Lack of accessible and affordable last-mile connectivity for many Americans is a "catastrophic failure" during COVID-19, Internet Society Senior Director-Internet Research and Analysis David Belson blogged Wednesday. Networks largely proved resilient enough to withstand the rapid growth in traffic during stay-at-home orders, he said.
Comments are due May 27, replies June 11 on an iconectiv request to modify the local number portability administrator code of conduct and voting trust to accommodate its proposed indirect acquisition of LogMeIn, said an FCC Wireline Bureau public notice Tuesday.
Recent strength in U.S. internet performance will help prepare industry to restart the economy, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr told an online FCBA audience Monday. "We're resilient," Carr said. "We're going to get through this thing." Third parties have helped the FCC monitor network capacity during the pandemic, Carr said. Networks are holding up "very well" in the U.S., he said. Networks seem to have capacity to support the use, he said. Fixed voice call volume is up 20-25%, Carr said, with mobile call volume up 10% or less, Carr said: it indicates people are staying home, and fixed networks have necessary capacity. The COVID-19 telehealth program is in good shape now, Carr said: "We'll see what happens when we get closer" to spending the $200 million Congress allocated. The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted vulnerabilities of the telecom networks from foreign threats, Carr said. Steps to protect the networks from companies that may be owned or influenced by China are underway. "This isn't just about phone calls and emails," Carr said, and is increasingly about other network traffic, such as telehealth and online banking. "If these networks are threatened, then everything we value is threatened," he said. Carr wants Congress to consider funding in its next COVID-19 relief bill to address ways to mitigate network vulnerabilities.
The U.S. needs a clearer strategy for leading 5G and artificial intelligence standards setting to counter China’s growing tech leadership, technology experts said. The Trump administration should define a strategy and work with allies to set global standards, the experts said, or risk forcing its companies out of global markets because of restrictions placed on China. “We're behind. I can't say it enough to U.S. legislators,” said Nicol Turner Lee, a Brookings Institution fellow, speaking during a Friday webinar hosted by the think tank. “That should be disconcerting to companies who will be told by the U.S. that they cannot do business [in China] even though there are other European companies that can.” At the center of the issue is China’s dominant presence at global standards setting bodies for emerging tech, said Sheena Chestnut Greitens, nonresident Brookings fellow. International bodies are seeing more rules written by Chinese companies, she said. “About half of the standards that [China has] proposed have been adopted by the U.N. as the global standard,” Greitens said, noting those standards include facial recognition technology. U.S. restrictions on Huawei blocked the U.S. from participating in bodies in which the company is a member, although the Commerce Department drafted a rule to address the ability of U.S. companies to participate in 5G bodies (see 2004290066). The White House declined to comment Monday, referring us to the State Department Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. The bureau wouldn't provide an on-the-record comment.
NTIA is seeking comments and recommendations on priorities that best advance international communications and information policies at ITU, as the U.S. develops proposals and positions for the 2020 World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly. WTSA-20 will be in Hyderabad, India, Nov. 17-20. NTIA said it’s working with the State Department, which is “leading and coordinating” the preparation process. Comments are due June 8 in docket 200504–0126, said Friday's Federal Register. NTIA’s “principles and objectives” for WTSA-2020 align with the Thump administration’s 2017 national security strategy, “which affirmed that ‘the United States will advocate for open, interoperable communications, with minimal barriers to the global exchange of information and services,'" NTIA said. The U.S. is focused on furthering a multistakeholder approach to internet policy and increasing organizational effectiveness and reducing duplication at ITU, NTIA said. Other U.S. goals include increasing U.S. presence and influence in the ITU-telecom (ITU-T) sector and improving ITU-T processes, procedures and transparency, NTIA said.
The FCC should tackle asymmetrical broadband in policy on the digital divide, Detroit Digital Inclusion Director Joshua Edmonds told Commissioner Geoffrey Starks during a webinar Thursday. Setting the standard at 25/3 Mbps prioritizes providers, Edmonds said: "Let's prioritize the consumer." Starks said 60% of Detroit schoolchildren lack access to broadband. Rep. Brenda Lawrence, D-Mich., said some single mothers can't afford broadband even with two jobs. Addressing the homework gap is an issue that binds urban, suburban and rural lawmakers, said Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich. With insufficient federal support, Detroit "had to take on the role of fundraiser" through public/private partnerships, Edmonds said. He said the city is a microcosm of digital inequity found nationally, and if it can be solved with additional help from state and federal government, "it's a replicable model." Put broadband at the top of any infrastructure stimulus plan, said Angela Siefer, National Digital Inclusion Alliance executive director.
Mapping data behind Frontier's census block challenges for the FCC's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund phase I auction is so questionable the challenges should be set aside, Conexon said in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 19-126. "Given the time limitations of the challenge process, we suggest that the best course is to dismiss all copper- and spectrum-based challenges." It called nearly all such challenges suspect. The telco "confirmed to the FCC that the vast majority of these census blocks represent existing builds, including those undertaken as part of the Connect America Fund Phase II program over the past five years, and were reported in Frontier’s December 2019 477 filing, before release of the initial census block list," emailed Vice President-Federal Regulatory Affairs AJ Burton. "The vast majority of the challenged blocks were also reported at speeds of 25/2 Mbps with Frontier’s public June 2019 477 filing. Conexon’s filing appears to have missed our letter filed with the FCC last Friday and the facts presented.”
The FCC North American Numbering Council got status updates at an online meeting Tuesday from several working groups preparing reports for July. Officials said the next meeting will be moved up a day to July 14. Brent Struthers, director of the Secure Telephone Identity Governance Authority, said 58 phone providers applied for STI-GA certificates to authenticate caller IDs as part of secure telephone identity revisited (Stir) and secure handling of asserted information using tokens (Shaken) rules. Twenty-three were approved, 12 are in the final testing stage, and most others are gathering additional documentation. Three STI-GA applicants were rejected and can try again once they meet requirements, Struthers responded to our question. The interoperable video calling WG plans a funding and governance model for a 10-digit numbering database to allow easier interoperability among video relay services for the deaf and hard of hearing and other video conferencing services (see 1906210017). IVC WG co-chair David Bahar, director-Telecommunications Access of Maryland, cited security benefits to developing a new database rather than reconfiguring an existing one for this use. The WG plans a report to NANC by June 28, which will be used to inform a NANC report to the FCC Wireline Bureau a month later.
The FCC Public Safety Bureau extended to June 30 its May 4 deadline for finalizing findings that Huawei (docket 19-351) and ZTE (19-352) are a national security threat, it said Friday. The bureau wants more time to examine comments.
DOJ should “carefully review” Alphabet’s proposed buy of Fitbit due to concerns about harm to competition (see 1911130026), Public Knowledge and the Consumer Federation of America wrote Attorney General William Barr Thursday. “When head-to-head horizontal competition is scarce, nascent and potential competition, like that provided by Fitbit or a potential alternative buyer of Fitbit, may be the only source of real competitive pressure on dominant digital platforms,” PK said. DOJ didn’t comment.