March 2017

FCC APRIL MEETING

INFRASTRUCTURE MONTH AT THE FCC
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Chairman Ajit Pai]
To bring the benefits of the digital age to all Americans, the Federal Communications Commission needs to make it easier for companies to build and expand broadband networks. We need to reduce the cost of broadband deployment, and we need to eliminate unnecessary rules that slow down or deter deployment. At next month's Commission meeting on April 20, the FCC will be voting on a number of proposals to do just that. That's why we are calling April "Infrastructure Month" at the FCC.
benton.org/headlines/infrastructure-month-fcc | Federal Communications Commission
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FCC ANNOUNCES TENTATIVE AGENDA FOR APRIL OPEN MEETING
[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 April Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday, April 20, 2017:
Connect America Fund: The Commission will consider an Order on Reconsideration that would amend the construction project limitation within section 54.303 of the Commission’s rules to permit carriers to report, for universal service purposes, capital expenses per location up to the established per-location per-project limit, rather than disallowing all capital expenses associated with construction projects in excess of the limit. (WC Docket Nos. 10-90 and 14-58; CC Docket No. 01-92)
Wireline Infrastructure Deployment: The Commission will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Notice of Inquiry, and Request for Comment that would propose to remove regulatory barriers to infrastructure investment, suggest changes to speed the transition from copper networks and legacy services to next-generation networks and services dependent on fiber, and propose to reform Commission regulations that are raising costs and slowing, rather than facilitating, broadband deployment. (WC Docket No. 17-84)
Wireless Infrastructure Deployment: The Commission will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Notice of Inquiry that commences an examination of the regulatory impediments to wireless network infrastructure investment and deployment, and how the Commission may remove or reduce such impediments consistent with the law and the public interest. (WT Docket 17-79; WT Docket 15-180)
Business Data Services: The Commission will consider a Report and Order that recognizes the strong competition present in the business data services market and modernizes the Commission’s regulatory structure accordingly to bring ever new and exciting technologies, products, and services to businesses and consumers. (WC Docket Nos. 16-143, 15-247, 05-25; GN Docket No. 13-5; RM-10593)
Reinstating the UHF Discount: The Commission will consider an Order on Reconsideration to reinstate the UHF discount used to calculate compliance with the national television audience reach cap. (MB Docket No. 13-236)
Noncommercial Educational Station Third-Party Fundraising: The Commission will consider a Report and Order that would adopt rules permitting NCE stations not funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to alter or suspend regular programming in order to conduct fundraising for third-party non-profit organizations so long as such stations do not spend more than one percent of their total annual airtime on such activities. (MB Docket No. 12-106)
Promoting Diversification of Ownership in the Broadcasting Services: The Commission will consider an Order on Reconsideration that would allow noncommercial broadcasters greater flexibility to use a Special Use FRN for ownership reporting purposes and avoid the need to submit personal information to the Commission. (MB Docket No. 07-294; MD Docket No. 10-
234)
benton.org/headlines/fcc-announces-tentative-agenda-april-2017-open-meeting | Federal Communications Commission | B&C
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DELIVERING ON THE TRUMP REGULATORY REFORM AGENDA
[SOURCE: AT&T, AUTHOR: Bob Quinn]
March 30, the Federal Communications Commission circulated a drastically different vision for the Business Data Services marketplace [than what was seen during the Wheeler FCC]. On the heels of the largest data collection in the history of the FCC, the order proposes a data- and economics-driven regulatory approach that best reflects the level of competition that exists today (though the market is likely significantly more competitive than even this data – from four years ago – reflects). The proposal appears to eliminate outdated regulations that hinder competitive markets, and proposes a rational regulatory framework where competition has yet to take hold. Reforming outdated regulations is not only a key component of economic growth, but some economists argue that it is the most powerful tool for incenting investment and increasing productivity. The BDS rules will finally evolve to reflect the increased level of competition and will encourage incremental fiber investment as the Pai FCC begins the process of delivering on regulatory reform promises made by the Trump Administration.
benton.org/headlines/business-data-services-delivering-trump-regulatory-reform-agenda | AT&T
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

