John Eggerton

Sen Ed Markey (D-MA) laid down another marker on the issue of broadband privacy, headlining a press conference with privacy groups vowing to fight Republican efforts in Congress and at the Federal Communications Commission to roll back FCC broadband privacy rules. Sen Markey said that Democrats would wage a historic battle to preserve the rules, as well as the Open Internet order to which it is linked. He called Internet service providers gatekeepers and said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai was doing their bidding by trying to roll back the rules, starting with data security protections. He said that would allow ISPs to ignore best practices and make sensitive information more vulnerable.

“Without the FCC’s broadband privacy rules, broadband providers will be able to sell dossiers of the personal and professional lives of their subscribers to the highest bidder without their consent.‎ We cannot allow the Trump administration and Congressional Republicans to put corporate interests before consumer protections. I will oppose any effort to roll back these important broadband privacy rules, either by Congress or at the FCC,” Sen Markey said.

The Government Accountability Office has been asked by House Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-NJ) to study the status of broadband privacy regulatory authority over both Internet service providers and the edge. Rep Pallone points to the bifurcated oversight of Internet service providers (the Federal Communications Commission) and edge providers (Federal Trade Commission) and the "fluctuating state of the law and underlying threats to individuals' privacy and security online." Those include that a court case has brought into question the FTC's ability to regulate edge provider privacy if that edge provider is owned by a common carrier—such as Verizon buying Yahoo—and the fact that the FCC's broadband privacy framework is under review by current FCC Chairman Ajit Pai.

In a letter to comptroller general Gene L. Dodaro, Rep Pallone asks for GAO to study and report back to the committee, pointing out that "[w]ith the near universal use of the internet, and the rapid expansion of connected devices, corporations now have more information about American consumers than ever before."

The American Cable Association, joined by some independent programmers, told the Federal Communications Commission in reply comments that forced bundling of channels is the biggest obstacle to a thriving and diverse program marketplace. They pointed out that if a pay-TV wants to carry a desirable channel from the nine largest media companies, they would have to carry a minimum of 65 channels to get them. The cable operators argue that it is clear from the record that addressing that problem is a prerequisite to the competition that the FCC is trying to promote. That includes package deals in retransmission agreements, ACA says. "At a minimum, the FCC should eliminate bundling from the list of conduct that is presumptively consistent with good faith conduct in broadcast carriage talks. This practice has real, anti-competitive implications, making it more difficult for channels not affiliated with a top-rated broadcast station to obtain carriage," said ACA president Matt Polka.

The Federal Communications Commission's Media Bureau has granted a petition by a pair of Australian citizens to control 100% of broadcast stations (four radio stations in Alaska and Texas). The FCC has granted aggregate foreign investments in broadcast licensees of up to 49.99% under foreign ownership rules loosened in 2013 (the Pandora decision), and just last month allowed foreign investors to own up to a 49% equity stake in TV and radio station owner Univision, including up to a 40% stake by Mexico's Televisa. But this is the first time it has allowed 100% foreign ownership of the parent of broadcast licensees.

The FCC's Media Bureau, which issued the declaratory ruling Feb. 23 allowing the ownership change, said the petition had been unopposed and that it had consulted with the "relevant agencies" on law enforcement, national security, foreign policy and trade issues—and none of those agencies raised any objections or said any conditions should be put on the deal.

Over 40 groups have written Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to ask him to reverse the decision to rescind Lifeline broadband subsidy eligibility for nine companies.

Among the Wheeler-era decisions the Pai FCC reversed were those designations, saying that the program needed to be better vetted for waste, fraud and abuse before it was expanded. The authorizations were not canceled but returned to pending status, though with the suggestion they might not pass muster. Only one of the nine had actually started providing service. In a letter to Pai and the other commissioners dated Feb. 23, the groups—which includes the NAACP, Free Press, the American Library Association, and The Benton Foundation—called on the FCC to "reject any further efforts to undermine Lifeline," implement the FCC's March 2016 Lifeline reforms, and restore that carrier designations.

Most of a dozen Democratic members of Congress are calling on Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to vote on clarifications to the FCC's political ad disclosure rules. That came in a letter Feb 22 to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. On Feb 3, the Pai FCC set aside the clarifications and accompanying admonitions and warnings to stations, saying they should have been voted on by the commissioners rather than decided by the Media Bureau on delegated authority.

The Reps were disappointed that the clarifications were set aside, but are hopeful they will return with that commission vote. "The complaints will be returned to pending status and considered by the Commission," said acting bureau chief Michelle Carey at the time. The legislators also pushed for the FCC to bring "true transparency" to political files by using its authority to require disclosure of specific donors, which is something not even Democratic FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler would do despite similar calls from some of the same legislators from his own party.

The Federal Communications Commission is opening up the 5 GHz spectrum band to unlicensed LTE use as a way to boost spectrum sharing and wireless broadband. “This is a significant advance in wireless innovation and a big win for wireless consumers," said FCC chairman Ajit Pai. “LTE-U allows wireless providers to deliver mobile data traffic using unlicensed spectrum while sharing the road, so to speak, with Wi-Fi. The excellent staff of the FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology has certified that the LTE-U devices being approved today are in compliance with FCC rules. And voluntary industry testing has demonstrated that both these devices and Wi-Fi operations can co-exist in the 5 GHz band. This heralds a technical breakthrough in the many shared uses of this spectrum."

The FCC certified LTE-U equipment from Ericsson and Nokia, T-Mobile said, which means the carrier can start deploying the technology in its network, which it will start doing this spring. T-Mobile says tapping into 20 MHz of 5 GHz spectrum—the "U" in LTE-U stands for unlicensed—will help it deliver gigabit LTE to more areas of the country.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai says DC bureaucrats should not micromanage dynamic industries and that he supports Congress making broadband part of an infrastructure legislative package. He also suggests the government should not be trying to divine journalists' editorial judgments.

When asked for a timetable for rolling back the FCC's Title II reclassification of Internet service providers, Chairman Pai said he could not provide one. He did say the ultimate goal was to preserve an internet he argues had been open for two decades before the FCC decided to reclassify ISPs as common carriers. He said the takeaway from those two decades was that light-touch regulation was best and signaled that was what he was aiming to restore. Chairman Pai put in a plug for making broadband part of an infrastructure package in Congress. "I think what Americans really want is better, faster, cheaper internet access," he said, "and for the Congress to give the private sector more tools to promote broadband development."

The Federal Communications Commission is allowing a test of the new ATSC 3.0 transmission standard in the Portland (OR) area. The grant, which was reported by the LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition, is for six months on four channels (16, 20, 35, 38) and was requested by WatchTV's class A low-power outlets KORS-CD, KOXI-CD, KKEI-CD, and KORK-CD. Also backing the test, according to WatchTV, is a "manufacturer of broadcast transmitters for the U.S. market."

The Federal Communications Commission's Open Internet docket is starting to fill up with new comments, according to the FCC's online list of the most active proceedings. It remains number three on the top 10 list with 402 comments in the past 30 days. That is still way below the 992 Lifeline subsidy program compliance filings in that last 30 days and the 1,246 filings on the high-cost fund, both of those related to the Universal Service Fund for broadband subsidies. But it is the busiest docket since last week, when some Democratic members of Congress called on the public to begin flooding the FCC again with support for retaining the Title II-based Open Internet order. There have been over 200 comments logged since last week (there were 178 as of Feb. 9). By contrast, the two USF dockets only logged 68 new comments combined.