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August 2015

August 25, 2015 (Cybersecurity; Advanced Telecommunications Capability; Broadband Opportunity Council)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY, AUGUST 25, 2015

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CYBERSECURITY
   A court just made it easier for the government to sue companies for getting hacked

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   What Is “Advanced Telecommunications Capability” And Why Does The FCC Examine It? - analysis
   The White House has received input from all federal agencies on new ways to promote broadband investment, deployment, and competition - press release
   Comcast planning gigabit cable for entire US territory in 2-3 years
    Wisconsin giving millions to broadband providers to expand in rural areas [links to web]

EDUCATION
   It’s time to ask how E-rate will impact learning outcomes - op-ed

HEALTH
   FCC maps intersection of broadband and health in Virginia
   Work Hard, Live Well - op-ed by Facebook’s Dustin Maskovitz [links to web]

ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
   Cable-Only Presidential Debates are the New Poll Tax - Susan Crawford op-ed
   Selfies in Voting Booths Raise Legal Questions on Speech and Secrecy

TELECOM
   CenturyLink calls for a 5-step process to reform prison calling rates
   FCC Authorizes The Micronesian Telecommunications Corporation To Receive Over $2.5 Million and Hawaiian Telcom Inc. to Receive Over $4 Million In Connect America Phase II Support [links to web]
   IIA's Mehlman: Special access, copper retirement proposals will delay the IP transition [links to web]
   Vonage says direct number rules will help accelerate VoIP interconnection [links to web]

SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
   FCC Seeks Comment on M2M Specturm Networks Petition for Rulemaking to Allow Specialized Mobile Radio Services Over 900 MHz Business/Industrial Land Transportation Frequencies - public notice [links to web]
   CTIA Wants FCC to Hold More Mock Auctions [links to web]

OWNERSHIP
   Tech-Media Mergers’ Flimsy Script - analysis [links to web]
   ACA Asks FCC to Gauge Impact of Programming Costs [links to web]

PRIVACY/SECURITY
   Congress Still Has a Long Way to Go On Surveillance Reform - Alan McQuinn/ITIF op-ed [links to web]

DIVERSITY
   FCC Promotes Greater Supplier Diversity - press release [links to web]

GOV DATA/OPEN GOVERNMENT
   A New Kind of Media Using Government Data - press release [links to web]
   Advocates call for public access to Congress’s research arm [links to web]
   Twitter's decision to ban archiving of politicians' deleted tweets is a mistake - analysis from The Verge [links to web]

POLICYMAKERS
   Vice President Biden Announces New Communications Director - press release [links to web]

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CYBERSECURITY

A COURT JUST MADE IT EASIER FOR THE GOVERNMENT TO SUE COMPANIES FOR GETTING HACKED
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Brian Fung]
Yes, federal regulators can go after firms whose lax security policies result in big hacks and a loss of personal data, the US Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Aug 24. That the government should be able to punish businesses that don't protect your private information (despite telling you they do) seems like a no-brainer. But in Washington, there's been a big debate over just how far the Federal Trade Commission can go in protecting consumers from hackers. The decision clarifies the FTC's powers, giving it more ammunition against businesses that fail to invest in their own security. And that could be good news for consumers in light of the growing pace of online attacks against firms such as Ashley Madison, the extramarital dating site that got breached and exposed at least 30 million customer records. The court's decision finds that the FTC acted appropriately when it sued Wyndham Worldwide Corporation, a massive international hotel chain and hospitality conglomerate, after Wyndham was hacked three times in two years, exposing the credit card data of more than 600,000 customers. The FTC has aggressively pursued data security cases in recent years, though much of the time it settles with the companies it investigates. The Wyndham case is a notable exception and is expected to become even more relevant as hacking and data breaches become mainstream occurrences. With the appellate court ruling in the FTC's favor, the agency could become emboldened to act even more decisively against businesses it believes are being deceptive about its security practices.
benton.org/headlines/court-just-made-it-easier-government-sue-companies-getting-hacked | Washington Post
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

