John Eggerton

Rep Jerry McNerney (D-CA) has introduced a bill to boost broadband access for veterans, saying they should not be left behind in the push for broadband adoption. Rep McNerney is a member of both the House Communications and Veterans Affairs subcommittees. The bill, the Improving Broadband Access for Veterans Act of 2016, would require the Federal Communications Commission to launch a Notice of Inquiry (NOI) into veterans' current access to broadband and what can be done to increase access.

Boosting that access could conceivably piggyback on current Universal Service Fund subsidies since Rep McNerney's office says the NOI would focus on low income veterans and those in rural areas. "Veterans, who fight tirelessly to protect our country, face many challenges when they return home. Not having internet access makes what is already an incredibly difficult transition process even harder,” said Rep McNerney. The congressman cited a Pew Research study that found that less than half of those living below the poverty have broadband access at home. He also cited National Telecommunications & Information Administration figures showing rural adoption lags urban.

Liberman Broadcasting, parent of Spanish-language network Estrella TV, has asked the Federal Communications Commission's Media Bureau to reconsider its decision to reject Liberman's program carriage complaint against Comcast for lack of standing, saying to read a TV broadcast station out of the definition of video programming vendor is illegal.

On Aug. 26, the FCC's Media Bureau said the broadcasters' retransmission issues with Comcast did not equate to program carriage under the FCC rules because it was not a video programming vendor under those rules and so did not have standing to bring the complaint. But in a Petition for Reconsideration filed Sept. 26, Liberman said the bureau had ignored the plain language of the law when it concluded it was not a video programming vendor--"programming ...provided by a television broadcast station." Liberman says that error alone justifies reconsideration. Additionally, Liberman said it had supplied enough evidence for a prima facie case against Comcast. The FCC said it had not. Liberman also said that the bureau had erred in not considering distribution of Estrella TV outside its broadcast footprint.

The Taxpayers Protection Alliance is calling on the presidential candidates to talk about how to "reform" the Federal Communications Commission and other federal agencies during their debate Sept 26.

The White House came out strongly against the Require Evaluation Before Implementing Executive Wishlists (REVIEW) Act of 2016 (HR 3438), joined by public interest group Public Knowledge. The House bill would require federal agencies to postpone the effective date of any high-impact rule until it had been reviewed by the courts. In other words, it would prevent a "high-impact" agency rule—like potentially the Federal Communications Commission's Open Internet order—from being enacted until all avenues for legal challenge were exhausted or, if no legal challenges were filed, until a set amount of time had passed.

The bill, which was proposed by Rep Tom Marino (R-PA) and has 32 cosponsors, would define high impact as any bill that would have an annual economic cost of "not less than" one billion dollars. In its official "statement of administration policy" on the bill, the White House threatens a veto, saying the bill will "promote unwanted litigation, introduce harmful delay, and, in many cases, thwart implementation of statutory mandates and execution of duly enacted laws." The idea is that opponents of “high-impact” rules could delay implementation for years, perhaps, by taking them all the way to the Supreme Court. “If enacted, The REVIEW Act would undermine Congress’ intent for expert agencies to do their jobs, negate years of work by expert federal agencies, and waste billions in taxpayer resources by likely requiring that agency efforts to protect consumers and promote competition be delayed for years," said Phillip Berenbroick, senior policy counsel at Public Knowledge.

AT&T says the Verizon/INCOMPAS compromise business data services (BDS) proposal is "a sleeves off the vest" giveaway to Verizon that will slash AT&T prices and prove a "death knell" to broadband investment and 5G fiber deployment. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler as recently as Sept 20 argued that the BDS revamp was needed for the competitive backhaul pricing needed for 5G and thus key to universal wireless coverage.

In a filing with the FCC, which is basing its BDS reform proposal on the "compromise," AT&T said that proposal is "comically one-sided" in favor of Verizon. It said that while Verizon is supposed to represent the incumbent exchange carriers (ILECs) in the proposal, it has been getting out of the wireline business and is "almost certainly" now a net purchaser of BDS, so its interests are more aligned with INCOMPAS, which represents competitive carriers, than with AT&T, which is the other major ILEC. It says Verizon charges more for BDS than AT&T and would continue to be able to do so, while AT&T's rates would be cut well below the market price, and the competitive carriers (CLECs) INCOMPAS represents would be able to seek deep discounts of AT&T's lower rate. Given that Verizon's BDS footprint is shrinking, says AT&T, the CLECs are willing to accept Verizon's higher rates in exchange for Verizon's support of forcing rate reductions on everyone outside Verizon's shrinking footprint. “It is no surprise that Verizon’s business continues to evolve and focus on new technologies and new services that customers want," said a Verizon spokesperson. "The balanced compromise we reached applies a common framework to competing services.”

