Hill, The

FCC Commissioner Clyburn : 2015 airwave auction ‘not a train wreck’

The Federal Communications Commission’s complex and highly anticipated 2015 airwave auction is “absolutely not a train wreck,” according to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn.

FCC Commissioner Clyburn said that the agency “must be vigilant” as it prepares for the first-of-its-kind auction in 2015. That auction will involve the agency purchasing airwaves from television broadcasters, repackaging those airwaves and then selling them to spectrum-hungry wireless companies looking to boost their cellphone networks.

Much of the attention surrounding the auction has focused on whether the FCC would limit how much spectrum certain wireless companies -- namely industry giants AT&T and Verizon -- can purchase through the auction. At its May open meeting, the FCC voted 3-2 to limit those companies’ participation.

The limitations were less than those originally proposed by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler after Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel pushed for lessened limits in the hopes of driving up the auction’s revenue, which will go toward funding a nationwide network for first responders.

On the other side of the auction, some are worried about the incentives TV broadcasters have to show up to the auction and sell their airwaves at all.

Rep Lofgren: No appetite for consumer privacy bill

Rep Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) doesn’t see Congress moving a bill to protect consumer privacy anytime soon.

“We’re not doing that,” Rep Lofgren said.

Earlier in 2014, the Administration renewed previous calls by President Barack Obama for baseline consumer privacy legislation through its report on Big Data. That report -- initiated after the administration faced public backlash over government surveillance practices -- called on the Commerce Department to work with the private sector to develop legislative proposals.

Rep Lofgren said that there is no enthusiasm in Congress for such a bill at the moment. “Do you see any appetite to do that? No,” she said. That appetite might increase based on consumer reactions to evolving, and potentially privacy-threatening, technologies, she acknowledged. “Consumer reaction … will shape what goes on,” she said.

Rep Cicilline: Internet can be ‘salvation’

High-speed broadband Internet can be vital to gay, lesbian and transgender people struggling to understand their sexuality and gender identity, Rep David Cicilline (D-RI) said.

Rep Cicilline, who is gay and one of the co-chairs of the congressional LGBT caucus, said that the Web can be especially important for people in countries where homosexuality is illegal. He urged Congress to do what it could to allow as many people as possible to get online.

“It has particularly important significance... in places where gay and lesbian and bisexual people -- transsexual people -- live in dangerous, repressive conditions,” he said. “Access to the Internet may be the salvation for these individuals to connect and understand that there are other places to be, other people who are experiencing the same kind of challenges.”

A recent report from the LGBT Technology Partnership and Institute called for the government to ensure that computers at schools and libraries allow people to search for LGBT information, make more of the nation’s airwaves available for public use and make sure that people’s privacy is protected online, among other recommendations.

Senate panel launches ‘clean’ satellite TV bill

The Senate Judiciary Committee renewed a “must-pass” satellite television law that avoided changes to the way businesses negotiate to send TV programs into people’s homes.

Members of the panel said those types of discussions are best left to a broader overhaul of the nation’s communication laws. However, their reluctance to make broader reforms now could run into opposition from other lawmakers who have pledged to use the opportunity to enact change.

“I know a number of other telecommunications issues have been raised relative to this bill, but they are more appropriately handled in the context of a comprehensive communication law overhaul which the Commerce Committee is considering,” said Sen Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the panel’s top Republican. “In the meantime, I look forward to working with the chairman and the Commerce Committee in ensuring that satellite consumers, in particular those in rural areas who need the law to get their television signals, will continue to see those signals.”

Sen McCaskill eyes measure to combat TV bills

Sen Claire McCaskill (D-MO) is working on legislation to ban misleading and unfair cable and satellite television bills, and she’s looking to consumers for the worst offenders.

Sen McCaskill asked consumers to visit her website and log their complaints if “they have experienced deceptive, or confusing billing practices” from cable and satellite companies.

"Consumers in every corner of the country share common experiences about fending for themselves against confusing, deceptive billing practices by cable, satellite and other pay-TV companies-and I want to hear their stories," Sen McCaskill, chairwoman of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, said.

Sen Leahy: Cellphone ruling is ‘wake-up call’

The Supreme Court’s ruling that police need a warrant to search someone’s cellphone is a “wake-up call” for Congress to act on other kinds of digital privacy, Sen Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said.

