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July 2016

Republican Reps Attack More FCC Regulations in Finance Bill

Republican and Democratic Reps took their fight over various Federal Communications Commission proposals and actions to the House floor as they debated the omnibus Financial Services Bill that includes the FCC's appropriation. Democratic Reps tried to block FCC-targeted efforts, but were rebuffed. Republican Reps even added the FCC's broadband privacy proposal to the list of actions blocked by the bill. The House's Republican majority are looking to undo through riders on that must-pass bill what the FCC's Republican minority could not defeat with their dissenting votes, including new network neutrality rules, the set-top box proposal, and the broadband privacy framework. The bill also prevents the FCC from tightening joint sales agreement rules, as it has proposed in its quadrennial media ownership review circulated the week of June 27. Those proposals are unlikely to make it into legislation that gets past President Barack Obama's desk, given his support for Title II reclassification and "unlocking" set-top boxes in particular.

Democratic Reps tried to head off the Republican efforts with amendments offered on the floor to strike some of the offending FCC portions, but were defeated. The bill as it currently stands would not allow the FCC to spend funds to enforce its Open Internet order. House Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Rep Anna Eshoo (D-CA) introduced the amendment to strike the moratorium on funding for the Open Internet order, but it was defeated.

Telecom companies should disclose the true cost of service

[Commentary] In 2014, Rep Mike Doyle (D-PA) and three other Members of Congress sent a bipartisan letter to the Federal Communications Commission, urging the Commission to take a closer look at billing practices of telecommunications companies. In the letter, the Members stated that an inquiry sent to some of the nation’s largest communications providers led them to conclude that below the line fees can add substantially to a consumer’s monthly bill and should be made known to consumers before they sign up for service. FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn shares this view.

In April, the FCC released its consumer broadband label, a new tool that will give consumers more information about the fees and terms of service associated with their fixed and mobile broadband service. Such disclosure and transparency inspires confidence, increases the public’s trust, and demonstrates good faith. The American people not only want these things, they demand them. We are calling for the nation’s communications providers to lead the way and voluntarily improve transparency and disclosure of these “below the line” fees so that when consumers sign up for service, either online or in-store, they won’t have to wait for their first bill to learn what their total monthly costs will be. We hope the nation’s communications providers will heed our call to action and take this simple step to improve the customer experience. Not only would this be a huge win for consumers; it would be an opportunity for the nation’s phone, Internet, and Pay-TV providers to show they are committed to putting their customers first.

AT&T’s Business Data Service Hissy Fit Is Bad Strategy.

[Commentary] Hell hath no fury like an incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) scorned. So it is perhaps no surprise that AT&T has decided to heap much scorn on Verizon for playing smart and flipping sides on the debate on how to improve regulation of the Business Data Service (BDS), nee special access. While perhaps understandable from an emotional perspective, this response is — to use a technical legal phrase — silly. Worse, taken to its logical extreme, it has the same corrosive effect on rulemaking as the accusation of “flip flopping” has on politics. We keep saying we want people to actually negotiate and look for compromises that reflect the changing reality. But when someone actually says “OK, you know what, lets recognize that reality isn’t so black and white as people make it out and we should look for a workable compromise,” then everyone is like “Flip Flopper! How can we possibly take you seriously now that you will no longer fight to the death!"

As I explain below, AT&T (and other ILECs) would gain much more by joining Verizon in negotiating for a transition away from the ILEC monopoly on the high capacity data circuit to a more competitive market structure. Rather than throwing a hissy fit, AT&T should embrace its usual path of shrewd negotiation.

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