Samsung's promised report on the Galaxy Note7 fiasco in a Monday news conference in Seoul includes an "enhanced 8-point battery safety check" it says will address safety "from the component level to the assembly and shipment of devices." The checklist was put in place to address issues with lithium-ion batteries used in two waves of Note7 devices in second half 2016 that led to a double product recall by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, discontinuation of the product, a Federal Aviation Administration warning and a hit to carrier and retailer sales.
Republican FTC Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen stopped short Monday of confirming speculation that President Donald Trump will appoint her as the commission's acting or permanent chairwoman, as many expect. She laid out her vision during the State of the Net conference for a majority GOP FTC, which she said should shift its focus to investigating “real” instead of “speculative” harms to consumers. Trump is expected to at the least appoint an acting FTC chair when outgoing Chairwoman Edith Ramirez resigns Feb. 10 (see 1701200002). Ramirez's planned resignation will leave the FTC with three vacancies and a 1-1 Democratic-Republican split. Experts say the agency can continue to function effectively under those circumstances (see 1701130030).
Outgoing FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler warned against attempts to "gut" the agency, including by moving core telecom oversight functions to the FTC. He also defended the commission's actions on net neutrality, broadband reclassification, privacy, zero rating, the incentive auction, USF changes and other issues. He was interviewed on C-SPAN's The Communicators (scheduled to air Saturday and Monday and posted here), the latest in a series of exit interviews and farewell appearances (see 1701190069 and 1701130064) before Donald Trump's inauguration as president on Friday, Wheeler's last day at the agency.
Industry lobbyists and officials told us Friday that Commissioner Ajit Pai, the FCC's senior Republican, is being tapped to lead the agency as chairman on a permanent basis. Spokespeople for President Donald Trump didn’t confirm the reports. The FCC was reduced to three commissioners Friday, as expected, with Tom Wheeler stepping down as chairman and no longer listed on the FCC website among commissioners. Pai has been seen as nearly certain to become chairman on at least an interim basis, and personally met with Trump in New York City less than a week before Friday's inauguration.
FCC staff approved video relay service interoperability and portability standards for services, equipment and software. Acting on delegated authority, the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau also issued a Further NPRM seeking comment on the scope of the application of a technical standard for user equipment and software, said the item in docket 10-51 listed in Wednesday's Daily Digest. Sorenson Communications, the largest VRS provider, criticized the action. Previous interoperability and portability requirements were intended to allow VRS users to make and receive calls through any provider without changing access technologies, and to ensure users can make point-to-point calls to all other VRS users, regardless of the default providers, the item said. In an August FNPRM, the bureau proposed adopting the technical standards of both a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Forum task force and the successor Relay User Equipment (RUE) Forum (see 1608050031). The order this week incorporated the SIP interoperability standard into FCC rules, effective 120 days after publication in the Federal Register, as requested by VRS providers. It said consumer groups supported incorporating the RUE standard into the rules but providers said imposing it on all hardware and software would impose major costs. The bureau said it incorporated the RUE standard "on a limited basis that preserves providers’ flexibility to continue offering user equipment and software that does not conform to the RUE Profile in all respects, pending further determinations in this proceeding." It set a compliance date of one year after FR publication and teed up related questions in the new FNPRM. "The Bureau went far beyond what was necessary and has adopted what providers all told them were unneeded and costly requirements without any cost/benefit analysis," emailed Sorenson Chief Marketing Officer Paul Kershisnik. "The industry is already implementing interoperability standards, and has developed a more cost-effective means of ensuring consumers can move their contacts from one provider to another. We will be urging the Commission to review and correct these midnight regulations." Consumer advocates and Republican Commissioners Ajit Pai and Michael O'Rielly didn't comment.
Regulatory oversight is a critical part of reducing cyber risk on telecom networks, the FCC Public Safety Bureau said Wednesday. “As the end-to-end Internet user experience continues to expand and diversify, the Commission's ability to reduce cyber risk for individuals and businesses will continue to be taxed,” the bureau said in a white paper. “But shifting this risk oversight responsibility to a non-regulatory body would not be good policy. It would be resource intensive and ultimately drive dramatic federal costs and still most certainly fail to address the risk for over 30,000 communications service providers and their vendor base.” The FCC can’t rely on organic market incentives alone to reduce cyber risk, it said. “As private actors, ISPs operate in economic environments that pressure against investments that do not directly contribute to profit. Protective actions taken by one ISP can be undermined by the failure of other ISPs to take similar actions. This weakens the incentive of all ISPs to invest in such protections. Cyber-accountability therefore requires a combination of market-based incentives and appropriate regulatory oversight where the market does not, or cannot, do the job effectively.” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, who steps down Friday, mailed the cybersecurity white paper to Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va. “This whitepaper outlines risk reduction activity engaged in by the Commission during my tenure and suggests actions that would continue to affirmatively reduce cyber risk in a manner that benefits from and incents further competition, protects consumers, and addresses significant national security vulnerabilities,” Wheeler wrote. Earlier, Wheeler was seen as backing off more ambitious cybersecurity plans (see 1611300063).
A defiant Tom Wheeler defended the policies developed under his chairmanship Friday and said the newly reconstituted FCC may find it difficult to quickly undo the net neutrality order and reclassification of broadband under Title II of the Communications Act. Wheeler, who leaves office Jan. 20, spoke at the Aspen Institute in what he had said will be his last major speech while chairman. Some industry officials have questioned the impact of a major policy address by a departing chairman (see 1701120062).
It will take roughly two years, until Q4 2019, for the FCC's new home at Sentinel Square III at 45 L St. NE to be constructed, an official connected with the project told us. Former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt keeps a swatch of the carpet that lines the agency's current Portals headquarters in his office as a memento of his involvement in that building's interior design, and it could be an interim chair or the commission's next permanent chair who will oversee the design of the work spaces in the new building.
California may rule next month that cable companies don’t have the right to attach wireless equipment to utility poles. A proposed decision released Monday by the California Public Utilities Commission would deny a petition by the California Cable & Telecommunications Association (CCTA) to extend right-of-way rules of commercial mobile radio services to wireless pole attachments by cable companies (see 1607210030). Also at the CPUC, opponents to Google’s acquisition of Webpass’ CLEC license in California withdrew their objections, allowing the transaction to move forward uncontested. And the commission Tuesday released an agenda for its Jan. 19 meeting, including items on implementing the FCC’s Lifeline order and another extension of its high-cost fund rulemaking.
The communications industry might not know for a while who the permanent FCC chairman will be under Donald Trump, said industry lawyers and former senior FCC officials Tuesday. At CES last week, there was widespread speculation Trump may tap a relative unknown. One name that keeps coming up is Indiana State Sen. Brandt Hershman, who's reportedly close to Vice President-elect Mike Pence, the Indiana governor. Industry officials said if history is a guide, the next chairman could be a surprise choice, made by the president himself with the FCC transition team playing only a minor role.