“The Supreme Court’s decision in US v. Wurie and Riley v. California is a wake-up call that we need to update our laws to keep pace with technological advances,” he said shortly after the high court’s unanimous ruling. “Just as the government must now obtain a warrant to look through the contents of our cell phones, I believe the same standard should apply when the government wants to look through our emails.”

Sen Leahy’s bill “updates our digital privacy laws to keep pace with new technologies, protect civil liberties, and provide guidance to law enforcers,” he said. “Congress should act swiftly to pass this bill and bring our privacy laws into the 21st Century.”

Sen Thune sets stage for Senate communications law overhaul

The top Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee is pushing for Congress to overhaul the law governing the Internet, television and phone service. Sen John Thune (R-SD) said that the Senate would likely begin work to update the law in 2015, and seemed to shine on the notion that Republicans would have taken control of the upper chamber.

The Telecommunications Act outlines the authority of the Federal Communications Commission and sets the path for regulating phone, Internet and TV service. But it was written back in 1996, when dialup Internet allowing access to just a few thousand websites was still a luxury. “Back then, you had to pay for Internet by the hour and going online meant tying up your home phone line,” Sen Thune said.

Critics have said that the law created inefficient silos for different types of communications services such as television and the Web, which have posed problems for regulators dealing with modern technologies like broadband Internet. Some Democrats have urged the FCC to regulate the Web like phone service, but Republicans have rejected that view, which they warn would impose strict rules for Internet service providers and would limit its growth.

To settle the issue, Sen Thune said that Congress should make itself clear in a new law.

E-rate reform: A sustainable path forward for school and library connectivity

[Commentary] A year ago, President Barack Obama unveiled the ConnectED initiative, declaring that his goal was to connect virtually every school in the United States to high-speed Internet by the end of the decade.

A key piece of the Administration's plan is reforming the Federal Communications Commission's E-rate program, which subsidizes communications services for schools and libraries across the country.

Earlier in June, a diverse coalition of over 100 organizations from the education sector, technology, and business communities (including the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute and Education Policy Program) sent a letter to the FCC urging the agency to modernize and expand the E-rate program. The letter outlines a series of joint recommendations which include upgrading E-rate to provide schools and libraries not just with Internet connectivity but also sufficient capacity to use new digital learning tools; prioritizing funding to support both high-speed broadband to the premises and ubiquitous Wi-Fi connectivity over other, outdated technologies; incentivizing schools and libraries to purchase connectivity more efficiently; and simplifying the program to streamline the application process.

The letter also urges the FCC to set clear targets for connectivity moving forward, to improve data collection practices and program transparency, and to commit to reviewing E-rate's goals every four years. The proposed reforms would address some of these concerns but not all. Focusing on infrastructure investments is the key to E-rate's ability to meet the goal of providing a gigabit of capacity per 1,000 students by the end of the decade.

While Wi-Fi upgrades are needed so that students, teachers and library patrons can access the Internet on their individual devices, these improvements must be made in conjunction with significant investments in broadband infrastructure that increase overall capacity at their institutions.

[Kehl is a policy analyst; Morris is a senior policy counsel, for the Open Technology Institute at the New America Foundation]

Broadcasters defend radio stations’ free music

Broadcasters are defending radio stations’ ability to play music without paying musicians as Congress looks to update the copyright system. The National Association of Broadcasters released a new study arguing that musicians sell more songs when radio stations play those songs.

"This study highlights clearly the enormous value that radio airplay provides in promoting music and generating music sales," NAB Executive Vice President of Communications Dennis Wharton said. “Local radio remains the premiere platform for exposing new music and generating sales for record labels."

According to the study -- conducted by Nielsen and commissioned by NAB -- increased radio airplay has “an immediate” impact on a song’s sales and drives on-demand streaming of that song. The study noted to a strong correlation between radio airplay and sales, which is even stronger for country, Latin and Top 40 music.

The study also pointed to a previous Nielsen study, which found that 61 percent of people discover new music through AM/FM radio stations. Currently, AM/FM radio stations do not pay musicians to play their songs over the air, a facet of the current copyright system that some lawmakers are determined to change.

Microsoft exec: US hypocritical on privacy abroad

Microsoft’s top lawyer is warning that US government surveillance could open the door for other countries to try to spy on data stored by tech companies in the US.

Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith criticized the US government’s attempts to compel American tech companies to hand over data about foreign users stored abroad. He pointed to a US warrant for information about a person in Europe that was being stored at the company’s data center in Ireland.

“If the data is in the US, it’s subject to the reach of US law,” but if the data is stored in a data center in a foreign country, it is subject to that country’s laws, Smith said. If the US goes after data stored abroad, other countries will be emboldened to pursue data stored in the US, he continued.

“If we want to protect the rights of Americans for data that exists in the US, we has a country need to pursue principles” that are agreed to and applied globally, he said. Rather than “deputizing” tech companies to spy on their users for government surveillance, the US should turn to established legal processes, Smith said.

Senate panel to move on cybersecurity bills

Senate Homeland Security Chairman Tom Carper (D-DE) introduced two cybersecurity bills that will advance to a vote in the panel. The pair of bills should make it easier for government agencies and private companies to share information about hackers and focus federal efforts towards preventing stopping major hacks, Sen Carper said.

“Cybersecurity is one of our nation’s biggest challenges,” he said. “While our work in this area is far from finished, these bills are an important step in our effort to modernize our nation’s cybersecurity programs and help the public and private sectors work together to tackle cyber threats more effectively in the future.”

The National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center Act would codify an existing cybersecurity center run by the Homeland Security Department and make sure that it operators as a sort of clearinghouse for the issue. The Federal Information Security Modernization Act would reshuffle administrative roles and put more focus on stopping data beaches.

AT&T’s merger bid gets warm reception in House

Members of Congress gave a warm reception to AT&T’s $49 billion proposal to buy DirecTV and suggested regulators should let the deal proceed.

Executives from the TV and Internet companies told lawmakers that they need to combine in order to stay competitive with rivals such as Comcast and Verizon, and members from both sides of the aisle seemed to agree.

Rep Hank Johnson (D-GA), the ranking member on the House Judiciary’s Antitrust subcommittee, said “the bulk of the evidence demonstrates that each company primarily serves different markets with different services,” which should protect them from fears about antitrust violations.

“Although the proposed merger represents a concerning trend towards industry consolidation, there is ample evidence that this transaction would create considerable public-interest benefits,” he said. Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) indicated that federal regulators ought to butt out and let the merger move forward.

“It has been demonstrated repeatedly that a free and competitive marketplace yields lower prices, greater innovation, increased investment and better services,” he said. “We should strive to ensure that proposed transactions result in enhanced competitive marketplaces so that the attendant benefits continue to run to consumers.”

AT&T and DirecTV executives faced members of the House and will then head to a follow-up in the Senate later.

Stronger union could be key in AT&T merger

AT&T’s $49 billion plan to buy DirecTV could strengthen the company’s union, a move that is getting Democratic nods of approval on Capitol Hill.

“This transaction presents substantial opportunities for labor standards,” Rep Hank Johnson (D-GA) said in a hearing on the planned merger. “I know everybody doesn’t agree that that is something that is worthy, but I think that is very worthwhile.”

“Given the television industry’s famous reputation for opposing organized labor, this merger would have transformational benefit for thousands of employees in this industry, giving labor a strong foothold in the industry,” added Sen Johnson, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust.

AT&T currently has the largest full-time, private union in the United States with 41,000 members. If regulators allow the phone and Internet company to buy DirecTV, that option would extend to the satellite TV firm's 16,000 employees.

“We have a long history of working with our union members and collective bargaining,” AT&T Chairman Randall Stephenson told lawmakers. “So with DirecTV, you should assume that DirecTV employees will be offered that same option to collectively bargain or not," he said. "That will be their choice.”

AT&T claims merger is about ‘consumer demand’

AT&T and DirecTV executives will make the case to lawmakers that the proposed $49 billion deal to merge the two companies is necessary to stay competitive.

“This transaction is about meeting consumer demand,” AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson told members of the House Judiciary’s Antitrust subcommittee in his prepared testimony. “It’s about providing consumers with the integrated video and broadband Internet services they want, delivered over any type of device, to nearly anywhere in the country.”

AT&T offers phone and Internet service, but its television offerings do not turn a profit and “cannot meet the needs of enough consumers,” Stephenson claimed, noting that the company’s U-verse service operates in less than one-quarter of the country. And even in those markets, AT&T doesn’t have the “scale” to “to forge strong relationships with programmers and compete effectively against the dominant cable companies,” he said.