THE FCC’S NEW SEC 706 INQUIRY
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Andrew Jay Schwartzman]
[Commentary] On August 6, the Federal Communications Commission voted on a seemingly routine notice initiating its statutorily mandated annual inquiry into the state of broadband deployment in the United States. (Actually, as explained below, it is measuring something somewhat different.) Collection and analysis of data is essential to effective policymaking, and Congress has directed that many agencies compile reports of one kind or another. Solicitation of public comment on data collection for a wonky report might not seem to be controversial, but the issuance of the notice generated vociferous reactions from the two Republican Commissioners. Commissioner Ajit Pai dissented in part and Commissioner Michael O’Reilly reluctantly concurred, complaining that “the [Notice of Inquiry] is not designed to provide an honest assessment of broadband deployment in the US.” The reason that this matters is because the FCC’s assessment of broadband deployment has important policy and regulatory consequences. Section 706(b) is a potent tool for an activist FCC. Chairman Tom Wheeler and his Democratic colleagues appear determined to make sure that they have the data necessary to use the power conferred by Section 706(b).
https://www.benton.org/blog/what-advanced-telecommunications-capability-...
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WHITE HOUSE RECEIVES BROADBAND OPPORTUNITIES COUNCIL RECOMMENDATIONS
[SOURCE: The White House, AUTHOR: Jeffrey Zients]
When President Barack Obama traveled to Cedar Falls, Iowa in 2015, he identified access to high-speed, affordable broadband as a top national priority. His message back to the government was just as clear: Where there is an incentive we can provide to spur investment, we’ll create it. Where there is red tape we should cut, we’ll cut it. That goes not just in the White House, but for the entire Administration. At Cedar Falls, the President created by Presidential Memorandum the Broadband Opportunity Council, directing all federal agencies to think creatively and develop new ways to promote broadband investment, deployment, and competition. The President gave this whole-of-government effort a five-month deadline. We are pleased to report that the White House has received this input from all federal agencies. On September 21, we will be sharing a formal report and recommendations to improve broadband across the country. So stay tuned -- we are excited for you to see what comes next.
benton.org/headlines/white-house-has-received-input-all-federal-agencies-new-ways-promote-broadband-investment | White House, The
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COMCAST PLANNING GIGABIT CABLE FOR ENTIRE US TERRITORY IN 2-3 YEARS
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Jon Brodkin]
While Comcast has started deploying 2Gbps fiber-to-the-home service to certain parts of its territory, much of its network is going to be stuck on cable for years to come. But customers outside the fiber footprint will still be able to buy gigabit Internet service after Comcast upgrades to DOCSIS 3.1, a faster version of the Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification. Comcast said in April that DOCSIS 3.1 will be available to some of its customers in early 2016 and eventually across its whole US footprint. During the week of Aug 17, Comcast said it wants to complete the whole upgrade within two years. It could take up to three years. The price will be high, of course. Comcast's 2Gbps fiber service costs $300 a month plus one-time installation and activation fees of up to $1,000. Comcast says it will build fiber to any home that's already within a third of a mile of its fiber network, but reports a few weeks ago from Stop the Cap and DSLReports suggest that some potential customers are having trouble signing up for the service.
benton.org/headlines/comcast-planning-gigabit-cable-entire-us-territory-2-3-years | Ars Technica | Fierce
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EDUCATION

