John Eggerton

In what they are calling an unprecedented, coordinated transatlantic effort, US and European privacy groups have filed complaints with European Union regulators and the Federal Trade Commission over "smart" Internet-connected toys, or what they dub "spy toys." US Groups filing the complaint at the FTC are Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood (CCFC), the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD), Consumers Union, and the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). The FTC complaint was lodged against Genesis Toys, the maker of My Friend Cayla and I-Que, and Nuance Communications, which provides voice recognition. Both Cayla and I-Que need to be linked to a Bluetooth-capable Apple or Android smart device to take advantage of their range of functions, the company says on its website. The groups say the toys propose significant security risks to kids and violate the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) protections and FTC rules prohibiting unfair and deceptive practices. They want the FTC to investigate and then act to protect kids.

Stage three of the forward portion of the Federal Communications Commission's spectrum auction began and ended Dec 5 when forward auction bidders again refused to up their prices for reclaimed broadcast spectrum. In fact, the total after stage three was lower—$19,676,240,520—because the FCC reduced the amount of spectrum and the bidders simply reduced their demand along with it. That means the FCC will lower its spectrum-clearing target and proceed to stage four of the reverse auction.

The FCC said that stage four of the reverse auction will likely start Dec 13. It will provide details on Dec 9, including what the new clearing target will be. Stage three of the reverse auction ended last week with the broadcasters' new asking price now $40,313,164,425 for 108 MHz of spectrum (the "clearing target"). In stage two, the price was $55 billion for 114 MHz, but forward auction bidders, who had only ponied up $22 billion in stage one toward an opening price of $86 billion for 126 MHz, did not budge, simply reducing their demand rather than up the price. They did the same Dec 5, signaling broadcasters will have to drop their prices yet again, and wireless companies will get access to even less spectrum, in stage four. The FCC has nine different spectrum targets. Stage three of the reverse auction launched Nov. 1 at a 108 MHz clearing target. The next target is 84 MHz, which some see as the potential equilibrium point between broadcasters' asks and forward bidders' offers, perhaps around a $30 billion number.

The Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC) has given the President-elect Donald Trump transition team a to-do list of 12 telecommunication priorities for creating a more diverse media in terms of access, ownership, participation and procurement. In a memorandum to the Trump team, MMTC made the following asks:

1. Appoint and support Federal Communications Commission leadership that integrates diversity and inclusion into the regulatory rulemaking and public engagement processes.
2. Preserve the FCC’s Lifeline program and improve it to enhance marketplace competition and increase the number of eligible program participants.
3. Maintain free data programs that can preserve the affordability of mobile services, especially for economically vulnerable populations who are extremely sensitive to data costs.
4. Provide for multilingual emergency information in all radio markets.
5. Ban geographic redlining in broadband deployment to ensure ubiquitous access for all communities.
6. Engage the multi-stakeholder process to enhance consumer privacy and counter 'applications redlining in the online marketplace.
7. Work with State Public Utility Commissions and the FCC to ban predatory intrastate and interstate telephone rates charged to prisoners and their families.
8. Engage the FCC and the Department of Labor to address employment discrimination in all communications industries and, especially, the dismal EEO record of the high tech industry.
9. Extend FCC equal procurement opportunity enforcement to all regulatory platforms, and engage the General Accounting Office to ensure that federal agencies and departments consider diversity in procurement when choosing suppliers.
10. Encourage the FCC to adopt an Overcoming Disadvantages Preference that would define eligible entities for competitive authorizations and thereby increase ownership diversity.
11. Incentivize Secondary Market Transactions in commercial wireless spectrum by using tax incentives, auction bidding credits and other measures.
12. Create a 'Glide Path' for the Short-Term Survival and Long-Term Humane Decommissioning of the AM Band in a Manner that Preserves Minority Ownership.

A new group called the Coalition Against Hate, which includes the National Hispanic Media Coalition, is taking aim at the incoming Trump Administration with plans to push "media platforms" to "abandon hate speech as a model," it said. The coalition said it will warn of the dangers of using the "alt-right" label to describe what it said is actually white supremacy, and that it will take issue with Trump appointees and staffers.

