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Speaking at the Media Institute, Craig Silliman, Verizon’s senior vice president of public policy and government relations, said in prepared remarks: “A highly innovative 21st century communications marketplace requires a 21st century policy framework to match the Internet ecosystem that broadband and mobile innovations have helped create. We need a framework to address today’s issues: not local wireline voice competition, but privacy, cybersecurity, network management, spectrum policy and more, many of which have a global component.” In his speech, Silliman outlined four principles that he believes policymakers should focus on: protecting consumers, encouraging innovation, incenting investment, and, with rapid changes in the industry, technology-agnostic rules that focus on the needs of consumers and ensure flexibility as new innovations and business models emerge.
Rules for Railroads Don’t Track With the Policy Needs of 21st Century Telecom Technologies
On May 2, 2013, the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) submitted projections of demand and administrative expenses for the federal universal service fund for the third quarter of 2013. According to USAC’s projections, $450 million in unused funds from previous funding years is available to carry forward to increase disbursements to schools and libraries via the E-rate program, more formally known as the schools and libraries universal service program. The Federal Communications Commission’s rules state that “[a]ll funds collected that are unused shall be carried forward into subsequent funding years for use in the [Erate program] in accordance with the public interest and notwithstanding the annual cap.”
Consistent with the FCC’s rules, the Wireline Competition Bureau announces that $450 million in unused funds will be carried forward to ensure funding is available for all eligible priority one funding requests received from schools and libraries in funding year 2013 in excess of the annual cap.
FCC Announces Carry-Forward of Unused Schools and Libraries Universal Service Funds for Funding Year 2013
This Public Notice serves as notice that, consistent with the Federal Advisory Committee Act, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski has appointed members to the Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC or Council). The members represent a diverse and balanced mix of viewpoints from public safety organizations; federal, state and local government agencies; the communications industry; organizations representing Internet users; utility companies; public interest organizations; and other experts. The Council is a federal advisory committee that will provide recommendations to the Commission regarding best practices and actions the Commission may take to ensure the security, reliability, and interoperability of communications systems.
Chairman Genachowski has designated Larissa L. Herda, Chairman, CEO and President of tw telecom, inc. as Chair of the Council.
On March 19, 2013 pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, the Commission renewed the CSRIC charter for a period of two years, through March 18, 2015.
Members of the Council:
- Robert Azzi, Sprint Nextel Corporation
- Donna Bethea-Murphy, Iridium Satellite, LLC
- Kent Bressie, North American Submarine Cable Association
- Howard W. Brown, Tulalip Data Services
- Lynn Claudy, National Association of Broadcasters
- Seth Davis, Virgin Islands Telephone Corporation
- Donna Dodson, National Institute of Standards and Technology, U.S. Department of Commence
- Craig Donaldson, Intrado, Inc.
- David Donovan, New York State Broadcasters Association, Inc.
- Andy Ellis, Akamai Technologies
- T. Brook Fitzsimmons, AT&T
- Laurie Flaherty, National Highway Safety Transportation Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation
- Peter Fonash, Ph.D., U.S. Department of Homeland Security
- Brian Fontes, Ph.D., National Emergency Number Association
- Robert Gessner, American Cable Association
- Brenton Greene, Applied Communications Services, Inc.
- Joseph Lorenzo Hall, Center for Democracy and Technology
- Rodney Joffe, Neustar, Inc.
- Brian Josef, CTIA - the Wireless Association
- Omar Khan, NQ Mobile
- Brett Kilbourne, Utilities Telcom Council
- Elise Kim, 9-1-1 for Kids
- James Lienau, Nsight
- Alice Lippert, U.S. Department of Energy
- John Madden, National Emergency Management Association
- Kyle Malady, Verizon
- Sam Matheny, Capitol Broadcasting Company, Inc.
- John McCoskey, Public Broadcasting Service
- Danny McPherson, Verisign, Inc.
- Ann Miles, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
- Michael Mosher, T-Mobile USA, Inc.
