The FCC Wireline Bureau received generally good marks on its productivity from communications industry representatives we interviewed for this Communications Daily Special Report, even amid gradually declining budgets and staff sizes at the agency overall (see 1512150011). The bureau is seen by most as working hard to generate a large number of regulatory actions on a wide array of complex and contentious issues, with progress in addressing some backlogs. “I can’t think of any specific areas where the Wireline Competition Bureau is lagging,” said Micah Caldwell, ITTA vice president-regulatory affairs. Caldwell was the only person interviewed for this article willing to be cited by name; the rest either requested anonymity or declined to comment altogether on the bureau’s output and performance.
The FCC held some dozen events for news media that weren't on the record in the first half of this year, more than any other communications-related federal body. Such commission media events, often "on background" where officials couldn't be identified, numbered twice as many as were fully on the record. Partisan politics (see 1510280062 and 1512150011) and a divided FCC (see 1512150030) appear to be making commission officials more cautious in what they say when their names are attached, said experts who reviewed a Communications Daily database. They said such politics partly reflect a politically divided Washington. That's apparent to a lesser degree at NTIA and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
While details of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) remained sketchy Wednesday because the text of the compromise isn't public, the measure is widely viewed as a major development -- be it good or bad. Privacy lawyers said the legislation will strongly affect the way companies handle data protection responsibilities, partly because of the new, higher penalties. "This will deliver the biggest shake-up in privacy regulation for 20 years," wrote Linklaters (Brussels) Global Head of Privacy and Data Protection Tanguy Van Overstraeten. One industry coalition said the GDPR will scare off investors, while telecom network operators said the agreement will leave in place conflicting rules for telcos and Internet players. Digital rights activists and ISPs said the legislation seemed to lack the ambition of the original European Commission proposal.
A decision in Tennis Channel's legal complaint against the FCC could come within a couple of months, or might take longer if the federal appellate court decides to schedule oral argument, Stephen Weiswasser of Covington and Burling, representing Tennis Channel, told us. Friday was the deadline for the agency, Tennis Channel and intervenor Comcast Cable Communications to file in the case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Several public interest groups filed FCC complaints against 18 TV stations in seven markets Thursday over political ad sponsorship identification, said a news release from the Campaign Legal Center. The stations “incorrectly” identified the Independence USA PAC as the sponsor of political ads, when the PAC is largely funded by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, said the Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause and the Sunlight Foundation in the release. The groups sent a warning letter to the stations in November informing them that Bloomberg was behind the PAC, but the stations identified the ads as being paid for by Independence USA, the release said. “The Super PAC acts essentially as a personal advertising arm for Mr. Bloomberg, yet the stations failed to fully and fairly inform the public about who was attempting to influence them despite being given easily-accessible, publicly-available information, including Federal Election Commission filings regarding Mr. Bloomberg’s financing of the ads,” said the release. “Under the Communications Act, broadcasters are required to 'exercise reasonable diligence' to obtain the information needed for proper sponsorship identification,” said the groups. At the 2015 Radio Show, Media Bureau Policy Division Assistant Chief Robert Baker said broadcasters aren't required to do extensive investigations of buyers of political ads to make sure the sponsor is correctly identified. “You can rely on the person that hands you the check that they are who they say they are,” Baker said, unless someone produces “a mountain of evidence” to the contrary (see 1510020057). The Media Bureau has received the complaints and is reviewing them, a spokeswoman told us.
AT&T and Facebook representatives sought limited government involvement in IoT during an event Wednesday. "There is a role of government [regulation], but the pace of change, the pace of technology innovation, is so fast that I think the government is having a difficult time in sorting this out," said Jim Cicconi, AT&T senior executive vice president-external and legislative affairs. "You see two wildly divergent approaches." One is for government agencies to "simply lay back, have a lot of discussions and kind of hope for the best," Cicconi said, while the other is for agencies to "feel compelled to assert themselves in the traditional way" and assert themselves with much more of a "command and control" approach. The first approach risks issues like security, and the other risks "perhaps more" by stifling investment, he said.
National security concerns from a host of stakeholders delayed for a second time the Senate Commerce Committee markup of the wide-ranging package of spectrum and broadband deployment measures known as Mobile Now, senior senators involved in the negotiations told us Tuesday. Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., wrote the spectrum package and had hoped to mark it up in November and then again as part of this week's Wednesday markup. But there’s bipartisan belief that the measure can advance early in the new year.
The FCC Wireless Bureau said Monday communications tower companies must comply with revised tower guidelines released Friday by the Federal Aviation Administration. New towers that use several lighting styles and are higher than 350 feet above ground level (AGL) now must deploy flashing obstruction lights. That change kicks in immediately. The notice has a similar requirement for towers between 151 and 350 feet AGL, though that requirement doesn’t begin until Sept. 15. “Under Commission rules, each new or altered antenna structure subject to the antenna structure registration requirement must conform to the painting and lighting specifications set forth in the FAA’s final determination of ‘no hazard’ and the associated FAA study for that particular structure,” the bureau said in its public notice. The changes are intended to curb deaths of migratory birds, which sometimes crash into steady-burning lights, but are less attracted to flashing lights, the bureau said.
Experts believe the California PUC will follow its own schedule, rather than the FCC's shot clock, in reviewing Charter Communications' acquisitions of Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable. No one expects the deal to be done within the FCC's 180 days, particularly given the volume of data requested by the FCC, Paul Goodman, telecommunications senior legal counsel at the Greenlining Institute, told us. Given the Charter/TWC/BHN size, “this is more like an eight- or nine-month process,” he said, saying the CPUC typically “works hard to match” the FCC schedule. Any California delays (see 1511270047) shouldn’t derail the deal unless Charter starts to see signs federal or state regulators won’t be satisfied with answers or conditions and no sign-off is likely, Goodman said.
Critics of the FCC's undersea cable outage reporting proposal cited unreasonable standards of reporting as a main driver for discontent, in comments on the FCC's proposed rules (see 1509170047). They said if the decision is made to enact outage reporting requirements, the FCC should loosen its rules to ease the burden on licensees. The NPRM (docket 15-206) proposes to "require submarine cable licensees to report to the commission when outages occur and communications are disrupted." Currently, undersea cable notifications are submitted by operators on a voluntary basis using the FCC's Undersea Cable Information System (UCIS).