DOJ endorses jamming cell signals in correctional facilities, it said in a letter to the FCC Tuesday. Carriers oppose jamming to shut down the growing flood of contraband cellphones (see 1703130062). Commissioners approved rules and a Further NPRM on contraband cellphones in March, tackling a top priority for Chairman Ajit Pai (see 1703230056). The Monday letter was posted Tuesday in docket 13-111.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai appears free to consider issues affecting Securus and inmate calling services in general, despite allegations he has a conflict of interest stemming from his past legal work for the ICS provider, ethics specialists and former commissioners told us. They noted Pai is more than five years removed from his Securus representation, and government recusal requirements last only one to two years. But two government watchdog advocates suggested Pai hold himself to a higher standard to avoid any appearance of a conflict.
Disagreements grew over potential FCC broadband regulation in apartment buildings and other multiple tenant environments (MTEs) as more parties weighed in on all sides of a commission inquiry in replies posted Tuesday and Wednesday. Property owners are opposed to rules regulating them; localities are concerned about federal pre-emption of their competitive efforts; and industry parties are split over whether the FCC should move ahead with a rulemaking on MTE broadband or take certain actions. They were reacting to a notice of inquiry and initial comments in docket 17-142 (see 1706220036, 1707250050 and 1707260034).
Frontier Communications believes large edge providers should help pay for broadband networks and correct an "imbalance" in industry, Executive Vice President Mark Nielsen said Tuesday. He said "enormous companies are earning their profits over a network that is the responsibility of challenged wireline companies" trying to keep up with consumer expectations. "It really is a heavy responsibility for us to stay on top of upgrading the network," he said. "So that's a challenge that we face as a company but I think the country is going to face in very stark terms going forward." Large edge providers should "make a contribution," he said.
Last week’s federal court ruling upholding a Kentucky city’s right to make one-touch, make-ready policy may strengthen the legal case for more local OTMR policies across the U.S., said attorneys and others who support the practice. But a state industry association head said the U.S. District Court in Louisville opinion has no impact for similar litigation in Tennessee and West Virginia, states that -- unlike Kentucky -- are subject to FCC pole-attachment authority. Meanwhile, one-touch advocates said the court ruling supports making state and national policies.
The FCC is starting to look at the future use of spectrum above 95 GHz, which some had urged years ago (see 1510060037). Office of Engineering and Technology Chief Julius Knapp said last week at the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee meeting the very high frequency spectrum is in the agency’s crosshairs (see 1708150060). An industry coalition is forming to work with the FCC on access to that spectrum, we learned. Chairman Ajit Pai mentioned spectrum above 95 MHz in a March speech at Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute (see 1703150020).
Consumer Reports hires Justin Brookman, ex-FTC (see this section of the Aug. 8 issue of this publication), as director-consumer privacy and technology policy, Consumers Union ... President Donald Trump appoints Cameron Quinn, ex-Agriculture Department, officer for civil rights and civil liberties, Department of Homeland Security ... Sony Electronics hires Cheryl Goodman, ex-Athena San Diego and ex-Qualcomm, as head-corporate communications, succeeding John Dolak, who recently left the company.
The Human Rights Defense Center asked FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to recuse himself from all decisions on Securus Technologies and the inmate calling service industry. Pai has an apparent and actual conflict of interest because of past representation of Securus and because he "never stopped representing" the company's interests via favorable rulings, said an HRDC filing posted Thursday in docket 17-126. Meanwhile, former state and federal commissioners said alleged misrepresentation of state approval status in FCC review of a proposed Securus sale to Platinum Equity could be problematic for Securus.
FCC Chief Information Officer David Bray declined to provide specific details on the agency's plans to protect its Electronic Comment Filing System against future cyberattacks. The refusal was in response to queries from House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., House Oversight Committee ranking member Elijah Cummings, D-Md., and other House Democrats. Pallone and other lawmakers repeatedly pushed for further information on the circumstances behind a reported May 8 distributed denial-of-service attack against ECFS that occurred during the comment period on the NPRM on rolling back its 2015 net neutrality rules and reclassification of broadband as a Communications Act Title II service (see 1705170067, 1706280044 and 1707070039). “Given the ongoing nature of the threats to disrupt the Commission’s electronic comment filing system, it would undermine our system's security to provide a specific roadmap of the additional solutions to which we have referred,” Bray said in a memo to lawmakers accompanying letters from FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. “FCC’s IT staff has worked with commercial cloud providers to implement Internet-based solutions to limit the amount of disruptive bot-related activity if another bot-driven event occurs.” The cloud-based infrastructure supporting ECFS is “provided by our commercial partners,” the memo said. “FCC IT staff has notified its cloud providers of the need to have sufficient 'hardware resources' available to accommodate high-profile proceedings.” The May 8 DDoS attack doesn’t qualify as a “significant cyber incident” under current White House definitions and thus didn’t require a Federal Information Security Management Act-based notification to Congress, the memo said. The FCC consulted with the FBI in making the determination, Bray said. Pai told lawmakers he “cannot guarantee that we will not experience further attempts to disrupt our systems, [but] our staff is constantly monitoring and reviewing the situation so that that everyone seeking to comment on our proceedings will be afforded the opportunity to do so.”
A draft FCC item on advanced telecom capability deployment is a notice of inquiry, a spokesman told us Friday. Chairman Ajit Pai in January withdrew a draft report on broadband-like ATC deployment under Telecom Act Section 706 (see 1701300058), which previous Chairman Tom Wheeler had circulated to conclude an inquiry begun in 2016. "It sounds like this is a reset, and they're basically going to skip a report," said an informed source.