IT'S TIME TO ASK HOW E-RATE WILL IMPACT LEARNING OUTCOMES
[SOURCE: eSchool News, AUTHOR: Jeff Patterson]
[Commentary] E-rate, officially known as the Schools and Libraries Program of the Universal Service Fund, was created to provide schools and libraries with an affordable way to obtain telecommunications, Internet access and Internet-related services. In the beginning, E-rate focused principally on telephone service, which was the most basic and universal way individuals communicated 20 years ago. As the program evolved, the definition of “new technology” grew increasingly inexact and complicated. It became clear that E-rate was in need of a refresh. Advocates for change, including legislators, the Federal Communications Commission and organizations such as ISTE and the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), hoped to address the question: How do we increase internet bandwidth available to our schools and provide ubiquitous wireless coverage? The new focus on connectivity is great, but now we must ask ourselves another question: “How will this connectivity improve learning outcomes?” In other words, what are we going to do with this bandwidth? The situation might be likened to a public utilities initiative to build huge infrastructure to get water into homes while neglecting the pertinent question of where we will get the water? Our water is digital content, learning management systems, homework submission tools, live-stream video, all products and solutions that can impact learning. Bandwidth on its own is not enough. We have to find meaningful ways to use that bandwidth to impact learning and to create anytime, anywhere learners.
[Jeff Patterson is the founder and CEO of Gaggle]
benton.org/headlines/its-time-ask-how-e-rate-will-impact-learning-outcomes | eSchool News
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HEALTH

FCC MAPS INTERSECTION OF BROADBAND AND HEALTH IN VIRGINIA
[SOURCE: GCN, AUTHOR: Kathleen Hickey]
The first state map visually demonstrating the connection between broadband access, technology and health is up on the Federal Communication Commission’s website. The Connect2HealthFCC map of Virginia is a result of an FCC task force formed March 2015 to consider ways to accelerate the adoption of health care technologies by leveraging broadband and other next-generation communications services. The FCC envisions that future healthcare systems will use broadband-based tools that will allow clinicians, social services providers and pharmacies to collaboratively help reduce disease and optimize health outcomes – all in an interconnected health care ecosystem. For this first map, the FCC task force collected broadband-based health and technology metrics in Virginia to identify current trends, issues and potential gaps. Besides population and download speeds, those metrics include the number of primary care providers per county, online access to health information, obesity prevalence and broadband provider distribution.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-maps-intersection-broadband-and-health-virginia | GCN
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ELECTIONS AND MEDIA

CABLE-ONLY PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES ARE THE NEW POLL TAX
[SOURCE: Medium, AUTHOR: Susan Crawford]
[Commentary] The Fox News debate marked the moment when politics became indistinguishable from sport in more than just entertainment value. Just as we can’t watch most sporting events (including large swathes of the Olympics) without a cable or satellite subscription, Americans couldn’t watch the debate online unless they were part of the cable/satellite ecosystem. The thing is that Fox News Channel owes its existence  --  completely  --  to a federal statutory regime aimed at supporting the “public trustee” role of traditional TV broadcasters. And yet all the “public-ness” of that deal has been washed away: Fox News felt no need to ensure that online viewers could watch the debate. That meant that cord-cutters and cord-nevers -- basically, Millennials and an ever-increasing chunk of Americans  --  whose high-speed Internet access wasn’t sold to them by a cable company had to wait for re-runs. The linear  --  traditional  --  model of TV is crumbling, slowly, as more people find programming they’re happy with online. But sports programming remains the Gibraltar of the pay TV bundle: the bedrock, the real-time, must-have stuff that Americans will still pay for. And so pay TV executives, looking to smooth the obvious glide path sloping towards the irrelevance of thick bundles of TV-plus-data just long enough so their retirements will be secure and well-funded, want to turn new categories of programming into sports. Presto: debates become sports, unavailable in livestream form to anyone who doesn’t have a cable or satellite subscription. This is a bad idea. It’s insulting to the thicket of public values that gave this industry life in the first place. It’s wrong. And it shouldn’t happen again in this presidential season. Surely some pay TV guy or gal, somewhere, knows in his or her flinty, close-to-retirement heart of hearts that this practice must not continue. Let’s hope.
[Susan Crawford is the John A. Reilly Visiting Professor in Intellectual Property at Harvard Law School and a Professor at Cardozo Law School]
benton.org/headlines/cable-only-presidential-debates-are-new-poll-tax | Medium
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SELFIES IN THE VOTING BOOTH
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Erik Eckholm]
It was inevitable, perhaps, that some might take photographs inside the voting booth to show off their completed ballots. Now, a legal fracas has erupted over whether the display of marked ballots is a constitutionally protected form of speech and political expression — as a federal court in New Hampshire declared this month, overturning a ban on such photographs — or a threat to the hallowed secret ballot that could bring a new era of vote-buying and voter intimidation. The New Hampshire case is unlikely to be the last to grapple with what are commonly called ballot selfies, whether they include an image of the phone user or not. Numerous states have laws to protect voter secrecy, drafted in an earlier era, that could be construed to ban ballot photographs, said Gilles Bissonnette, the legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire, which challenged the New Hampshire ban.
benton.org/headlines/selfies-voting-booths-raise-legal-questions-speech-and-secrecy | New York Times
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TELECOM

