January 2015

New California Assembly privacy panel is 'the key committee to watch'

One of the California State Assembly's hottest tickets may be a seat on the new Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection. Speaker Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) created the panel to deal with the growing threat to privacy from the use and abuse of the Internet and digital information about the health, finances, education and shopping habits of millions of Californians.

"California has a strong history of protecting consumer privacy while spurring an innovation economy," she said. The committee, which also will handle other consumer issues such as false advertising, "is the key committee to watch in the coming session," Speaker Atkins said. Indeed, numerous Assembly members wanted one of the 11 new positions on the panel.

Path to Senate runs through Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley could be a kingmaker in California’s 2016 Senate race.

Sen. Barbara Boxer’s (D-CA) decision not to seek reelection has created the first open Senate seat in the state since Mark Zuckerberg and many of his peers were in grade school. To make sure their interests are taken care of in Washington, the well-heeled tech sector is sure to be on the front lines of the potentially $1 billion race. “I think they’ll be very much involved,” predicted Corey Cook, a professor at the University of San Francisco who focuses on California politics. “I think it’ll be critical to the fundraising and to the storyline.”

Update on Advance Posting of Commission Meeting Items

In August 2014, I wrote a blog post urging the Federal Communications Commission to post on its website the actual text of the items to be considered at our Open Meetings at the same time they are provided to Commissioners.

I made the suggestion because the inability of the public to obtain a complete picture of what is in a pending notice of proposed rulemaking or order routinely leads to confusion over what exactly is at stake. Making matters worse, Commissioners are not allowed to reveal the substantive details to outside parties. We can’t even correct inaccurate impressions that stakeholders may have received, and we are barred from discussing what changes we are seeking. This barrier to a fulsome exchange can be extremely frustrating for all involved.

Four months later, we have yet to post a single meeting item in advance. Why? 1) It could be harder to comply with the Administrative Procedure Act (APA); and 2) It could be more difficult to withhold documents under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). I do not find either argument persuasive or insurmountable.

FCC Issues Subpoena for Providers in Special Access Data Collection

The Federal Communications Commission’s Wireline Competition Bureau has ordered providers of special access service to submit the customer-related information sought in the special access data collection.

This subpoena addresses the concerns raised by the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA) and United States Telecom Association (USTelecom) about the applicability of federal privacy statutes when responding to the collection with customer information. The data sought are necessary for an analysis of the special access market to better target regulatory relief where warranted, promote competition, and increase consumer welfare through competitive rates and increased service offerings. The Bureau appreciates the privacy interests of consumers in their information and will protect reported information from unauthorized disclosure in accordance with the protective order previously issued for this collection.

President Obama’s team tailors State of the Union for age of Twitter and YouTube

The State of the Union address is a century-old tradition that has served to set the president's agenda for the coming year and reflect on the previous one in front of Congress and the country, but in 2015, just giving a speech in prime time is no longer enough. The platform that introduced to the world the Four Freedoms and the War on Poverty is now a Twitter-friendly, YouTube-able event to be consumed in as many ways as Americans have screens.

The current state of the State of the Union is either the handiwork or the fault of the Obama White House, depending on your point of view. This White House believes it brought the civic ritual into the social age, adapting as necessary to keep it relevant. Others say the speech, as an annual American moment, is going the way of the fireside chat. "Social media is killing the State of the Union," said presidential historian Allan Lichtman, "and the White House is doing everything it can to use social media to keep it alive."

Gov Cuomo re-announces $500 million broadband initiative

Gov Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) formally announced his proposed $500 million broadband expansion plan, via a press release and a Lake Placid press conference held by Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul (D-NY).

The program will offer $500 million in public funds for Internet service providers willing to match the state dollar-for-dollar. ISPs will be required to offer 100 megabits per second download speeds for the expansion, though “in certain limited cases, providers may offer 25 Mbps speeds to the most remote unserved and underserved areas of the state.” The expansion program will be built using plans developed by Cuomo’s hand-picked Regional Economic Development Councils, which have driven his economic grant programs since their formation in 2011. It was not immediately clear when the councils would submit their recommendations.

Just how big is the Cuban market for US tech?

US tech companies are eyeing eased trade regulations with Cuba with interest.

On January 15, the US Departments of Treasury and Commerce issued orders that should make it easier for US tech companies to enter the tricky Cuban market. As to how big that opportunity will be and how long it will take to develop remain big questions. In the telecommunications sector, there is a new general license to ease the “establishment of commercial telecommunications facilities linking third countries and Cuba and in Cuba.” And a new general license by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) should ease the sales of “certain consumer devices, related software applications, hardware and services for communications related systems. It’s clear that there is pent-up need for communications and other tech services in Cuba where personal ownership of cell phones or computers was prohibited until 2009.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the State of the Union

[Commentary] President Barack Obama will deliver the State of the Union address on Tuesday, January 20. But a funny thing happened in the run up to the speech: the President delivered all the punchlines. Well, maybe not all the punchlines and, for thems that watch telecommunications policy, it wasn’t all that funny. You see, as the New York Times pointed out, presidents typically keep State of the Union proposals secret until the last minute, hoping to maximize the political power of the speech. But the White House decided to reverse that strategy, rolling out proposals in the hope of building momentum for the address. And, as it turned out, a key issue the White House decided to focus on this week is the future of the Internet.

Two things President Obama left out of his Internet proposal that he’s hoping you won’t notice

It's what President Barack Obama didn't say in his municipal broadband speech in Iowa that could wind up having a huge impact on the fate of city-run Internet access. One of President Obama's biggest steps on the issue was to write a letter to the Federal Communications Commission asking it to intervene against state laws that prevent cities from building their own public networks. Supporters of municipal broadband say the agency has all the authority it needs to preempt those laws, under Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act.

Critics of the FCC (including some within the agency itself) argue that it actually doesn't have the power to get between states and their cities. Some analysts believe that's why President Obama didn't bring up the prospect of legislation on municipal broadband; if the FCC's authority to act is being questioned, asking Congress for its blessing would simply undermine that authority further. Additionally, President Obama didn't make any specific pronouncements about local regulations, which worries some policy analysts who believe private investment (think the likes of Google Fiber) offer a better alternative than government-run Internet. But it's unclear what, if anything, Obama's promises on municipal broadband will do to make it easier for businesses to negotiate with officials at the local level. Although the White House will be expanding federal grants and loan opportunities for those who want to build more infrastructure that competes with big, traditional Internet providers, they won't help much if the would-be competitors don't find those incentives enough to overcome the annoyance of dealing with city officials.

The GOP’s plan to legislate net neutrality is here. And Internet activists might hate it.

The text of a bill circulating the House and Senate Commerce Committees would enshrine into law key principles under network neutrality, but crucially, the bill would also restrict the Federal Communications Commission's authority in several ways.

Under the legislation, the FCC would be expressly prohibited from trying to regulate broadband using the same legal tools it uses to police phone companies -- something that President Barack Obama and consumer groups have specifically asked for in the push for net neutrality. Conservatives argue that such a step would give the FCC too much power over Internet providers. The bill would also restrict the FCC's ability to regulate broadband under a different part of the agency's congressional charter. That piece of the law, known as "Section 706," is likely to be invoked as the FCC considers preempting state laws banning cities from building their own public Internet networks. So while the bill would quickly settle the net neutrality question, it also effectively clamps down on the FCC's future ability to regulate broadband providers.

Benton

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