The FCC seeks nominations by Aug. 10 for its rechartered diversity committee, now called the Communications Equity and Diversity Council, said a public notice Tuesday. The agency is seeking applications from representatives of the communications industry, state and local regulators, and consumer and community organizations. The FCC is “particularly interested” in representatives from organizations that serve disadvantaged communities, tech entrepreneurship support organizations, and minority-serving institutions such as historically black colleges and universities, among others. Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel encouraged members of the previous iteration to apply for the latest one (see 2106240072). The PN contains a revamped mission statement for the new committee, with differing emphasis from the 2019 chartering of the then-Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment. The 2019 ACDDE’s mission was to provide recommendations on “how to empower disadvantaged communities and accelerate the entry of small businesses, including those owned by women and minorities.” The 2021 entity will make recommendations “on advancing equity in the provision of and access to digital communication services and products for all people of the United States, without discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, or disability.” The new committee will recommend “how to empower people of color and others who have been historically undeserved, including persons who live in rural areas, and persons otherwise adversely affected by persistent poverty or inequality,” to gain access to opportunities from networks and technology. The new charter ends June 29, 2023.
Staff may not use FCC computing resources for any "illegal, unethical, or inappropriate activities, "including accessing "inappropriate material," online gambling, lobbying, campaigning or downloading or distributing illegal copies of copyrighted materials. That's per the information technology and privacy rules of behavior, which we obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request. Staff can't send or post "threatening, harassing, intimidating, abusive, or inappropriate material or message," do official agency business via personal email, or forward non-public data to personal accounts. When teleworking, staffers must protect sensitive data by means including the disposal of sensitive information by shredding or other means, and not download FCC information on personal devices, including downloading FCC attachments outside of OneDrive or SharePoint, per the policy. Under the FCC's essential IT equipment policy, employees "as a standard equipment baseline" get a virtual desktop infrastructure unit and required peripheral equipment such as a monitor, keyboard and mouse. Workers can be issued a smartphone or tablet, with a maximum of one per employee "with few exceptions," though field agents and travelers might be issued both. The commission told us it implemented a "bring your own device" smartphone policy during FY 2017-18, under which employees are permitted to use their personally owned device. Under the BYOD policy, staff, interns and contractors must use the MobileIron Apps@work catalog to download work-related applications.
The final episode of C-SPAN’s The Communicators will run July 31, the network said in an email Friday. “Programs and series run their life cycle and staffing changes, and new priorities are taking us in a different direction,” said a spokesperson. “We currently have no plans for new series, but C-SPAN will certainly bring communications and tech policymakers and media on our Washington Journal when warranted,” emailed C-SPAN Vice President-Affiliate Relations Peter Kiley. The show ran for nearly 800 episodes, beginning in late 2005 with an interview of then-Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., Kiley said. The latest episode of the show was to run Saturday, featuring Steven Feldstein, author of The Rise of Digital Repression. The final episode's guest has yet to be booked, the spokesperson told us.
Verizon and Tracfone want a proposed decision by the California Public Utilities Commission on their combination by Aug. 10, the companies told an aide to CPUC Commissioner Cliff Rechtschaffen in a June 28 videoconference. They noted both companies said the deal would close in Q3 and an August draft would facilitate a CPUC vote in September or October, said a Thursday filing in docket A.20-11-001. Verizon and Tracfone said they tried but failed to negotiate with other parties on commitments. Responding to a claim by the CPUC Public Advocates Office and others, "Verizon clarified that its current three-year commitment to offer LifeLine in California is not conditional on a lack of material changes to the LifeLine program,” but that condition does apply to Verizon's two-year commitment not to add co-pays to existing Tracfone LifeLine plans.
Future of work spending will be nearly $656 billion this year, up 17% over 2020, as technologies including cloud and mobile computing transition the work model toward human-machine collaboration, said IDC Wednesday. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated a shift toward a work environment “un-bounded by time or physical space,” it said. Organizations need to invest in technologies and services that support automation, human-machine collaboration, new organizational structures and leadership styles, dynamic learning opportunities and a reimagined, digital workplace, said analyst Holly Muscolino. The largest area of investment in 2021 will be $228 billion in hardware, for endpoint devices, enterprise hardware, infrastructure as a service, robotics and drones, said the researcher. More than $13 billion will be spent on services, including business, information technology and connectivity, it said. Software, including analytics and AI, will have the fastest spending growth, with a compound annual growth rate of 21% over the 2020-2024 forecast period.
The FCC’s alert reporting system (ARS) is open for the filing of state emergency alert system (EAS) plans, says Thursday’s Federal Register. Electronic submission of state EAS plans using the ARS will be required by July 1, 2022, the FR said.
Video programming distributors are required to make televised emergency information accessible to those with disabilities, said a reminder public notice from the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau Wednesday in docket 12-107. “In 2020, in addition to the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States experienced a record-breaking hurricane season and a series of devastating wildfires,” said the PN. The FCC “will continue to monitor complaints alleging violations of the emergency information rules and will review them for possible enforcement action,” the PN said.
Ronan Dunne, CEO of Verizon Consumer Group, and Tracfone CEO Eduardo Diaz Corona spoke with FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel on Verizon’s proposed buy of the low-cost carrier. “Verizon is firmly committed to TracFone’s Lifeline business and the consumers it serves,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 21-112. The “Transaction is in the public interest, because a combined Verizon and TracFone will better serve existing and potential TracFone customers and inject further competition into the prepaid segment for value-conscious customers,” the companies said: Verizon is “eager to grow TracFone and emerge as a competitive force in the prepaid sector,” with “new, compelling offerings -- for example, 5G devices and services -- at prices that a standalone TracFone cannot offer.” The executives said Tracfone will have lower costs as part of Verizon’s network “allowing it to leverage owner’s economics, just as T-Mobile’s Metro and AT&T’s Cricket do today.” An FCC decision is expected later this year (see 2104050029).
A displacement application from Venture Technologies for its low-power television station KMRZ-LD Los Angeles “is based on an almost unfathomable misunderstanding” of the use of private land mobile radio (PLMR) entities in Los Angeles and “must be denied,” said Enterprise Wireless Alliance in an undocketed informal objection Tuesday. The application says no operating land mobile radio stations are on the channel sought by KMRZ, but EWA said the FCC's universal licensing system database identifies “hundreds of PLMR facilities” authorized to operate on that channel within 130 km of Los Angeles: “The Application is not immediately or, in EWA’s opinion, ever grantable.” Venture didn’t comment.
The FCC should update the rules on protecting TV stations from interference by land mobile systems to reflect the shift to digital television, said the Land Mobile Communications Council in an undocketed petition for rulemaking filed Friday. The rules on those protections are still based on analog broadcasting, the LMCC said. “Updated rules will maximize the interference-free use of this important band by both television stations and land mobile systems, consistent with the more advanced technologies that have been implemented by these licensees.” The shift to digital “warrants a different technical analysis to ensure continued interference-free operation.”