Those who post content on social media and similar platforms should be liable for proper disclosures and the FTC shouldn’t assign liability to the host of the user-generated content, NetChoice said. In comments for the agency’s May 30 workshop to explore online and mobile media advertising disclosures, the association said the FTC should acknowledge that hosts of content posted by third parties aren’t liable for “improper disclosure by these third-parties.” The FTC’s limiting the liability of the host of content from the actions of a third party “makes sense under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act that protects such intermediaries,” it said. For mobile ads, the FTC should allow clickthrough for notice and choice, as in the Digital Advertising Alliance’s self-regulatory program, NetChoice said. The agency has noted on several occasions that disclosures via mobile apps are limited by screen size, the association said. “To help alleviate this problem, we recommend the FTC find that ads on mobile devices can off-load these disclosures via a click-through to another screen or application.” For location-based mobile ads, the FTC should incorporate clickthrough and consent mechanisms, it said. The agency should avoid addressing privacy disclosures in the proposed update to the Dot Com Disclosures because they are “outside the scope of the original guidelines and may impede the greater goal of the update,” NetChoice said.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he’s moving to “step two” of his investigation into the FCC’s handling of the LightSquared wireless project. During a speech given on the Senate floor Tuesday Grassley said, “We need to talk to key FCC personnel” involved in the incident. “However long the process takes I will continue to press for transparency at the FCC.” Grassley would not specifically say whom at the FCC he wanted to speak with but told us later he wanted to ask two things: “We want to know contacts made on how [LightSquared] would operate and the extent they would want to know whether there would be interference or not or had an OK to go ahead.” Grassley added that he was more personally interested in determining if there were any “political connections” related to the FCC’s decision-making. Last month Grassley released his hold on FCC nominees Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel after a year-long row with the commission over documents he requested related to LightSquared’s plan to offer terrestrial broadband service using satellite spectrum.
A California-based public safety communications coalition said the lessons learned from the Bay Area Wireless Enhanced Broadband System (BayWEB) project are beneficial to the FCC’s FirstNet initiative, contrary to the testimony by NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling during a recent House Communications Subcommittee hearing. The appeal came Tuesday in a letter from the Bay Area Regional Interoperable Communication System Joint Powers Authority (BayRICS) to Subcommittee Chair Greg Walden, R-Ore. (http://xrl.us/bm8ykc). Strickling said a challenge of the BayWEB project is that it needed “to bring together cities and counties in the Bay Area into an appropriate governance structure,” the letter said. But Strickling failed to tell lawmakers how 12 Bay Area jurisdictions were able to establish a regional interoperable communications governance, the BayRICS Authority. “The Bay Area’s lessons learned, and resulting best practices are a prime example of the types of valuable input that the BTOP projects can contribute to the FirstNet initiative,” the letter said.
The FCC Wireline Bureau announced the proposed North American Numbering Plan Administration fund size estimate and contribution factor for fiscal year 2012 starting July 1, in a public notice released Monday (http://xrl.us/bm8xsr). The proposed funding requirement is about $6.19 million with a contribution factor of 0.0000254. “Proper funding of NANP Administration ensures that consumers will continue to have access to the numbering resources essential to the provision of new services and technologies,” the bureau said. If the commission takes no action within 14 days, the fund size estimate and contribution factor shall be deemed approved.
The FCC Public Safety Bureau seeks comment on multi-line telephone systems, pursuant to the Next Generation 911 Advancement Act of 2012 (http://xrl.us/bm8xqt). Specifically, the commission seeks comment on the feasibility of multi-line telephone systems to provide the precise location of a 911 caller, and the National Emergency Number Association’s “Technical Requirements Document on Model Legislation E911 for Multi-Line Telephone Systems.” Comments are due in PS docket 10-255 July 5, replies Aug. 6.
The Universal Service Administrative Co. was granted an extension of the filing deadline for its independent auditor’s draft audit report for calendar year 2011, said an order adopted Tuesday by the FCC Wireline Bureau (http://xrl.us/bm8xcf). The extension was warranted “due to the delays in the audit procurement approval process to ensure compliance with the MOU accompanied by the extensive audit work necessary to comply” with Section 54.717 of the commission’s rules, the bureau said.
