Louisa Terrell, formerly of Facebook and Yahoo, was named adviser to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. Terrell “will lead a number of long-term planning initiatives and will serve as a liaison with federal agencies and stakeholders,” said a Friday news release. She also worked for the Obama White House as a special assistant for legislative affairs and was chief of staff for Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. She replaces Sagar Doshi, special assistant to Wheeler, who is leaving.
The 2015 annual adjustment to the thresholds that trigger automatic FTC and Justice Department review of a merger or acquisition is the smallest in years, said Fletcher Heald wireless attorney Raymond Quianzon on the law firm's blog. The increase from the previous threshold is just half of 1 percent, he said. Under the latest adjustment, federal agencies will review deals where the total value exceeds $305.1 million or where the total value exceeds $76.3 million and one party has total assets of at least $15.3 million and the other party has assets of $152.5 million, he said. This monetary threshold trigger of FTC and Justice review is separate from the FCC review process, which applies to most communications-related deals, Quianzon said. “Once those lines are crossed, the prospect of additional (and considerable) time, expense and hassle to navigate the federal review process is a virtual certainty.” The new thresholds take effect Feb. 20.
A group of content and edge providers, led by Aquto, asked the FCC not to clamp down on zero rating, the practice of giving some apps an advantage over others on wireless networks, as a part of broader net neutrality rules. The issue is widely viewed as among the trickiest facing the FCC as it finalizes rules (see 1411140046). “Sponsored data and zero-rating arrangements hold great promise for content and edge providers, whether they are new entrants or incumbents, who can use them to promote innovative offerings, attract new customers, and grow a robust subscriber base,” the companies said. “Sponsoring the delivery of Internet data is merely a more modern incarnation of toll-free calling or free shipping, which for decades have provided undisputed benefits to businesses and consumers alike.” The companies urged the FCC to “avoid taking any action that would limit the flexibility of Internet service providers to offer, or of content and edge providers to use, plans of this sort.” BBA Studios, DataMi, LotusFlare, Syntonic and Wazco also signed the letter.
Comments are due March 9, replies April 7, on a Nov. 21 NPRM on governance and oversight of 911 service in light of the IP transition, said a Thursday FCC Public Safety Bureau public notice. "The American public has developed certain expectations with respect to the availability of 911 and E911 emergency services, and Commission action is both appropriate and necessary where reliance on voluntary efforts alone proves inadequate to ensure reliable and resilient 911 service,” the FCC said in the NPRM.
Dealing with interconnection in a net neutrality order is unnecessary, Verizon Vice President-Federal Regulatory Affairs Maggie McCready and other company officials told FCC Associate General Counsel Stephanie Weiner, Wireline Bureau Deputy Chief Matthew DelNero and Chief Technology Officer Scott Jordan Jan. 15, said an ex parte filing posted in docket 14-28 Wednesday. Arguments by Netflix “and its allies” that broadband providers have incentives to thwart the open Internet at interconnection points are “misplaced,” Verizon officials said. “Internet interconnection has always been handled through an unregulated system of voluntary commercial agreements," said the ISP. "This flexible approach has been a resounding success that has encouraged investment and provided flexibility for innovative interconnection arrangements that accommodate new business models, new types of Internet traffic and changes in end users’ preferences.” Paid direct interconnection agreements are a “longstanding way to ensure a high quality connection and adequate capacity, particularly where traffic flows are not balanced,” the company said. “These arrangements ensure great service for mutual customers, and help to cover a portion of the costs associated with the content provider’s traffic.” Verizon also said it's not using paid prioritization, but if the commission were to adopt rules prohibiting it, the outlawed practice should be defined as broadband providers charging a fee to deliver bits faster than the bits of others over the last mile. Under that definition, the rules would not apply to arrangements other than in the last mile. Any rules on throttling should be focused on intentionally slowing particular traffic based on “the traffic’s source, destination, or content,” Verizon said, not impacting the option consumers have to slow all Internet traffic after reaching a certain threshold of data usage to avoid overage charges. The company reiterated its opposition to a Communications Act Title II approach and said forbearing from parts of the section is no “no panacea to address the many harms that would result from reclassification.” Opposition to forbearing from certain sections of Title II shows that the end game” of reclassification proponents “is not rules to ensure an open Internet, but regulation for regulation’s sake,” Verizon said. Also representing the company at the meeting were William Johnson, associate general counsel, Roy Litland, assistant general counsel-legal regulatory affairs, and David Young, vice president-public policy. The American Cable Association in a letter to the commission posted in the same docket also urged the commission, if it reclassifies broadband providers including cable operators as telecom providers, to “take immediate action” to eliminate or reduce higher pole attachment rates telecom providers can be charged compared to cable operators. While the commission reduced the disparity between attachments rates paid by telecom carriers and cable operators in 2011, “there can still be a considerable disparity when a pole owner uses the actual average number of attachers on its poles in the formula, rather than presumptions provided in the Commission’s rules,” ACA said. The association reiterated its stance that small ISPs should be excluded from reclassification, or if they are reclassified, they should be foreborn from Title II’s requirements (see 1501130049).