As advertised, the Wi-Fi Alliance has released its final plan for testing the co-existence of LTE-U and Wi-Fi. The idea of the test is to show how the two technologies—the Wi-Fi cable broadband providers use for mobile connectivity and the LTE-U (U for "unlicensed") that cellular companies want to use to offer a similar service—can share unlicensed spectrum. "Delivering a cross-industry coexistence testing solution was an unprecedented and difficult task, and the outcome will help ensure the billions of people who rely on Wi-Fi every day will continue to benefit from the same great user experience they have enjoyed for more than 15 years," said Ed Figueroa, president of Wi-Fi Alliance. "Wi-Fi connectivity underpins our daily lives, and Wi-Fi Alliance has an obligation to represent the needs of Wi-Fi users worldwide."

LTE backers have been somewhat at odds with the forces of cable Wi-Fi over opening up spectrum currently used by cable providers for their primary Wi-Fi play to telcos looking to create their own broadband hot spots via LTE-U. Cable CTOs—including from Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Charter, and Cablevision—and computer company execs have told the FCC that they don't oppose LTE-U, but that it has so far "avoided the long-proven standards-setting process and would substantially degrade consumer Wi-Fi service across the country."

The Senate Commerce Committee has scheduled a Federal Trade Commission oversight hearing. Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) announced that the hearing will be Sept 27 at 10 am. Look for broadband privacy to be a hot topic of conversation.

Committee Republican Sens have been pushing the Federal Communications Commission to take a page from the FTC's privacy oversight and focus on tailoring broadband privacy to the sensitivity of information, and to adopt an opt-out, rather than opt-in, regime for information sharing, which has been the FTC's approach. The FCC inherited oversight of broadband privacy from the FTC when it reclassified Internet service providers as common carriers, which the FTC is excluded from regulating under the false and deceptive authority the FTC uses. There could also be questions about the recent court decision that called into question whether buying a common carrier could insulate edge providers from FTC privacy regulatory authority.

On the heels of a letter they joined on asking Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler to release the text of his set-top plan, the bipartisan leadership of the House Judiciary Committee have signaled they are going to hold hearings on that plan. "We will be conducting oversight over this matter in the weeks and months to come," said Rep Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) and Rep John Conyers (D-MI) in a joint statement out of the Judiciary committee. "Regardless of whether one supports or opposes the FCC’s efforts to create set-top box alternatives"—most Democrats and Republicans will say creating set-top competition is a good thing—"we have very serious concerns that this should not be accomplished through a compulsory copyright licensing process that may well exceed the FCC’s jurisdiction," said Reps Goodlatte and Conyers.

FCC press secretary Kim Hart said the item does not create a compulsory license. "The proposed text of the FCC’s revised set-top box proposal has not been given to Congress, but published reports indicate that the FCC is considering a licensing body to develop a one-size fits all standard apps license. There are many unresolved questions about this proposal, not the least of which is the fundamental question of whether the FCC even has the authority to create such a regime." Chairman Wheeler indicated he would not be making that plan public before the Sept. 29 vote and that he was still committed to that date.

Jason Furman, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, took the opportunity of a speech on competition policy in Chicago Sept 16 to endorse Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler's new set-top plan. Furman pointed out that the first action taken under an executive order last April calling on agencies, including the independent FCC agency, to identify "creative" ways to promote competition, was to file comments in support of the FCC's original (unlock the box) set-top proposal. Furman said that the White House was pleased that Chairman Wheeler had "actively" listened to stakeholders to "improve the proposal." "[We] believe that [chairman Wheeler] is charting out a responsible way to address their meaningful concerns while being responsive to Congress's explicit directive to ensure a healthy set-top marketplace." That shout out comes as House and Senate Democrats, studios, unions, ISPs, and others are calling for a reboot citing concerns about the FCC's authority over a proposed app standards licensing body and the impact on copyrights and contracts.

CenturyLink says Verizon is trying to have it both ways on the competitiveness of the business broadband market, and thus the need for potential new rate regulations. In a letter to the Federal Communications Commission, CenturyLink pointed out that stumping for its purchase of XO Communications, Verizon included an economic study entitled “Whitepaper on the effect of Verizon’s XO acquisition on business data services.” "[A]lthough the Verizon-INCOMPAS [BDS revamp] proposal is predicated on a lack of BDS competition, the Whitepaper emphatically concludes that 'there will continue to be extensive competition for [BDS] provided over fiber, cable, and copper by a wide range of providers' following the proposed transaction," said CenturyLink.

FCC chairman Tom Wheeler has based his proposed revamp of BDS (formerly special access) on a Verizon/INCOMPAS proposal. Incumbent carriers other than Verizon—CenturyLink, AT&T—do not support the proposal. Cable Internet service providers also feel targeted since it could mean imposing new rate regulations on them. “CenturyLink’s characterization of the Verizon/INCOMPAS joint proposal is wrong," said Kathy Grillo, Verizon senior VP and deputy general counsel. "Our joint proposal is not a commentary on the current state of competition. It is a compromise intended to resolve an issue that has been overhanging the industry for years.