August 2017

How Hurricane Harvey Highlights Need to Modernize Wireless Emergency Alerts

Hurricane Harvey hit the Texas coast on August 25. The Category 4 storm brought massive rainfall and unprecedented flooding to the Houston area and emergency procedures are underway for what may be the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history. One critical component of rescue operations is maintaining reliable communications networks, a key mission of the Federal Communications Commission. Large-scale crises often reveal the difficulties governments and residents have communicating critical information when networks are at peak use. For years, wireless carriers and policymakers have been debating updates to the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) system, trying to craft policy that would better enable mobile devices to receive geographically-targeted, text-like messages alerting people of imminent threats to safety in their area. Even as first responders are working to rescue people at risk in South Texas, the disaster is returning attention to the WEA debate.

FCC Bill Could Curtail Legitimate Complaints, Critics Say

An effort in Congress aimed at cutting down on repeat comments to the Federal Communications Commission’s consumer complaint database could end up limiting legitimate public input, lawmakers and allies say. House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) has drafted legislation to reauthorize the FCC, with the measure aimed at increasing transparency at the agency. But while the draft would officially require the agency to keep a database of consumer complaints — something the FCC is already doing and made publicly available last May — it specifically notes that the FCC would not be required to include “duplicative complaints.”

The draft legislation language about “duplicative complaints” in the consumer complaint database set off alarm bells for Gigi Sohn, who served as counselor to then-FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and is currently a fellow at the Institute for Technology Law & Policy at Georgetown University. “That’s not transparent at all,” she said. “If there are 1,000 complaints about something that Verizon or Comcast did, I as a consumer should have a right to see that there are 1,000 complaints.”

DOJ Implores FCC to Combat Prison Cellphone Problem

The US Department of Justice is pressing federal regulators to come up with a way of keeping inmates from using cellphones in the nation's prisons. In a letter, Assistant Attorney General Beth Williams told the Federal Communications Commission that addressing the security threat posed by contraband cellphones "should be a chief priority" of both the FCC and Justice, which oversees the federal Bureau of Prisons.

The letter follows an appeal from South Carolina's prisons director to Attorney General Jeff Sessions in June, beseeching the top prosecutor for help pursuing FCC permission to jam cell signals of the phones, which are thrown over fences, smuggled by errant employees, even delivered by drone. A decades-old law says federal officials can grant permission to jam the public airwaves only to federal agencies, not state or local ones. Telecommunications companies are opposed, saying jamming cell signals could set a bad precedent and interfere with legal cell users nearby.

FCC Announces Initial Launch of the National Lifeline Eligibility Verifier

By this Public Notice, the Federal Communications Commission announces the states that will be part of the initial launch of the National Lifeline Eligibility Verifier (National Verifier). The Commission established the National Verifier in the 2016 Lifeline Order to make eligibility determinations and perform a variety of other functions necessary to enroll subscribers into the Lifeline program. The National Verifier will verify Lifeline subscriber eligibility, conduct checks to prevent duplicate benefits, recertify subscriber eligibility, and calculate support payments to eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs). In the 2016 Lifeline Order, the Commission set as an expectation that the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) would deploy the National Verifier in at least five states by December 31, 2017.3 USAC has announced that the National Verifier will launch in six states – Colorado, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming – in December 2017. The National Verifier will have a soft launch date of December 5, 2017, and a hard launch date of March 13, 2018.

FCC Proposes to 'Fix' Rural Broadband by Changing the Definition

[Commentary] At the moment, the Federal Communications Commission defines home “broadband” as providing 25 mbps download and 3 mbps upload (“25/3”). Many communities can only get that speed from a cable provider – assuming they have one that serves their communities. If the FCC discovers that certain identifiable groups of people, like rural Americans, don’t have access to broadband that meets the standard, then the law requires the FCC to take steps to ensure that those left behind get the access they need. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s Proposal: Lower the Standard for Broadband So We Can Say Everyone Has Access.

