Acting Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel wrote a response to US lawmakers' letter regarding the FCC's collection of broadband deployment data. The group of lawmakers wrote to Rosenworcel in July 2021 requesting an update on the FCC's broadband data collection progress. On October 15, the Acting Chairwoman replied with a detailed description of the FCC's initiatives, highlighting "the formation of the Broadband Data Task Force to coordinate and expedite the design and construction of new systems for collecting and verifying broadband deployment data." "The Task Force is leading a cross-agency effort to implement the requirements of the Broadband DATA Act and kick-start our work to more accurately measure and reflect our nation’s broadband needs," Rosenworcel said. "Following the creation of the Task Force, we have made significant progress on standing-up the new Broadband Data Collection (BDC) systems and processes." Other noted initiatives included the creation of the Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric, a "common dataset of all locations in the United States where fixed broadband internet access service can be installed," and efforts to empower state, local and Tribal governments to share data with the FCC. "We will be happy to provide updates as our work progresses and we have new information to share," concluded Rosenworcel. "I look forward to working with [Congress] as we continue to improve the Commission’s broadband deployment data."

This proposal that would approve Verizon Communications’ acquisition of TracFone Wireless with consumer protection conditions to ensure the proposed acquisition will be in the public interest. Verizon and TracFone do not meet the burden of proving their proposed acquisition is in the public interest unless the companies adopt a number of specific measures to protect consumers from price increases or service disruptions.Under today’s proposal, the consumer protection measures include a series of requirements that will enhance service quality and benefits for impacted customers including those participating in the California LifeLine program, which subsidizes phone services based on income qualifications. These enhancements and protections include:

• Verizon and TracFone must participate in the California LifeLine program for as long as they operate in California, and Verizon must offer California Lifeline plans, phones, and devices in its stores.
• To ensure that TracFone maintains a significant level of participation in California LifeLine in future years, TracFone and Verizon must have enrolled at least 200,000 California LifeLine subscribers by June 30, 2023. Additionally, at least 15 percent of those California LifeLine subscribers must be in low-income disadvantaged communities.
• Verizon must provide new phones to current TracFone customers with phones that are incompatible with Verizon’s network, including California LifeLine customers, at no additional cost. In areas where Verizon offers 5G, it must offer these California LifeLine customers 5G-enabled phones.Current TracFone customers that cannot remain TracFone customers because they are not located in an area served by Verizon must be provided free phones.
• In order to facilitate a predictable and timely transition for customers, Verizon and TracFone must migrate all TracFone customers to Verizon’s network within six months following the close of the acquisition, giving priority to TracFone’s current California LifeLine customers.

The proposal also establishes a reporting process as well as a mitigation enforcement program with penalties if specific performance requirements are not met. 

The proposal will be considered at the CPUC’s November 18, 2021 Voting Meeting.

Telemedicine startups are confronting a hodgepodge of state regulations, complicating their efforts to expand their services nationwide. Companies that provide care over the web or through mobile devices scaled up rapidly during the pandemic, as overcrowding at hospitals led to more patients meeting doctors virtually. Aiding startups’ growth were temporary waivers of restrictions on telemedicine that many states enacted, including a requirement that doctors be licensed in their state to provide virtual care. Now, some states are allowing those waivers to expire, while others are maintaining them, creating an increasingly complex regulatory terrain. Restrictions on telemedicine will return after the public-health emergency unless Congress acts. A bipartisan bill in the Senate, the Connect for Health Act of 2021, would permanently remove Medicare geographic restrictions and enable beneficiaries to receive telemedicine in their homes and other sites. Some venture capitalists acknowledge the regulatory friction in telemedicine but said the pandemic has alerted many more doctors and patients to its benefits, such as increased convenience and the ability to expand high-quality care in remote corners where few physicians maintain physical offices.

The most pressing questions is whether the Securities and Exchange Commission — the federal agency where Ms. Haugen sent the documents — will significantly add to Facebook’s woes. Whistle-blowers have filed at least nine complaints to the agency, which has oversight of public companies like Facebook, using a selection of the internal documents to argue that Facebook misled investors with a rosier picture of the company than they knew to be true. The SEC can impose big fines for misleading investors and impose restrictions on corporate leaders. A case from securities regulators is probably far from a slam dunk, several legal experts said. The accusations in the complaints don’t appear to be quite as clear-cut as many other accounting and fraud cases taken up by the agency, they said. To win a lawsuit accusing the company of misleading investors, regulators would have to prove that executives had intended to hide or lie about problems.

A special signal known as global privacy control tells every website you visit not to pass around your personal data behind your back. Global privacy control is already tucked away in Web browser Brave and browser add-on DuckDuckGo. Soon, the Firefox browser will be adding it. Firefox says it’s rolling out the global privacy control signal to its main product in the next two or three months, according to Chief Technology Officer Eric Rescorla. Chrome users, however, must continue to wait. It’s a big deal because asking websites or apps not to share or sell your personal information involves hunting through company websites and submitting a “do not sell” request to each and every offender. If you live in California, you have some protection for your data under the California Consumer Privacy Act, and companies have to honor these requests. If you live elsewhere, you’re often out of luck. But tools like GPC lay the groundwork for easier management of personal data as more states consider passing data privacy legislation.