Lauren Frayer

By this Public Notice, the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (WTB) names Charles Mathias as the ombudsperson to serve as the single point of contact for issues related to contraband wireless devices in correctional facilities and the deployment of technologies used to combat this vital public safety problem. Mathias will also continue serving in his current position as Associate Chief in WTB.

The Administration strongly supports House passage of Senate Joint Resolution 34, which would nullify the Federal Communications Commission’s final rule titled "Protecting the Privacy of Customers of Broadband and Other Telecommunication Services," 81 Fed. Reg. 87274 (December 2, 2016). The rule applies the privacy requirements of the Communications Act of 1934 to broadband Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and other telecommunications carriers. In particular, the rule requires ISPs to obtain affirmative "opt-in" consent from consumers to use and share certain information, including app usage and web browsing history. It also allows ISPs to use and share other information, including e-mail addresses and service tier information, unless a customer "opts-out." In doing so, the rule departs from the technology-neutral framework for online privacy administered by the Federal Trade Commission. This results in rules that apply very different regulatory regimes based on the identity of the online actor.

If SJ Res 34 were presented to the President, his advisors would recommend that he sign the bill into law.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is calling on a group of leading internet service providers to announce whether they support a GOP bill that would eliminate privacy protections. Minority Leader Pelosi came out against the measure and sent letters to AT&T, Century Link, Charter, Comcast, Cox, Frontier, Optimum, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon and Windstream asking for their positions on it. “Americans learned last week that agents of Russian intelligence hacked into e-mail accounts to obtain secrets on American companies, government officials and more,” Pelosi wrote. “This resolution would not only end the requirement you take reasonable measures to protect consumers’ sensitive information, but prevents the FCC from enacting a similar requirement and leaves no other agency capable of protecting consumers.”

[Commentary] The Internet service providers and ad-industry lobbyists disingenuously claim that having the Federal Trade Commission protect consumer privacy for all Internet companies, including ISPs and data giants like Google, is the most effective approach. It would be so, perhaps, if the FTC had any real clout.

The ISPs, data-marketing companies and their supporters are also fighting against the privacy rule because they know we are also on the eve of a new era — the Internet of Things — that will generate even more personal information about us. In today’s digital era, data is power. That’s why we shouldn’t let Congress and the broadband companies overturn the first real protections we can have. This will be an opportunity to challenge Donald Trump’s vision of the United States as principally a corporatist society where the welfare of commercial special interests is more important than the needs of the average American.

[Jeff Chester is executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a Washington-D.C.-based consumer digital rights group.]

Groups representing Internet service providers, tech companies and online advertisers said March 28 that congressional repudiation of the Federal Communications Commission's broadband privacy framework was a "vital step" toward creating a "truly comprehensive and effective privacy framework for the entire Internet based on the successful FTC approach." They also suggested talk of the collapse of privacy protections in the absence of the yet-to-be applied rules had a Chicken Little flavor to them.

US Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), Edward Markey (D-MA), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Angus King (I-ME), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) introduced the Community Broadband Act to preserve and protect the rights of cities and localities to build municipal broadband networks. Municipal broadband can often provide an affordable, reliable option for rural and low-income communities that face persistent barriers to high-speed internet access.

“Internet access is an economic necessity in today's economy, but too many communities lack reliable access,” Senator Booker said. “I saw this problem first-hand as mayor of Newark. In places where reliable, high-speed internet access is lacking, some municipalities have bridged the gap by investing in and offering broadband internet to their residents. But barriers to municipal broadband networks remain. Our bill will help remove these barriers by giving cities the flexibility they need to meet the needs of their residents.” Specifically, the Community Broadband Act will amend the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to ban any state, local, or tribal statute or regulation that prohibits cities from providing high-speed internet.

The lag between policy design and the innovation of the internet and its businesses is understandable given the sheer speed with which the internet has moved, but it is time to catch up. Designing internet regulations without properly understanding the sector can seriously undermine the success of its businesses and users for years to come. The Internet Association presents this white paper as a first step in refreshing the dialogue between the industry, policymakers, and other stakeholders to help avert poorly-informed policy decisions. It offers the first attempt to compile economic contribution estimates for the internet, calculates the first estimate of the economic contribution of mobile internet and app services to the economy, and lays out a better approach to conceptualizing the internet within our economic taxonomy. The goal is not to solve these issues in their entirety, but rather start the conversation and reinvigorate it with nuance, analysis, and consideration.

Maine Fiber Company (MFC), the company behind building the state’s wholesale dark fiber-based Three Ring Binder (3RB) middle mile network, is showing support for Maine lawmakers’ proposed LD 406 bill that’s designed to upgrade the state’s outdated pole attachment regulations. LD 406 was introduced by Senator David Woodsome of York, Maine, and co-sponsored by Representative Seth Berry of Bowdoinham and Senate President Michael Thibodeau of Waldo, Maine.

Rep Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Sen Ron Wyden (D-OR) are calling on the Federal Communications Commission to take "swift action" on a known cellphone security flaw. “It is clear that industry self-regulation isn’t working when it comes to telecommunications cybersecurity,” Sen Wyden and Rep Lieu wrote in a letter they cosigned, on March 28.

At issue is Signaling System 7 (SS7), which allows cellphone networks to communicate with one another - among other purposes, letting cellphones roam from one network to another. In 2014, German security researcher Karsten Nohl determined that there was a bug in SS7 that could allow an attacker to record phone calls, place calls from other accounts, and create other mischief. The relatively obscure phone protocol, though, now has the attention of Congressional lawmakers.

President Donald Trump attacked The New York Times, days after he called one of the paper’s reporters to give an exclusive interview on the decision to pull his healthcare plan from the House floor. “The failing @NYTimes would do much better if they were honest!” President Trump tweeted on both his personal and official White House accounts.

The tweet linked to a piece by New York Post columnist John Crudele, in which he said he canceled his Times subscription “because I felt the paper had become ethically challenged in its coverage of the presidential election.” Crudele ripped the paper’s coverage of the federal investigation into whether Trump associates helped Russia meddle in the 2016 election and Trump’s wiretapping claims.