A new poll found widespread support, even from conservatives, for the FCC adopting strong net neutrality rules, said the Internet Freedom Business Alliance, which commissioned the Vox Populi Polling survey. The survey found 81 percent support strong rules, IFBA said Wednesday. Eighty percent of Republicans either somewhat or strongly agreed with the idea of the FCC adopting rules against blocking, throttling or paid prioritization, IFBA said in a news release. Communications Act Title II opponents downplayed the poll’s significance as Congress began holding hearings on the issue, and noted the survey doesn't specifically mention Title II or reclassification. “This poll only tells us what we already knew: that 'net neutrality', like 'privacy' and 'competition' sounds great to consumers," emailed TechFreedom President Berin Szoka, an opponent of reclassification. "The real debate is over whether the FCC should try to impose its own rules, and risk losing in court for the third time, or whether Congress should finally resolve the issue -- and, if so, how exactly these abstract principles should be operationalized." In response to our inquiry, IFBA released the questions asked in the poll. On net neutrality, it noted that in “speaking about rules preventing Internet service providers from blocking or slowing down websites and applications and from charging content companies for ‘prioritized’ downloads, Chairman Wheeler said, ‘We're going to propose rules that say that no blocking (is allowed), no throttling, no paid prioritization.’ Do you agree or disagree with Chairman Tom Wheeler’s statement?” The poll found that Wheeler’s comments suggesting he will propose reclassification in February (see 1501070054), “played well across the nation," said IFBA Executive Director Andrew Shore in the release. "Unfortunately, the term net neutrality has become a political football in an intense partisan debate. What this polling shows is that if you move beyond the partisanship and focus on the issues at hand, net neutrality is about free markets, competition and enabling a level playing field for small businesses by keeping the cable giants and dominant telephone companies from monopolizing the Internet. We must have a free and open Internet, which is something all Americans can agree with." Comptel CEO Chip Pickering, in a statement, echoed the idea the poll showed widespread support for net neutrality rules. “While inside the beltway, many like to divide opinions on the open Internet down party lines, the IFBA’s poll confirms that across the country, a majority of citizens -- whether they’re Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal -- are concerned about the power dominant incumbents can wield over the Internet,” he said. The poll of 868 active voters in the U.S. was conducted Jan. 13 and 14 and has a margin of error of 3.3 percent, said poll results supplied to us.
The FCC should make sure the U.S. plays a leadership role in global efforts to promote international harmonization of frequency bands to be used for 5G, Samsung said. The company filed comments in docket 14-177 in response to a notice on inquiry on the future of spectrum above 24 GHz (see 1501160037). Some bands, including 28, 39 and 37/42 GHz, should be targeted for licensed use and 5G, Samsung said. “Samsung’s vision for 5G is a global vision, and Samsung believes that a global effort will be necessary for 5G services to reach their full potential,” the company said. “In a 5G world, international harmonization will be more important than ever before, and Samsung asks the Commission to take a leadership role in promoting international harmonization for 5G.” CEA said the spectrum could play a big role in mobile broadband, but reminded the FCC that it will also be used for other purposes. “CEA members have deployed parking assistance, blind spot detection, collision avoidance, and automatic cruise control using radar in the 28 GHz/79 GHz bands,” CEA said. “The mmW bands at 24 GHz, 28 GHz, 39 GHz and 70-80- 90 GHz are being used to provide important backhaul, satellite, and other point-to-multipoint services that should not be foreclosed under new rules.”
The FCC should refrain from imposing net neutrality rules on wholesale interconnection, Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) President Dean Garfield and ITI Senior Vice President-Government Affairs Vince Jesaitis told Philip Verveer, senior counsel to Chairman Tom Wheeler, and aide Daniel Alvarez Jan. 14, said an ex parte filing posted in docket 14-28 Tuesday. Including interconnection in the net neutrality order expected in February is still up in the air (see 1501150054). The commission should not act until it develops “a more robust record” on the need for regulatory intervention, defines the problem that needs to be solved, and finds that regulation would not harm the wholesale broadband market or residential consumers’ Internet experience, ITI said. “At a minimum the technical aspects and business implications of peering and interconnection need to be understood fully before deciding on the best path forward,” said ITI, which said regulatory intervention “based on the limited record” could “do more harm than good.” Members include Akamai, AOL, Dell, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, says the ITI website. Meanwhile, in its separate comments in the docket, Verizon called the New Network Institute’s Jan. 13 petition for the commission to investigate the company “frivolous,” in a letter to the agency, posted Tuesday. NNI accused Verizon of “massive deception,” Verizon said, because the telco had relied on Title II in cable franchise applications as the source of its authority to deploy fiber, while opposing a Title II net neutrality approach for broadband. “But there is no ‘gotcha’ here,” Verizon said. Verizon offers plain old telephone service (POTS) over its fiber network, which is subject to Title II. It also offers other services over the same network, like FiOS TV and FiOS Internet, which haven’t been subject to Title II, Verizon said. “Offering POTS over the network -- and relying on our traditional telephone franchise for purposes of deploying networks that are still used to offer traditional telephone services -- is irrelevant to the question of the regulatory classification for broadband Internet access services or what the best regulatory framework is to encourage continued investment in broadband Internet access.”
Focus Education, maker of a children’s computer game that claimed to permanently improve kids' attention span and memory, settled charges that the FTC brought against the game maker claiming violations of the FTC Act by making false or unsubstantiated claims about educational benefits the game Jungle Rangers provides children. Focus Education agreed to cease to claim its products and services improve a child’s performance in school, including children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and attention deficit disorder, unless there is scientific evidence backing the claims. A published version of the settlement will be available for public comment for the next 30 days. The FTC will decide Feb. 20 whether to make the proposed settlement final.
No set of conditions can alleviate the harms of the Comcast/Time Warner Cable deal, representatives of the companies that make up the Stop Mega Comcast Coalition said in meetings last week with FCC Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Ajit Pai, according to an ex parte filing. The coalition is made up of 27 companies, associations and public interest organizations, including Dish Network, NTCA, Public Knowledge and Writers Guild of America, West. “A combined Comcast/TWC would have unprecedented power as the gatekeeper to more than half of the high-speed broadband homes in the nation,” the coalition told the commissioners.