ICANN should delay the sale of the Public Interest Registry to a private equity firm until concerns about possible censorship, high domain name prices and other issues are addressed, more nonprofits are asking. The transaction, announced Nov. 13 (see 1911130029), involves the sale of PIR's assets to Ethos Capital. Despite assurances from the buyer and the seller, the Internet Society, opposition is growing. ICANN requested more information about the deal and urged the parties to act openly and transparently.
Apple and Google need to voluntarily provide better device access, or Congress will force them to alter encryption standards and accommodate lawful police searches, Senate Judiciary Committee members from both parties said Tuesday. The panel and representatives from Apple and Facebook debated end-to-encryption during a Tuesday hearing, at which law enforcement slammed Apple’s decision in 2014 to engineer devices in a way that effectively blocks police access.
Internecine clashes in the mental health crisis and social service communities over what three digits to use for a nationwide suicide prevention hotline are seemingly over. There's general acceptance -- sometimes grudging -- of 988, experts told us. Many see its selection as inevitable given the support on Capitol Hill and at the FCC. Commissioners vote Thursday on a draft NPRM proposing 988 (see 1911210049).
If Huawei equipment is enough of a threat to warrant barring USF funds to networks using it (see 1911220033), the FCC should look further into having that hardware removed even from networks where carriers aren't getting USF funds, Commissioner Brendan Carr said at Tuesday's Practising Law Institute conference. Legal issues could arise with that approach, but the topic should at least "be on the table," he said. He said the FCC is working "with other three-letter agencies" on such issues. Huawei didn't comment.
Judge Victor Marrero queried Deutsche Telecom's head on the viability of Dish Network as a competitor, a key part of DOJ's remedy to allow T-Mobile to buy Sprint, at trial Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. States sought to undermine T-Mobile's argument that its purchase shouldn't be viewed as moving from four to three competitors, showing through exhibits that T-Mobile and DT executives talked about it as four-to-three. DT didn't see Dish as a serious competitor before the DOJ remedy, states said.
Hill lawmakers are pushing to insert major telecom priorities into a continuing resolution to fund the federal government past Dec. 20, with some items appearing to be closer to the finish line than others. Leaders are nearing a deal to attach Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization language to the CR derived entirely from a pair of House-side measures. The House passed one of those bills, the Television Viewer Protection Act (HR-5035), on a voice vote Tuesday.
FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra told states’ attorneys general Monday “the ball really is in” their court to go deeper in their investigations of Facebook, which he hopes will delve further into the social media company’s data privacy practices than the FTC’s recently concluded probe. Commissioners voted 3-2 in July to approve a settlement with Facebook, which agreed to pay $5 billion and install an independent privacy committee to oversee compliance. Chopra and fellow Democratic Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter voted against the settlement (see 1907240042). GOP Commissioner Christine Wilson defended the strength of the FTC settlement during a National Association of Attorneys General conference.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai told the new Precision Agriculture Task Force that America's need for broadband on farms and ranches will only increase, at its first meeting Monday. Farmers and ranchers want to upload huge amounts of data to the cloud, "and that's why broadband is going to be central," he said. Pai said task force insights will be important in advising the FCC on how to spend at least $1 billion of the proposed $9 billion 5G Fund that he announced last week (see 1912040027). He said without such USF support for precision agriculture, there might be no business case for 5G in many rural areas.
A Sprint executive said price increases are a “hypothetical" synergy of combining with T-Mobile, in a 2017 text exchange with then-CEO Marcelo Claure, states showed Monday in an exhibit at the first day of trial at U.S. District Court in lower Manhattan. Questioning Sprint Chief Marketing Officer Roger Sole, states painted the wireless market as highly competitive with Sprint as a player. Sole noted Sprint has higher churn than rivals and customers have fallen over the past two years.
FCC staff, announcing the next states to get soft rollouts of a national verifier of Lifeline eligibility, appeared to some stakeholders to have given more time than the agency had previously planned for the move. States and others had been calling for that for many months. The NV rollout will start Monday in Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin, said a Wireline Bureau public notice. Earlier Monday, an FCC enforcement advisory said it emphasized eligible telecom carriers (ETCs) getting government money for the broadband and phone service program "remain responsible for claiming Lifeline support only for eligible low-income consumers."