Puerto Rico needs its own Lifeline database for several reasons, representatives of the Telecommunications Regulatory Board of Puerto Rico told FCC commissioners, advisers, and Universal Service Administrative Co. staff last week, according to an ex parte filing (http://xrl.us/bm8wzi). A Puerto Rico-specific database is necessary to deal with the unique addresses used in Puerto Rico, the use of two last names for identification, the need for a Spanish language carrier interface, and the need to use the full Social Security number for identification that interfaces with other government databases, they said. They also discussed recent activity in preparing the Puerto Rico Broadband Plan, calling it a “specific sequel to the FCC’s National Broadband Plan."
The Department of Justice withdrew its request to defer action on the Section 214 transfer of control application between U.S. Cable of Coastal-Texas, Charter Communications Entertainment, and Charter Fiberlink-Missouri (http://xrl.us/bm8wud). Based on information provided by the applications and analysis of “potential national security, law enforcement, and public safety issues,” the DOJ, FBI and Department of Homeland Security had “no objection,” they said Monday. On Tuesday, the FCC Wireline Bureau approved the transfer, finding it in the public interest (http://xrl.us/bm8xbp).
Top executives from Windy City Cellular met with FCC officials to press for commission action on the company’s April 3 petition for waiver seeking relief from the agency’s recent “flash-cut” of annual per-line support for competitive eligible telecommunications carriers. The decision meant an 84 percent decline in funding for the company and could force a shutdown, said an ex parte filing on the meetings (http://xrl.us/bm8whm). Windy City is building a network in what it calls “one of the most remote and inhospitable locations in the United States of America -- Adak Island in the Bering Sea.” Among those attending were CEO Larry Mayes and Andilea Weaver, chief operating officer. “The parties emphasized that a delay in relief is tantamount to an order to shut down service: WCC will be forced to shut down all operations in only five weeks if the Commission does not grant a waiver quickly,” the filing said. “The company will run out of money by July 1. The company will also need to expend dwindling resources to send out notices of potential discontinuance under federal rules to its customers as well as file a discontinuance notice with the FCC.” “Mr. Mayes and his team built this system in the face of frequent cyclonic winds with gusts in excess of 100 knots, fog storms, an average accumulated snowfall of 100 inches, earthquakes, a nearby active volcano, rain more than 260 days per year, and tsunamis, and in an area saturated with active bombs and infested with large rats,” the filing said.
T-Mobile has one message for regulators on its ability to deploy LTE and another message for Wall Street, said Verizon Wireless, the SpectrumCo partners and Cox in a letter to the FCC. In its most recent presentation to the FCC against the transactions, “T-Mobile offers no new analysis, facts, or reasons that could justify denying the pending applications to assign AWS spectrum in the secondary market,” the letter said (http://xrl.us/bm8v78). “These transactions will help provide the spectrum capacity necessary for Verizon Wireless to meet consumers’ growing needs for 4G service. T-Mobile, however, simply repeats claims that the Applicants have rebutted in the past.” The presentation is at odds with other comments by Deutsche Telekom Chief Financial Officer Timotheus Höttges, they said. “Twice in the last two weeks” Höttges “has relayed to investors the company’s optimistic view of T-Mobile’s future in the U.S. market,” Verizon and the cable companies said. “'[W]e will have an LTE offer, which is competitive enough with all the players in the U.S. market,’ and will be launched next year,” the letter quotes Höttges as saying. “'And by the way, at the end of the day for almost every market, we have two times 10 megahertz of LTE. This is giving us a clear path until 2017, 2018, whatever projection you might take with regards to data consumption on a standalone basis.'” Verizon and the cable operators contend, “T-Mobile’s regulatory advocacy is so different from its parent’s view that one can only conclude it is misusing the regulatory process solely to impede a competitor’s 4G plans or extract concessions.”