March 2017

FCC AGENDA

FCC MARCH AGENDA
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced that the following items are tentatively on the agenda for the March Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday, March 23, 2017. Continuing the Chairman’s pilot program, the FCC is publicly releasing the draft text of all six matters that are expected to be considered at the March Open Meeting, along with one-pagers describing each of these items in greater detail.
Advanced Methods to Target and Eliminate Unlawful Robocalls – The Commission will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Notice of Inquiry that would enable voice service providers to better protect subscribers from illegal and fraudulent robocalls. (CG Docket No. 17-59)
Promoting Technological Solutions to Combat Contraband Wireless Device Use in Correctional Facilities – The Commission will consider a Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would adopt rules to facilitate the deployment of technologies used to combat contraband wireless devices in correctional facilities, while seeking comment on additional proposals and solutions. (GN Docket No. 13-111)
Improving the Quality and Efficiency of Video Relay Service – The Commission will consider a Report and Order, Notice of Inquiry, Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, and Order that would enhance service quality and propose a new provider compensation plan for video relay services. (CG Docket Nos. 10-51 and 03-123)
Cellular Service Reform – The Commission will consider a Second Report and Order, Report and Order, and Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would facilitate mobile broadband deployment, including LTE, promote greater spectrum efficiency, and reduce regulatory burdens and costs. (WT Docket Nos. 12-40, 10-112, 16-138)
Part 43 Reporting Requirements for U.S. Providers of International Services – The Commission will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that proposes to (1) eliminate the Traffic and Revenue Reports and (2) streamline the Circuit Capacity Reports. (IB Docket Nos. 17-55 and 16-131)
Channel Sharing by Stations Outside the Broadcast Television Spectrum Incentive Auction Context – The Commission will consider a Report and Order that would authorize channel sharing outside the context of the incentive auction and thus permit stations with auction-related channel sharing agreements to continue to operate if their auction-related agreements expire or otherwise terminate. (GN Docket No. 12-268; MB Docket No. 03-185; MB Docket No. 15-137).
benton.org/headlines/fcc-announces-tentative-agenda-march-open-meeting | Federal Communications Commission | Chairman Pai press release | March Meeting page | Cellular Service Reform | Improving the Quality and Efficiency of Video Relay Service | Promoting Technological Solutions to Combat Contraband Wireless Device Use in Correctional Facilities | Robocalls Docket Opened
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FCC SEEKS COMMENT ON LIFELINE BROADBAND PROVIDERS
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
The Federal Communications Commission’s Wireline Competition Bureau seeks comment on a request for reconsideration by Free Press, 18MillionRising.org, AFL-CIO, American Library Association, Appalshop, Inc., Asian Americans Advancing Justice - AAJC, Center for Media Justice, Center for Rural Strategies, Color of Change, Common Cause, Common Sense Kids Action, Communications Workers of America, Fight for the Future, FOOTPRINTS INC, Generation Justice, Global Action Project, human-IT, Inclusive Technologies, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, Media Mobilizing Project, MetroEast Community Media, Mobile Beacon, Monterey County Office of Education, NAACP, National Consumer Law Center, National Digital Inclusion Alliance, National Hispanic Media Coalition, Native Public Media, New America’s Open Technology Institute, Open MIC, Partners Bridging the Digital Divide, Public Knowledge, SPNN, The Benton Foundation, The Greenlining Institute, United Church of Christ, OC Inc., and WinstonNet, Inc. of the Bureau’s reconsideration of the Lifeline Broadband Provider designations. Comments are due March 16, 2017. Reply Comments are due March 23, 2017. (WC Docket Nos. 09-197, 11-42)
benton.org/headlines/fcc-seeks-comment-request-reconsideration-concerning-lifeline-broadband-providers | Federal Communications Commission
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BENTON WELCOMES PROCEEDING
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Amina Fazlullah]
Today’s action by the Wireline Competition Bureau is a welcome step in the right direction. We strongly urge the Commission to move forward with implementing the modernization of the Lifeline program so that our nation’s most vulnerable are connected to the opportunities made possible by broadband. Every day that the FCC delays in implementing Lifeline is another day veterans, rural students, people with disabilities, and other low-income people are left waiting in the digital desert.
https://www.benton.org/node/255845
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

