc-approval-license-starlink-spectrum @LinusTech and @Slick

A new development on the net neutrality on US. I'm European and it stiil worried about the new FCC rules. Usualy other countries tend to follow US practices. The effects here are starting to show on small things, like differentiated fraffic rules. Providers are also slowly, but steadly changing their business tactics. The world needs this actions against FCC. Sources: https://www.macrumors.com/2018/03/06/washington-first-state-net-neutrality/ https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/05/business/net-neutrality-washington-state.html

Given how outspoken and Blatant that Ajit Pai has been on many topics especially net neutrality it's not shocking at all. Even when accounted for his past as a lawyer for Verizon is just more so telling. It's also rather interesting to myself that however the steps that he's taken to get this merger approved. Not only has Sinclair been told to sell 12 tv stations, but he [Ajit Pai] has gone and rolled back several regulations including certain broadcast television station ownership limitations, reinstating a 1985 discount quota on UHF stations, and by not requiring stations to have a main studio in local coverage area. It will be interesting to find out what the watchdog group finds out. Source 1: New York Times (Possible Soft Paywalk) https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/15/technology/fcc-sinclair-ajit-pai.html Source 1 (Backup; CNBC Posting of the article via the NYT): https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/15/new-york-times-digital-f-c-c-watchdog-looks-into-changes-that-benefited-sinclair.html?__source=twitter|main Sources for Background info: Source 1: https://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/news/2017/12/15/sinclair-tribune-sale-justice-department.html Source 2: https://variety.com/2017/biz/news/fcc-main-studio-rule-ajit-pai-sinclair-1202597651/ Source 3: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-fcc-local-tv-radio-control-20171024-story.html Source 4: https://www.bloombergquint.com/business/2017/10/24/broadcasters-no-longer-need-a-local-studio-as-fcc-changes-rule Source 5: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/10/24/the-fcc-just-ended-a-decades-old-rule-designed-to-keep-tv-and-radio-under-local-control/ Source 6: https://variety.com/2017/biz/news/fcc-sinclair-tribune-merger-investigation-1202615791/ Note to Mods: I am trying to keep this apolitical and seek to keep it as such.

When does Congress vote whether to overrule FCC's decision?

Facepalm time boys and girls. Source: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/08/in-blow-to-muni-broadband-fcc-loses-bid-to-overturn-state-laws/ This is one of those few cases, where I am entirely FOR the federal government having the power to overrule the state governments. Why? Because these state governments are largely passing these laws at the behest of their corporate backers. Seriously. We need a major push to get non-tech literate people to understand why we need to force the ISP's to actually compete. We need a major push to prevent ISP's from owning ANY "news" entities, etc. Thoughts, questions, comments?

source: https://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2016/db0801/DOC-340564A1.pdf https://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2016/db0801/DA-16-850A1.pdf this is a ongoing saga it started with FCC issuing new rules regarding WiFi routers: then, TP-Link blocked 3rd party FW on their routers: but it appears the story had some missing pieces from the FCC press release, it appears that TP-Link was violating FCC rules by allowing some of their routers to exceed signal power limits on certain restricted WiFi channels the settlement: I'm not entirely sure, but it appears that prior to all these recent WiFi restrictions (specifically, 3rd party firmware) imposed by the FCC, were the result of a investigation - and it appears that TP-Link's routers were the cause ^ that was incorrect from a recent ArsTechnica article, I found out that TP-Link actually drew the attention of the FCC for completely blocking 3rd party FW access in their investigation, FCC learned that TP-Link violated the 2.4Ghz rules, not the new 5Ghz ones

FCC magic will turn TV channels into mobile signals The agency's months-long incentive auction began Tuesday By: Stephen Lawson IDG News Service via PCWorld Mar 29, 2016 5:54 PM Source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/3049407/fcc-magic-will-turn-tv-channels-into-mobile-signals.html Well I for one am happy to see this coming around. This will definitely help get these cell towers the coverage they need. Though it will take some time to get the towers up to speed to be able to broadcast with the additional bands. Thoughts?

Looks like the FCC has tested the new Raspberry Pi 3. I don't know about all of you guys, but I was really happy after reading this. http://www.pcworld.com/article/3038727/consumer-electronics/fcc-docs-show-raspberry-pi-3-with-on-board-wi-fi-and-bluetooth.html

source: http://www.tp-link.us/faq-1058.html via: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/03/tp-link-blocks-open-source-router-firmware-to-comply-with-new-fcc-rule/ it started with this: now, if you live in the US and you're fond of your custom 3rd party WRT firmware, you might wanna sit down .... it started with TP-Link but I suspect ASUS and other router manufacturers that use OpenWRT platform to follow suit very soon here's where I see the problem: consumers that needed WiFi power boosted will now seek to buy range extenders or APs - and how is that solving the problem? it wont! it will create even more interference the solution? I don't think there's one, but less reliance on WiFi and more use of wired connections is a start granted there are some devices that don't have other alternatives to radio Eric Schultz, Save Wi-Fi coalition commented:

Source: http://nerdist.com/fcc-ruling-cable-apple-tv-android-tv-google-amazon/\ This is amazing news for those who have been thinking about cutting the cord but still want to access their favorite channels. This should also hopefully lead to the democratization of the cable box as well as some innovations in that area. I personally consume most of my television online using the service my cable provider has (Xfinity TV Home) that has allowed me to view some on-demand and live content, but this ruling will enable much more than that.

So with the new change the FCC made to how broadband is defined a ISP dirty secret has come to light. Its amazing that in 2016 so many people have such a slow connection when cellphones that are 3G are way faster than 4Mbps down and 1Mbps up. Mind you this report is from 2014. Just imagine if they had stated that the term broadband is 100Mbps vs 25Mbps im sure a few ISP CEO’s would have had a heart attack or 7 http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/02/16-million-americans-have-no-wired-broadband-access-not-even-at-4mbps/

Article on Slashgear: http://www.slashgear.com/oneplus-e-appears-at-fcc-in-photos-09409049/ It does look a bit like they're going with the iphone-type look, which I'm not against, but it's funny that they're using that look on what seems to be a lower-end product. I bet you it has NFC though.