- Mehran Nazari, Rural Telecommunications Group, Inc.
- Michael O’Reirdan, M3AAWG
- Henry Wayne Pacine, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve
- Mark Paese, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commence
- Damon Penn, Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
- Brian Peretti, U.S. Department of the Treasury
- Richard Perlotto, Shadowserver Foundation
- Matthew Rantanen, Southern California Tribal Chairmen's Association, Tribal Digital Village
- Rod Rasmussen, Internet Identity
- Francisco Sánchez, Jr., Harris County (TX) Homeland Security and Emergency Management
- William Schully, DirecTV
- Bill Smith, PayPal, Inc.
- Gigi Smith, APCO
- Myrna Soto, Comcast Cable
- Steve Souder, Department of Public Safety Communications (9-1-1 Center), Fairfax County, VA
- Dorothy Spears-Dean, Commonwealth of Virginia Wireless E-911 Services Board
- Craig Speizle, Online Trust Alliance
- Joe St. Sauver, Internet 2
- Maurice Tosé, TeleCommunication System, Inc.
- S. RaoVasireddy, Telecommunications Industry Association
- Christian Vogler, Ph.D., Deaf and Hard of Hearing Consumer Advocacy Network
- Tim Walden, CenturyLink
- Errol Weiss, Citi
- The Honorable Geoffrey Why, National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners
- The Honorable Pamela Witmer, Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission
- Eric Woody, Union Wireless
FCC Announces Membership of the Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council
Coming soon to your smartphone: unlimited video streaming of some television shows, without getting stuck with an expensive wireless bill for high data usage. Maybe.
The idea of allowing consumers to subscribe to a content provider such as ESPN so they can watch their favorite shows without being charged for data use has been controversial. But it got new momentum this week when Randall L. Stephenson, AT&T’s chief executive, said he saw such deals in the industry’s future. Stephenson did not mention specific plans to broker deals with content providers. But his forecast that such deals could be feasible sparked protest from consumer advocacy groups. They say carriers have long argued that networks are strained from too much video traffic. But, the groups say, wireless firms appear to welcome more traffic if the content provider pays a higher fee. “Allowing a few deep-pocketed partners to pay for preferred treatment will stifle innovation, hinder competition, raise prices over time and give mobile phone companies the power to pick and choose the content you can access,” said Matt Wood, policy director for the public interest group Free Press. Federal regulators have not opposed the idea, and analysts say President Obama’s nominee to lead the Federal Communications Commission, Tom Wheeler, probably won’t put up any obstacles. Consumer groups and some Democratic lawmakers may push Wheeler to look into the issue. But current “open access” rules at the FCC are “lenient toward wireless operators,” said Paul Gallant, an analyst at Guggenheim Securities, in a research note. And “while the rules are not black and white, they do not appear to ban such payments by content companies.”
Wireless companies warm to unlimited streaming of some apps
Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) promised to lower state income taxes if Congress approves online sales tax legislation.
In a letter to the state's members of Congress, Gov Walker said the Wisconsin Department of Revenue estimates that the online sales tax bill would bring in $95 million in additional state revenue every year. "I want to make clear, should federal Marketplace legislation become law, my intention would be for any resulting additional revenue be used to provide individual income tax relief for Wisconsin’s taxpayers," Gov Walker wrote.
Gov. Walker would use online sales tax to lower income tax
Technology to help locate wireless callers inside buildings got past objections from General Electric, Google and the E-ZPass Group, who told U.S. regulators that it may interfere with millions of devices.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski on May 14 asked fellow commissioners to approve closely held Progeny LMS LLC’s indoor-location system, said Neil Grace, an agency spokesman. To proceed, the measure needs to win an FCC vote, and companies can lobby members on the issues in the interim. Under Progeny’s proposal, smartphones would calculate their position using radio signals put out by the company, and would report that location during emergency calls. In tests, Progeny’s technology was able to pinpoint within 2 meters (7 feet) the vertical position of the handset making the call, “potentially revolutionizing the speed of emergency response in large, multi-story” buildings, the company said in a filing with the agency.
