Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced that the items below are tentatively on the agenda for the May Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday, May 9, 2019:

• China Mobile USA Application – The Commission will consider a Memorandum Opinion and Order that would deny the application of China Mobile USA for a Section 214 authorization to provide international facilities-based and resale telecommunications services between the United States and foreign points. (File No. ITC-214-20110901-00289)
• Reallocating the 1675–1680 MHz Band – The Commission will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would seek comment on reallocating the 1675-1680 MHz band for shared use between incumbent federal operations and non-federal fixed or mobile (except aeronautical mobile) operations on a co-primary basis, as well as an appropriate sharing mechanism that would allow both federal and non-federal users to operate successfully in the band. (GN Docket No. 19-116)
• FM Translator Interference Rules – The Commission will consider a Report and Order that would adopt streamlined rules relating to interference caused by FM translators and expedite the translator interference complaint resolution process. (MB Docket No. 18-119)
• Toll Free Number Auction – The Commission will consider a Public Notice seeking comment on proposed procedures for conducting and participating in an auction of toll free numbers in the 833 code. (AU Docket No. 19-101; WC Docket No. 17-192; CC Docket No. 95-155)
• Regulatory Fees NPRM – The Commission will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to seek comment on proposed regulatory fees for Fiscal Year 2019. (MD Docket No. 19-105)
• Satellite Authorization for Theia – The Commission will consider a Memorandum Opinion Order and Authorization that would grant Theia’s request to deploy and operate a proposed non-geostationary satellite constellation to provide earth imaging services around the world. (IBFS File No. SAT-LOA 20161115-00121; SAT-AMD-20170301-00029)
• Video Relay Service Rules – The Commission will consider a Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would adopt measures, and seek comment on others, to improve Video Relay Service (VRS), expand access to direct video communications, and protect the VRS program against waste, fraud, and abuse. (CG Docket Nos. 10-51 and 03-123)

New research from Parks Associates finds 22 percent of US broadband households have a service speed of 100-999 megabits per second (Mbps), the most common service tier, although 39 percent of US broadband households do not know their broadband speed. The report, Modern Broadband: Competition and Retention at Gigabit Speeds, notes only 6 percent of US broadband households have gigabit-speed services and interest in upgrading to that speed of service has declined over the past two years. “Interest in gigabit speeds has declined, due partly to limited availability, but also as households prioritize cost over speed,” said Craig Leslie, Senior Research Analyst, Parks Associates. “Of the US broadband households that switched services in the past year, 50 percent did so to get a better price, while 36 percent switched to get better speeds. Households are not seeing the benefits to speed upgrades, especially as providers have conditioned households to differentiate based on pricing.”

The Consumer Federation of America joined a lawsuit challenging the decision of the Federal Communication Commission to extend the allocation of costs between federal and state jurisdictions that was adopted in 2000 for another six years. The consumer pocketbook impact of the misallocation of costs is huge, totaling $150-$250 billion ($200-$300 per household per year) over the next six years. By misallocating costs and recovering them from the wrong people – not the cost causers – the allocation that the FCC seeks to freeze for and six years, wreaks havoc on consumer pocketbooks with hundreds of billions of dollars of misallocation and over-recovery of costs. The most effective first step in dealing with these problems is to cut them off at the source.  Without the misallocation and over recovery of costs, the goals of the Communications Act – universal service, just and reasonable rates, and increased competition – will be much easier. Convincing the court that the FCC allocation is illegal will force a more realistic, 21st century separation of costs between the intrastate and interstate jurisdictions. 

For several years now, Tacoma (WA) has pondered the fate of its Click! municipal open access network. In the spring of 2018, the community issued an RFI/Q searching for interested private sector partners that would lease the network from the Tacoma Power Utility (TPU). After reviewing responses, consulting experts, and comparing potential arrangements, Tacoma has narrowed the field of possible partners. The goal is to put the network on a sustainable and competitive footing both financially and technologically. Tacoma is following a path that will retain public ownership of the Click! network as the network continues to expand.

We are disappointed that the network faces this tough decision, but the lessons learned from early open access pioneers like Tacoma have been essential to advancing a model in which we continue to have faith. One key lesson is that the open access approach has to be grounded in a feasibly financial model and that does not describe Click!’s present status.  The open access ISPs on Click! have achieved a collective take rate of less than 20 percent of the addressable market. Very few networks can succeed financially with so few subscribers. Thus, we believe moving ahead with a leasing arrangement is a prudent course.

In the aftermath of [recent horrific mass shootings], some of the responses from internet companies include ideas that point in a disturbing direction: toward increasingly centralized and opaque censorship of the global internet. Facebook, for example, describes plans for an expanded role for the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, or GIFCT. The GIFCT is an industry-led self-regulatory effort launched in 2017 by Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and YouTube. One of its flagship projects is a shared database of hashes of files identified by the participating companies to be “extreme and egregious” terrorist content. Self-regulatory initiatives like the GIFCT function not only to address a particular policy issue, but also to stave off more sweeping government regulation. Beyond that, though, there's a fundamental threat posed by solutions that rely on centralizing content control: The strength of the internet for fostering free expression lies in its decentralized nature, which can support a diversity of platforms. 

[Emma Llansó is Director of Free Expression at the Center for Democracy & Technology.]

Facebook harvested the email contacts of 1.5 million users without their knowledge or consent when they opened their accounts. Since May 2016, the company has collected the contact lists of 1.5 million users new to the social network. Facebook said the contact data was "unintentionally uploaded to Facebook," and it is now deleting them. The revelation comes after pseudononymous security researcher noticed that Facebook was asking some users to enter their email passwords when they signed up for new accounts to verify their identities, a move widely condemned by security experts. It was then discovered that if you entered your email password, a message popped up saying it was "importing" your contacts without asking for permission first. At the time, it wasn't clear what was happening — but on April 17, Facebook disclosed that 1.5 million people's contacts were collected this way and fed into Facebook's systems, where they were used to improve Facebook's ad targeting, build Facebook's web of social connections, and recommend friends to add.

The fast-evolving internet ecosystem is changing how tech companies form alliances to lobby policy-makers in Washington. Lines are blurring or becoming more stark among different tech, media, and telecommunication companies. Telecom companies are producing content, while platform companies are exploring new services like internet connections. That means sectors are no longer staying in their lanes, and regulatory scrutiny is shifting. Comcast and AT&T, both telecom powers, are now the owners of members of the Motion Picture Association of America. Netflix recently left the Internet Association and joined the powerful MPAA — showing that it see itself more as a media company than a tech company these days. The MPAA admitted Netflix, the first streaming-first studio to join the group, after it left the Internet Association as its own membership shrinks thanks to the proposed Disney-Fox merger. Salesforce has also left the Internet Association, reflecting the way large enterprise companies have looked to differentiate themselves from online ad powerhouses Google and Facebook.