DirecTV, which has about 20 million TV subscribers in the US but no Internet service, needs the deal in order to keep up with the changing market, the satellite company’s chief executive Michael White added.

“If we want to compete effectively in today’s Internet-driven marketplace, we must adapt,” he claimed in prepared testimony. That means “integrated bundles” of TV and Internet service, like the deals offered by competitors at Comcast and Time Warner Cable, as well as the ability to offer subscribers chances to watch television online with companies like Netflix.

Compromise struck on cellphone unlocking bill

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have reached a bipartisan deal on legislation that would allow people to “unlock” their cellphones when changing providers.

The bill, which is scheduled for consideration, would allow users to take their mobile device from one wireless network to another, and is backed by Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and ranking member Sen Chuck Grassley (R-IA).

“Consumers should be able to use their existing cell phones when they move their service to a new wireless provider,” Sen Leahy said. “Our laws should not prohibit consumers from carrying their cell phones to a new network, and we should promote and protect competition in the wireless marketplace,” he added.

Sen Grassley called the bipartisan compromise “an important step forward in ensuring that there is competition in the industry and in safeguarding options for consumers as they look at new cell phone contracts.” “Empowering people with the freedom to use the carrier of their choice after complying with their original terms of service is the right thing to do,” he said.

Russia calls for Twitter censorship

Russia wants Twitter to block or censor some “extremist” accounts, a top regulator said. The head of the country’s communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, claimed to ask for 12 “extremist” accounts to be deleted or restricted in a meeting with the head of Twitter’s public policy division during the executive’s first official trip to Russia.

“I hope the content of some extremist blogs will be deleted,” Alexander Zharov said, according to the state-owned ITAR-TASS news service. “It concerns not only Russian users. Even if the account has been registered on the territory of Ukraine, this information would be considered extremist as well," he added. "The management of Twitter has heard us, and I hope that these accounts will be deleted in the nearest time.”

Media mega-mergers under the microscope

Megamergers are heading back to Congress with lawmakers set to probe AT&T’s $49 billion bid to buy DirecTV, the second mammoth media deal to come under scrutiny in 2014.

The hearing comes with many lawmakers expressing growing skepticism about the trend toward consolidation following earlier hearings on the proposed Comcast and Time Warner Cable deal. That sentiment could boil over when the AT&T and DirecTV executives come to Washington for a set of double-header hearings in the House and Senate.

“On the one hand you’ve got to look at each of these mergers on their own individual merit but you can’t ignore the broader landscape,” said John Bergmayer, senior staff attorney at the consumer interest group Public Knowledge.

“Yes, you have to just look at the facts of this one but you also have to bear in mind an ever more concentrated communications market,” added Bergmayer, who has been critical of the deal and is slated to testify in the House. Both AT&T and DirecTV say they are missing a crucial component in the suite of services that their subscribers are looking for.

House Republicans: FTC should take the lead on net neutrality

Republicans on a House panel want the country’s antitrust regulators, not its telecom regulators, to take the lead on net neutrality.

During a hearing held by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust Law, Republicans questioned the need for net neutrality regulation from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

“The Internet has flourished precisely because it is a deregulated market” and should be kept open through “vigorous application of the antitrust laws,” House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) said.

“As regulatory proceedings continue to stretch on, a question I have is whether there might be a more efficient and more effective way to safeguard against potential discriminatory behavior than federal rulemaking,” Subcommittee Chairman Spencer Bachus (R-AL) said in his opening statement. “That is where antitrust law comes in.”

He also pushed for evidence that Internet providers are behaving in a way that warrants FCC intervention in the form of net neutrality rules and said the agency should conduct a cost-benefit analysis “before regulating such an important component of our national economy.”

Sens Rubio, Booker want more airwaves for Wi-Fi

Sens Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) want more space in the nation’s airwaves for Wi-Fi Internet.

“In a century defined by drastic and colossal technological advancement, it is hard going even a day without using our cell phones, tablets and other wireless devices,” Sen Rubio said. “But our wireless devices rely on spectrum, a valuable and limited resource.”

To free up space for the devices, the two senators introduced a bill requiring the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to explore opening new chunks of the electromagnetic spectrum for unlicensed use. Wi-Fi routers operate alongside garage door openers and other consumer electronics on those airwaves.

