press release

The Federal Communications Commission will hold an Open Meeting on the subjects listed below on Thursday, December 15, 2016:
Transition from TTY to Real-Time Text Technology: The Commission will consider a Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to help achieve the transition from TTY technology to a reliable and interoperable means of providing real-time text communication over wireless Internet protocol-enabled networks and services.
Amendment of Part 11 of the Commission’s Rules Regarding the Emergency Alert System: The Commission will consider a Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to enhance the Emergency Alert System (EAS) as a tool for community emergency preparedness. The Report and Order improves alerting organization at the state and local levels, builds stronger community-based alerting exercise programs, and protects the EAS against accidental misuse and malicious intrusion. The Further Notice seeks comment on proposals to leverage technological advances to improve alerting and additional measures to preserve EAS security.
Update to Parts 2 and 25 Concerning Non-geostationary, Fixed-Satellite Service Systems and Related Matters: The Commission will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to update, clarify, and streamline the Commission’s rules to facilitate the deployment of recently proposed nongeostationary-satellite orbit, fixed-satellite service satellite systems.
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The Federal Trade Commission is providing over $88 million in refunds to more than 2.7 million AT&T customers who had third-party charges added to their mobile bills without their consent, a tactic known as “mobile cramming.” The refunds to consumers relate to 2014 settlements with AT&T, and the companies behind two of the cramming schemes, Tatto and Acquinity. The refunds represent the most money ever returned to consumers in a mobile cramming case.

Through the FTC’s refund program, nearly 2.5 million current AT&T customers will receive a credit on their bill within the next 75 days, and more than 300,000 former customers will receive a check. The average refund amount is $31. According to the FTC’s complaint, AT&T placed unauthorized third-party charges on its customers’ phone bills, usually in amounts of $9.99 per month, for ringtones and text message subscriptions containing love tips, horoscopes, and “fun facts.” The FTC alleged that AT&T kept at least 35 percent of the charges it imposed on its customers.

House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) and committee member Rep John Yarmuth (D-KY) introduced a bipartisan bill to repeal the newspaper broadcast cross-ownership ban. Enacted in 1975, the cross-ownership rule prohibits ownership of both a broadcast station (AM, FM, TV) and a daily newspaper in the same market. Despite the fact that the Federal Communications Commission, in 2003, found the ban to no longer be in the public interest, the rule remains largely unchanged and hinders potential investment in struggling newspapers across the country. The bipartisan bill would eliminate the 1970s era cross-ownership ban to reflect today’s competitive media marketplace, providing greater flexibility to newspapers and broadcasters.

“Broadcasters and newspapers face intense competition from cable and the Internet. Eliminating this relic of the disco era will provide much needed flexibility to the many newspapers and broadcasters throughout the country that provide important local news coverage and encourage greater investment in original journalism. We want what’s best for consumers and this bill provides a thoughtful solution that puts the public’s interest first.” Chairman Walden said.

While we cannot anticipate all of the challenges and decisions the new Administration will face in deciding its policies, the undersigned organizations support the following principles. We urge President-elect Trump and the new Administration to use these principles to guide policymaking and form the foundation of its technology and media policies.

• Access: Everyone should have affordable, high-quality options to access the Internet. All of the information on the public Internet should be accessible to all users.
• Openness: The Internet must be protected from discrimination against content or users, and individuals should have the right to create, innovate, and share without interference from gatekeepers.
• Inclusion: The expansion of technology must equally take into account the needs of all Americans and not discriminate against people of color; rural, tribal, and low-income communities; people with disabilities; or other vulnerable communities.
• Free Speech: Individuals must be able to express themselves freely online and offline. The government should not put up barriers to lawful expression or censor the Internet.
• Choice: Our Internet infrastructure should be diverse, decentralized, and open, with a competitive choice of providers.
• Privacy: Individuals should have the right to protect and control access to their personal data, and to communicate and access information without any undue intrusion from government or corporations. The government and private actors must also be transparent about the data they collect and how it is stored, used, and shared.
• Opportunity: Technology policy must strive to support economic opportunity for all.

The Federal Communications Commission voted to take multiple actions against Sandwich Isles Communications, which provides phone and broadband service to customers on Hawaiian Home Lands, for violations and apparent violations related to Universal Service Fund (USF) support. As a result, the company will be required to repay over $27 million in improper payments of universal service support. In addition, following an investigation by the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau, the Commission has proposed more than $49 million in fines against the company for apparent violations of rules relating to the high-cost program.

Sandwich Isles has ongoing obligations to its customers, under both the Communications Act and Commission rules, to continue to provide interstate telecommunications services and may not discontinue service without the Commission’s express authorization.

