Daily Digest 6/29/2018 (An attack on every American)

At least five people were killed and several others were “gravely injured” in a shooting at the Capital Gazette in Anne Arundel County (MD). A shooter is in custody, police said. Police would not name the suspect or say what type of weapon was used. Anne Arundel County Police initially confirmed about 3:15 p.m. that they were responding to an “active shooter” at 888 Bestgate Road, where the newspaper’s offices are located.  The Capital Gazette is owned by The Baltimore Sun.  Jimmy DeButts, an editor at the Capital Gazette, wrote on Twitter that he was “devastated and heartbroken.” He said he could not speak about the shooting, but praised the work of his newspaper. “There are no 40 hour weeks, no big paydays — just a passion for telling stories from our community,” DeButts wrote. “We keep doing more with less. We find ways to cover high school sports, breaking news, tax hikes, school budgets & local entertainment. We are there in times of tragedy. We do our best to share the stories of people, those who make our community better. Please understand, we do all this to serve our community.” He added, “We try to expose corruption. We fight to get access to public records & bring to light the inner workings of government despite major hurdles put in our way. The reporters & editors put their all into finding the truth. That is our mission. Will always be.”

CA legislators adopted sweeping new rules that restrict the data-harvesting practices of Amazon.com, Facebook, Google and Uber, a move that soon could spur other states and Congress to take aim at the tech industry. The California Consumer Privacy Act is one of the toughest U.S. regulations targeting Silicon Valley, where recent privacy mishaps — many involving Facebook — have left consumers clamoring for greater protections online. The law requires tech giants to disclose the kind of data they collect about consumers and allows Web users to opt out of having their information sold to third parties, including advertisers. The new privacy rules, which are slated to come into effect in 2020, apply only to residents in CA. That leaves time for corporate critics such as AT&T, Comcast, Facebook and Google to resume lobbying aggressively to revise it over the next year. Going forward, though, California’s privacy protections could force tech companies to change their business practices nationwide, rather than maintaining two systems: one in California, and another for everyone else. Apple, Facebook and Google took a similar approach in May after European regulators began implementing new privacy rules, known as General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR. “I think it’s going to set the standard across the country that legislatures across the country will look to adopt in their own states,” CA state Sen Bob Hertzberg (D), one of the law’s authors, said before it passed June 28. Under the new rules, California’s attorney general will play a starring role monitoring Silicon Valley’s privacy practices — and bringing cases, along with potential fines, when a company such as Amazon or Microsoft fails to honor consumers' privacy choices or safeguard their data from cybercriminals. To that end, state Sen Hertzberg said that the state’s attorney general would soon become “the chief privacy officer of the United States.”

The Federal Communications Commission’s Enforcement Bureau settled an investigation into AT&T Mobility’s 911 outages of March and May 2017. As a condition of the settlement, the company must pay a $5.25 million fine, implement proactive system changes to reduce the likelihood and impact of future 911 outages, improve processes for notifying 911 call centers of any future outages, ensure reliable 911 call completion, and regularly file compliance reports with the FCC. The March 2017 outage lasted approximately five hours, resulting in the failure of 911 calls from some 12,600 unique users. The May outage lasted approximately 47 minutes, resulting in 2,600 failed 911 calls.

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) issued a call for comments regarding AT&T Ohio’s application to discontinue its participation in the federal Lifeline program throughout the majority of its service territory. Comments are due Aug. 31, 2018. Lifeline is a federally funded program that provides monthly discounts to eligible consumers of landline, wireless or broadband services. Customers enrolled in their service provider’s Lifeline program receive a $9.25 monthly credit. On Sept. 7, 2017, AT&T Ohio filed a petition with the PUCO to end its designation as an eligible telecommunications carrier, which provides it access to federal Universal Service Fund support to provide discounts to its Ohio customers. AT&T Ohio identified 10,482 customers that may be affected by it no longer providing Lifeline discounts. If approved by the Commission, AT&T Ohio would no longer provide Lifeline discounts to its customers. In order to continue to receive Lifeline discounts, AT&T Ohio customers would need to enroll with a different provider. The Commission notes, however, that the Federal Communications Commission has a pending proposal to discontinue Lifeline support for non-facilities based wireless providers. If approved by the FCC, this proposal may reduce the number of alternative Lifeline providers. The PUCO has previously advocated that the FCC not adopt this proposal.

