Ajit Pai

Ajit Pai’s Broadband Legacy: Haste And Waste

January 21, 2021 S. Derek Turner, Free Press. Educate! Ajit Pai, FCC, Internet, Privatization

As we documented in our previous three posts, the $9.2-billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) — FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s supposed crowning achievement toward closing the broadband digital divide — is looking more and more like one of the most wasteful projects in FCC history. Our first post gave some examples of questionable funding in urban areas that we stumbled upon after spending just a few minutes with the map of winning bidders. This included ridiculous examples of “rural” subsidies awarded to major ISPs to offer broadband in gated urban communities where they already offer service, and awards to bring broadband to a posh resort that is already well-connected.

Outgoing FCC Chair Ajit Pai Praised By Industry Organizations

December 2, 2020 Todd Spangler, Variety. Educate! Ajit Pai, FCC, Net Neutrality, Telecoms

Trump-appointed FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who said Monday he will depart the commission on Jan. 20, leaves behind a controversial legacy: He’s regarded as either an exemplary change agent or an ideologue who forfeited consumer interests for commercial ones. To cable, telecommunications and consumer-electronics companies, Pai has been a model of transparency and a champion of free markets who cut away outdated regulations and laid the groundwork for the expansion of broadband to millions of Americans.

OTI Condemns ‘Unhinged’ FCC, Urges Restoration Of Net Neutrality

October 29, 2020 Open Technology Institute. Educate! Ajit Pai, FCC, Internet Access, Net Neutrality

Washington, DC - On October 27, 2020, the Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 to reaffirm its 2017 repeal of net neutrality. The vote is a response to Mozilla v. FCC, a 2019 court ruling that found the FCC’s decision to repeal net neutrality was “unhinged from the realities of modern broadband service” and ignored the government’s duty to protect public safety, digital equity, and broadband competition. In February 2020, the FCC abruptly announced a short public comment period to address the ruling and the court-ordered remand, or do-over, of the net neutrality proceeding.

Chairman Pai Doubles Down On Open-Internet Repeal

October 22, 2020 Free Press. Educate! Ajit Pai, COVID-19, FCC, Net Neutralty

Washington - On Tuesday, Free Press filed a letter with the Federal Communications Commission that responded to the agency’s attempt to fix problems in its order that repealed Net Neutrality rules and tossed away its broadband-oversight authority. The proposal, scheduled for a vote at the FCC next week, responds to the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that remanded portions of the unpopular repeal to the agency for further consideration. Earlier this month, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai circulated his proposal to address three issues the court of appeals raised in 2019.

FCC Ordered To Disclose Data About Net Neutrality Commenters

May 3, 2020 Wendy Davis, MediaPost.com. Educate! Ajit Pai, Courts, FCC, Net Neutrality

Siding with The New York Times, a federal judge has ordered that the Federal Communications Commission must disclose information about users who submitted comments during the 2017 net neutrality proceeding, despite the agency’s objections that doing so could compromise people’s privacy. U.S. District Court Judge Lorna Schofield in the Southern District of New York ruled Thursday that disclosure of the data — including commenters’ IP addresses, time stamps and user-agent headers — is in the public interest, particularly given concerns that many comments were fraudulent.

FCC To Kill Net Neutrality Unless We #StopTheVote

November 29, 2017 Protect Our Internet, www.popularresistance.org Resist! Ajit Pai, FCC, Internet Freedom, Net Neutrality

By Protect Our Internet. On December 14, Verizon lawyer Ajit Pai, who is currently serving as chair of the Federal Communications Commission, FCC, will bring his proposal to dismantle net neutrality for a vote. There are two other commissioners who support Pai's plan, and two who oppose it, so it will pass unless we take action to save net neutrality now. We faced long odds before and prevailed. In 2014, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler proposed rules that would create a tiered Internet. In a short time, the actions of many pushed Wheeler to include reclassifying the Internet as a common carrier (like a public utility) so that net neutrality would be protected. Then, a sustained campaign for the next nine months swayed three commissioners to vote for reclassification. We won, beating the millions of dollars that telecoms used to try to stop us. Now, we must act again.

Protesters Take Net Neutrality Issue To FCC Chair’s Home

May 15, 2017 Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! Ajit Pai, FCC, Internet Freedom, Net Neutrality

By Kevin Zeese for Popular Resistance. Ajit Pai, the Chair of the FCC, is on a mission -- he is going to destroy the Internet by reclassifying it so it is no longer a common carrier where we all have equal access and repeal net neutral rules so Comcast, Verizon and A&T can act based on content and allow Internet discrimination. Net neutrality activists began a vigil at the FCC chairman's home in Arlington on Sunday, May 14 and will continue on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday until the public meeting at the FCC on Thursday. Twenty people stood outside of his home holding signs urging "Save The Internet," "We Want Democracy Not Net Monopolies," Ajit Pai Stop the Lies" "Protect the Internet" and "Equal Access for All." The protest was supported by every neighbor who spoke to them, one even offered the use of their bathroom if net neutrality advocates needed it.

Net Neutrality Activists Take on New FCC Chairman

May 7, 2017 John Zangas and Anne Meador, www.dcmediagroup.us Resist! Ajit Pai, FCC, Internet Freedom, Net Neutrality

By John Zangas and Anne Meador for DC Media Group. Trump's FCC Chair Ajit Pai is proposing to repeal the Title II classification of the Internet as a common carrier and remove net neutrality rules. Personal visits to Pai’s 5,300-square-foot house in Arlington, Va.–valued at $1,550,000–began this weekend. Prior to a May 18 meeting of FCC commissioners, a handful of Net Neutrality activists hit the streets of Chairman Pai’s upscale neighborhood in what they called an agitation, or “Ajit-ation.” They distributed two hundred flyers to neighbors with a large photo of the FCC chairman with the caption, “Have you seen this man? He is trying to destroy Net Neutrality by giving cable companies the power to control content on the internet.” The “Ajit-ation” includes a series of protests on the street in front of Chairman Pai’s house planned for next week.

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