CENTURYLINK CALLS FOR A 5-STEP PROCESS TO REFORM PRISON CALLING RATES
[SOURCE: Fierce, AUTHOR: Sean Buckley]
CenturyLink has outlined to the Federal Communications Commission a five-step plan intended to reform the inmate calling services (ICS) rules. In a filing with the FCC, CenturyLink said that any reform to ICS rules should include:

  • Uniform rate cap: The ICS rules should include a uniform rate cap that applies to for both interstate and intrastate calls, with a slightly higher cap for collect calls.
  • Limiting ancillary fees: CenturyLink said that the FCC should prohibit all but a small class of specified ancillary fees, while adopting a schedule of allowable fees and related policies such as account funding minimums and maximums. In addition, CenutrLink asked that the FCC specify that consumers can get a refund on any unused prepaid amounts on request and at no cost.
  • Commission limits: Prisons and jails incur their own costs in providing ICS, so these entities should have the option to require ICS providers to pay them commissions.
  • Separate treatment for uniquely high-cost facilities: Other facilities like juvenile detention, mental health facilities and small jails are expensive for ICS providers to serve because they have low call volume. At the same time, CenutryLink said that the facilities should not have to pay a large piece of ancillary fees.
  • Transition existing ICS arrangements: The FCC should give correctional facilities and ICS providers a "reasonable transition time" to shift to the new rule structure so they can avoid potential service disruptions or consumer account management.

benton.org/headlines/centurylink-calls-5-step-process-reform-prison-calling-rates | Fierce
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What Is “Advanced Telecommunications Capability” And Why Does The FCC Examine It?

[Commentary] On August 6, the Federal Communications Commission voted on a seemingly routine notice initiating its statutorily mandated annual inquiry into the state of broadband deployment in the United States. (Actually, as explained below, it is measuring something somewhat different.) Collection and analysis of data is essential to effective policymaking, and Congress has directed that many agencies compile reports of one kind or another. Solicitation of public comment on data collection for a wonky report might not seem to be controversial, but the issuance of the notice generated vociferous reactions from the two Republican Commissioners. Commissioner Ajit Pai dissented in part and Commissioner Michael O’Reilly reluctantly concurred, complaining that “the [Notice of Inquiry] is not designed to provide an honest assessment of broadband deployment in the US.” The reason that this matters is because the FCC’s assessment of broadband deployment has important policy and regulatory consequences. Section 706(b) is a potent tool for an activist FCC. Chairman Tom Wheeler and his Democratic colleagues appear determined to make sure that they have the data necessary to use the power conferred by Section 706(b).

The White House has received input from all federal agencies on new ways to promote broadband investment, deployment, and competition

When President Barack Obama traveled to Cedar Falls, Iowa in 2015, he identified access to high-speed, affordable broadband as a top national priority. His message back to the government was just as clear: Where there is an incentive we can provide to spur investment, we’ll create it. Where there is red tape we should cut, we’ll cut it. That goes not just in the White House, but for the entire Administration.

