Bye Bye Net Neutrality, Now About That AT&T/Time Warner Merger

It will be official today, the net neutrality regulations put in place under former FCC chairman Julius Genachowski will be wiped from the books.  This has been a major piece of current FCC chairman Ajit Pai’s agenda, and he can now check it off of his to-do list.

Of course, that won’t erase the never-ending battle between the two sides of the issue.  But for now it will be simple market forces and public perception that hopefully will keep the internet humming along chaotically.  With all eyes glued to other matters these days, perhaps at least we can see it play out a bit without too much hyperbole.

Will anything actually be slowed down or blocked?  Will someone try to insert a fast lane of some sort into the market?  Or will things just keep going the way they are going for now, with such brute force approaches giving way to something more subtle.  The last mile seems less of a bottleneck than it once was, but perceptions can change swiftly.

Meanwhile, we will also supposedly get a court ruling (tomorrow) on AT&T’s attempt to buy Time Warner.  Regulators moved to oppose the deal last year, but AT&T didn’t back down and took them to court.  If AT&T prevails, they just might have to mark June 11-12 down as a company holiday, almost simultaneously winning battles to acquire content and the freedom to distribute it as they please.

Of course, whatever actually happens with AT&T/TWX and net neutrality from here, all of this will land back in court soon enough.  How could it be otherwise?

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Categories: Government Regulations · Internet Traffic · Mergers and Acquisitions