Industry forces battered the tentative principles put forth by the NARUC Telecom Task Force, saying they're out of touch and potentially harmful, while consumer and rural advocates praised the way they elevate the state role. The association of state regulators assembled the task force at its fall meeting (CD Nov 14 p5) and offered up an initial statement of principles for comment, which were due March 8. The comments were posted Friday. The principles outline states’ roles in overseeing consumer protection, public safety and reliability concerns, competition, broadband access, affordability and adoption, interconnection, universal service and regulatory diversity, all in a way that preserves evidence-based decision-making (http://bit.ly/VFfk6k). NARUC President Philip Jones has said the task force’s end goal will be a new version of the association’s 2005 white paper on federalism, to be issued later this year.
When the next disaster strikes, the best practices recommended by the FCC’s Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council will ensure the American public has access to a reliable public safety network, Commissioner Ajit Pai told CSRIC Thursday. CSRIC approved several reports designed to improve Internet security and 911 reliability and location accuracy. Zachary Katz, chief of staff for Chairman Julius Genachowski, praised the working group that he said “moves the ball in very meaningful ways,” with 92 percent of ISPs having adopted its recommendations. Public Safety Bureau Chief David Turetsky called the CSRIC results “nothing short of spectacular."
House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., said Thursday at a subcommittee oversight hearing he’s concerned the FirstNet board is not sufficiently consulting state officials as it develops the first interoperable public safety network. Walden’s comments echoed the recent complaints of state public safety officials who told lawmakers they're not adequately involved in the decisions being made by the FirstNet board. The Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act requires that the FirstNet board represent the interests of a broad range of stakeholders, including: public safety; states, territories, tribes and localities; and urban and rural representation.
WealthTV lost a challenge to the FCC’s denial of the independent network’s program carriage complaint against four cable operators, exactly a week after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral argument on the case. Thursday’s five-page decision from the three-judge panel said even if it had found some of the arguments correct that the agency erred on technical matters, they wouldn’t have changed the outcome. Judge Paul Watford asked mostly skeptical questions of the channel during oral argument, while Leslie Kobayashi’s one question also was skeptical and the third jurist, Richard Paez, asked no questions (CD March 11 p4).
Similar to the first comment round, reply comments on rules for an incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum found deep divisions among almost 100 parties that weighed in. There has been general agreement that the FCC’s proposed band plan needs major revision (CD Jan 29 p1). But there has been little consensus on answers to many of the questions raised by the FCC in a Sept. 28 NPRM.
The government plans to rely on the private sector to help foster information sharing and civil liberties protection standards as it works to implement the Obama administration’s cybersecurity executive order, said Ari Schwartz, senior Internet policy adviser at the Commerce Department. The order, introduced last month during the State of the Union speech, will focus on expanding information sharing, protecting privacy and civil liberties, and the development of a framework to reduce cyber risks to critical infrastructure, he said Thursday at a USTelecom event in Washington.
Two cybersecurity bills passed the House Science Committee Thursday. Both bills -- the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act and the Advancing America’s Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Act -- were approved by the committee after multiple amendments were added. The former requires federal science agencies, including the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, to develop and present to Congress “a strategic plan based on an assessment of cybersecurity risk to guide the overall direction of Federal cybersecurity and information assurance research and development for information technology and networking systems.” The latter amends the High Performance Computing Act to require federal science agencies to conduct periodic reviews and develop a strategic cybersecurity plan.
TiVo doesn’t “see much evidence of cord-cutting,” Evan Young, senior director-product marketing, told the Piper Jaffray investor conference in New York Wednesday. “Because of the economy there may have been sort of a cord-shaving in the past few years,” he said. But “the kinds of people who would cut the cord might not have been the highest value subscribers in the first place,” he said.
Incumbents and competitive carriers offered a strikingly different vision for how the FCC should analyze competition in the special access marketplace, in reply comments posted Wednesday in WC docket 05-25. ILECs argued against expansive market power analyses, cautioning that undue complexity could make models unworkable. They also warned the commission that it lacks the authority to alter the terms of current special access agreements. CLECs pleaded with the commission to take immediate action to prohibit exclusionary terms and conditions in current contracts, and undertake a “traditional” market power analysis instead of relying on simple triggers.
The question of how to preserve competition between Verizon and cable companies dominated the filings the Department of Justice posted this week, the latest in court documents from stakeholders in U.S. and State of New York v. Verizon Communications, Verizon Wireless, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications and Bright House Networks. Justice proposed a final decision on how to better open up competition last fall, sought comments and this week addressed concerns raised in the four comments submitted by the Communications Workers of America, Boston, Montgomery County, Md., and RCN Telecom. Justice wants its proposed decision to move forward in court as originally drafted, despite commenter concerns.