March 2016

Julie Brill, who has served as a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission since April 2010, will resign her position at the end of March to enter private practice. Hogan Lovells announced that Brill will join the firm as a partner and co-director of the Privacy and Cybersecurity practice on April 1. A Democrat, Brill was appointed by President Barack Obama and sworn in on April 6, 2010.

Prior to joining the FTC, Commissioner Brill was the Senior Deputy Attorney General and Chief of Consumer Protection and Antitrust for the North Carolina Department of Justice. Before that, she served as an Assistant Attorney General for Consumer Protection and Antitrust for the State of Vermont for over 20 years. At Hogan Lovells, as co-director of the Privacy and Cybersecurity practice, Brill succeeds co-director and founding partner Christopher Wolf, who will transition to a senior status at the firm. She will be joined in leadership with Marcy Wilder, co-director of the Privacy and Cybersecurity practice; Harriet Pearson, leader of the firm’s Cybersecurity Solutions Group and Cyber Risk Services business unit; and Eduardo Ustaran, a partner in the firm’s London office, and leader of the firm’s European data protection practice.

[Commentary] Recently, the Federal Communications Commission put good government on display when FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler announced plans to modify its Lifeline program to include high-speed Internet access to low-income Americans. The Lifeline program was established by the Reagan Administration to ensure low-income households have a landline phone, an essential utility. On March 31, the FCC will vote on the next important upgrade to this nonpartisan program, which received its last upgrade when President George W. Bush expanded it to include wireless services. Times have changed, as have our lifelines.

The way we relied on a landline phone in the 1980s is barely comparable to how dependent today’s household is on broadband (high-speed) Internet. A 2015 Pew Broadband Study found that nearly half of all homes with incomes under $30,000 do not have Internet access, even as “Americans—both broadband users and those who do not have broadband—are increasingly likely to view home broadband as a key tool for accessing information that is important to their lives.” High-speed Internet has become the modern world’s lifeline. The members of the Writers Guild of America, East have been vocal supporters of network neutrality, as it ensures the internet remain a level playing field for content creators and the public. Now, the FCC has the opportunity to bridge the gap between those who can instantly access breaking video from almost anywhere in the world and low-income Americans who can’t even open e-mail at home.

[Michael Winship is president of the Writers Guild of America, East and senior writer of Moyers & Company and BillMoyers.com. Lowell Peterson is executive director of the Writers Guild of America, East]

[Commentary] In Feb, Google Fiber, the broadband Internet and TV subsidiary of Alphabet, announced the rollout of free gigabit Internet service for the West Bluff neighborhood in Kansas City (MO). This is the first step in the company’s plan to provide free gigabit service to public housing in all cities where fiber is available through a partnership with the White House’s ConnectHome program. This list currently includes four cities, but with seven cities approved for fiber rollout and another eleven potential fiber cities, it is possible the service could expand rapidly in the near future.

Google Fiber’s growth and continued partnership with the Department of Housing and Urban Development have far-reaching implications for the future of the nation’s broadband infrastructure. This partnership raises the subject of how Google Fiber determines which cities will receive access to the service, and what can be done for those outside of the company’s reach. As the fiber expansion map shows, Google Fiber’s focus remains in the Southeast and West. It has been suggested that Google Fiber looks for small cities that have high growth potential, an existing fiber infrastructure, and a local government willing to draft regulations that make entry into the market easier (sometimes with unintended consequences). Google Fiber’s effort to bring free gigabit service to public housing in the cities they serve is a positive step, but affordability barriers will persist until markets beyond Google Fiber’s reach become more competitive.