The FCC handed down orders last week on special access and the Verizon/cable deals that were almost completely at odds and raise questions about whether the commission is engaged in “fact-based” regulation, said Fred Campbell, director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Communications Liberty and Innovation Project, on the group’s blog (http://xrl.us/bnndz9). In the special access order, the FCC majority “found it was appropriate to re-impose monopoly price cap regulations developed over twenty years ago because the FCC lacked ‘reliable’ evidence that cable operators are competing in the special access market,” Campbell wrote. “The very next day, the FCC found cable companies are ‘well-positioned’ to compete in the special access market and are ‘increasingly successful’ competing in that market. ... It is impossible to reconcile these inconsistent findings.” Campbell, a former chief of the FCC’s Wireless Bureau, said the decisions raise real questions about the agency under Chairman Julius Genachowski. “During a hot summer week in August when Congress was out of session, the FCC’s facts and data changed on a daily basis as required to support the FCC’s preferred policy outcome,” he said. “That’s a data-driven approach of sorts -- cherry-picking data to arrive at a predetermined outcome that picks winners and losers rather than protects consumers."
The use, relevance and quality of public, educational and government (PEG) programming has grown, said Northampton Community Television (NCTV) of Massachusetts. This is due to factors like the NCTV facility having been moved from control of the cable provider to local independent nonprofit control and embracing the concept of the PEG center as a community media center, NCTV said in comments in FCC docket 12-103 (http://xrl.us/bnndyb). The comments pertain to a Media Bureau public notice on the state of competition in the delivery of video programming (http://xrl.us/bnndy6). NCTV’s three channels, provided by Comcast, are placed on the lowest tier of cable provided, it said. “If residents only have analog television sets they require a digital converter box to receive this basic service.” Comcast doesn’t allow for distribution of the NCTV programming schedule on its on-screen program guide, it said. “Residents must navigate to our website to view our programming schedule, though we can provide all necessary data required for inclusion on an on-screen program guide.”
The GOP’s inclusion of strict anti-pornography enforcement language in the party platform is an “exceedingly positive development,” said Patrick Trueman, president of Morality in Media, a religious, anti-pornography group. A draft of the party’s platform now reads: “Current laws on all forms of pornography and obscenity need to be vigorously enforced,” according to the group. Stronger language will help curb the distribution of obscene or hardcore pornography on the Internet, which is currently prohibited by federal obscenity laws, said Trueman, who was chief of the Justice Department’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section in the first Bush administration. “Without enforcement of federal obscenity laws, pornographers have had a green light to target our children and families,” he said. The GOP has not yet ratified its party platform but plans to do so this week at the Republican National Convention.
NTIA released an agenda for its third multistakeholder privacy meeting scheduled for Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. in the Department of Commerce building (http://xrl.us/bnndvn). The meeting will begin by polling stakeholders to decide what substantive elements of a mobile applications privacy code of conduct they want to tackle first. The agenda includes a discussion on the timing, dates and location for future stakeholder meetings, it said. Stakeholders also plan to discuss what concrete steps they can take to implement a short list of internal working methods, the agenda said.
The FCC Media Bureau certified Media 3 Corp. as an open video system, an order released Monday said (http://xrl.us/bnndt3). The CLEC is planning to introduce an IPTV service in Manhattan (CD Aug 22 p9).
DirecTV launched a dedicated channel to provide local network news feeds tracking Tropical Storm Isaac. The “Tropical Storm Isaac Information” channel will offer broadcasts “in markets affected by the tropical storm to DirecTV viewers nationwide,” DirecTV said. Coverage will continue “until the storm has diminished its strength,” it said. The channel is DirecTV added.
Unshackle Upstate again championed New York’s pending VoIP deregulation bill as the group, a coalition of more than 80 business and trade organizations, discussed the governor’s Connect NY Broadband grant program. Its partners include various chambers of commerce from upstate New York. Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) on Aug. 21 announced the $25 million broadband grant program that is currently open to applicants (http://bit.ly/QJVVYr). “If Upstate businesses are going to be able to effectively compete in the global marketplace, they will need a 21st century telecommunications infrastructure,” the group said Monday (http://xrl.us/bnndqy). “In addition to providing grants of this nature, the state should also be promoting policies that encourage telcom network investment in the state, such as deregulating VoIP.” Unshackle Upstate has previously expressed support for S-5769, which was referred to the New York State Assembly Corporations, Authorities and Commissions Committee in May.
NewPhone Wireless submitted a revision of its compliance plan to the FCC as it seeks to become qualified as an eligible telecommunications carrier under the Lifeline program. “The Company will comply fully with all conditions set forth in the Lifeline Reform Order, as well as with the Commission’s Lifeline rules and policies more generally,” the filing said (http://xrl.us/bnndfm). “This Compliance Plan describes the specific measures that the Company intends to implement to achieve these objectives."
Most cyberincidents aren’t detected or reported, the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) said Monday. Its report, a snapshot of existing and future EU legislation on security measures and incident reporting, showed that there has been progress, but gaps in national implementation of those laws mean most cyberattacks aren’t dealt with, it said. Large scale outages and data breaches get plenty of media attention, but many breaches remain unnoticed or aren’t reported to authorities or the public, ENISA said. There’s no overall view across the digital society of the incidents, their root causes or their impact on users, it said. This lack of transparency and information makes it hard for policymakers to understand why they need to take action, and complicates industry efforts to address the problem, it said. Legislation can play a key role, and there are now several EU security measures, including in the telecom reform package, e-privacy directive and data protection regulations, as well as an upcoming European cybersecurity strategy, it said. But regulatory gaps remain, it said. Some security incidents don’t fall within existing laws and aren’t being discussed by providers and national regulators, it said. The agency urged the European Commission and national authorities to “discuss, agree, and clarify the scope of legislation on electronic communications and address these and other gaps.” The ultimate goal is to limit the effects of security and personal data breaches or prevent them altogether by making sure appropriate security measures are taken, it said. “This type of governance is crucial and not easy,” so national regulators should share knowledge to create an effective mix of high-level legal obligations and technical implementation requirements, it said. ENISA also recommended better incident reporting procedures and information-sharing among national response teams.
The FCC opened a docket (12-234) for monitoring the conditions it imposed on the Verizon Wireless AWS spectrum transaction (CD Aug 24 p1). Ex parte meetings on the matter will be allowed but must be disclosed, a public notice said (http://xrl.us/bnm36y). Of note in the FCC’s Thursday order was the retention of the existing one-third limit on spectrum ownership, Guggenheim Partners analyst Paul Gallant wrote in a note to investors. “The decision to retain the 145 MHz per-company limit is noteworthy because some observers had interpreted VZW’s sale of spectrum to T-Mobile as signaling that the FCC was planning to significantly lower the cap,” he wrote. “Instead the FCC kept the status quo, at least for the most important benchmark (1/3) for future deals."