NET NEUTRALITY IS TRUMP'S NEXT TARGET, ADMINISTRATION SAYS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Steve Lohr]
The Trump administration said March 30 that its next move to roll back the regulation of broadband internet service companies would be to jettison the Obama Administration’s network neutrality rules, which were intended to safeguard free expression online. The net neutrality rules, approved by the Federal Communications Commission in 2015, were intended to ensure that no online content is blocked and that the internet is not divided into pay-to-play fast lanes for internet and media companies that can afford it and slow lanes for everyone else. In a news conference, White House spokesman Sean Spicer mentioned the net neutrality rules and said President Trump had “pledged to reverse this overreach.” The Obama Administration rules, Spicer said, were an example of “bureaucrats in Washington” placing restrictions on one kind of company — internet service suppliers — and “picking winners and losers.” Telecommunications and cable television companies, the broadband services providers, fought being classified as common carriers. They said the classification opened the door to bureaucratic interference with business decisions that would ultimately reduce incentives to invest and therefore raise prices and hurt consumers.
benton.org/headlines/net-neutrality-trumps-next-target-administration-says | New York Times
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LIBRARIES HAVE BECOME A BROADBAND LIFELINE TO THE CLOUD FOR STUDENTS
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Phil Shapiro]
[Commentary] As cloud computing has become an integral part of the lives of students at public schools, it has increased the importance of a place generations of students have turned to for much more analog learning needs—the library. Both public and school libraries have always been a source of information for students. And while the Internet has undoubtedly changed the way students do research, cloud-based tools have actually evolved the library's role rather than diminished it. Public computers at libraries have become an extension of the classroom, and they're an important resource for children who don’t have unfettered access to broadband Internet at home. The cloud has only made those public computers more effective.
[Phil Shapiro is the Public Geek at the Takoma Park Maryland Library, a small public library in the Washington DC-area]
benton.org/headlines/libraries-have-become-broadband-lifeline-cloud-students | Ars Technica
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COMMUNICATIONS & DEMOCRACY

TRUMP EXHUMES VEILED THREAT TO CHANGE LIBEL LAWS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
President Donald Trump has renewed his suggestion that libel laws might need to be tightened so he could pursue news outlets whose stories he feels are wrong or unjustified attacks. In a tweet March 30, the President once again took aim at one of the mainstays of the mainstream media. "The failing @nytimes has disgraced the media world," he wrote. "Gotten me wrong for two solid years. Change libel laws?" That followed a tweet from March 29: "Remember when the failing @nytimes apologized to its subscribers, right after the election, because their coverage was so wrong. Now worse!"
benton.org/headlines/president-trump-exhumes-veiled-threat-change-libel-laws | Broadcasting&Cable | The Hill | Vox | Huffington Post
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CAN TRUMP CHANGE LIBEL LAWS?
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Adam Liptak]
Can the president change libel laws? No. Libel law is a state-law tort, meaning that state courts and state legislatures have defined its contours. Since the Supreme Court’s 1964 decision in New York Times v. Sullivan, the Supreme Court has placed constitutional limits on how states can define libel, notably by requiring public officials and, later, public figures to prove actual malice. That protection was needed, Justice William J. Brennan Jr. wrote, to vindicate a “profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust and wide-open.” Such debate, Justice Brennan wrote, “may well include vehement, caustic and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials.” Changing New York Times v. Sullivan would require either the Supreme Court to overrule it or a constitutional amendment. Neither is remotely likely, though President Trump could try to appoint Supreme Court justices who would vote to overturn the precedent.
benton.org/headlines/can-president-trump-change-libel-laws | New York Times
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2 WH OFFICIALS HELPED GIVE NUNES INTEL REPORTS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Matthew Rosenberg, Maggie Haberman, Adam Goldman]
A pair of White House officials played a role in providing House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) with the intelligence reports that showed that President Donald Trump and his associates were incidentally swept up in foreign surveillance by American spy agencies. The revelation that White House officials assisted in the disclosure of the intelligence reports — which Chairman Nunes then discussed with President Trump — is likely to fuel criticism that the intelligence chairman has been too eager to do the bidding of the Trump administration while his committee is supposed to be conducting an independent investigation of Russia’s meddling in the last presidential election. Chairman Nunes has also been faulted by his congressional colleagues for sharing the information with President Trump before consulting with other members of the intelligence committee. The congressman has refused to identify his sources, saying he needed to protect them so others would feel safe coming to the committee with sensitive information. He disclosed the existence of the intelligence reports on March 22, and in his public comments he has described his sources as whistle-blowers trying to expose wrongdoing at great risk to themselves.
benton.org/headlines/2-white-house-officials-helped-give-nunes-intelligence-reports | New York Times
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WH, DEMOCRATS, AND INFO
[SOURCE: ProPublica, AUTHOR: Justin Elliott]
Virtually every day, Democratic lawmakers write the Trump Administration demanding answers on a range of issues. And every day they are met with the sounds of silence. The recent unanswered letters include: a request from senators asking for details on Jared Kushner’s conflicts of interest; another asking how agencies will implement Trump-ordered changes to Obamacare; and a third asking for details on officials the administration has quietly installed in so-called beachhead teams across the government. A recent, informal audit by Rep John Sarbanes (D-MD) found 100 letters that went unanswered as of mid-March, though not all of them made clear requests for information. “These findings confirm what many feared: The Trump Administration has little regard for transparent government,” Rep Sarbanes said. A Rep Sarbanes spokesman said the audit found just a small handful of letters that did receive responses, such as one sent to the Federal Railroad Administration and another related to a pipeline issue. The reasons for the lack of responses aren’t clear.
benton.org/headlines/how-trump-administration-responds-democrats-demands-information-it-doesnt | ProPublica
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SECURITY/PRIVACY

