July 11, 2016 (House vs FCC)

INTERNET/BROADBAND

HOUSE PASSES FCC-BLOCKING FINANCE BILL
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The House passed the (FY) 2017 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill (HR 5485) that cuts the Federal Communications Commission budget and would prevent it from enforcing its network neutrality rules, implementing a new set-top box proposal, regulating broadband rates, or adopting new broadband privacy rules. The prohibition on the privacy rules was a last-minute addition to that laundry list thanks to an amendment from Rep Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)—approved by a vote of 232 to 187. The amendment prohibits "the use of funds to implement, administer or enforce any of the rules proposed in the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking adopted by the FCC on March 31, 2016 (FCC 16-39), intended to regulate consumer privacy obligations as necessitated by the FCC's net neutrality regime." The vote on the underlying bill was 239 to 185. The White House has signaled it will almost certainly veto the bill if those provisions remained since President Barack Obama publicly called for the new Open Internet order reclassifying Internet service providers under Title II and backed "unlocking" set-top boxes.
benton.org/headlines/house-passes-fcc-blocking-finance-bill | Broadcasting&Cable
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THE GLOBAL INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY REPORT
[SOURCE: World Economic Forum, AUTHOR: Silja Baller, Soumitra Dutta, Bruno Lanvin]
Part 1 of the 2016 edition of the Global Information Technology Report assesses the state of networked readiness of 139 economies using the Networked Readiness Index (NRI) and, under the theme "innovating in the Digital Economy," examines the role of information and communication technologies in driving innovation. Part 2 consists of an extensive data compendium with the detailed performance of each economy in the NRI and rankings for each of the 53 individual indicators included in the NRI. Four key findings:
The digital revolutions changes the nature of innovation.
Firms will face increasing pressure to innovate continuously.
Businesses and governments are missing out on a rapidly growing digital population. -- A widening and worrying gap is emerging between growth in individual ICT usage and public-sector engagement in the digital economy, as government usage is increasingly falling short of expectations. Governments can do more to invest in innovative digital solutions to drive social impact.
A new economy is shaping, requiring urgent innovations in governance and regulation -- A critical ingredient for the success and sustainability of the emerging system will be agile governance frameworks that allow societies to anticipate and shape the impact of emerging technologies and react quickly to changing circumstances.
benton.org/headlines/global-information-technology-report | World Economic Forum
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AUSTIN (TX): A MODEL FOR CITIES WORKING TO NARROW THE BROADBAND GAP?
[SOURCE: Government Technology, AUTHOR: Adam Stone]
In Austin (TX), population 885,000, some 55,000 residents say they don't use the Internet — at all. But the City Council refuses to accept this. “It is critical that every one of our residents has access to digital and communications technology, and understands technology and its relevancy to their daily lives, whether for helping with their kids’ homework, or looking for jobs, getting access to health information or accessing online government information,” the council writes. And the city’s Office of Digital Inclusion is charged with making that vision a reality by working with a range of private-sector and nonprofit providers to ensure connectivity and encourage Internet use. Austin’s effort has drawn kudos as a model of how municipalities can help to narrow the broadband gap, recently winning a Digital Inclusion Leadership Award from the National League of Cities. “To have a city office dedicated to this, that is a pretty strong indication of the seriousness that they are giving to it,” said Colin Rhinesmith, author of [The Benton Foundation's] Digital Inclusion and Meaningful Broadband Adoption Initiatives and a senior lecturer at Boston's Simmons College.
benton.org/headlines/austin-tx-model-cities-working-narrow-broadband-gap | Government Technology
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TELCO COALITION FORMS TO OPPOSE FCC BUSINESS BROADBAND PROPOSAL
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
CenturyLink and Frontier have teamed up with a handful of other telecommunications companies in a new coalition to push back on the Federal Communications Commission's proposed reforms of special access market (the business services market the FCC has rebranded BDS or business data services). Also in the coalition are Cincinnati Bell, Consolidated Communications, and FairPoint. The coalition, dubbed "Invest in Broadband for America," called the FCC proposal sweeping and questionable--it is also being questioned by cable operators providing BDS competition. "First and foremost, it is crucial that the FCC get the data right on competition in the marketplace before flying blindly into a major policy decision,” said John Jones, CenturyLink SVP, in announcing the new effort. “Important decisions are best made with accurate data. What is at stake here is the definition of ‘competition.’ That definition will have a substantial impact on the telecom and national economy for years to come. Think investment, suppliers, employees, infrastructure and contractors.”
benton.org/headlines/telco-coalition-forms-oppose-fcc-business-broadband-proposal | Multichannel News
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SECURITY/PRIVACY

