House Republican leaders plan to bring several cybersecurity bills to the floor on the third week of April, a spokesman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., confirmed Wednesday. During a so-called “cyberweek,” House lawmakers will look at six or more Republican cybersecurity bills with the goal of sending a comprehensive cybersecurity package to the Senate. But Greg Nojeim, a senior counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) warned that some of the bills could have “significant” implications on civil liberties, during a press briefing Wednesday.
A Maryland communications tax bill (HB-563) that’s expected to be signed by Gov. Martin O'Malley is only the start of an effort. Under the bill, a tax commission would be created to review telecom tax and submit findings and recommendations before June 30, 2013. A telecom tax restructuring bill would then be considered during the 2014 legislative session. While localities urged preserving their tax authorities, telecom companies sought a new tax framework that would lower tax rates and encourage investment in broadband infrastructure, county and company officials said.
The FCC is expected to take on USF contribution reform at its April 27 meeting, launching a notice of proposed rulemaking. Commissioners already approved orders addressing the start of distribution reform last October and the overhaul of the Lifeline program in January. But the contribution side of the USF program, how money is collected, has yet to be addressed by the FCC under Chairman Julius Genachowski. The FCC is scheduled to release a tentative agenda for the April open meeting on Friday.
The FCC shouldn’t adopt Comcast’s proposal to let some of its in-house attorneys and executives view the distribution agreements between online video distributors and third-party programmers in order to qualify for some of the program-access conditions of the Comcast-NBCUniversal merger approval order, companies and public interest groups said in comments filed at the FCC this week. Dish Network, Public Knowledge and a coalition of TV programmers that includes Disney, CBS, News Corp., Sony Pictures, Time Warner and Viacom each filed separate comments arguing against Comcast’s proposal.
The overall cost of putting in place a national network for public safety, as required by recently enacted spectrum legislation, remains to be seen, speakers said Wednesday during a special presentation on Broadband US TV. Many questions remain, more than a month after President Barack Obama signed the payroll tax extension, which includes the spectrum legislation and establishment of the FirstNet for public safety.
Malicious attacks on data systems can’t be prevented but can be contained once they're detected, security experts told the FOSE conference Thursday. Moving to a cloud environment won’t simplify cybersecurity, but make it messier, and that creates more chance for attacks, said Amit Yoran, general manager of RSA’s security and compliance business and former director of the Department of Homeland Security’s National Cyber Security Division.
Industry and FCC officials said they're watching two FCC dockets to see what parties may reveal their policy positions and potential business plans related to the distribution of video over the Internet. Comments on a proposal by Comcast to clarify how it can access information submitted by online video distributors (OVDs) to prove they can avail themselves of the certain Comcast-NBCU approval conditions were due after our deadline Tuesday. And the Media Bureau issued a Public Notice Friday about the definition of the term “multichannel video programming distributor,” for which comments are due at the end of the month.
T-Mobile USA brought CEO Philipp Humm to the FCC last week to push for FCC decisions granting T-Mobile the AWS licenses it got as part of the breakup fee when the AT&T/T-Mobile deal ended in December, and denying Verizon Wireless’s buy of AWS licenses from the cable companies. Humm met with Chairman Julius Genachowski, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, Angela Giancarlo, the top aide to Commissioner Robert McDowell, and Rick Kaplan, chief of the Wireless Bureau, among other FCC officials. The visit was Humm’s second to the FCC this year.
Carriers uniformly support the launch of an integrated national database to address duplicate and eligibility concerns for the Lifeline program, according to comments filed in response to a further notice of proposed rulemaking in the FCC’s Lifeline Order. But several carriers, as well as state commissions, were wary of a proposal to use USF dollars to encourage digital literacy, questioning whether the FCC had such authority. States also expressed concerns over privacy issues, the expected cost of the national database, and AT&T’s proposal to let ILECs opt out of the Lifeline program.
Fundraising for communications policy nonprofits has been difficult since the recession hit, which contributed to the Media Access Project board’s decision to wind down the operation this month. “It’s been very hard for many of the public interest groups since the recession, and foundation funding is very hard to get,” said Andy Schwartzman, MAP’s policy director since 1978. MAP said Tuesday that it plans to suspend its operations May 1, ending a nearly 40-year run as one of the communications bar’s most effective public interest advocates.