FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly warned Wednesday that moving to Next-Generation 911 will be expensive, with cost estimates all over the map. O’Rielly spoke to the NG911 Institute. “Consider a 2011 FCC White Paper that put the total nationwide [public safety answering points] PSAP costs at anywhere between $1.44 billion and $2.68 billion,” O’Rielly said, say written remarks. “Compare that to one done for the State of Oregon at the same time that calculated that state’s ten-year costs at approximately $82 million. Do the math, 50 states plus the U.S. territories times $82 million and it’s over $4 billion.” O’Rielly also backed PSAP consolidation, questioning whether the U.S. needs almost 6,000 PSAPs. O’Rielly earlier made that same point to the FCC Task Force on Optimal PSAP Architecture (see 1501260063). “Is there a way to design a more efficient overall system that allows for a reduction in the number of current facilities without increasing the risk to public safety?” he asked now. “I suggest that the answer to this is most certainly, yes. In fact, it’s been done in a number of states already and others are in the middle of doing so.” O’Rielly also repeated warnings that too many states are using 911 funds for other purposes (see 1703020060). ”A number of states currently divert monies collected from consumers under the guise of funding 9-1-1 systems and transfer it to either unrelated public safety purposes or, worse yet, totally unconnected functions,” he said. “In some cases, this means a state is deceiving taxpayers by collecting more than is actually needed to fund its 9-1-1 system and redirecting the excess to other spending purposes. Alternatively, and this is actually much more reckless, the diversion of 9-1-1 fees can leave a state’s system shortchanged and potentially unable to fully meet its public safety needs, delaying necessary updates, training, worker retention, and the like.”
Device searches by Customs and Border Protection more than doubled in FY 2016 over the prior fiscal year and are continuing to rise, show agency figures released Tuesday. In the first six months of FY 2017, electronic devices of nearly 15,000 international travelers to the U.S. were searched, and in recent months, the monthly total was higher than that of the year-ago period. CBP said the searches affected less than 0.0008 percent of the nearly 190 million travelers who have come this fiscal year. In FY 2016, electronic devices of more than 19,000 travelers -- representing 0.005 percent of the 391 million travelers -- were searched, while in FY 2015 that number was about 8,500 travelers, or 0.002 percent of 383 million travelers. Privacy and civil liberties groups have criticized the policy and practice (see 1703170019 and 1702210007). In Congress, lawmakers have introduced legislation that would require law enforcement to get a warrant based on probable cause before they could search a U.S. person's device (see 1704050030).
Retired Boeing Chairman Jim McNerney, IBM Chairman Ginni Rometty and IHS Markit Vice Chairman Dan Yergin were among the executives who met with President Donald Trump and some Cabinet members Tuesday at the White House's Strategic and Policy Forum, the White House emailed us. It said the meetings were to discuss the strategic priorities for various Cabinet secretaries and their agencies. Also among those taking part were White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, chief strategist Steve Bannon, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, it said.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said he sought a deal with Commissioner Mignon Clyburn on an alternative framework for exempting small ISPs from open internet enhanced transparency requirements. Pai was responding to a letter from Rep. Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa, who voiced disappointment the FCC didn't consult with the congressman before circulating a draft order to exempt ISPs with 250,000 or fewer subscribers from the duties (see 1702140060 and 1701270058). Pai said he previously sought a bipartisan compromise and modeled his small-provider exemption order on Loebsack's Small Business Broadband Deployment Act, in an April 3 letter posted Monday in docket No. 17-18. "After I received your letter, I reached out to my colleague yet again to determine whether an alternative compromise would be amenable to her," Pai wrote in reference to Clyburn. "Unfortunately, my compromise proposal was rejected. Nonetheless, our action will help the nation's small Internet service providers better serve their communities, like the ones you mentioned in your home state." The FCC approved the exemption order 2-1 Feb. 23 over the dissent of Clyburn, who said there was no analysis to support raising the small-provider exemption level from 100,000 to 250,000 subscribers.
Broadband infrastructure legislation should target unserved areas and rely on reverse auctions, with the FCC Connect America Fund (CAF) program a good example, said Doug Brake, telecom policy analyst at the Information and Technology and Innovation Foundation, who wrote a report released Monday. Such bills should use "multiple tools, including both tax incentives and targeted financial support," he summarized. "It is important for broadband infrastructure spending to focus first on areas that are legitimately unserved rather than propping up duplicative, smaller networks or increasing available speeds beyond what is reasonably needed." He said CAF "is the most well thought-out" existing federal broadband effort, and its "reverse-auction mechanism is a model for allocating funds." The loan programs of the Rural Utilities Service is a bad example, he wrote: "RUS has faced accountability challenges, and many of the networks benefiting from its guaranteed loans ultimately creep into low-cost areas that are already served competitively. It would be a mistake to expand on this program as part of an infrastructure bill."
