Monday, July 22, 2019
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Small Broadband Companies Claim FCC Win Over AT&T and Verizon
"A largely moribund, sluggish, frightened, alleged watchdog for the American consumer"
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Based on the way older technology was rolled out, waiting for organic rates of adoption to close that digital divide is not an option. Especially when the physical infrastructure required to support wires is concerned. The reasons for slow rates of wire-based take-up are numerous and include lower population densities and greater distances between dwellings. Microsoft believes closing today’s digital divide is a priority and that failing to do so risks leaving behind millions of people.
[more at the link below]
Across the country, state legislatures are ushering in better rural connectivity by passing new laws that enable electric cooperatives to expand high-quality Internet access. In recent years, much of this legislation has authorized co-ops to deploy broadband infrastructure along existing electric easements. Other bills have removed restrictions that previously prevented electric co-ops from providing Internet access. Together, the new legislation makes it easier for electric cooperatives to bring high-speed broadband access to their members, signaling a brighter future for unconnected rural communities.
Gov Ralph Northam (D-VA) grew up on electric cooperative lines and lauds their record of “reliable and efficient energy service.” But at a historic church surrounded by woods in the state’s rural center, he recognized co-ops’ latest role: broadband provider to the underserved. Co-ops “absolutely” have a role in his administration’s goal of connecting every VA resident to highspeed internet access, he said. “To have the cooperation of the co-ops—we are all in this together—that’s the way we will move forward,” Gov Northam said, announcing a state broadband grant for Central Virginia Electric Cooperative. “We want universal broadband, but every region has its own challenges,” he said. “A role co-ops have taken, by stepping up and using their [infrastructure], has really helped and has been part of the process to move forward. I commend the co-ops throughout Virginia.” The grant to CVEC of $641,967 “will help connect 570 premises, including Lyles Baptist Church where we are today,” he said.
The largest US telephone companies in 2018 asked regulators to kill limits on the rates smaller carriers can be charged for connecting to the giants’ networks. Now the small carriers are claiming they have successfully defended the regulations as the Federal Communications Commission nears conclusion of a proceeding it has acted on in parts. "We see it as a huge victory,” said Chip Pickering, chief executive officer of the trade group Incompas, whose members are smaller companies that offer broadband service and need to connect through lines controlled by companies such as AT&T and Verizon. The regulations are designed to ensure small companies have access to lines that carry traffic for businesses, schools and homes -- and can use those connections to expand broadband competition by building new fiber links. In June, USTelecom, a trade group with members including AT&T and Verizon, withdrew its request to remove rules around fiber lines that can carry signals from town to town, usually in less populated areas. And in July it withdrew its request to kill rules about local lines that can carry broadband. Incompas, representing the small service providers, says it scored victories with the withdrawals by USTelecom of portions of the petition in June and July.
A coalition of major trade groups has turned attention to the Department of Energy in order to challenge a Federal Communications Commission proposal they say would threaten grid reliability and heighten outage risks. The groups claim that by opening up a wireless communications band heavily used by utilities to unlicensed use, the DoE needs to step in to help ensure that grid operations are protected. The FCC launched a proceeding in Oct to consider allowing unlicensed operations on the 6 GHz spectrum band. The American Public Power Association, American Water Works Association, Edison Electric Institute, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, Nuclear Energy Institute and Utilities Technology Council told the DoE in a July 16 letter that the proposed FCC rule "would likely cause significant reliability concerns" for the electric, natural gas and water sectors. UTC President and CEO Joy Ditto added, "The FCC has a choice to make -- it can choose to protect these critical infrastructure industries that rely on this band for essential functions, or it can choose to add an unnecessary and unacceptable risk to these communications."
Privacy
EPIC Leads Advocacy Coalition Calling for Inclusion of Consumer Groups in Senate Privacy Task Force
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) organized a coalition letter to Sens Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), urging them to work with consumer and privacy groups in the newly formed Senate Judiciary tech task force. July 18, Sen Blackburn held a closed-door session with representatives from tech companies, including Snap and Mozilla. The coalition letter said, "We need you to pursue an open and inclusive process that ensures that meetings are held in public, that a record is established, and that the voices of consumers are heard." The groups also said "the United States needs comprehensive, baseline federal legislation" and "an independent data protection agency." The groups concluded, "We can no longer let industry groups and ineffective agencies decide how much privacy Americans may have."
Apparently, the Federal Trade Commission has finalized a settlement with Google in its investigation into YouTube for violating federal data privacy laws for children. The settlement — backed by the agency’s three Republicans and opposed by its two Democrats — finds that Google inadequately protected kids who used its video-streaming service and improperly collected their data in breach of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, which prohibits the tracking and targeting of users younger than 13, the people said. The company is expected to pay a multimillion-dollar fine, but the exact amount and the contours of the FTC’s settlement are unclear. The matter now rests in the hands of the Justice Department, which rarely upends the FTC’s settlements with companies under its watch.