GE Doesn’t Stall Way to Find Callers Opposed by E-ZPass
Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA), Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Ed Markey (D-MA), Diana DeGette (D-CO), Mike Doyle (D-CA), and Doris Matsui (D-CA) sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski regarding the spectrum provisions in the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012. The letter from the Democratic members was sent in response to a recent letter from Reps. Fred Upton (R-MI), Greg Walden (R-OR) and other Republican members of the House Commerce Committee.
The Republicans urged the FCC to "implement the Spectrum Act as Congress intended" and not to "pick winners and losers before the auction even commences." In the new letter the Democrats write: “The Republican letter included a number of inaccuracies and omissions concerning the spectrum provisions in the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012. As members directly involved in the passage of that legislation, we write to clarify details about the legislative history, especially with regard to Congressional intent.” The members also noted that the views of the Antitrust Division at the Department of Justice should be entitled to “serious consideration on such core antitrust principles as market foreclosure and the relative competitive value of various spectrum bands.” The Justice Department's Antitrust Division has recommended that the FCC use "rules, weights, or caps" to prevent industry giants Verizon and AT&T from buying up the most valuable spectrum at auction. The agency argued that ensuring that Sprint and T-Mobile have access to the critical resource will boost competition and lower prices for consumers.
Leading Commerce Committee Democrats Clarify Congressional Intent of Spectrum Provisions, Urge Serious Consideration of DOJ Views Democrats accuse Republicans of distorting intent of spectrum law (The Hill) House Dems: Auction Law Does Not Prevent FCC Spectrum Screen Move (B&C)
With the Federal Communications Commission's incentive auction and repack moving forward, many low-power television (LPTV) broadcasters worry about what the agency's continuing silence about their service portends. Attorney Peter Tannenwald said: The FCC "is basically ignoring low-power TV, and therefore, no low-power TV station, right now, knows whether it’s going to be able to survive."
Low-Powers Have High Anxiety Over Repack
The idea that anyone is controlling the Internet runs contrary to common knowledge. The Web has a tradition of hosting free content with relatively little government or regulatory interference, and is today backed by a fervent army of supporters ready to defend a free and open platform. And in celebration of 20 years of a free World Wide Web, research laboratory CERN recently restored the world’s first website. April 30, 1993 was the day the Web’s source code became publicly available on a royalty-free basis, setting a precedent of free, open and transparent public participation and usage online. Many individuals and organizations, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), maintain it is the free and open nature of the Web that has permitted the historically unrivaled technological growth seen today, while providing an outlet for the nation’s most cherished right of free speech. But the Internet is not completely free, nor is access uniform across the globe -- nor are things likely to stay exactly as they are today.
Who Controls the Internet?
President Barack Obama addressed the Justice Department's seizure of Associated Press phone records during a joint press briefing in the White House Rose Garden, stressing the need to "find balance" between national security and "the free flow of information."
"Leaks related to national security can put people at risk. They can put men and women in uniform that I’ve sent into the battlefield at risk. They can put some of our intelligence officers, who are in various, dangerous situations that are easily compromised, at risk," the President said. "U.S. national security is dependent on those folks being able to operate with confidence that folks back home have their backs, so they're not just left out there high and dry, and potentially put in even more danger than they may already be. And so I make no apologies, and I don't think the American people would expect me as Commander-in-Chief not to be concerned about information that might compromise their missions or might get them killed." But, President Obama added, "the flip side of it is we also live in a democracy where a free press, free expression, and the open flow of information helps hold me accountable, helps hold our government accountable, and helps our democracy function. And the whole reason I got involved in politics is because I believe so deeply in that democracy and that process."
President Obama: 'Need to find balance' on leaks President Obama says "no apologies" over U.S. security leak probe (Reuters)