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  2. August 2017

August 2017

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr Announces Staff

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr announced the appointment of four individuals that will serve in his office in acting capacities:

Nirali Patel, Acting Legal Advisor for Media, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement. Patel will advise Commissioner Carr on media, consumer protection, and enforcement matters. Patel is on detail from the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau, where she serves as a Deputy Chief of the Competition Policy Division. Before joining the Commission, Patel served as Counsel in the Technology, Media, and Telecommunications practice of Hogan Lovells US LLP. Prior to that, she practiced communications law at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP and Sidley Austin LLP. Patel graduated summa cum laude from the American University Washington College of Law and received her undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Kevin Holmes, Acting Legal Advisor for Wireless and Public Safety. Holmes will advise Commissioner Carr on wireless and public safety issues. Holmes joins the office from the FCC’s Office of Legislative Affairs, where he worked on spectrum, mobile broadband, and public safety issues. Previously, Holmes worked in the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, both as an interim Legal Advisor in the Office of the Bureau Chief and as an Attorney Advisor in the Broadband Division. Earlier in his career, Holmes was a legislative aide to Senator Spencer Abraham. Holmes holds an LL.M. in Law and Government from the American University Washington College of Law, a J.D. from the DePaul University College of Law, and a B.A. from Kalamazoo College.

Nathan Eagan, Acting Wireline Legal Advisor. Eagan will advise Commissioner Carr on wireline issues. Eagan joins the office from the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau, where he most recently served as a Legal Advisor in the Telecommunications Access Policy Division. He came to the Commission through the agency’s Attorney Honors Program, and he has worked on a variety of issues, including universal service and broadband deployment. Eagan received his J.D. from The George Washington University Law School, where he was a George Washington Scholar and an Articles Editor for the Federal Communications Bar Journal. He received his undergraduate degree from Clark University, in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Natalie Martinez, Acting Confidential Assistant. For the past three years, Martinez has served as the Confidential Assistant to three successive General Counsels of the FCC. Before that, she served as the Confidential Assistant to the Chief of the Enforcement Bureau for four years. She began her career at the FCC in 2001 as an Office Automation Clerk in the International Bureau.

Telemarketer Fees to Access the FTC’s Do Not Call Registry to Rise Slightly in FY 2018

The Federal Trade Commission has announced FY 2018 fees for telemarketers accessing phone numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry. The annual fees will increase slightly from FY 2017, and are set forth in a Federal Register notice. All telemarketers calling consumers in the United States are required to download the numbers on the Do Not Call Registry to ensure they do not call consumers who have registered their phone numbers. The first five area codes are free, and organizations that are exempt from the Do Not Call rules, such as some charitable organizations, may obtain the entire list for free.

Telemarketers must subscribe each year for access to the Registry numbers. The FY 2018 Registry access fees will increase slightly based on a reevaluation, as required by the Do‑Not‑Call Registry Fee Extension Act of 2007. Under the Act’s provisions, in FY 2018 telemarketers will pay $62 for yearly access to Registry phone numbers in a single area code (an increase of $1 from FY 2017), up to a maximum charge of $17,021 for all area codes nationwide (up from $16,714 in FY 2017). The fee for accessing an additional area code for a half year will increase to $31.

2017

Benton: 1. Benton publishes Dr. Colin Rhinesmith and Angela Siefer's Digital Inclusion Outcomes-Based Evaluation; 2. NDIA gives the second annual Charles Benton Digital Equity Champion award to Emy Tseng of NTIA; 3. Denise Linn Riedl named Benton Fellow; 4. The Telecommunications Policy Research Conference (TPRC) awards the first Charles Benton Junior Scholar Award to Mirjam Lange; 5. Jonathan Sallet named Benton Senior Fellow

Policy World: Ajit Pai is appointed FCC Chairman (2017 - present); Congress overturns FCC's broadband privacy rules

It is time to stop using the term ‘alt right’

[Commentary] At a certain point, we must all pause to ask: How is it that the only time our mouthy, straight-shooting, politically incorrect president seems to bite his tongue is when he is called upon to denounce white supremacists? Does it have much to do with the fact that he lines the senior ranks of his administration with outspoken white supremacists, including Steve Bannon, formerly of Breitbart? And why is the administration so interested in curbing civil rights investigations and stopping funding for counter-white nationalism efforts? These questions should trouble every American, and therefore be on the tip of the tongue of every journalist.

Until we get real answers, it’s time to stop calling the president’s favored political zealots by their favored self-identifying term. Journalists can’t allow agents of hatred to set how they are defined. Their rebrand is little more than a cover-up for white supremacists to continue to commit foul acts of disrespect, intimidation, and violence.

[Shaya Tayefe Mohajer is a freelance journalist in Los Angeles.]

2016

Benton: 1. Dr. Colin Rhinesmith writes Digital Inclusion and Meaningful Broadband Adoption Initiatives to inform FCC's efforts to modernize its Lifeline program for the broadband age; 2. Benton publishes Connecting Anchor Institutions: A Broadband Action Plan for the Schools, Libraries and Healthcare Broadband Coalition (SHLB); 3. National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) gives the first annual Charles Benton Digital Equity Champion award to Seattle's David Keyes; 4. Next Century Cities gives Charles Benton Next Generation Engagement Awards to Louisville, Raleigh, and Austin; 5. Benton publishes the first edition of The Emerging World of Broadband Public–Private Partnerships for the Coalition for Local Internet Choice 

World: Donald Trump elected President of the United States

Policy World: Appeals Court upholds FCC's 2015 Open Internet rules; FCC modernizes Lifeline program to include affordable broadband connectivity for low-income consumers

2015

Benton: 1. Benton Foundation Founder and Chairman Charles Benton dies; Leonard Jay Schrager succeeds Charles Benton as Chairman; 2. Gig.U and Benton give community leaders roapmap for getting better, faster, cheaper broadband with Blair Levin and Denise Linn's The Next Generation Network Connectivity Handbook; 3. Charles Benton and the Benton Foundation are recipients of the Alliance for Community Media Dirk Koning-George Stoney Award for Humanistic Communications; 4. Dr. Colin Rhinesmith named Benton Faculty Research Fellow (2015-2017); 6. Charles Benton is posthumous recipient of NATOA's Community Broadband Visionary Award

World: Comcast terminates Time Warner Cable merger agreement; Verizon purchases AOL

Policy World: FCC Adopts Open Internet rules and classifies broadband a telecommunications service; Broadband Opportunity Council releases report and recommendations

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