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  2. October 2015

October 2015

FCC Adopts Four Items Prior to Oct 22 Meeting

Prior to the start of the Federal Communications Commission’s October 22 open meeting, the Commission adopted the following items:

A Report and Order addressing when and in what areas 600 MHz Band wireless licensees will be deemed to “commence operations” for the purposes of establishing when the secondary and unlicensed users must cease operations and vacate the 600 MHz Band in those areas.

A Third Report & Order and First Order on Reconsideration that adopts rules to govern inter-service interference between broadcast television stations and wireless licensees in the 600 MHz Band following the incentive auction and sets out protection criteria for television stations and wireless operations in the band.

Second Order on Reconsideration to provide additional flexibility to broadcasters interested in the incentive auction channel sharing option by clarifying that “back-up” channel sharing agreements are permitted under the rules and providing more time for successful incentive auction bidders to transition to shared facilities after the auction.

A Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on whether to modify, in part, the four-year compensation rate plan for video relay service (VRS) and whether to adopt measures that may enhance the functional equivalence of VRS. In the same item, the Commission will consider an Order to modify, in part, the currently applicable VRS compensation rates pending action on the Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.

FCC Chairman Wheeler: Multiple Wireless Bidders Will Show Up to Auction

Count Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler among those not worried by talk about Verizon not being a major incentive auction player and Sprint's decision not to participate in the auction. Asked about how that might affect the success of the auction in terms of dollars brought in, Chairman Wheeler said "I think we'll have a very successful auction." Chairman Wheeler said what they were seeing was players positioning themselves, talking about "well, maybe I am not going to show too many cards about whether I will participate or maybe I will focus on how this person decides not to participate..." He called it all "pre-auction shenanigans" that would be expected in any kind of marketplace. Chairman Wheeler said he was "confident there will be multiple broadcast licensees putting up spectrum for auction, and multiple forward auction bidders to use that spectrum for competitive wireless services." He said the FCC was not keeping score by dollars and cents but by how much spectrum the FCC could repurpose. Asked to respond to broadcaster questions about whether the auction is truly voluntary, Chairman Wheeler seemed incredulous. "I don’t think there are any FCC agents with guns to the heads of broadcasters. You are free to decide whether you want to participate or not and I think that is the definition of voluntary."

Reps Eshoo, Walden Introduce ‘Dig Once’ Broadband Deployment Bill

House Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) introduced the Broadband Conduit Deployment Act of 2015, commonly referred to as ‘dig once’ legislation. This bipartisan, commonsense legislation would mandate the inclusion of broadband conduit -- plastic pipes which house fiber-optic communications cable -- during the construction of any road receiving federal funding if there is a demonstrated need for broadband in the area within the next 15 years.

“Today our information highways are just as important as our interstate highways,” said Ranking Member Eshoo, who introduced similar legislation in 2009 and 2011. “By laying broadband conduit during construction of roads that receive federal funding, broadband providers can later install fiber-optic cable without costly excavation of newly-built roads. ‘Dig once’ is a commonsense bipartisan policy that will significantly reduce the cost of broadband deployment in our country.” According to a study by the Government Accountability Office, ‘dig once’ policies can save from 25 to 33 percent in construction costs in urban areas and approximately 16 percent in rural areas. A 2012 Executive Order implemented a ‘dig once’ policy similar to Ranking Member Eshoo’s original legislation. But the Executive Order only included a requirement for the Department of Transportation to provide guidance to states and encourage their implementation of a ‘dig once’ policy. This bill implements a more effective mechanism for adoption of ‘dig once.’

Europe Is About to Adopt Bad Net Neutrality Rules. Here’s How to Fix Them

[Commentary] On October 27, the European Parliament will vote on rules intended to protect network neutrality in the European Union (EU). However, the proposal about to be adopted fails to deliver network neutrality to the EU and is much weaker than current net neutrality rules in the United States. Fortunately, it’s not too late to change course. Members of Parliament can still secure meaningful network neutrality for Europe  --  if they adopt key amendments on Oct 27.