The FCC and allies and NATOA are at odds over the significance of a federal appellate court overturning the agency's solicited fax rule and what it means for a challenge of the commission finding of effective competition in the U.S. cable market. FCC intervenor NCTA in a letter (in Pacer) Friday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and the FCC in a letter (in Pacer) Thursday, said Congress expressly gave the agency authority to make effective competition determinations in franchise areas. The FCC said the fight over the agency terminating franchising authorities' certifications to regulate cable rates in areas where there's effective competition is "plainly distinguishable" from the D.C. Circuit's ruling last month that the agency's solicited fax rule is illegal (see 1703310018). The regulator said its December 2015 conclusion of effective competition in most franchise areas nationwide was consistent with the Communications Act's text and legislative history. In its letter (in Pacer) Wednesday to the D.C. Circuit, NATOA -- which along with NAB and Minnesota's Northern Dakota County Cable Communications Commission is challenging the effective competition finding (see 1508280033) -- said the D.C. Circuit junk faxing ruling "definitively rejected" FCC rationale that its solicited fax rule was lawful as long as Congress didn't prohibit it, and that since Congress didn't authorize "mass sua sponte terminations of franchising authority certifications," the court should set aside the FCC effective competition order. NCTA rejected NATOA assertions that the D.C. Circuit decision means the only way for the agency to terminate franchising authorities' certifications is after a petition, as laid out in Section 623(a)(5) of the Communications Act, saying that section of code is about seeking relief from a franchising authority that exercises its rate regulation in violation of FCC standards, and is silent about effective competition determinations.
The FCC is rechartering its Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council for a new two-year term, though with apparently less focus on cybersecurity than the CSRIC under former Chairman Tom Wheeler. The last CSRIC met the final time in March (see 1703150058) and no top FCC official spoke. Early in his chairmanship, Ajit Pai rescinded two cybersecurity items issued under Wheeler -- a white paper on communications sector cybersecurity regulation and a notice of inquiry on cybersecurity for 5G devices (see 1702060059). Wheeler appointed David Simpson chief of the Public Safety Bureau in 2013 because of his cybersecurity expertise (see 1402190030), and Simpson spoke frequently at CSRIC meetings while he was at the FCC. “The issues to be considered may include, but are not limited to: (1) the reliability of communications systems and infrastructure; (2) 911, Enhanced 911 (E911), and Next Generation 911 (NG911); (3) emergency alerting; and (4) national security/emergency preparedness (NS/EP) communications,” the FCC said in a public notice. Nominations for membership are due at the FCC no later than April 24, the PN said. The new CSRIC will start work early in the summer, the FCC said.
Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said the FCC should release a list of counties that would be deemed competitive in the business data services market and subject to price deregulation under a draft order tentatively slated for an April 20 vote. "The FCC should release this list immediately," she said in a statement. "This is the only way the public can truly evaluate the practical effects of the FCC’s proposed actions. If for some reason, that is unknown to me at this time, we cannot release this list expeditiously, we should delay our vote on the proposed Order until the public can see it ‘well in advance’ of a FCC vote." Incompas CEO Chip Pickering on April 4 urged release of the list of the competitive counties and said the draft order's competitive market test would cause 92 percent all locations using BDS to "see an end to protections against monopoly or duopoly pricing." The FCC's proposed action "will have serious ramifications" for the $45 billion BDS market, Clyburn said. "An integral piece of this proposed Order is a test to determine which counties will be deemed competitive, and thus deregulated. Chairman Pai has been a champion of transparency. It is puzzling, then, why he will release the text of the item, but omit a key appendix listing which counties are deemed competitive, until the Order is released. We have the information. It will become public when the Order is released. So why is it that the FCC has taken the position that it will vote on an Order before the public gets to see exactly what the Order does? Just what are we trying to hide?" A Pai spokesman dismissed Clyburn's call. Her "entire statement is based on a false premise; there is no such ‘appendix’ to the item," he emailed. "Moreover, it has been explained to Commissioner Clyburn’s office that publicly releasing the internal work product she is discussing at this point, which is not part of the Order, would violate the Trade Secrets Act. Finally, it is odd that Commissioner Clyburn had no problem voting on meeting items for over four years when the text of those items had not been made public. But now, she is calling for delay because information that is not part of a meeting item has not been made public.”
Contrary to what many Americans believe, the FCC and Congress don’t wish to harm their internet privacy, Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said in a Friday blog post in National Review. “These untrue accusations have generated borderline hysteria, to the point where, as an FCC commissioner, I was grilled by two friends on the topic at a recent wedding,” O’Rielly wrote. “To counter this misinformation, it’s important to understand how data is currently used in the Internet economy, which federal agencies oversee Internet privacy, and the effect of legislation recently enacted by Congress.” The “simple truth” is that data is critical to the internet economy and that's true for more than ISPs, O’Rielly said. “The heart and soul of today’s Internet economy is the collection of data, mainly for use in targeted advertising,” he said. “From commercial companies to political campaigns, advertising dollars are increasingly being spent on the web, rather than on traditional media. Jeopardize this arrangement and a vast number of free Internet features and functions will evaporate in short order.” Congress and the FCC want to ensure ISPs and companies like Google face the same rules, he said. “The disparate treatment of broadband providers as compared with all other Internet companies is important, and it helps explain the recent legislative activity (but not the attendant uproar).”
The FCC’s current repacking plan and timeline will lead to service disruptions for broadcasters in the repacking and some that aren’t, said NAB President Gordon Smith in a meeting with Chairman Ajit Pai Tuesday, according to an ex parte filing in docket 12-268. “NAB continues to urge the Commission to adopt a flexible, balanced approach to repacking that is fair to all stakeholders, while avoiding disruption to existing broadcast service.” The transition plan has been appealed by NAB with a petition for reconsideration (see 1703170055). The plan “may result in viewers losing service despite the best efforts of broadcasters, vendors and Commission staff” because “broadcasters are required to cease operation on their pre-auction channels after 39 months, without exception,” the group said. “NAB is also concerned that the transition plan does not take into account the potentially significant impact the repack will have on non-repacked broadcasters, including FM radio stations.”