Industry participation remains critical to the success of the National Institute of Standards and Technology-facilitated (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework, federal officials said Friday during a USTelecom event. The federal government’s focus in the three months since NIST’s February release of the “Version 1.0” framework has shifted toward encouraging critical infrastructure entities to use the framework and tailoring the framework to sector-specific uses, officials said. The FCC is in the process of determining what role it can play in the communications sector’s voluntary use of the framework as a risk management tool, said Public Safety Bureau Chief Counsel Clete Johnson. USTelecom Vice President-Industry and State Affairs Robert Mayer told us he believes the commission will and should continue to allow the private sector to drive the process of determining the FCC’s role in that process.
The Senate Intelligence Committee’s draft Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) has support among industry executives we spoke with, while major privacy advocates who opposed the House-passed Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) said they also have significant concerns about CISA. That bill, which Senate Intelligence leaders had been working on since last year, tracks with many aspects of CISPA (HR-624) but has what proponents believe are improved privacy protections (CD April 30 p19).
USTelecom responded favorably to lawmakers’ push this week (CD May 7 p2) for the FCC to expand USF support beyond the provision of voice. “Updating the Connect America Fund to encourage broadband investment by rate-of-return carriers will spur economic activity and benefit consumers,” said Vice President-Policy David Cohen in a written statement Wednesday. “A rational and predictable high-cost mechanism that includes support for broadband-only lines will enable carriers to continue to provide rural Americans with affordable high-quality communications services.” Two letters to the FCC urging an expansion were signed by 133 senators and congressmen.
More than 100 lawmakers asked the FCC to broaden USF support so it would no longer be limited to the provision of voice service. They emphasized the importance of providing USF support for those companies providing stand-alone broadband service. In total, 133 lawmakers signed the Senate and House letters.
Capitol Hill lobbying spending on video marketplace issues largely rose in the latest quarter, as it did in the fourth quarter of 2013 (CD Jan 23 p7). Various factors propelled spending spikes, largely involving the possibility of overhauling retransmission consent rules, the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization process, and the brewing debate over the Comcast purchase of Time Warner Cable.
Price cap ILECs are concerned that the FCC might recommend an increase in the broadband speed requirement for Connect America Fund Phase II buildout (CD April 8 p1), without recommending concurrent changes in other terms for areas where carriers can elect cost model-based support, USTelecom and member ILECs told agency officials last week (http://bit.ly/1nn3HKG). The commission should “postpone commencement of a challenge process” to determine Phase II eligible census blocks until it decides on the speed requirements, USTelecom said. Any increase in speed requirements should also come with a revised 10-year term of support, USTelecom said, which would be “consistent with the substantially increased costs of deploying a higher-speed network.” Currently, Phase II support would be distributed over a five-year period. To the extent the agency proposes to increase the broadband public interest obligations by requiring high-cost eligible telecom carriers to offer high-speed broadband to schools and libraries, “such obligations should apply only to CAF II recipients who knowingly accept or decline funding with the associated obligations,” USTelecom said. Applying new obligations to ETCs who get legacy frozen support is “totally arbitrary,” it said. USTelecom also expressed concern about the schedule for phasing in the local rate floor. “The proposed $3.00 increase to be implemented January 2, 2015, followed 18 months later by another increase in excess of $3.00 will create rate shock among consumers and exceeds the threshold established in several states for the level of local rate increases that can be implemented without time-consuming and expensive state rate cases,” it said.
The FNPRM on potential quantile regression analysis (QRA) replacements proposes several new mechanisms to more efficiently disburse limited USF money, agency and industry officials told us. A Connect America Fund order on circulation (CD April 8 p1) would eliminate the QRA benchmarks rule, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a blog post Wednesday (http://fcc.us/1iq7vHP). The QRA was “well-intentioned” but hasn’t had “the desired effect,” Wheeler wrote. The order also deals with the local rate floor, timing, amounts, and does some “cleanup” on reporting dates, agency and industry officials said.
Price-cap carriers could be required to build broadband capable of delivering 10 Mbps downstream as part of Phase II of the Connect America Fund, according to a further NPRM on circulation, said agency and industry in interviews Monday. That proposed speed requirement is more than double the 4 Mbps downstream requirement specified in the original 2011 USF/intercarrier compensation order. An order and FNPRM are tentatively scheduled to be voted on at the FCC’s April 23 meeting, the agency said last week (http://fcc.us/1eajJaE).
The FCC lawfully denied USTelecom’s “across-the-board forbearance request” regarding the Uniform System of Accounts (USOA), the agency told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in a brief filed Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1i2E6Cd). USTelecom unsuccessfully petitioned (CD Feb 17/12 p14) the agency to use its Communications Act Section 10 authority to forbear from applying the requirement that price cap carriers maintain the USOA as required by the law. The FCC asked the court to deny USTelecom’s petition for review, and not order the FCC to forbear. “The FCC reasonably determined that USTelecom failed to prove that its across-the-board USOA forbearance request satisfied the section 10 forbearance standard,” it wrote. “The central premise underlying the USOA forbearance request -- i.e., that price cap carriers’ rates are not based upon costs, and therefore Part 32 no longer is necessary to ensure that those carriers’ rates are just and reasonable -- is factually incorrect."
Satellite broadband could be the solution for building out broadband and IP services to low-density rural areas, satellite providers and others said in interviews. There’s a perception among satellite providers and some others that the technology hasn’t been given the attention it deserves. Satellite tech has advanced tremendously in the past couple of years, proponents said, pointing to higher speeds, lower costs and a stamp of approval from the FCC’s most recent broadband speed measurement report. But satellite broadband wasn’t eligible for Connect America Fund Phase I money, and the FCC hasn’t made any decisions on the Phase II competitive process. The satellite industry wants to be a part of the discussion.