Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., the FCC, academics, and consumer protection and civil liberties groups filed amicus briefs Monday supporting an FTC request for an en banc rehearing to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The court rejected the trade commission's lawsuit that alleged AT&T Mobility failed to adequately disclose its data throttling policy to customers with unlimited data plans (see 1610140038 and 1608290032). Blumenthal said (in Pacer) he supports a rehearing because if the opinion is allowed to stand, it "will create a regulatory gap that will allow unfair, deceptive, and fraudulent behavior to go without redress, harming consumers." The FCC said (in Pacer) the ruling would "undermine the agencies' successful partnership and harm consumers." The communications agency also said the decision would restrict the FTC's oversight of companies like AT&T, Comcast, Dish Network, Google and Verizon that have started to offer both common carrier and non-common carrier services. A dozen consumer and civil liberties groups -- including the Center for Digital Democracy, the Center for Democracy and Technology, Consumers Union, the Consumer Federation of America and the Electronic Privacy Information Center -- said (in Pacer) the ruling "could immunize from FTC oversight a vast swath of companies that engage to some degree in a common carrier activity." The result is "deeply disruptive to the market, and at odds with Congress' intent," they said, adding companies could commit deceptive and unfair acts as well as violate 70 other consumer protection laws. Companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Twitter could soon even engage in common carrier activities to "shed FTC oversight," they said. Georgetown University Law professor Paul Ohm and University of Minnesota Law School professor William McGeveran jointly filed an amicus brief (in Pacer) in support of FTC. Public Knowledge (in Pacer) also filed backing the commission as did New America's Open Technology Institute and two others groups jointly.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler anticipates the Enforcement Bureau tiger teams “should be up and running” by early 2017, he told House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore. That was one of the many written answers Wheeler supplied in a 40-page document sent to the House Commerce Committee this month. He and the other four commissioners were responding to questions for the record that lawmakers submitted after a July 12 FCC oversight hearing.
Stage 3 of the incentive auction reverse auction will get underway Nov. 1, the FCC said Tuesday. After the first two stages faltered, the agency will offer 108 MHz, or eight 10 MHz blocks of usable spectrum, in the eventual Stage 3 forward auction. With Saturday's announcement that potential bidder AT&T is buying Time Warner for $108.7 billion, some wonder if that may depress the carrier's spending in the auction.
Cox Communications said it will support the California Public Utilities Commission's request for an extension to the FCC Dec. 2 LifeLine implementation deadline. A CPUC spokeswoman confirmed Monday her agency will file at the FCC for an extension but hasn't yet. In replies posted Sunday, the operator said it “understands that the Commission will be filing a petition with the FCC requesting an extension of time to comply with the FCC rules concerning only eligibility criteria and the benefit portability freeze.” Cox heard that at the CPUC’s Oct. 14 LifeLine workshop, which went over federal changes to add broadband as a supported service, it said. “Cox supports the Commission seeking this extension and remains hopeful that the FCC will act promptly to grant the Commission’s petition well in advance of the December 2, 2016 deadline.” Industry and some states separately supported a USTelecom petition seeking a waiver of the deadline in 25 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. (see 1610210046). The D.C. Public Service Commission declined more time in comments posted in FCC docket 11-42 Friday: “Should unanticipated events prevent the DC PSC from amending its rules by December 2, 2016, the DC PSC will inform the Commission of this fact.” New York PSC comments to the FCC joined Michigan, Missouri and Puerto Rico regulators in supporting the USTelecom petition. In the Cox CPUC replies, the cable ISP urged the commission to “promptly adopt rules to align the California LifeLine eligibility requirements with the federal requirements.” AT&T told the CPUC any diversion from federal rules is risky and the commission shouldn’t adopt exceptions proposed by consumer groups (see 1610180028). “The potential for consumer confusion is too great for the Commission to go its own way on eligibility criteria,” AT&T said. Likewise, exceptions to FCC port freeze requirements “will be complex to implement and will ultimately only harm and confuse customers,” it said. The Office of Ratepayer Advocates supports aligning rules but worries about doing it too fast, it said. “An immediate transition will likely result in significant disruption and displacement of customers from the LifeLine program, particularly at a time when details of the FCC’s implementation have not been fully worked out. A gradual transition over a longer period is preferable because it will allow the Commission to better care for the needs of customers impacted by changes in eligibility requirements.”
