NARUC is set to wade into the net neutrality debate at its meeting this week in Dallas, where its board will consider a resolution that would encourage the FCC to use the Telecom Act Title II and Section 706 as jurisdictional bases as it creates new net neutrality rules. The resolution would also lend NARUC support to the FCC’s proposed expansion of the transparency rule, said a draft of the resolution released in advance of the meeting (http://bit.ly/1sI9XiF).
Closed captioning requirements for online video clips were approved by all five FCC members at the commission’s Friday meeting, and include a grace period for near-live clips as well as live ones, according to Media Bureau staff. Though both Republican commissioners voted in favor of the item, Commissioner Ajit Pai described his vote as a concurrence, while Commissioner Mike O'Rielly said he was concurring in part and approving in part. Both cited the commission’s failure to adequately examine the costs and benefits of the rule and tie implementation to real-world analysis as reasons for their reservations about the rules.
The FCC approved 5-0 Friday spending up to $100 million on rural broadband experiments as part of the Connect America Fund (CAF), as was expected (CD July 11 p1). Officials said the order gives the FCC the chance to test for the first time the viability of using competitive bidding to award recurring support for people living in high-cost areas.
A warrant requirement to access emails may get through Congress this session, said lawmakers, privacy advocates, conservatives and industry officials. But email privacy is just “a narrow fix that we think can stand on its own,” Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., told us. Other issues -- geolocation privacy, a definition of “electronic content” -- are far from settled, said those we spoke with. “This could be a multi-year effort to update various parts of the federal law,” the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), Rep. Kevin Yoder, R-Kan., told us. Yoder and Polis both sponsor the Email Privacy Act (HR-1852), which would require a warrant for law enforcement and government to access remotely stored emails (http://bit.ly/W4npD7).
The FCC was still scheduled Thursday to vote on Chairman Tom Wheeler’s draft E-rate reforms Friday morning, despite continuing concerns among education advocates, and a last-minute volley from Commissioner Ajit Pai claiming that committing $5 billion for Wi-Fi within schools and libraries could end up stripping more than $2.7 billion from funds to connect schools and libraries to broadband. Conversations were still going on between commissioners, said a Wheeler aide. Neither Republican commissioner was included in Thursday’s negotiations leading up to the vote, a Republican FCC aide told us, raising the chances any vote will be along party lines.
NTIA launched a pilot program for measuring the occupancy of spectrum in a shared spectrum world, Associate Administrator Karl Nebbia said Thursday during the first meeting of the newly reconstituted Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee (CD July 10 p2). NTIA is buying hardware and other equipment for making occupancy measurements and is looking at how it will distribute information collected, Nebbia said.
Friday’s FCC order requiring closed captions for online video clips will mandate live clips be captioned within 12 hours of appearing online and abide by quality standards, but defers captioning requirements for “advance” promotional clips and questions of responsibility for clips on third party websites to a further notice, said agency officials. Changes to the item were still being proposed (CD July 9 p3) late Thursday, and it was possible that it could shift before the open meeting Friday morning, one eighth-floor official told us.
Congressional supporters of the Local Radio Freedom Act may begin to experience pushback from their home districts due to the musicFIRST coalition’s new campaign to spotlight the resolution’s co-sponsors, said artist rights advocates. NAB, which backs H. Con. Res. 16, deplored the move. The coalition began targeting Reps. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., and David Price, D-N.C., Wednesday, running full-page ads in their district’s newspapers and launched a social media campaign (http://bit.ly/TVuXpC) (http://bit.ly/1oKFQpG) highlighting their support of H. Con. Res. 16, said Ted Kalo, musicFIRST executive director, in an interview. The coalition is “targeting [congressional] members who have strong independent music communities in their districts,” he said. Price and Blumenauer didn’t comment.
Whether the FCC should classify VoIP and with it HD voice as a Title I Communications Act information service or a Title II telecom service depends on how stakeholders would be affected by the IP transition, and with it issues like required interconnection. Interviews with lawyers and executives on both sides of the issue this week found that those who believe interconnection rules are important want them to carry over to an all-digital future where calls no longer travel on traditional phone networks. The same with Title I classification, sought by those who believe interconnection will happen on its own in the market without federal or state requirements for it, or Title II classification, for some who think government mandates are needed for interconnection.
The third of four Capitol Hill committees of jurisdiction cleared legislation Thursday to reauthorize the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act for five years. All eyes are now on the Senate Commerce Committee to release legislation, with lingering concerns and curiosity among lobbyists about what will emerge. With STELA expiring at the end of 2014, Hill staffers and industry lobbyists have increasingly told us narrower STELA legislation is the likely outcome.