YOUR PRIVACY IS A PARTISAN ISSUE
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Robbie McBeath]
On March 28, the US House of Representatives voted to revoke rules created by the Federal Communications Commission that would have required broadband providers to receive permission before collecting data on subscribers’ online activities. In a 215-to-205 vote largely along party lines and which mirrored an earlier vote in the Senate, Republican Representatives delivered a massive victory for broadband providers while offering flimsy justification. The move is sparking a backlash from consumers who value their online privacy. But while the plan to remove privacy protections may harm consumers, some GOP leaders have something else in their sights: the repeal of network neutrality.
benton.org/headlines/your-privacy-partisan-issue | Benton Foundation
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FTC, FCC COMMISSIONERS ON PRIVACY DECISION
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: FTC Commissioner Terrell McSweeny, FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn]
[Commentary] With so much going on in Washington, the American people may not be up to date with the Congressional Review Act — an obscure tool Congress has been using to rescind policies that were put in place by the previous administration. Most recently, the House and Senate voted to undo rules designed to protect the privacy of American consumers when they sign up for and use broadband Internet service. This would leave Internet users worse off, but there’s still time for President Trump to veto the legislation. What people may not realize, moreover, is that if the legislation approved by Congress becomes law, there will be no privacy rules governing broadband providers. The FCC no longer will be able to protect consumer privacy and, because of arcane restraints on its jurisdiction, the FTC will be unable to pick up the slack. Last year’s election was fought over many issues; removing privacy protections from American consumers was not one of them. We have yet to hear from a single consumer who wants less control over their sensitive personal data. Unfortunately, that is exactly what this legislation would do. It is our hope that President Trump, who was elected by arguing that he would stand up for the average American, does what most Americans would expect and vetoes this legislation.
benton.org/headlines/commissioners-ftc-and-fcc-are-worried-about-your-online-privacy | Los Angeles Times
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PERSPECTIVE ON PRIVACY
[SOURCE: Phoenix Center, AUTHOR: Larry Spiwak]
[Commentary] The common currency in the internet age for both “edge” providers such as Google and the operators of “core” broadband networks such as Verizon and CenturyLink is information to provide consumers with enhanced online experiences. Given Americans’ voracious use of the internet, and what our browsing and buying habits say about us, common sense would dictate that the U.S. Government’s approach to the complex issue of consumer privacy should be comprehensive and not piecemeal: for industry-wide problems we need industry-wide solutions, not unique rules for one kind of company and different rules for another. The FCC under former Chairman Tom Wheeler didn’t care less about cohesive policy approaches. Rather than attempting to harmonize its privacy policy with the approach taken by the Federal Trade Commission that already oversees online privacy issues, the FCC decided to re-invent the wheel and write its own set of draconian rules creating gaps and inconsistencies with the FTC’s approach. The FCC’s privacy rules were just bad rules. They were an excellent example of politically-driven asymmetrical regulation specifically designed to transfer economic profits from the core of the network to the edge. In plain English, the FCC’s rules were designed to help edge companies like Google protect their market share against competition from broadband service providers like AT&T. In so doing, the FCC perversely provided further incentive for broadband providers to reduce network investment. The Congressional Review Act does not change the state of the governing law. This is because the CRA is not designed to re-write an administrative agency’s governing statute, but to provide Congress with a direct oversight mechanism to review and disapprove how an administrative agency implements its governing statute. According to the CRA, if Congress disapproves of a specific rule, then an administrative agency may not reissue that rule “in substantially the same form….”
benton.org/headlines/bit-perspective-alleged-forthcoming-privacy-apocalypse | Phoenix Center
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DEMS PLAN TO USE PRIVACY RULES AS POLITICAL AMMUNITION
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Alex Byers]
The GOP's technology offensive, which has included rolling back the Federal Communications Commission's broadband privacy rules and will likely take aim at network neutrality next, has handed a potential political weapon to Democrats and consumer groups, who are eager to use it. "Voters across party lines understand the importance of personal privacy and are not going to be happy as they find out that Republican senators and Senate candidates used a party-line vote to put data including health and financial information for sale to the highest bidder," said Ben Ray, a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
benton.org/headlines/democrats-plan-use-privacy-rules-political-ammunition | Politico
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EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS

