Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. Stevens (R-Alaska) Mon. introduced a telecom bill reflecting several members’ input but lacking strong Democratic support. The 10-title bill hits Universal Service Fund (USF) reform, municipal broadband, net neutrality, white spaces and broadcast flag, and would close the terrestrial loophole for cable. Bell companies applauded the Stevens bill.
The 2nd U.S. Appeals Court, N.Y. became the 4th circuit court to condemn the telephone excise tax, in a ruling Thurs. against the federal govt. The court, affirming a district court ruling, said insurance giant Fortis is entitled to a refund of the tax on phone services.
Net neutrality proponents plan to take their case to the House floor next week, where the telecom bill is tentatively scheduled for consideration Thurs. Telcos applauded their victory on legislation that lawmakers passed without amendments sought by important committee Democrats on net neutrality and buildout. But industry sources said they think the bill will pass the House on a party-line vote. Progress will halt when the bill moves to the Senate, many said: “That’s where bills go to die,” said one lobbyist.
The FCC next week is expected to give VoIP and broadband access providers guidance on implementing the CALEA obligations the FCC imposed last fall. In an order set for action at its agenda meeting Wed., the FCC is expected to tie up various loose ends. For example, the Commission is expected to rely on industry standards bodies to develop compliance rules (CD April 12 p1) rather than the FCC initiating them.
The House unanimously passed late Tues. the cellphone privacy bill (HR-4709) that was voted out of the Judiciary Committee March 2. The House Commerce and Senate Commerce committees have approved similar bills. Judiciary Committee Chmn. Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) said the legislation targets pretexters who are often able to obtain private information by impersonating cellphone account holders. “Amazingly, none of this is clearly illegal under federal law,” he said. “These important new consumer protections cover the records and calling logs of cellular, land line, VoIP users, and accomplish this goal on a technology neutral basis.” Rep. Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) said the threat posed by pretexters is real. “By simply contacting one of the many on-line data brokers that currently exist, the private records of anyone sitting in this room could be filtered into the public domain within a matter of minutes,” she said. “And if put into the wrong hands, such information could be used to commit countless crimes of violence, including acts of domestic violence, retaliatory acts against law enforcement officers, or acts aimed at undermining our current criminal justice system.” Under the bill, pretexters would face up to 10 years in prison and fines up to $250,000 for individuals and $500,000 for organizations. CTIA has endorsed the legislation but didn’t release a statement. The bill would “pursue aggressively the bad actors abusing consumer privacy without imposing unnecessary and costly regulatory mandates,” said a written statement by USTelecom senior Vp Ed Merlis. “Few things are more personal and potentially more revealing than our phone records,” said Rep. Smith (R-Tex.), who introduced the bill. The bill heads to the Senate, where similar legislation is pending.
It’s urgent that Congress enact a strong net neutrality law with enforcement provisions, proponents told the House Judiciary Telecom Task Force on Tues. in the first of several planned hearings on telecom issues. USTelecom said its members wouldn’t “block, degrade or impair” access, and companies are free to compete if they can afford to enter the market.
A mixed bag of net neutrality advocates, including Web visionaries, gun owners, libraries and consumer groups, began a campaign Mon. to stop Congress and telecom companies from, in their words, “gutting the Internet’s First Amendment.” The SavetheInternet.com Coalition argues that sites should never have to pay “protection money” to ISPs like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast to compete in the online market. Meanwhile, a report warned that net neutrality may be a cure that’s worse than the disease.
Radically revamping installation and security at the user end is key to cutting costs and making triple-play services profitable, Richard Caballero, Supportsoft dir.- digital mktg., said in a USTelecom vendors “webinar” Wed. Complexity is on the rise along with bandwidth requirements, so keeping clients from needing too much support-center time has to be a primary goal as carriers bring new video and data customers into the fold, and getting them from the start is key to this.
The FCC should extend the freeze on jurisdictional separations “at least three to five years” and open a rulemaking in the meantime to seek comment on reforming the process, AT&T said. In an April 6 ex parte filing at the FCC, AT&T said it doesn’t think a 2-year extension proposed by NARUC leaves enough time for full review of the issues and making changes. AT&T criticized a NARUC recommendation that line counts be used to assign private line and special access costs between the 2 jurisdictions. AT&T said it’s no longer easy to separate line counts between the 2 jurisdictions because “improved technology allows companies to use assets for multiple services or jurisdictions.” The same day, NARUC told the FCC it disagrees with an earlier USTelecom separations proposal (CD Dec 19 p7). NARUC said USTelecom wanted to extend the freeze without proper comment by the public and referral to the State-Federal Joint Board on Separations. The separations process differentiates between interstate and intrastate telephone company costs.
The House Judiciary Committee plans its first telecom antitrust task force hearing Fri., with an oversight hearing examining net neutrality and the market power of Bell companies. Witnesses scheduled to testify include USTelecom Pres. Walter McCormick, CompTel Pres. Earl Comstock, Paul Misener, Amazon vp-global policy, and Stanford U. law Prof. Lawrence Lessig.