Problem 1: The proposal allows Internet service providers to create fast lanes for companies that pay through the specialized services exception.
Problem 2: The proposal generally allows zero-rating and gives regulators very limited ability to police it, leaving users and companies without protection against all but the most egregious cases of favoritism.
Problem 3: The proposal allows class-based discrimination, i.e. ISPs can define classes and speed up or slow down traffic in those classes even if there is no congestion.
Problem 4: The proposal allows ISPs to prevent “impending” congestion. That makes it easier for them to slow down traffic anytime, not just during times of actual congestion.

To save the open Internet in Europe, members of the European Parliament need to adopt the amendments. If a majority of the members who vote approves this flawed compromise, the rules are adopted and become law. Europe will have far weaker network neutrality rules than the US, and the European Internet would become less free and less open.

[Barbara van Schewick is the Director of the Stanford Center for Internet and Society]

The Internet of Things will be as corrupt as the companies that control it

[Commentary] Marcelo Rinesi writing for the Institute for Ethics & Emerging Technologies on the coming wave of “defeat software” in the Internet of Things (IoT): "The temptation to teach products to lie strategically will be as impossible to resist for companies in the near future as it has been to Volkswagen, steep as their punishment seems to be."

I’ve been pretty hard on the IoT mostly due to dumb, overpriced devices calling themselves "smart" in order to ride the hype and then profit off a hapless public. But, Rinesi’s viewpoint is downright dire by comparison, and a warning to government regulators who will fail to see the rise of IoT as they failed to see the rise of the Internet itself. VW was the first to get caught using software to defeat environmental testing, but there’s every reason to believe it won’t be the last. When everything we own is smart, how can we be sure our things are also honest?

Unlocking the potential of the Internet of Things

[Commentary] The growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) presents some opportunities for some exciting new applications for IoT as well as some challenges in upgrading wireless infrastructure and securing networks of connected devices. Capturing the benefits of the Internet of Things will not happen without effort, however. The traffic created by a large increase in the number of connected devices will strain existing wireless infrastructure unless upgrades can be made. Rural areas with few people may lack needed wireless coverage, while urban areas may have too many devices to handle. Further complicating the issue is the fundamentally limited quantity of wireless spectrum available for IoT devices. Fortunately, wireless carriers and industry groups are already collaborating to design the next generation of wireless technology with IoT in mind.

Cyber Insecurity

[Commentary] Much of the debate around cybersecurity, particularly in Congress, would lead you to believe that we face technical challenges that are nearly insurmountable, and that our best bet is to institute some form of better information sharing between the government and the private sector to come up with better guidelines for software vulnerability disclosure. These solutions, if crafted carefully, do have potential. They do not, however, address the real problem.

Despite the narrative, the crux of our current cyber problem is largely not technical at all, but instead comes down to organizational behavior. Bad security practices and poor investment in Office of Personnel Management’s IT security are largely culpable for that hack, and Sony was compromised via basic social engineering. The humans were the weaknesses in the system that the bad guys sought to exploit. These are the vulnerabilities that are in the most urgent need of patching.

Google got it wrong: The Internet won't be global by 2020

[Commentary] "For every person online, there are two who are not. By the end of the decade, everyone on Earth will be connected." Does Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman and former CEO of Google, regret his tweet, or was it merely a sales pitch for the Internet? Schmidt was wrong. Although he didn't flat-out say that everyone in the world would be online by 2020, it was implicit in his statement. Sadly, that's not going to happen.

In fact, Internet use in developing countries is unlikely to achieve the target of 50 percent until 2020 according to The Broadband Commission. Is the Internet at saturation point already? It may be getting more expensive to connect in the developing world thanks to stalled infrastructure projects, but the Internet is still growing fast. It's all down to mobile phones, the fastest growing technology in human history. There are now seven billion mobile cellular subscriptions worldwide, with 95 percent of the globe now covered by a 2G signal.

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