The Federal Communications Commission’s new presidency almost always has a new plan. A recent ruling by the novel FCC chair, Brendan Carr, as a prime example, may have limited authority for landlords to require tenants to use a single bulk provider for online service. There is nothing to prevent developing users from requiring their landlords to pay for online access that they neither want nor need because the plan has been rejected.
Carr defended his selection as a win for buyers and claimed that the previous plan would have resulted in higher online costs for tenants. He also condemned the plan as “regulatory excess” and promised to remove more of the FCC’s due agenda.
However, the now-defunct plan was not a moratorium on landlords ‘ ability to offer half online services, it merely gave tenants the ability to fail the service. That was opposed by lobby groups for the housing industry, who in turn praised Carr’s choice for allowing renters to” select the benefits of mass billing.” Cable business lobbyists–including staff of Comcast, Charter, and Cox–were even in favor of Carr’s activity.
A statement from Public Knowledge, a non-profit public curiosity organization, was sent to Ars Technica by its legal director John Bergmayer. It stated that the proposed bulk-billing restrictions would have eliminated “one of the ways that landlords, HOAs, telecoms and cable companies collaborate to pass the expected work of]FCC] rules. Little is currently available to stop landlords from charging inflated rents to customers who can no longer fail them for subpar online services.
Image record: Getty Images/Alex Wong