Lifeline is an important program established 30 years ago and stuck in a time warp since, said FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn during a panel discussion about the service at NARUC’s summer committee meetings Monday in New York. The program has gone through some growing pains and challenges, but the FCC has never lost sight that Lifeline was created to act as a bridge for affordability, she said. Commissioner Michael O’Rielly made it clear that he is still unhappy with the lack of a budgetary cap on the program. He said that he has difficulty with where the FCC is on the program and where it seems to be going but that he is optimistic that the agency will be able to come up with a plan that all of the commissioners can support.
Somewhat the way the FCC was flooded with public comments regarding net neutrality, a collection of communications companies, trade organizations and advocacy groups is hoping to get similar public support -- if not the volume -- as they lobby regarding a variety of broadband-centric matters before the FCC. "You don't have to get net neutrality-type numbers," said Harold Feld, senior vice president at Public Knowledge, one of the participants in a new campaign, dubbed "Competify." "If you have a large number of customers … file saying, 'There's not a lot of competition,' that’s something a chairman of the FCC can point to to say 'Look, I'm not making this up.'"
The FCC plans to vote at its Aug. 6 meeting on two draft IP technology transition orders that Chairman Tom Wheeler is circulating with commissioners, agency staff said Friday. The drafts would create a regulatory framework as telecom carriers migrate from traditional circuit-switched, copper-based phone networks to packet-switched, IP-based broadband systems using fiber and other networks. The intent is to “help deliver the promise of dynamic new networks, provide clear rules of the road for network operators, and preserve our core values, including protecting consumers and promotion competition and public safety,” Wheeler said in an FCC blog.
Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., introduced the Consumer Privacy Protection Act Wednesday to “help ensure that sensitive personal information individuals share with corporations is kept secure from hackers and other malicious actors,” he said in a news release. Consumers are providing more personal information than ever before to major companies and expect this information will be kept secure, Cicilline said, saying the bill would “modernize standards for protecting consumer data and provide some much-needed peace of mind for American consumers.” Consumer Watchdog endorsed the bill, a companion to a bill introduced in the Senate by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and five other Democrats, as have Consumer Action, the Consumer Federation of America and Public Knowledge. Eleven Democratic House members are co-sponsors. Since 47 states have breach notification laws, “it is essential that federal legislation not undermine those protections,” Consumer Watchdog said in a news release. The Consumer Privacy Protection Act would require companies that store personal information on more than 10,000 customers take steps to keep that information safe from cyberattacks and data breaches, and require those companies to notify consumers and federal law enforcement after a major data breach, Cicilline’s release said. “The personal information protected in the bill includes Social Security numbers, usernames and passwords, biometric data, geolocation, information on a person’s health and well-being, and private photos,” it said. Public Knowledge Vice President-Government Affairs Chris Lewis said the bill creates a strong federal standard that doesn’t pre-empt state laws that have higher standards and “preserves the system of data security at the Federal Communications Commission that has been an integral part of privacy protections on essential communications networks.” Susan Grant, director of Consumer Protection and Privacy for the Consumer Federation of America, said the bill “effectively addresses the problem of data insecurity and provides the comprehensive protection that consumers need and want,” and urged the House to pass it quickly.
Judicial review of the net neutrality litigation is coming into clearer focus as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit recently set a briefing schedule, and telco and cable petitioners outlined their many lines of attack on the FCC's order. The court essentially accepted the parties’ proposed expedited briefing timetable running through mid-October, but it shortened and consolidated the briefs proposed by the main telco and cable broadband groups challenging the order while raising the word limit for intervenors defending the commission's net neutrality rules and broadband reclassification. One key aspect of the court's review still isn't known: the identity of the three judges who will review the merits of the industry challenges, which argue the FCC order violated the Communications Act, administrative procedures and even the First Amendment.
LightSquared is hoping the lack of opposition to its plans to transfer licenses to a reorganized version of the company, and to get a waiver of foreign ownership rules, helps speed its emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The deadline for initial comments in docket 15-126 was July 1. The company needs to transfer its licenses to a reorganized entity as one of the last steps to getting Bankruptcy Court approval for ending its 38-month-old bankruptcy proceeding. The lack of opposition to the license reassignments "is a positive sign," said a lawyer working with the company. "It certainly shortens the review process."
NARUC's draft resolution urging congressional action on the FCC net neutrality order (see 1507010061) would ask Congress to move forward on figuring out the playing field, said members of the association in interviews Thursday. South Dakota Public Utilities Commissioner Chris Nelson said it’s a good thing for Congress to move forward. “There's negotiations between the Democrats and Republicans about, 'How do we deal with this?'” he said. “So if this would pass, it would then say that NARUC could then be involved in those discussions. This is a recognition that the stage on which this is playing out may well be shifting from the FCC to Congress and we want to be in a position to advocate if it moves in that direction.”
State policymakers must continue to address how to ensure communications services are available and affordable for consumers so industry can adapt and bring everything into the now broadband-focused playing field, USF experts said in interviews Friday. A white paper, released Friday, by Sherry Lichtenberg, National Regulatory Research Institute principal researcher, said state USF support includes high-cost support, funds for broadband access for schools and libraries, funding for Lifeline and dedicated broadband funding. A key finding in the review is the limitation on high-cost support for areas where competition has driven down the cost of service, reducing the need for support, Lichtenberg said.
Chairman Tom Wheeler said the FCC would offer its own rate-of-return USF overhaul plan absent rural LEC industry consensus, expects to move an Internet video program-rights order and a broadband privacy NPRM this fall, and would hold the broadcast incentive auction in Q1. Offering a broadband overview at the Brookings Institution Friday, Wheeler said the FCC would continue to protect and promote competition but wouldn't require "network unbundling." He also said many telco and cable providers continue to invest despite the threats of "a few big dogs" to "starve investment" due to the recent broadband reclassification. Wheeler's speech largely tracked prepared remarks.
Top multichannel video programming distributors and makers of consumer electronics expanded energy reduction efforts to target broadband modems, Wi-Fi routers and other home Internet equipment. The program includes many of the same companies and participants as a pay-TV set-top box energy reduction initiative begun in 2013 in the face of potential Department of Energy rules. The new initiative will cut up to 20 percent of small network equipment energy use by the end of 2017, CEA and NCTA said Thursday.