The Signaling System Number 7 (SS7) protocol “exemplifies” the vulnerabilities of communications tech transitions, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler told Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., in a letter released Friday and dated Oct. 14. Lieu is a member of the House Oversight Committee’s Subcommittee on Information Technology. The agency “continues to scrutinize our numbering initiatives and the increased concerns regarding robocalling to identify how underlying SS7 vulnerabilities may contribute to risks,” Wheeler said. “We continue to work with our federal government and communications sector partners to bring about meaningful solutions and risk mitigation strategies that will address the SS7 problem and continue the Commission’s mission of ensuring that communications networks are secure, reliable and resilient.” He cited work being done by a Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council working group (see 1606220058), which gave an initial risk assessment last month and expects a final report with recommendations in March.
ISPs are still hopeful they can get changes to the FCC’s proposed privacy order on web browsing and application use history, which would be treated as sensitive data and require opt-in consent to use or share under the draft circulated by Chairman Tom Wheeler. ISPs likely face an uphill climb. Their main target is Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, considered the swing vote on the order.
Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., joined public interest and consumer groups Thursday as expected (see 1610170062) in encouraging the FCC to adopt strong rules for ISP privacy, set for a vote at the Oct. 27 commissioner meeting. Meanwhile, government and industry officials told us, the provisions on how and when ISPs are allowed to offer broadband at a lower cost to consumers willing to give up some privacy protections are emerging as a big issue, but one that has gotten little attention. The FCC released its sunshine notice for next Thursday's meeting, which includes the privacy order. Business data service rules that are also on circulation didn't make the cut, as was expected (see 1610200047).
FCC repacking plans may not provide enough time or money for broadcasters to move, said several panelists at a conference on the repacking Wednesday, the same day that the forward auction phase of Stage 2 of the incentive auction both began and ended. The forward auction proceeds in the single round were $20.95 billion, short of the $56 billion closing cost. NAB said it was “surprised” at the results of the wireless bidding, in a statement. But Incentive Auction Task Force Deputy Chairwoman Jean Kiddoo said the auction was continuing "to work as designed," during her keynote kicking off the Destination Repack conference, organized by Wiley Rein and the Association of Federal Communications Consulting Engineers (AFCCE) .
States are preparing low-income phone programs for federal changes to Lifeline, as the FCC Dec. 1 implementation deadline nears. With several Lifeline rules taking effect Dec. 2, under an FCC schedule (see 1610030040), NARUC General Counsel Brad Ramsay predicted some states will support a USTelecom petition to give some states more time. The Kentucky Public Service Commission plans to issue soon an order about how the changes affect its program, the Minnesota PUC released an order last week, and commissions in California and the District of Columbia are collecting comments. States have sued the FCC over the order, which added broadband internet access service (BIAS) as a supported service in the program.
The telecom industry and a consumer group diverge on the extent of California rural call completion problems as the Public Utilities Commission readies a decision on outages and other issues. The CPUC indicated last week it will act in November on call completion issues, including Frontier Communications/Verizon California transition problems (see 1610130059), after analyzing data from carriers and consumer comments collected during hearings. In comments posted over the weekend (docket I.14-05-012), the Center for Accessible Technology said rural service in California is dangerously unreliable, and big telecom companies said they didn’t see a major problem that couldn’t instead be addressed by the FCC. Smaller LECs said they saw a problem, blaming companies that carry traffic to their networks.