The Benton Foundation published a handbook for city officials seeking the affordable, abundant bandwidth their communities will need to thrive in the decades ahead. Designed for local decision makers, The Next Generation Network Connectivity Handbook: A Guide for Community Leaders Seeking Affordable, Abundant Bandwidth reviews the current landscape of broadband networks, including next generation, gigabit capable networks, outlines best practices, summarizes existing models, and presents a framework through which community leaders might begin preliminary project steps given their city’s specific strengths and circumstances. “Our purpose,” said co-author Blair Levin, “is to lower the initial, daunting information barrier that exists between cities already immersed in these Internet infrastructure issues and those just beginning to navigate them.” From 2009-2010, Levin oversaw the development of the National Broadband Plan while at the Federal Communications Commission. A key insight offered by city officials is the important linkages between deploying next generation information networks and other municipal policies, including those affecting construction, transportation, housing, and economic development. As a result, the Handbook identifies two critical and related tasks for cities: understanding how its practices affect the economics of deploying and operating next generation networks, and organizing its assets, practices and people to improve its ability to negotiate with third party providers or deploy these networks themselves. “Many communities are tackling 21st Century information infrastructure challenges themselves, regionally, or with private partners. We have a lot to learn from their approaches.” said co-author Denise Linn, Program Analyst for the Smart Chicago Collaborative. “In the second edition of the Handbook, we’ve incorporated new cases and resources from 2016. This field is a moving target with emerging best practices and shifting players — tracking new broadband initiatives has never been more important.”

Marking the 2016 year of progress, and kicking off the Computer Science Education Week 2016, the White House is announcing new actions in support of computer science education:

National Science Foundation (NSF) is announcing $20 million in planned investment in FY 2017 in support of CS education. These new investments will take place under the Computer Science for All: Researcher Practitioner Partnerships (CSforAll: RPP) program, building on NSF’s $25 million investment in FY 2016. The program aims to better understand, through research and development, how to provide high-school teachers with the preparation, professional development, and ongoing support that they would need to teach rigorous computer-science courses; and K-8 teachers with the preparation they would need to integrate computer science and computational thinking into their classrooms.

National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) will develop a CSforAll strategic framework in the coming year. The NSTC Committee on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (CoSTEM) Federal Coordination in STEM Education Task Force’s (FC-STEM) Computer Science for All Interagency Working Group will develop a strategic framework to guide Federal efforts to support the integration of computer science and computational thinking into K-12 education.

The Federal Communications Commission has proposed a $392,930 fine against NECC Telecom for apparently charging excessive and unlawful universal service fees to its customers.

Phone companies are required to pay into a fund to support various universal service programs and may assess fees on customers to offset that cost. Carriers are prohibited from charging customers more in fees than they pay into the Universal Service Fund (USF). The FCC Enforcement Bureau’s investigation showed that NECC, primarily an international long distance reseller, profited from overcharges labeled as USF-related fees imposed upon its international service customers despite being exempt from any USF contribution obligation. This is the Commission’s first action enforcing FCC rules prohibiting a carrier from collecting more from consumers in USF fees than the carrier actually pays into the USF. The FCC also alleges that NECC failed to pay over $80,000 in mandatory regulatory fees and transferred its authorizations to provide telecommunications services without FCC approval.

Five diverse public interest groups spoke out about AT&T’s recent decision to opt out of the Lifeline broadband program and urged them to reconsider participating to offer the modest discount that Lifeline provides to low-income families struggling to afford broadband. Despite supporting the inclusion of broadband within the modernized Lifeline program, AT&T has officially filed for forbearance from the Lifeline broadband Internet access service requirements. This decision would confine their extension of Lifeline broadband to only very limited regions of its service territory.

“Benton is extremely disappointed with AT&T’s decision and the impact it will have on home broadband adoption for the most vulnerable families in the US,” said Amina Fazlullah, Director of Policy at Benton Foundation: “Teamed with FCC Lifeline program subsidies, AT&T could have been a leader in providing affordable broadband service for qualified, low-income families. We could have seen an incredible rise in broadband adoption by addressing the number one barrier to subscriptions: cost. This is an unfortunate failure to take advantage of a meaningful public-private partnership. We hope AT&T will reconsider its decision.”

The Federal Communications Commission released the results of its ongoing nationwide performance study of consumers’ fixed broadband Internet access service in its sixth “Measuring Broadband America” report. The report furthers the Commission’s efforts to provide greater transparency about network performance to help consumers make more informed choices about their Internet Service Provider. 2016’s report highlights the following findings:

• Significant growth in advertised broadband speeds available to consumers, though the results are not uniform across technologies.
• Actual speeds experienced by most consumers meet or exceed advertised speeds.
• Consumers with access to faster services continue to migrate to higher service tiers.
• Latency and packet loss vary by technologies.