Communications

IPI comments opposed both petitions because a state has a constitutional right to use its prerogative as a state to restrict municipal broadband.

North Carolina and Tennessee are most likely to be the states where petitions could become a campaign issue because their laws are under FCC scrutiny, but there's not evidence it's a significant issue in state campaigns, said Bartlett Cleland.

IPI President Tom Giovanetti urged the FCC to reject the municipal broadband petitions filed by the Electric Power Board in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and the city of Wilson, North Carolina.

The FCC should stay within its bounds and let the private sector work, said IPI in comments recently filed regarding the Comcast and Time Warner Cable merger review, and additionally in regard to two U.S. cities calling upon the FCC to overturn state laws regulating municipal broadband networks.

Fourteen groups representing free-market advocates opposed to Internet regulation, filed comments with the FCC, calling on the Commission to delay any effort to issue "Network Neutrality" regulations until Congress has provided the agency clear authority to do so. 

By directing its energies toward tying up its competitors' time and resources in endless court battles, Apple mires the industry in litigious quicksand, diverts resources from innovation, and deprives consumers of new products and services.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed HB-2453 into law Friday, letting Chicago increase its monthly 911 charges on wireline, wireless and prepaid cellphones.  The measure, which took effect immediately, has come under attack from free-market groups like the Institute for Policy Innovation, which said the increase could produce more than 911 needs and be used for other purposes like bolstering the city's pension fund.

By Monday Illinois Governor Quinn must approve or deny a scheme that may well leave him in a similar, if less dramatic, situation as Nero.

The Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act (HR-3086) and the Internet Tax Freedom Forever Act (S-1431) need to pass Congress before the end of the current congressional session, said an Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) blog post Thursday.

It is no secret that U.S. cable TV operators are  jumping into Wi-Fi big time, and one industry executive is forecasting they could collectively deploy and run half a million Wi-Fi hotspots in the near future. The prediction came from David Don, Comcast's executive director-regulatory and public affairs, at the IPI Communications Summit.