At Cedar Falls, the President created by Presidential Memorandum the Broadband Opportunity Council, directing all federal agencies to think creatively and develop new ways to promote broadband investment, deployment, and competition. The President gave this whole-of-government effort a five-month deadline. We are pleased to report that the White House has received this input from all federal agencies. On September 21, we will be sharing a formal report and recommendations to improve broadband across the country. So stay tuned -- we are excited for you to see what comes next.

Selfies in Voting Booths Raise Legal Questions on Speech and Secrecy

It was inevitable, perhaps, that some might take photographs inside the voting booth to show off their completed ballots. Now, a legal fracas has erupted over whether the display of marked ballots is a constitutionally protected form of speech and political expression — as a federal court in New Hampshire declared this month, overturning a ban on such photographs — or a threat to the hallowed secret ballot that could bring a new era of vote-buying and voter intimidation. The New Hampshire case is unlikely to be the last to grapple with what are commonly called ballot selfies, whether they include an image of the phone user or not. Numerous states have laws to protect voter secrecy, drafted in an earlier era, that could be construed to ban ballot photographs, said Gilles Bissonnette, the legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire, which challenged the New Hampshire ban.

Advocates call for public access to Congress’s research arm

Forty groups sent a letter to key members of Congress calling on them to give the public access to reports from the Congressional Research Service (CRS), a major research arm for staffers on Capitol Hill. The groups -- representing libraries, transparency advocates, tech advocates, scientists and others -- said the move would put it in line with similar research arms such as the the Congressional Budget Office, the Government Accountability Office and the Law Library of Congress.

They said most reports produced by the CRS should be downloadable online with appropriate indexing. “Taxpayers provide more than $100 million annually in support of CRS, and yet members of the public often must look to private companies for consistent access,” the groups wrote in the letter. “Some citizens are priced out of these services, resulting in inequitable access to information about government activity that is produced at public expense.” The letter was sent to the leaders of both chambers’ rules and administration committees.

Twitter's decision to ban archiving of politicians' deleted tweets is a mistake

[Commentary] Twitter’s commitment to transparency appears to end when it makes the powerful uncomfortable. Back in 2012, Twitter decided to allow the Sunlight Foundation to collect and curate deleted tweets from lawmakers and people seeking public office in order to hold them accountable by preserving their public statements on the record. That behavior was in-line with a company whose founders constantly sold it as the nexus of free speech. "We are the free speech wing of the free speech party," Twitter's former CEO Dick Costolo famously said that same year. But in June of 2015, Twitter shut down the deleted tweet project in the US under the guise of "honoring the expectation of user privacy." Then, on Aug 23, Twitter dealt the final blow, killing the Open State Foundation’s effort to archive deleted tweets from public officials in 30 other countries.

This is a terrible precedent, even if it’s not surprising. Twitter, like all profit-driven social platforms, has to make money -- which means at some point it starts serving certain audiences (like celebrities and politicians) more than its ideals of free expression and transparency. Twitter should reverse this harmful decision. The change in policy directly contradicts the company's mission statement, which is "to give everyone the power to create and share ideas and information instantly, without barriers." Restricting use of an API to let the powerful erase their words is an Orwellian memory hole and nothing but a barrier to expression in a free society. A social platform with a record that’s only accessible to advertisers isn’t a public square -- it’s just another circus.

ACA Asks FCC to Gauge Impact of Programming Costs

The American Cable Association says that the Federal Communications Commission needs to let Congress know that rising programming costs contribute to dwindling numbers of smaller multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDS) and wants the FCC to collect more data on the impact of those costs on system closings. That came in comments on the FCC's next video competition report to Congress .

"ACA encourages the FCC to recognize in its next video competition report the fact that smaller systems continue to close at a steady rate, affecting thousands of subscribers in rural and hard-to-serve areas," said ACA President Matt Polka. ACA said that, since 2008, 1,169 cable systems serving 55,302 subscribers have shut down, removing them as a competitive option, which meant in many cases customers having to pay more. ACA concedes that there are numerous regulatory factors that have contributed to the decline in smaller systems, but said that "runaway programming costs" are a primary culprit.