Rural Americans who care about getting real broadband not only need to file at the FCC, but also need to contact their Senators and members of Congress. Members of Congress from both parties have made it clear to the FCC that rural Americans continue to lack choices for affordable broadband that meets their needs.

[Harold Feld is senior vice president of Public Knowledge]

Here’s How Google’s Money Really Influences Research

[Commentary] The think-tank world has come to be dominated by a distinctly modern kind of doublethink, which combines a rational understanding that corporations spend money to influence public policy with an instinctual belief that some of the institutions that benefit from it–often those that employ the thinker or his friends–function with complete independence. The New America Foundation runs several programs, including the Open Technology Institute , which researches issues that affect Google directly. The scholars who work on those projects don’t think of themselves as Google shills, and it’s hard to believe that they significantly changed their opinions in order to secure think-tank gigs. But it’s also hard to believe that their research isn’t affected by the funding that allows them to do the work they do.

Which leads us to the other big problem in the think-tank world–how the presence of so much corporate money distorts what work gets funded in the first place.

[Robert Levine is an author and journalist who writes about the media and technology businesses]

Google is losing allies across the political spectrum

With so many Googlers in government, Google had an outsized influence on policymaking during the Obama years. But today, Google is in a different situation.

Most obviously, Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt worked hard to get Hillary Clinton elected president, and Clinton lost. The issues don't end there. Given Silicon Valley's liberal views on social issues and Schmidt's love for Democratic politicians, it was probably inevitable that conservatives would sour on the search giant. But the larger problem for the search giant is that the company has been losing support among Democrats as well. A growing number of liberal thinkers believes that the concentration of corporate power was a major problem in the American economy. And few companies exemplify that concentration more than Google.

Sinclair/Tribune Foes Remain Unmoved

As expected, the companies and groups that lined up to oppose or strongly criticize the proposed Sinclair/Tribune merger were not ready to bury the hatchet and sing kumbaya in response to Sinclair's vigorous defense of the deal's public interest benefits. They lined up to take their shots in reply comments due at the end of the day Aug 30. In filing after filing, members of the Coalition to Save Local Media said Sinclair had fallen far short of the mark and the $3.9 billion dollar deal should be denied.

"Sinclair has failed to explain how this multi-billion-dollar merger could possibly be in the public interest,” said Computer & Communications Industry Association President Ed Black. “That’s supposed to be the requirement the FCC is charged with overseeing. It’s a concern that a merger that would be so harmful to rural areas, independent news stations and citizens could even be considered.” The Competitive Carriers Association signaled in its comments that Sinclair had not assuaged their concerns about its power as force in the post-incentive auction repack—Sinclair/Tribune will have more repacking stations than any other group.

Democratic Reps Question How to Best Protect Data Breach Victims in Letter to GAO

After a data breach exposes sensitive information, agencies usually offer victims credit monitoring as a catch-all solution to prevent fraud. But a group of lawmakers isn't convinced that strategy always gets the job done. “We are concerned that the popular response may reflect factors unrelated to the actual protection of breach victims,” House Energy and Finance Committee Reps Frank Pallone, Jr., (D-NJ), Diana DeGette (D-CO), and Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) wrote in a letter to the Government Accountability Office. “Reliance on these products after the breach may result in consumers being lulled into a false sense of security.” They requested GAO examine how effective current strategies work for various types of breaches, the extent of the protection each one offers, and the factors agencies weigh in choosing a response to a breach. Lawmakers also would like GAO to see if there are better solutions not currently being offered.

IT Modernization

As the Director of the American Technology Council (ATC), I was directed by the President, through Executive Order (EO) 13800, to coordinate a report regarding the modernization of Federal Information Technology (IT). This report was developed by experts selected by the Administrator of General Services Administration (GSA), the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and the Secretary of Commerce (Commerce). We set out to accomplish two high-level objectives. First is to create a vision for the future of Federal IT that maximizes secure use of the best commercial technology available, and second is to define a plan to jumpstart the government’s transition to that vision.

Benton

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