Rep Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) has been reelected by the House Republican Caucus to chair the House Judiciary Committee. The committee oversees some communications issues, particularly related to copyright and intellectual property, splitting oversight with the House Commerce Committee, whose new chair is Rep Greg Walden (R-OR) (outgoing E&C chair Fred Upton (R-MI) was term limited). In other committee election news, as legislators pick leadership for the new Congress seated in January, Rep Frank Pallone (D-NJ) was unanimously elected by his Democratic colleagues to remain ranking member of the House Energy & Commerce Committee.

With a new deregulatory Republican majority preparing to take the reins at the Federal Communications Commission under a President Donald Trump, the National Association of Broadcasters has petitioned the FCC to rethink its quadrennial media ownership review, which a divided FCC approved in August.

“After seven years of evaluating the rapidly changing media marketplace, the Federal Communications Commission recently adopted an order that remarkably retained—and in some cases made more stringent—its long-standing broadcast ownership rules,” NAB said in the petition. “Because these rules are divorced from current competitive realities, are based on faulty premises or misunderstandings of the law, lack evidentiary support and prevent local broadcasters from competing and serving their local communities effectively, the National Association of Broadcasters urges the Commission to reconsider major aspects of its Order."

President Barack Obama has signaled his intention to nominate Jeffrey Storey, president of Level 3 Communications, to the President's National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee.

The President only has a few more weeks in office, but that is not stopping him from trying to fill numerous positions on the way out. Storey has been president and CEO since 2013 and was president/COO before that. He has also had senior executive positions with Cox—he was a founding member of Cox Business Services—and Southwestern Bell. Also being nominated to the advisory committee are John Donovan, group president of AT&T Technology and Operations, Steve Smith, president and CEO of Equinix; and Peter Altabef, president and CEO of Unisys.

A new American Consumer Institute (ACI) report concludes that federal regulations on broadband network companies—as distinguished from the edge providers not under that regime—has increased costs for those providers while lowering growth, suppressing investment and dampening job creation. “We’re witnessing a crippling wave of overregulation in the US telecommunications industry that is resulting in economic consequences that impede private investments and job creation, and at the end of the day the only losers are American consumers,” said Institute president Steve Pociask in a statement.

He called for a new approach. “Under this new administration, policymakers and regulators must put aside partisan agendas and work together to deliver practical broadband policies that level the competitive playing field and support our nation’s economy and encourages innovation.” One of the reports key points is the disparity between the regulated ISPs and the edge providers "who often call for the imposition of these rules on their would-be network rivals."

The third stage of the Federal Communications Commission's broadcast incentive spectrum auction closed Dec 1 after 52 rounds, with the broadcasters' new asking price now $40,313,164,425 for 108 MHz of spectrum. That is less than half of the broadcasters' original asking price, though that was for more spectrum. The FCC has said stage three of the forward auction is likely to begin Dec. 5, with all eyes on whether those bidders—wireless companies and others—will beat, meet, or at least approach that total. Beating or meeting it means the auction can close and the FCC can start the process of repacking TV stations into the smaller space, at least after there is a second mini-auction to allocate specific frequencies to the winning bidders.

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation is calling on the Donald Trump Administration to focus on the art of the long-range economic growth policy. In response to the announcement that President-elect Donald Trump and VP-elect Mike Pence had helped broker a deal to keep Carrier air conditioner jobs in Indiana rather than fleeing to Mexico, ITIF said that working to keep and grow American jobs and companies was the right idea but that "lurching from deal to deal" was not.

ITIF, whose bipartisan board members range from Trump FCC transition team member Jeff Eisenach to Blair Levin, former top aide to Democratic FCC chair Julius Genachowski, downplayed the extreme reactions from both sides. "Contrary to early reactions from the left and the right, the Carrier deal opens the door to a new approach to U.S. economic growth policy that is sorely needed," said ITIF president Robert Atkinson. "It sets the precedent that growing, attracting, and retaining globally traded, innovation-based industries that are both high-value and pay high wages is central to U.S. economic growth..."