The FCC has-finally, mercifully-closed up its net neutrality docket. ISPs, Web companies, and public interest groups hustled to turn in last-minute filings yesterday, most showing a naked self-interest that was bracing to behold: Netflix want guaranteed bandwidth for its over-the-top services, cable operators went after the wireless industry, and the wireless industry just came right out and made the argument that Wall Street wouldn’t like net neutrality rules and therefore they shouldn’t be imposed on it.

But the most intriguing (and one of the most self-serving) arguments came courtesy of Time Warner Cable: the real threat to ‘neutrality’ and the ‘open Internet’ comes not from ISPs but from broadcasters like FOX. Perhaps the FCC would like to go after broadcasters who try to strong arm the cable industry into better deals?

We agree with these morons

The cable trade group NCTA thinks the net neutrality advocates at Free Press are full of ‘overheated rhetoric’ and that their filings are filled with sloppy thinking-unless Free Press agrees with them.

The two issues on the table in this latest round of comments are ‘managed services’ delivered by ISPs over the last-mile connection to customers, and the question of whether nondiscrimination rules should apply to wireless. Cable […]

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Zhou Yuan, head of asset allocation at China Investment Corporation (CIC), said Beijing would be willing to invest in such projects. CIC manages part of China’s massive foreign exchange reserves, an estimated 300 billion in both domestic and overseas investments.

‘We are advocating that the US government start a program to invest a massive amount of equity, in the form of public and private equity partnership, in US infrastructure,

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It hasn’t gotten a lot of press, but a case involving AT&T that goes before the
U.S. Supreme Court

next week has sweeping ramifications for potentially millions of consumers.

If a majority of the nine justices vote the telecom giant’s way, any business that issues a contract to customers - such as for credit cards, cellphones or cable TV - would be able to prevent them from joining class-action lawsuits.

This would take away in such cases arguably the most powerful legal tool available to the little guy, particularly in cases involving relatively small amounts of money. Class-action suits allow plaintiffs to band together in seeking compensation or redress, thus giving substantially more heft to their claims.

The ability to ban class actions would potentially also apply to employment agreements such as union contracts.

Consumer advocates say that without the threat of class-action lawsuits, many businesses would be free to engage in unfair or deceptive practices. Few people would litigate on their own to resolve a case involving, say, a hundred bucks.

‘The marketplace is fairer for consumers and workers because there’s a deterrent out there,’ said Deepak Gupta, an attorney for the advocacy group Public Citizen who will argue on consumers’ behalf before the […]

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The massive set of undersea cables that makes up the infrastructure of the Internet needs to be revamped to ensure security during a crisis, according to a top security expert.

‘At the national level, it’s been implemented — the most important communications get through. But other countries don’t have the capability to communicate across borders

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Representative John Mica of Florida, the senior Republican in line to take the reins of the House Transportation Committee in January, is unhappy with the way the Obama administration awarded $10 billion in federal stimulus funds for high-speed rail projects.

‘I am a strong advocate of high-speed rail, but it has to be where it makes sense,

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