An economic assessment of zero-rating offers in the context of mobile internet access services and draw six lessons:

1. Zero-rating can have several different characteristics that crucially affect their economic and welfare assessment. Thus, regulatory interventions must be based on a careful case-by-case analysis.
2. In the context of zero-rating offers, it is often crucial to evaluate the extent to which users are able to activate and deactivate a (throttled) zero-rated tariff option. If activation/deactivation is easy and instantaneous, a sound economic theory of harm for consumers will in many cases be hard to establish.
3. Similarly, if access to zero-rated partner programs is non-discriminatory and entails low barriers to entry, a sound theory of harm for content providers will usually not be given. 
4. Zero-rating can be beneficial for consumers and (legal) content providers alike by contributing to a reduction of illegal content. Combined with throttling it can mitigate congestion problems. However, by requiring all content belonging to the same content category to be treated equally with respect to throttling, independent of whether a content provider opted for zero-rating or not, the existing regulation creates a negative externality on those content providers that do not wish to be zero-rated for some reason.
5. Particular attention should be paid to the impact of throttled zero-rating tariffs on the competition between mobile network operators (MNOs) and MVNOs. The latter may not be able to compete on equal footing with MNOs, because they benefit less from the traffic management aspects of zero-rating.
6. Competition among (infrastructure-based) ISPs provides a safeguard against severe rent extraction and, thus, an abuse of throttling and zero-rating as an exploitative device. Therefore, regulators should carefully account for the competitive environment and the existing tariff portfolio and options before deciding to intervene. Competition policy, rather than ex-ante regulation, may be more suitable for this task.

The higher speeds of fifth-generation (5G) wireless networks will enable connected cars, telemedicine, and the broader internet of things. Preparing for next-generation networks and their many applications will require upgrading existing wired infrastructure and freeing up wireless spectrum. To discuss the path to 5G for the US, the Center for Technology Innovation hosted a conversation at the Brookings Institution on June 26 between CTI Fellow Nicol Turner-Lee and Commissioner Brendan Carr of the Federal Communications Commission. Commissioner Carr emphasized that 5G networks will have both wired and wireless components. To achieve higher speeds, 5G networks will take advantage of high-band spectrum that travels over shorter distances. Unlike tall cell towers that cover wide areas, small cells attached to buildings and utility poles will carry 5G signal to a city block. The FCC is updating siting regulations allow placement of many small cells in densely-populated areas. Each installed small cell will also need new fiber-optic cable connections, which must satisfy local regulations for installation. Eventually, 5G signal will also travel over mid- and low-band frequencies, and the FCC is preparing to make wireless spectrum available for use across frequency bands.

The New York attorney general’s office is investigating how T-Mobile’s  $26 billion deal to buy Sprint could impact competition in the pay-as-you-go wireless market, according to people familiar with the matter. Representatives from the state attorney general’s office have contacted companies that sell prepaid phone services in recent weeks with questions about pricing and customers. Dozens of other state attorneys general are part of the probe. Prepaid subscribers don’t sign long-term contracts and instead pay up front each month. Some prepaid brands called mobile virtual-network operators rent network capacity from the large US wireless carriers rather than owning the infrastructure. T-Mobile and Sprint together have about 30 million prepaid customers. Los Angeles-based FreedomPop and Ting are among the firms the New York attorney general’s office has contacted. A spokeswoman for New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood said the office was scrutinizing the proposed merger to evaluate its impact on New York consumers. “Mobile devices are indispensable in New Yorkers’ lives—especially for lower-income families who may rely on them as their only connection to the internet,” the spokeswoman said.