ATT FIRSTNET CONTRACT
[SOURCE: Department of Commerce, AUTHOR: Press release]
The Department of Commerce and First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) announced the selection of AT&T to build the first nationwide wireless broadband network dedicated to America’s first responders. This record-breaking public-private partnership is a significant investment in the communications infrastructure that public safety desperately needs for day-to-day operations, disaster response and recovery, and securing of large events. It will also make 20 MHz of prime broadband spectrum available for private-sector development. The broad terms of this 25-year agreement between FirstNet and AT&T are:
FirstNet will provide 20 MHz of high-value, telecommunications spectrum and success-based payments of $6.5 billion over the next five years to support the Network buildout – FirstNet’s funding was raised from previous Federal Communications Commission spectrum auctions;
AT&T will spend about $40 billion over the life of the contract to build, deploy, operate and maintain the network, with a focus on ensuring robust coverage for public safety;
Additionally, AT&T will connect FirstNet users to the company’s telecommunications network assets, valued at more than $180 billion.
This innovative public-private partnership will create more than 10,000 new jobs and ensure public safety has a voice in the growth and evolution of the Network. In addition, FirstNet and AT&T will maximize the resources they are bringing to the partnership to create a financially self-sustaining network.
benton.org/headlines/firstnet-partners-att-build-465-billion-wireless-broadband-network-americas-first | Department of Commerce | The Hill | ars technica
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March 2017

Trump Defends Michael Flynn, Blames Media and Democrats for ‘Witch Hunt’

Beyond Tech: Policymaking in a Digital Age

I worked for Jared Kushner. He’s the wrong businessman to reinvent government.

Putin: 'Read my lips,' election interference claims are lies

A new age of orchestration for 5G

It's not women who are the problem in tech land

Hey Tech Giants: How About Action on Diversity, Not Just Reports?

Oklahoma Bar Association investigating EPA Administrator Pruitt over private e-mail use

March 31, 2017 (Out Like a Lamb?)