BLAME IT ON THE BARCELONA
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Robbie McBeath]
[Commentary] Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai delivered his first major address on the global stage at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Chairman Pai outlined a policy agenda aimed at bringing faster and cheaper broadband to all Americans: promoting infrastructure investment, fostering innovation, and expanding next-generation networks. The key ingredient, from Pai’s perspective, is a light-touch regulatory approach. The rhetoric around net neutrality often muddies the issue. An example can be found in Pai’s speech. He said, “Going forward, the FCC will not focus on denying Americans free data or issuing heavy-handed decrees inspired by the distant past. Instead, we will seek to advance the networks of the future and the innovative new products and services that take advantage of those networks. And as we do so, we will preserve a free and open Internet.” This raises questions: Can Pai be logically consistent by supporting a “free and open Internet” while scaling back the legal, Title II protections and enabling paid prioritization by ISPs? What do he mean by “free and open Internet”? How does he plan on enforcing net neutrality rules ? Since Pai supports sponsored data programs, does he also support Comcast throttling home connections? Or charging edge providers premium prices for an Internet fast lane?
https://www.benton.org/blog/blame-it-barcelona
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NET NEUTRALITY AND TITLE II
[SOURCE: Axios, AUTHOR: Gigi Sohn]
[Commentary] Unfortunately, current Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai has announced his intention to take a "weed whacker" to network neutrality rules and to the legal authority on which they are based. He said, "I favor net neutrality, but I oppose Title II." This should fool no one — there's no net neutrality without clear FCC authority to protect consumers and competition in the broadband market. Right now, that authority is vested in Title II. Net neutrality is under assault. But repeal of the rules is by no means a done deal. Like the Affordable Care Act, Americans won't sit by and allow rules that have protected their ability to use the most important communications network in history to be taken from them. Whether the fight is at the FCC, Congress, or both, policymakers should brace for an enormous battle over the future of the internet.
[Gigi Sohn is an Open Society Foundations Leadership in Government Fellow and served as counselor to former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler.]
benton.org/headlines/real-net-neutrality-rooted-title-ii | Axios
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AMERICA'S DIGITAL LIFELINE ON LIFE SUPPORT
[SOURCE: Fast Company, AUTHOR: Marcus Baram]
As the CEO of Connecting for Good, a nonprofit in Kansas City, Esselman helps several thousand households at low-income housing projects in the city get free access to the internet. His group has provided such services since 2012, in addition to conducting computer training sessions for poor and working-class Kansas City residents. Now it wants to expand its reach, having recently applied for a federal program called Lifeline, which provides a monthly subsidy of $9.25 to low-income Americans to allow them to get online. But the Trump administration just made it harder for the new program, which launched in December, to have an impact. Ajit Pai, the newly appointed chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has announced a review of the program and blocked most of the already-vetted companies from participating in Lifeline, which could make it difficult for tens of thousands of low-income Americans to get online. The move shocked broadband access proponents in both parties, who have long argued that helping low-income and rural Americans get internet access is essential to educating young people and training the workforce of the future.
benton.org/headlines/americas-digital-lifeline-life-support | Fast Company
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COMMUNICATIONS & DEMOCRACY