“Not only does access to wireless broadband open the door for innovation and transformative new technologies, it helps bridge the digital divide that leaves too many low-income communities removed from the evolving technology landscape and the growing economic opportunities,” Sen Booker added. The Wi-Fi Innovation Act is the second in a trio of bills Rubio has been touting to tackle the spectrum “crunch,” in which increasing data usage comes up against finite airwave space.

Senate Dems to Obama: Don't wait for us on NSA

A trio of Senate Democrats says President Barack Obama should end contested National Security Agency (NSA) operations immediately, without waiting for Congress.

In a letter, the same day the agency’s legal authority to continue collecting Americans’ phone records comes up for court renewal, Democratic Sens Mark Udall (CO), Ron Wyden (OR) and Martin Heinrich (NM) said that President Obama should use the powers he has now.

“We believe the way to restore Americans’ constitutional rights and their trust in our intelligence community is to immediately end the practice of vacuuming up the phone records of huge numbers of innocent Americans every day and permit the government to obtain only the phone records of people actually connected to terrorism or other nefarious activity,” they wrote.

“More comprehensive congressional action is vital, but the executive branch need not wait for Congress to end the dragnet collection of millions of Americans' phone records for a number of reasons." The Obama Administration will likely ask the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to renew the NSA’s bulk collection of phone records for 90 days.

The Senate is currently debating legislation to end that program and require the government get a court order to search records held by phone companies.

Undermining transparency at the FCC

[Commentary] It can take weeks, and sometimes months, for the Federal Communications Commission to release an order they voted on. Unfortunately, this process is standard operating procedure at the FCC.

The key question is whether the absence of a public text of what the commissioners voted on plus editorial privileges allows for substantive changes in the order or simply fixing typos. Small changes can tilt rules to favor or disadvantage different groups enough to be valuable to someone but not enough to cause an uproar. Such changes should not be possible to make in the shadows.

One simple change to the FCC's rule-making process would address the problem: For final orders, publish the text on which the commissioners will vote before the vote begins. The commission could still grant editorial privileges, but it would then be possible to see what has changed between the vote and the final, published rule.

[Wallsten is vice president for research and senior fellow at the Technology Policy Institute]

Email privacy bill gets a boost

Tech companies and privacy groups are pushing Congress to move ahead with email privacy reform now that a majority of the House supports a bill that would require law enforcement to obtain a warrant before accessing stored emails.

The Email Privacy Act -- from Reps Kevin Yoder (R-KS) and Jared Polis (D-CO) -- got its 218th cosponsor, meaning a majority of the House now supports the bill, which would reform a 1986 law that allows law enforcement officials to access, without a warrant, emails that have been stored more than 180 days.

The companies and privacy groups that have long lobbied for email privacy reform hailed the milestone. Among others, Google and Digital 4th -- a pro-ECPA reform coalition that includes the ACLU, the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Heritage Foundation and Americans for Tax Reform -- hailed the bill and called for Congressional action.

Poll: Most oppose Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger

More than half the country opposes the proposed merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable, according to a new poll by Consumer Reports.

The survey found that 56 percent of the public was against the $45 billion deal, while just 11 percent supported it. Additionally, nearly three-quarters of respondents predicted it would lead to higher cable and Internet prices and would also leave consumers with fewer choices.

“Comcast and Time Warner Cable have consistently scored poorly when it comes to customer satisfaction so it’s no surprise that Americans are skeptical of this proposed deal,” Consumers Union policy counsel Delara Derakhshani said. “Most consumers expect the merger will turn things from bad to worse.”

Lawmakers aim to close the NSA's 'backdoor'

A bipartisan duo in the House is hoping to use a defense funding bill to keep the National Security Agency (NSA) from spying on the Internet. Reps Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) are introducing an amendment to the 2015 Defense Appropriations bill that would keep intelligence agencies from using funds to conduct warrantless and “backdoor” searches of US communications.

The amendment would cut off funding for efforts to build security vulnerabilities, or “backdoors,” into US tech products or services that can be used for surveillance, according to a memo from the lawmakers’ offices. The provision would also prevent agencies from searching communications to or from people in the US without a warrant, according to the memo.

While the authority for those searches is aimed at collecting foreign communications, information about US persons can be swept up if one party is based in the US or if the communication is processed or stored in another country. The defense bill will be considered on the House floor imminently.