Let me touch on a few Federal Communications Commission-related issues that may be relevant and hopefully of interest to you. Children’s Television Regulations: We worked with those on either side of the debate to come up with a new framework that both preserves existing shows for those who watch—no matter how small the audience—and gives stations more flexibility in meeting their requirements, both of which reflect the priorities I laid out when we started this process. Pirate Radio: Expect the FCC to take advantage of new technology to better pinpoint violations. Competitive Market Definition, Deregulation, & Media Ownership: I successfully added a process in our last Quadrennial Review to force the FCC's analysis to be based on market realities. STELA Reauthorization: Congress makes the decision on this one, and the FCC simply operates according to the statue.
Community public television stations like Access Humboldt and other community services — including free internet at the library — could be throttled by a forthcoming Federal Communications Commission vote to hamper local regulation of cable companies. Companies like Suddenlink Communications are required by local jurisdictions to pay “franchise fees” to support community access stations, but the FCC vote would allow Suddenlink to lump other contributions into its obligations, which are capped at 5% of the company’s local revenue.
Suddenlink, the leading cable and internet provider in Humboldt County (CA), helps fund Access Humboldt’s operations and contributes to public wireless network access. The new proposal, initiated by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, would assign a dollar amount to some of those contributions, which opponents say would strain the overall viability of public access. “We exist really out of that agreement, that social contract,” Sean McLaughlin of Access Humboldt said of Suddenlink’s required contributions to the station. “What the FCC is saying is, ‘We don’t trust local governments to represent their communities. We think they’re requiring too much of the corporations.'”
Ralph Nader wrote in a letter to the Federal Trade Commission's five commissioners saying the agency "remains a largely moribund, sluggish, frightened, alleged watchdog for the American consumer." He offers seven suggestions to improve the FTC:
- Go on a road trip to get in touch with real people and absorb their grievances where they live, work and raise their families.
- More workshops with intent to obtain media. To most reporters, the FTC is a laugh when it is not a yawn.
- We need more thoughtful addresses and articles by FTC Commissioners. From all of you. Out there in the country, whether blue or red state, whether conservatives or liberals, they are indiscriminately cheated. They all bleed the same way.
- Have occasional roundtable gatherings with consumer and other civic action leaders. The FTC, like any other agency, needs some thoughtful, friendly jolts.
- Drive yourselves to levels of higher visibility. You’re supposed to be federal cops on the corporate crime/fraud beat. Act like enforcement officers! Regulation is just another word for law and order over crime in the suites.
- Think of more penetrating ways to reach people. The FTC has a specific educational mandate. A higher profile may get more resources and stronger legal authority to keep up with the times.
- Conference a call with the dynamic, former chair of the FTC, Michael Pertschuk.
The federal government's struggles to rein in Facebook are driving some Democrats and consumer advocates to a stark conclusion: The agency charged with regulating Silicon Valley is not up to the task. The 105-year-old Federal Trade Commission is a main enforcer of Americans' consumer protections but it has only a small fraction of the money and workforce of the nation's largest tech companies — and a privacy staff less than half that of the Irish agency that regulates Facebook's European operations. And its 15-month investigation of Facebook's handling of consumer data has some lawmakers and activists calling for an entirely new agency to oversee the online industry. Those calls have only grown during a week of bipartisan derision for the FTC's proposed $5 billion privacy fine for Facebook — a historically large penalty by U.S. standards, but one that many lawmakers have called laughably small given the social networking giant's resources. The markets also shrugged at the proposed punishment, which comes after months of settlement talks with the company.
"How many regulators does banking have? How many does transportation have?" said former FCC official Gigi Sohn. "So why, when you’re talking about the most lucrative and one of the most important sectors of the economy, why don’t you want to have a sector specific regulator?"
Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr thanked Jamie Susskind for her years of public service on her departure from the FCC. Susskind served as Commissioner Carr’s Chief of Staff and Legal Advisor for wireline and consumer issues. Prior to joining Commissioner Carr’s Office, Susskind served in senior roles on Capitol Hill, including as Chief Counsel to Sen Deb Fischer (R-NE) and on the staff of the Senate Commerce Committee under the leadership of then-Chairman John Thune (R-SD). In those capacities, Susskind played lead roles in the passage of Kari’s Law and anti-spoofing legislation. Earlier in her career, Susskind worked for six years in the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau.
Commissioner Carr also announced that Joseph Calascione will join his office on detail as Acting Legal Advisor for wireline and consumer issues. In the FCC's Office of Economics and Analytics, Calascione has served as a special counsel and worked to get the new OEA up and running. Prior to that, he served as a legal advisor in the front office of the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau, where he worked on policies to accelerate wireline infrastructure deployment.
Benton (www.benton.org) provides the only free, reliable, and non-partisan daily digest that curates and distributes news related to universal broadband, while connecting communications, democracy, and public interest issues. Posted Monday through Friday, this service provides updates on important industry developments, policy issues, and other related news events. While the summaries are factually accurate, their sometimes informal tone may not always represent the tone of the original articles. Headlines are compiled by Kevin Taglang (headlines AT benton DOT org) and Robbie McBeath (rmcbeath AT benton DOT org) — we welcome your comments.
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