July 2014

Remarks of FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai At The Citizens Against Government Waste Policy Breakfast

The single largest driver of the increase in the Universal Service Fund (USF) -- and hence, consumers’ phone bills -- has been the Lifeline program. Unfortunately, however, Lifeline has been laced with fraud.

So here are four simple steps that we should take to further reduce waste, fraud, and abuse in the Lifeline program.

First, the time has come to put the Lifeline program on a budget. Second, we must reduce the financial incentives for people to commit Lifeline fraud. One option would be to prohibit wireless carriers participating in Lifeline from giving away free phone service to Lifeline recipients. A second option would be to empower the states to play a stronger role in helping to police the program. A third option would be to review the size of the current Lifeline subsidy -- $9.25 per month -- and ask whether it’s too high, given that it often pays for the entire cost of a monthly phone bill.

Third, the FCC should fill the gaps in its rules that still encourage fraudulent behavior.

And fourth, the FCC must step up its enforcement efforts.

Pleading Cycle Established For Comments On Electric Power Board And City Of Wilson Petitions Seeking Preemption Of State Laws Restricting The Deployment Of Certain Broadband Network

On July 24, 2014, the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and the City of Wilson, North Carolina, filed separate petitions asking that the Federal Communications Commission act pursuant to section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 19961 to preempt portions of Tennessee and North Carolina state statutes that restrict their ability to provide broadband services. The FCC is allowing the public until August 29 to file comments in the proceeding and until September 29 to file reply comments.

Verizon blasts Find Me 911 Coalition report on 911 location data

Verizon Wireless hit back hard against the Find Me 911 Coalition, arguing to the Federal Communications Commission that the group was spreading "misleading" information about how often Verizon provides the most precise location information needed for dispatchers and first responders to find callers.

Verizon told the FCC that it "does not take lightly such allegations and undertook an internal review of its own performance data in response to the claims."

Big Phone Companies Weigh in for Telcordia Versus Neustar

Ericsson AB’s Telcordia Technologies was fairly recommended over Neustar as the winner of a telephone-numbers management contract, associations representing the largest US telephone companies told regulators. The Federal Communications Commission shouldn’t reopen bidding and should “promptly” move to award the contract, CTIA-The Wireless Association and the US Telecom Association wrote in a filing.

The Civil Rights Fight of the Information Age

[Commentary] Net neutrality is a civil rights issue. While we often stress the important First Amendment and free speech issues tied to strong "open internet" or "net neutrality" protections, we have spent less time discussing how crucial these protections are to minority and low income communities.

Very soon the Federal Communications Commission will either empower minority voices on the Internet and help close the digital divide, or it will make it easier for communications giants to silence and exclude those communities from the free or low-priced content now on the web.

[Murphy is Director, ACLU Washington Legislative Office]

Reflecting on Human Rights and the Internet Governance Forum-USA

IGF-USA is one of the many regional chapters of the global Internet Governance Forum (IGF), which is the annual international multistakeholder forum on public policy issues related to the Internet and Internet governance.

One of the goals of the 2014 IGF-USA (other than providing an all day dialogue between sectors that rarely meet) was to help clarify the ideas and values of US stakeholders going in to the next IGF to be held in early September 2014 in Istanbul.

FCC Should Review the Effects of Broadcaster Agreements on Its Media Policy Goals

Competing television stations are entering into agreements to share or outsource services, and some policymakers are concerned about the effects of these agreements on competition and programming. The Government Accountability Office was asked to review issues related to broadcaster agreements.

This report examines (1) the uses and prevalence of broadcaster agreements; (2) stakeholders' views on the effects of broadcaster agreements; and (3) the extent, if at all, that Federal Communications Commission has regulated these agreements.

GAO recommends that the FCC should determine whether it needs to collect additional data to understand the prevalence and context of broadcast agreements and whether broadcaster agreements affect its media policy goals of competition, localism, and diversity.

Top billing: 5 best practices for the mobile industry

Mobile Cramming: A Federal Trade Commission Staff Report suggests five best practices for the payment option known as “carrier billing.”

Consider giving consumers the option to block third-party charges.
Honor long-standing truth-in-advertising principle.
Charges shouldn’t be placed on consumers’ bills unless they’ve given their express, informed consent.
Charges for third-party services should be clearly shown on consumers’ bills.
Carriers should set up effective ways for consumers to dispute charges.

AT&T To Bring ‘GigaPower’ To Nashville

AT&T will extend its fiber-based “GigaPower” network to parts of Nashville, where it will eventually offer speeds up to 1 Gbps. Nashville, served by incumbent cable operator Comcast, is also one of 34 potential expansion cities being sized up by Google Fiber and its 1-Gig-capable platform.

OkCupid reveals it’s been lying to some of its users. Just to see what’ll happen.

OkCupid cofounder Christian Rudder explained that OkCupid has on occasion played around with removing text from people's profiles, removing photos, and even telling some users they were an excellent match when in fact they were only a 30 percent match according to the company's systems. Just to see what would happen. OkCupid defends this behavior as something that any self-respecting Web site would do.

Benton

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