FACEBOOK TO ADD 'SECRET CONVERSATIONS', ENCRYPTION TO MESSENGER APP
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Mike Isaac]
In 2014, Messenger, a photo and text messaging service, appeared to be almost an afterthought at Facebook, the social networking giant. Messenger often took a back seat to the limelight enjoyed by WhatsApp, the messaging app that Facebook had bought for $19 billion. And Messenger’s capabilities were so limited that you could not send friends an animated GIF of a dancing Shiba Inu, as you could with many other messaging services. But since mid-2014, Facebook has been playing a furious game of catch-up with Messenger. That June, Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, hired a PayPal executive, David Marcus, to take over Messenger and build it into a world-class competitor. The company has added a string of features to the service, including letting people send money to friends through the app, pull up a voice or video call, or order a private car from inside the app. On July 8, Facebook said it will also begin testing “secret conversations” inside Messenger, a feature that offers end-to-end encryption on some messages to be read only on the two mobile devices that users are communicating with. While it stops short of the full encryption that other messaging services like WhatsApp have adopted, it gives Messenger a heightened mode of security that Facebook hopes will attract global audiences to download the app.
benton.org/headlines/facebook-add-secret-conversations-encryption-messenger-app | New York Times | CNN Money
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FCC REFORM

SNAPSHOT OF PROCESS REFORM IDEAS
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly]
In my two and a half years as a Commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission, I have tried to make productive suggestions to improve the internal workings of the Commission. These efforts have never been an attempt to undermine the authority of the Chairman or the ability of the Commission majority, whoever they may be on a particular issue, to get items completed in a timely manner. Instead, this entire effort is about improving the efficiency of the Commission and increasing fairness and transparency with regard to a process that is questionable in some instances and downright objectionable in others. The chart below outlines the 24 reform proposals that I have suggested, to date, in various blogs and Congressional testimony. Those proposals that have been adopted in whole or in part – all three of them – are in yellow. In all fairness, item number 17, pertaining to improving the circulation process, was only proposed a few weeks ago. To the extent that the public or practitioners before the Commission have additional suggestions to improve the Commission’s workings, I would be pleased to review and consider supporting them. I plan to continue to call out for the need to improve the functionality of this Commission to ensure every sound idea is given due consideration, and will add to this list as the process issues pile up.
benton.org/headlines/snapshot-process-reform-ideas | Federal Communications Commission | B&C
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POLICYMAKERS

HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER PUSHES TO PRESERVE OBAMA'S TECH FELLOW PROGRAM
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Mario Trujillo]
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarty (R-CA) is pushing a bill to protect one of President Barack Obama’s tech priorities after he leaves office. The GOP leader’s bill would put the force of law behind President Obama’s 2012 Presidential Innovation Fellows Program, which brings on a small number of tech-savvy employees from the private sector every year and places them around the government for short stints of service. President Obama already signed an executive order in 2015 making the program permanent. At the time, President Obama said he hoped the program would help build “a government that’s as modern, as innovative, and as engaging as our incredible tech sector is.” While unlikely in the case of the fellows program, executive orders can always be undone by the next administration. That is not the case with legislation signed into law. The program was part of a 2008 campaign promise from President Obama and was created with the help of former White House Chief Technology Officer Todd Park.
benton.org/headlines/house-majority-leader-pushes-preserve-president-obamas-tech-fellow-program | Hill, The
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

PRIVACY SHIELD DATA PACT GETS EUROPEAN APPROVAL
[SOURCE: BBC News, AUTHOR: ]
A revised pact governing European Union-US data flows has been approved by European governments. The Privacy Shield agreement replaces the previous accord, called Safe Harbour, that was struck down in October 2015. Safe Harbour let US companies self-certify that they were doing enough to protect data about Europeans. The European Court of Justice threw out Safe Harbour after leaks showed data was being spied upon. Member states of the European Commission have given "strong support" to the Privacy Shield said the European Commission's Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova. She said the approval paved the way for the formal adoption of the agreement early during the week of July 11. "The EU-US Privacy Shield will ensure a high level of protection for individuals and legal certainty for business," said Commissioner Jourova. "It is fundamentally different from the old Safe Harbour." The adoption of the Privacy Shield ends months of uncertainty for many tech companies such as Google and Facebook after the European court found the Safe Harbour agreement wanting. The agreement covers everything from personal information about employees to the detailed records of what people do online, which is often used to aid targeted advertising.
benton.org/headlines/privacy-shield-data-pact-gets-european-approval | BBC News | B&C
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July 11, 2016 (House vs FCC)