March 2016

The Fiber to the Home Council released guidance on streamlining make-ready policies for pole attachments to accelerate the deployment of high performance broadband networks.

The Council proposed that communities adopt “one touch” policies which would allow a single construction crew — with sufficient skill and experience to be approved and chosen by the pole owner — to complete all the work to make a pole ready for a new attachment. “One touch” not only accelerates deployment but it reduces the disruption and inconvenience in a community’s streets that come from multiple construction crews performing “make ready” to move existing attachers and a final crew to attach the new entrant. “One touch” also is equitable because the use of a recognized authorized contractor protects the pole owner and other companies or entities that have equipment attached to poles, and all communications attachers have the same right to use the “one touch” process. Not surprisingly, some entrenched companies are not fans of a “one touch” policy.

The staff of the Federal Trade Commission has issued warning letters to app developers who have installed a piece of software that can monitor a device’s microphone to listen for audio signals that are embedded in television advertisements.

Known as Silverpush, the software is designed to monitor consumers’ television use through the use of “audio beacons” emitted by TVs, which consumers can’t hear but can be detected by the software. The letters note that the software would be capable of producing a detailed log of the television content viewed while a user’s mobile device was turned on for the purpose of targeted advertising and analytics. The letters note that Silverpush has stated publicly that its service is not currently in use in the United States, but it encourages app developers to notify consumers that their app could allow third parties to monitor consumers’ television viewing habits should the software begin to be used in the United States. The warning letters note that app developers ask users for permission to use the device’s microphone, despite the apps not appearing to have a need for that functionality. The letters also note that nowhere do the apps in question provide notice that the app could monitor television-viewing habits, even if the app is not in use.

After thousands of hours of work and hundreds of meetings, the final steps in a comprehensive package on the historic transition of some key technical Internet functions, critical to the Internet’s smooth operation, to global stewardship were agreed to at the closing day of the ICANN public meeting in Marrakech.

The prescribed plan is a testament to the hard work of the global Internet community and the strength of the multistakeholder model, and marks a significant moment in the history of the Internet. The community has completed a herculean task in negotiating the major concerns within the package and the final outcome is one that the i2Coalition is proud to support.

President Obama's nominee to fill the vacant seat on the Supreme Court doesn't have a high-profile history on telecom law, but Judge Merrick Garland has dealt with more than his share of arcane Federal Communications Commission-related issues.

As the top judge for the DC Circuit, Judge Garland ruled on cases involving set-top boxes, the effect of cell towers on migratory birds and intercarrier compensation, an issue Arent Fox partner Mike Hazzard says is "as arcane as net neutrality, and in some ways, more so." Hazzard described him as a quick study on the often complicated, inside-baseball telecom issues that appear before the courts. "There's not a judge in my experience that's been better prepared or able to understand the technology and the law and how the regulations are applied," Hazzard said. More broadly, Judge Garland has had a penchant for agency deference, according to numerous reviews of his judicial history. Such a stance could be a boost for the FCC if the net neutrality fight reaches the Supreme Court.