HOW NATIONS LARGEST OWNER OF TV STATIONS HELPED TRUMP
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Paul Farhi]
Over four days in early August, Donald Trump gave interviews to four TV stations in Ohio, Florida and Maine, and to the Washington bureau of a national TV chain. The interviews were a coup for the stations, which eagerly promoted their “one-on-one” encounters with the GOP nominee. They were also an effective way for Trump to target voting blocs in key states, particularly since he had begun limiting his national media exposure largely to friendly interviewers on Fox News. The most striking thing about the interviews, however, may be that one company was behind all of them: Sinclair Broadcast Group. The Maryland-based company is the nation’s largest owner of TV stations, with 173 in 81 cities nationwide, including those that interviewed Trump in August. The Washington bureau was Sinclair’s, too; it provided its interview with Trump to Sinclair’s many stations for their newscasts. Sinclair, which has drawn criticism for favoring conservative candidates before, says it had no special arrangement with Trump’s campaign and that it didn’t favor him at the expense of his main rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton. It also said it offered equal time to Clinton and solicited interviews with her throughout the campaign, but her managers responded less enthusiastically than Trump.
benton.org/headlines/how-nations-largest-owner-tv-stations-helped-donald-trumps-campaign | Washington Post
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HOUSE INTELLIGENCE VS REPORTERS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Callum Borchers]
How would you like it? That's the short version of a defense offered by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Ca), chair of the House Intelligence Committee, as reporters questioned him about looking into contacts between members of President Trump's administration and Russian officials. “Look, I'm sure some of you are in contact with the Russian Embassy,” Chairman Nunes told a group of journalists. “So be careful what you ask for here. ... Do you want us to conduct an investigation on you or other Americans because you were talking to the Russian Embassy? I just think we need to be careful.”
A journalist's contacting the Russian Embassy — presumably in the course of reporting on National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and Attorney General Jeff Sessions — is not even remotely comparable to what Flynn and Sessions did. It is just plain silly for Chairman Nunes to suggest that it is.
benton.org/headlines/house-intelligence-chair-reporters-do-you-want-us-conduct-investigation-you | Washington Post
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JOURNALISM

BLACKS MORE LIKELY TO FOLLOW UP ON DIGITAL NEWS THAN WHITES
[SOURCE: Pew Research Center, AUTHOR: Kristine Lu]
When getting news online, black online news consumers are much more likely than white consumers to follow up on these stories with an action. A real-time study asked more than 2,000 online news consumers twice a day over the course of a week (Feb. 24-March 1, 2016) whether they got news online in the past two hours and, if so, what their experience was with that news. Those who did get news online were asked whether they took one of six types of follow-up actions: speaking with someone either in person or over the phone; searching for additional information; posting, sharing or commenting on a social networking site; sending an article to someone by email or text message; bookmarking or saving the news for later; and commenting on a news organization’s webpage. Black online news consumers took at least one of these actions two-thirds (66%) of the time on average. That is 17 percentage points higher than whites (49%). By comparison, online news consumers overall took a follow-up action 52% of the time. Blacks were more likely than whites to act upon online news in two particular ways: speaking with someone offline and saving news for later.
benton.org/headlines/blacks-more-likely-follow-digital-news-whites | Pew Research Center
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OPEN GOVERNMENT

PENCE’S HACKED EMAIL
[SOURCE: Indianapolis Star, AUTHOR: Tony Cook]
Vice President Mike Pence routinely used a private email account to conduct public business as governor of Indiana, at times discussing sensitive matters and homeland security issues. He communicated via his personal AOL account with top advisers on topics ranging from security gates at the governor’s residence to the state’s response to terror attacks across the globe. In one email, Pence’s top state homeland security adviser relayed an update from the FBI regarding the arrests of several men on federal terror-related charges. Cyber-security experts say the emails raise concerns about whether such sensitive information was adequately protected from hackers, given that personal accounts like Pence's are typically less secure than government email accounts. In fact, Pence's personal account was hacked in the summer of 2016. Furthermore, advocates for open government expressed concerns about transparency because personal emails aren't immediately captured on state servers that are searched in response to public records requests. Pence's office in Washington said: "Similar to previous governors, during his time as Governor of Indiana, Mike Pence maintained a state email account and a personal email account. As Governor, Mr. Pence fully complied with Indiana law regarding email use and retention. Government emails involving his state and personal accounts are being archived by the state consistent with Indiana law, and are being managed according to Indiana’s Access to Public Records Act.”
benton.org/headlines/vice-president-pence-used-personal-email-state-business-and-was-hacked | Indianapolis Star
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March 2017

Joseph Turow Warns of Discrimination and Privacy Issues When Retail Stores Track Customers

CommLawBlog: AM Owners: Don’t Jump the Gun on FM Translator Applications

The Internet of Things Needs Standardization — Here's Why

Moody’s Lowers Telecom Outlook to ‘Negative’

Georgians Protest for Independent Media

Could particular content rights stymie AT&T/Time Warner merger?

March 3, 2017 (FCC's March Agenda)

Blame It On The Barcelona (Or Alternative Titles To Celebrate Alternative Facts)

Vice President Pence used personal email for state business — and was hacked