Lauren Frayer

Reps Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) and Dave Loebsack (D-IA) introduced the Rural Spectrum Accessibility Act (HR 1814) to expand wireless coverage in rural communities. This bipartisan effort would provide incentives for wireless carriers to make unused spectrum available for rural use and for smaller carriers. “The future of economic development in Iowa and across the country depends, in large part, on access to the internet and mobility,” said Rep Loebsack. “I have met with many small businesses, farmers, and rural telecommunication companies who have stressed the importance of mobile internet access in rural areas. I am pleased to work with Rep Kinzinger to introduce this legislation that will increase access to wireless broadband to help boost economic development, education opportunities and job growth in rural.”

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico is expected to be at the top of the list for renegotiation under the Trump Administration. The treaty’s telecommunications provisions include a “bill of rights” for providers and users of telecommunications services that cover access to public telecommunications services; connection to private lines that reflect economic costs and availability of flat-rate pricing; and the right to choose, purchase, or lease terminal equipment best suited to their needs. These free-market principles reflect American values.

Barriers such as international roaming rates for mobile calls, restrictions on cross-border transfer of digital information (such as electronic payments and digital signatures), and the forced localization of data centers have a detrimental impact on American companies. Consequently, the Trump Administration would be well-advised to advocate for a broader bill of rights that adheres to the notion of freedom of choice. It should uphold the ability of US companies to offer their world-class information services in Canada and Mexico. Such a position may be easier to gain in a renegotiated agreement since the other items on the NAFTA version 2.0 agenda (e.g., tariffs) undoubtedly will receive greater scrutiny and are likely to be far more contentious.

The Commerce Department's announcement that AT&T had been awarded the contract to build and maintain FirstNet, the interoperable broadband communications network suggested after first responder communications failures on 9/11, drew praise from various quarters. "This step was part of the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations on improving the ability of our police, fire, and emergency medical personnel to communicate seamlessly across jurisdictions, which is critical to their missions," said White House press secretary Sean Spicer. "It’s also a sign of the incredible ability of public-private partnerships to drive innovation and solve some of our biggest problems while also creating jobs and growing the economy."

As a youth in the Virginia colony, Thomas Jefferson encrypted letters to a confidante about the woman he loved. While serving as the third president of the newly formed United States, he tried to institute an impossibly difficult cipher for communications about the Louisiana Purchase. He even designed an intricate mechanical system for coding text that was more than a century ahead of its time.

Cryptography was no parlor game for the idle classes, but a serious business for revolutionary-era statesmen who, like today’s politicians and spies, needed to conduct their business using secure messaging. Codes and ciphers involving rearranged letters, number substitutions, and other now-quaint methods were the WhatsApp, Signal, and PGP keys of the era.

President Donald Trump took to Twitter to defend former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. The President tweeted, "Mike Flynn should ask for immunity in that this is a witch hunt (excuse for big election loss), by media & Dems, of historic proportion!"

It was reported that Flynn is willing to be interviewed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Congress regarding any possible ties between President Trump and Russia in exchange for immunity from prosecution. “General Flynn certainly has a story to tell, and he very much wants to tell it, should the circumstances permit,” Flynn’s lawyer Robert Kelner said in a statement.

[Commentary] All tech starts out imperfect and evolves over time based on user needs and user behavior. We now have examples of rule makers testing with users and evolving the rules based on user needs and user behavior. To do this, the process of rulemaking, and eventually lawmaking, must be redesigned. And we have a long way to go before this is a well understood practice; it’s still very early. But perfecting imperfect laws is the best chance we have; as the complexity of our society increases, our chances of getting policy right the first time goes down rapidly.

[Jennifer Pahlka is the founder and executive director of Code for America]

[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.

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.

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.

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)