CTIA Wants FCC to Hold More Mock Auctions

The Federal Communications Commission has proposed holding at least one mock auction for both the forward and reverse auctions before it launches the real thing, but wireless companies want more mock auctions and plenty of data in time to make decisions. In a letter to Gary Epstein and Howard Symons, chair and vice chair respectively of the FCC's Incentive Auction Task Force, CTIA: The Wireless Association, said the FCC should hold multiple mock auctions in the lead-up to the March 29 launch of the auction to help participants get comfortable with the "first of its kind" auction.

CTIA wants the first mock auction (both forward and reverse) to be held by the end of January, then another a month later and a final mock auction within a week of the auction. They want to be able to test the software and get a gander at the types of data for forward auction participants, presumably wireless companies though anyone can bid. CTIA said multiple auctions could provide "all auction participants comfort with the functioning of the incentive auction software, the data being provided to bidders, and their ability to fully understand the data to make informed bidding decisions."

A court just made it easier for the government to sue companies for getting hacked

Yes, federal regulators can go after firms whose lax security policies result in big hacks and a loss of personal data, the US Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Aug 24. That the government should be able to punish businesses that don't protect your private information (despite telling you they do) seems like a no-brainer. But in Washington, there's been a big debate over just how far the Federal Trade Commission can go in protecting consumers from hackers.The decision clarifies the FTC's powers, giving it more ammunition against businesses that fail to invest in their own security. And that could be good news for consumers in light of the growing pace of online attacks against firms such as Ashley Madison, the extramarital dating site that got breached and exposed at least 30 million customer records.

The court's decision finds that the FTC acted appropriately when it sued Wyndham Worldwide Corporation, a massive international hotel chain and hospitality conglomerate, after Wyndham was hacked three times in two years, exposing the credit card data of more than 600,000 customers. The FTC has aggressively pursued data security cases in recent years, though much of the time it settles with the companies it investigates. The Wyndham case is a notable exception and is expected to become even more relevant as hacking and data breaches become mainstream occurrences. With the appellate court ruling in the FTC's favor, the agency could become emboldened to act even more decisively against businesses it believes are being deceptive about its security practices.

Comcast planning gigabit cable for entire US territory in 2-3 years

While Comcast has started deploying 2Gbps fiber-to-the-home service to certain parts of its territory, much of its network is going to be stuck on cable for years to come. But customers outside the fiber footprint will still be able to buy gigabit Internet service after Comcast upgrades to DOCSIS 3.1, a faster version of the Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification. Comcast said in April that DOCSIS 3.1 will be available to some of its customers in early 2016 and eventually across its whole US footprint. During the week of Aug 17, Comcast said it wants to complete the whole upgrade within two years. "Our intent is to scale it through our footprint through 2016," said Comcast VP of network architecture Robert Howald. "We want to get it across the footprint very quickly... We're shooting for two years." It could take up to three years.

Comcast, the nation's largest Internet provider, with 22.5 million subscribers, operates in 39 states and Washington, DC. The DOCSIS upgrades will require new modems in customer homes and back-end upgrades in cable plants. Unlike Comcast's symmetrical fiber service, upload speeds would be slower than download speeds. But 1Gbps downloads aren't the limit with DOCSIS 3.1, which can support up to 10Gbps downstream and 1Gbps upstream. While Comcast's initial DOCSIS 3.1 rollout is expected to offer up to 1Gbps download speeds, Howald said the new standard "allows us to do that and higher." The price will be high, of course. Comcast's 2Gbps fiber service costs $300 a month plus one-time installation and activation fees of up to $1,000. Comcast says it will build fiber to any home that's already within a third of a mile of its fiber network, but reports a few weeks ago from Stop the Cap and DSLReports suggest that some potential customers are having trouble signing up for the service.

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