The Internet has emerged as a critical new avenue of free expression — truly becoming an uninhibited marketplace of ideas.
Network neutrality protections would ensure that the Internet remains a platform that supports the public’s First Amendment right to receive, access, and create news and information from a diversity of sources and viewpoints, without discrimination from [...]

Hedge fund billionaire Phillip Falcone has unveiled an ambitious plan to build a nationwide high speed (4G) wireless network. The scheme, which has already drawn the ire of AT&T and Verizon, faces daunting financial, technological and political hurdles. RoadMAP is particularly attracted to the fact that the service would primarily be a wholesaler, [...]

The strange bedfellows tag team of Google’s Eric Schmidt and Verizon’s Ivan Seidenberg is back with an op-ed iu today’s Wall Street Journal. They engage in understatement by noting that “our two companies don’t agree on every issue…,” but it is very important that they can join in on much of anything. You [...]

This may be a peek into our near future, as Japanese teens set the trend once again.
In Japan, Teenage Cellphone Culture Makes Real Connections
TOKYO — It’s a sunny day in Harajuku, Tokyo’s trendy shopping district, and Saya Kato, a high school student, is waiting for a friend to accompany her into La Foret, one of [...]

MAP is a proud member of the Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband Coalition. This article shows why libraries are so important to broadband policy. The statistic that jumped out for RoadMAP (but not mentioned in the article below) 44 percent of those living below the poverty level access e-mail and the Web via their [...]

By Kim Hart, The Hill
Congress needs to take the lead in modernizing broadband laws, Verizon’s top lobbyist said today in a speech.
Tom Tauke, Verizon’s Executive Vice President of Public Affairs, Policy and Communications, said it’s Congress’s job to clear up the controversy over whether the Federal Communications Commission has the authority to impose new regulations [...]

The FCC’s rulemaking process is out of step with the pace of the internet, Tom Tauke says
by Grant Gross, ComputerWorld
The US Congress should rewrite the Telecommunications Act to focus on the internet and strip away the rulemaking authority of the US Federal Communications Commission, a Verizon executive said on Wednesday.
The Telecom Act, passed in 1996, [...]

By Cecilia Kang, Washington Post
[See link above for video.]
Tyrone Brown, former FCC commissioner and the new chief executive of the Media Access Project asks how the national broadband plan addresses current consumer offerings. He said Internet service providers offer bulk services that are also tied to equipment; that drives up prices and reduces competition, [...]

Andrew Jay Schwartzman, President and CEO of Media Access Project, issued the following statement today regarding Sprint’s January decision to require Catholic Relief Services to stop connecting text-message-based charity contributors to charity call centers:
“Sprint’s threats to shut off wireless service to donors of Haiti relief is profoundly troubling. The incident highlights the importance of prohibiting [...]

A recent blog post at The Atlantic’s web site argues (unpersuasively in RoadMAP’s opinion) that Cable TV is Doomed. NCTA, the cable industry’s trade association has posted a response which isn’t very persuasive either. “Over the top” (i.e., Internet-delivered) video will surely evolve into an important competitor, but RoadMAP knows that the cable [...]