1. Monthly archive
  2. May 2016

May 2016

CommLawBlog: FCC Overhauls Lifeline Program

The federal Lifeline program – a program overseen by the Federal Communications Commission and originally designed to provide subsidized phone service to low-income households – has never been a model of efficiency or consistency. Now the FCC has taken dramatic steps to overhaul the program. The Commission has decided to: open the Lifeline program to many more carriers; simplify the certification process; reduce the burdens and risks on participating carriers; and reduce the fraud and abuse which has plagued the system from the beginning. The only thing it didn’t do was to raise the subsidy that is paid per participating subscriber. One example of the inefficiencies riddling the Lifeline program: The process for certifying Eligible Telecommunications Carriers (ETCs) to participate. The Universal Service Fund (USF) statute contemplates that states will handle the ETC certification process in the first instance; only when the states fail to act or disclaim any jurisdiction to act is the FCC allowed to step in. This has left a patchwork of regulatory regimes with a handful of states being subject to FCC certification and the other states employing widely varying certification procedures, some of which involve hearings before state PUCs, in order to get an ETC certification. The new program adopted by the FCC changes the ETC designation process – but that’s only one of a raft of major shifts in the Commission’s approach to Lifeline. Here are some of the highlights:

  • Broadband defined as a telecommunications service.
  • Broadband rather than voice service preferred.
  • Minimum service levels.
  • One-to-a-household rule retained.
  • A single verifying source for eligibility and payment is established.
  • FCC takes over the designation process.
  • Service requirements.
  • Budget cap.

House defense bill elevates cyber force, defying White House

The defense authorization bill that cleared the House May 18 would elevate the US military’s cyber unit to a standalone warfighting entity — despite direct opposition from the White House. The House passed the bill by a 277-147 margin. US Cyber Command is currently under the authority of Strategic Command, meaning it must obtain permission before it conducts cyber operations. But the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) would make Cyber Command its own unified command unit.

The move is a nod to the increasing importance that cyber actions are playing in US defense operations — Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work said recently that the US is “dropping cyber bombs” on the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). It also had widespread support from lawmakers who were skeptical that the unit should remain under the roof of the National Security Agency (NSA), where it currently shares a commander with the spy agency. The White House, however, has pushed back against the move, arguing that the secretary of Defense and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff “should retain the flexibility to recommend to the President changes to the unified command plan that they believe would most effectively organize the military to address an ever-evolving threat environment.”

Google's Latest Accessibility Feature Is So Good, Everyone Will Use It

Google's new Voice Access feature, announced at I/O 2016 as something that will ship with Android N, is a way for people with severe motor impairment to control every aspect of their phones using their voices. But once you see it in action, the broader impact of Voice Access is immediately obvious.

When Voice Access is installed, you can enable it with Android's "Okay Google" command by just saying: "Okay Google, turn on Voice Access." Once it's on, it's always listening—and you don't have to use the Okay Google command anymore. Best of all? Any app should work with Voice Access, as long as it's already following Google's accessibility guidelines. For the 20% of Americans who have severe to moderate motor impairment, including Parkinson's, essential tremor, arthritis, and more, the benefits of Voice Access are obvious. These users can finally have high-level control of their Android devices without ever needing to use their hands. There are the people who are permanently disabled, and then there are those who are "situationally disabled." But according to Google's accessibility user experience (UX) researcher Astrid Weber, there are two kinds of disability. There are the people who are permanently disabled, and then there are those who are "situationally disabled." Situational disability can be as serious as a broken arm or as temporary as having your hands full with shopping bags. The point is that all users are situationally disabled on a regular basis, which means that accessibility features like Voice Access are for everyone—or they will be, eventually.

Building Video Momentum: A Q&A with Comcast Cable EVP Matt Strauss

A Q&A with Comcast Cable's executive vice president Matt Strauss.

When asked, "As you look at the second half of the year, what are your top priorities?" Matt Strauss said, "We're really focused first and foremost on continuing to execute against the deployment of X1. We're seeing a lot of very positive benefits from X1, both on the churn and on the increased consumption side. We're now at about 35% penetrated, and it's even higher if you just look at triple-play subscribers -- about 50% of our triple-play subscribers now have X1. What goes hand-in-hand with that is that we also want to finish out the deployment of our cloud infrastructure. We've been deploying cloud across our footprint -- both cloud streaming and cloud DVR – and we are very close to getting 100% deployment. We want to finish that up by the middle-to-end of [2016]. Finally, we want to continue the penetration and usage of our products and services. We’ve got a very ambitious deployment for our new consolidated Xfinity app. With the upcoming Olympics [in Rio] we want to use that as an opportunity to shine a light on this new application, which we think is a tremendous value to our customers."

Former Mexican President: "Fox News Is Trying To Make A President" Of Trump

Speaking on CNN, Former Mexican President Vicente Fox said, "because [Donald Trump] controls media here, you know. You know, Fox News is 24 hours, giving him the push. In Mexico, we used to say Televisa, the number one station, makes presidents. In this case, Fox News is trying to make a president. That's not the way to go. We should be speaking about the challenges we have. We should have in democracy very happy campaigns. There should be music. There should be reasonable messages. Democracy is a feast, and here, it seems to be war. A call for war. Democracy is not that. Freedom is not that. The leadership of this nation is at risk in front of the whole of the world. I work with all the former presidents, former prime ministers, and we're all astonished. We say it is a nightmare. This cannot be the voice of that great nation. The nation that has led the world. The nation that works intensely for peace, and now he's blaming the government, past government, former government that they did not work for peace enough. Yeah, we have problems. We have ISIS, and this, but we must unite together to get rid of them. This is not the way to go."

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