Broadband Privacy Enters the Home Stretch
October 2016
Weekly Digest
Weekly Digest
Trump transition team picks regulation foe Jeffrey Eisenach as telecom point man
Donald Trump's presidential transition team is turning to a crusader against regulation as it seeks to craft a strategy on issues like network neutrality and the future of the Federal Communications Commission, according to three sources familiar with the effort. The newly tapped aide, Jeffrey Eisenach, is a known commodity in Washington tech and telecom circles.
Dating back to his time as leader of the now-defunct Progress and Freedom Foundation, he's argued vigorously in favor of the FCC taking a hands-off approach to digital issues. While there in the 1990s, he also called for robust penalties against Microsoft during the US government's antitrust investigation of the software giant. In 2012 Eisenach arrived as a fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute and, in that role, he’s been an outspoken antagonist of FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and his policies. In his research and advocacy, often backed by tech and telecom interests, he's slammed the Obama administration's efforts on net neutrality, broadband investment and more. It also marks a shift for Eisenach, who earlier this election cycle had criticized Trump. In March, he tweeted that he wouldn’t “apologize for pulling out all stops to defeat Trump,” citing the stakes in the election. But that tweet, and others critical of the GOP candidate, have since been deleted from his timeline. He's also been the source of controversy: The New York Times in August needled Eisenach for his research and writing on issues like net neutrality, some of which has been funded by companies like Verizon and other telecom interests that oppose the FCC's rules.
FCC Chairman Wheeler's Proposal To Promote Fairness, Competition, And Investment In The Business Data Services Market
To promote fairness, competition, and investment in this $45 billion marketplace, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler circulated to his fellow Commissioners proposed rules to take necessary and overdue steps to reform a long-broken regulatory regime.
The Order provides a new framework for the Business Data Services (BDS or “special access”) market that strikes a balance between targeted regulation for legacy TDM (DS1 and DS3) services, where evidence of market power is strongest, and lighter-touch regulation of packet-based services, where there has been new entry and competition may be emerging. The Order also reaffirms that TDM and Ethernet BDS are both subject to the Commission’s Title II oversight. This framework supports the rapid deployment of innovative 5G mobile service by ensuring that wireless providers have fair access to BDS, including packet-based BDS, at just and reasonable rates, terms, and conditions. These requirements are enforced by strengthening our complaint process to expedite resolution of problems if they arise.
The Chairman is also proposing a Further Notice on packet-based BDS, which will provide the Commission with a vehicle to take further action on Ethernet pricing if that proves necessary. A Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking would seek comment on how best to collect accurate data on market developments and what administrable means can be developed, if necessary, to deal with any concerns that may emerge with respect to pricing for packet-based BDS.
David Lazarus: Frontier still struggling to put Verizon takeover issues to rest
Submitted by benton on Fri, 10/07/2016 - 11:38FCC's Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau Announces Activation of the Disaster Information Reporting System in Response to Hurricane Matthew
Submitted by benton on Fri, 10/07/2016 - 10:55Assessing the Obama Administration’s Tech Legacy
Since President Barack Obama was elected eight years ago, a great deal about technology has changed inside and outside the federal government.
“I think if I were to summarize [Obama’s legacy], it would be a seat at the table,” said Aneesh Chopra, whom Obama appointed as the first U.S. chief technology officer in 2009. As an assistant to the president, Chopra reported directly to President Obama, ensuring ideas from the CTO—often focused on innovation—are heard. “In prior administrations, the notion of the role of technology was largely relegated to back-office procurement activity,” Chopra added. “It was largely an operational conversation around how governments perform.” Instead, President Obama sought innovation from tech gurus and others because, as Chopra said, “policymaking has to take into account how technology will advance” complex and important issues like health care and economic growth.
In other words, President Obama helped take technology out of the back office and into the forefront of government. “Kudos to this administration for dragging the government into the digital era,” said Trey Hodgkins, senior vice president of the Information Technology Alliance for Public Sector.
AT&T Asks FCC to Take Action on “Nefarious” Inter-Carrier Compensation Practices
AT&T asked the Federal Communications Commission to address what it called “nefarious” inter-carrier compensation (ICC) practices including unusually high tandem switching and transport access charges and non-competitive 800-number database dips.
AT&T noted that such practices are counter-productive to FCC efforts to phase out the traditional approach toward inter-carrier compensation in favor of a “bill-and-keep” approach in which carriers will pay few, if any, charges to one another for exchanging voice traffic. The unusually high tandem switching and transport access charges come into play for competitive local exchange carriers who terminate calls to companies engaged in access stimulation, also known as “traffic pumpers.” The traffic pumpers traditionally have included companies offering services such as free or low-cost conferencing and chat lines that receive a high volume of calls. Such companies traditionally have chosen local carriers that charge other carriers large fees for terminating calls. The benefit for the traffic pumpers is that they traditionally have received a portion of ICC revenues from their local carriers.