Texas Bill would make it illegal for Verizon and any other wireless service provider to restrict disaster areas

Texas lawmakers ponder bill that would make it illegal to "tamper with or degrade" mobile data in any declared catastrophic zone, in apparent response to the decision made by telecommunications giant Verizon last year to inform California firefighters busy fighting the deadly fire of the Mendocino complex they needed to upgrade their plan or continue to suffer slow speeds.

A version of the bill, which was presented to the Texas House of Representatives, amends the Texas law in these terms: "A mobile Internet service provider can neither hinder nor degrade legal access to mobile Internet services in an area subject to a declared state of disaster. "It does not revise the law to prevent regulation in any other scenario, including for emergency personnel outside catastrophic declared areas.

According to KUT News, one of the 100 bills to protect Internet access has been introduced since the Republican-controlled Federal Communications Commission and its pro-telecommunications leader, Ajit Pai, upset the rules. the neutrality of the Barack Obama era network in a vote in 2017. Even if the rules of internet neutrality did not prohibit the restriction, nor the slowdown nor the blocking of content in a discriminatory way whether in an anti-competitive manner or simply to respond to the whims of the access provider, Anthony Bowden of Santa Clara County Fire wrote in an addendum to a multi-state Legal Memorandum seeking a return of FCC rules, which, according to him, was supposed to put the public in danger of compelling the firefighters to obtain more money:

Although Verizon finally lifted the gas, it was only when County Fire signed up for a new, more expensive plan.

In light of our experience, County Fire believes that it is likely that Verizon will continue to use the demanding nature of public safety emergencies and catastrophic events to force public agencies to adopt higher cost plans in the end. to pay much more for a mission-critical service, even if it means risking public safety during negotiations.

Verizon then insisted that the incident was a "customer support error" and had a policy of removing restrictions in emergency situations. The company then released a series of ads (widely criticized) claiming that its "innovations and technology allow first responders to do their utmost". jobs. But if that's the case, there's probably no reason why this type of bill should not be pbaded or that Verizon does not oppose it, is it not? this not? (We contacted Verizon for comment and we'll update if we hear it again.)

A trial, Mozilla v. FCC, in which the plaintiffs allege that the repeal of the FCC's net neutrality rules was unlawful for a number of reasons, continues to pbad through the federal court system.

"The fact that it's now boiling at the state level is a good sign," Evan Greer, deputy director of the pro-Internet neutral group Fight for the Future, told KUT News. "But in reality, we need the FCC to do its job and make sure these companies do not behave in ways that put the public at risk."