The Department of Transportation said it formed an advisory committee on automation, including the development and deployment of self-driving vehicles. A Wednesday DOT news release said the committee, which will hold its first meeting Monday, will also help the department determine needs involving research, policy and regulations. "This new automation committee will work to advance life-saving innovations while boosting our economy and making our transportation network more fair, reliable, and efficient," said Secretary Anthony Foxx. General Motors CEO Mary Barra and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti will co-chair the 25-member committee. Other members include: Information Technology Industry Council President Dean Garfield; Uber regional general manager Rachel Holt; former Environmental Protection Agency head Lisa Jackson, now Apple vice president-environment, policy and social initiatives; John Krafcik, CEO of Google's Waymo; Amazon Senior Corporate Counsel-Aviation Gerry Murphy; and former US Airways pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, who's now CEO of Safety Reliability Methods.

New USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter said regulatory clarity and parity are key to spurring broadband deployment that connects everyone and everything. "Translating the Internet of Things into the Infrastructure of Things will take smart policy and even smarter public-private collaboration at all levels of government," he wrote in a Morning Consult commentary Wednesday. Spalter said clarity is needed for broadband providers that invested more in infrastructure, $1.5 trillion, than any other sector over the past two decades while being subjected to "Washington whiplash" -- "heady" talk of broadband importance mixed with "increasingly regressive policy decisions" undermining investment. "We need to reverse this troubling trend by establishing policies that encourage investment in new and better broadband," he wrote. He also backed a level playing field. "Telecommunications companies alone remain shackled to stale regulatory structures written in the rotary phone era or, at best, when the honk and screech of dial-up internet was the siren call of the future. These companies should be free to compete head-on with their cable and other rivals -- free from dated, discriminatory rules," he wrote. Spalter said the country must remain committed to a "connected nation" of people and things. "A new Administration and Congress present an opportune moment to take a fresh look at how we build for the future," he wrote. "Many believe a major push on infrastructure holds out the greatest hope for meaningful, bipartisan progress. It is essential that this push include broadband."

President-elect Donald Trump publicly acknowledged he now believes the Russian government orchestrated the hacking of IT systems of the Democratic National Committee and the campaign of former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. U.S. intelligence agencies said Friday Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the hacks of Democratic and Republican campaigns (see 1701060060). Trump earlier criticized the intelligence agencies’ assessment (see 1701050062). "I think it was Russia,” Trump said during a Wednesday news conference. “I think we also get hacked by other countries and other people.” Trump suggested the focus on the hacks was disproportionate with previous cyber incidents, citing the reaction to the Office of Personnel Management data breaches revealed in 2015. “When we lost 22 million names and everything else that was hacked recently, they didn’t make a big deal out of that,” Trump said. “That was something that was extraordinary. That was probably China. We had much hacking going on.” In fact, the hack made headlines nationwide then. Trump also said the DNC’s cybersecurity practices were “totally open to be hacked." Senate Intelligence Committee Republicans this week pointed to a possible disparity between the relative vulnerability of DNC and Republican National Committee servers to cyberattacks. Senate Intelligence Democrats disputed those assertions (see 1701100076). Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson said during his confirmation hearing Wednesday he would need to examine existing and proposed additional sanctions against Russia aimed at responding to the hacks before deciding how to act. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., criticized Tillerson’s answer, saying on the Senate floor that to “duck the question and refuse to commit to continuing these sanctions is tantamount to sweeping international laws under the rug.” Secretary of Homeland Security nominee John Kelly said during his confirmation hearing Tuesday (see 1701100081) he accepted the intelligence agencies’ report on the Russia hacks “with high confidence.” Kelly told the Senate Homeland Security Committee he's still reviewing a Department of Homeland Security-backed proposal to reorganize the department’s National Protection and Programs Directorate as the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection Agency. Kelly said he backs “evolving” DHS’ authorities to allow a faster response to cyberthreats.

FCC staff released a "digital inclusion plan" to follow up on its Lifeline overhaul and other changes to USF telecom subsidy programs. The Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau offered "strategies and recommendations" to ensure "that the reforms of the last several years -- the establishment of the Connect America Fund, rate-of-return reform, E-rate modernization, and this year’s Lifeline modernization -- are fully realized," said the plan it issued Wednesday. The bureau said the FCC could support "Lifeline aggregation projects," take steps to make the purchase of ISP services "simpler and more transparent," consider using the educational broadband service to provide service to underserved areas, and seek to identify legislation that might promote digital inclusion opportunities. "This plan marks another step in the Commission’s efforts to better understand non-price barriers to digital inclusion and to facilitate existing and forthcoming efforts addressing them," the plan said. It "seeks to promote and highlight digital inclusion initiatives generally and those that leverage the modernized Lifeline program to bring broadband access to more Americans." The plan also "explores how the Bureau can engage consumer groups, community groups, philanthropic organizations, local governments, and corporations to increase broadband adoption and digital literacy among those who remain offline."

Apple advised the FCC against adopting a requirement that all service providers implement a standardized opt-out menu for wireless emergency alerts, in replies to the FCC in docket 15-91. Commissioners approved revised rules for alerts in September, over a partial dissent by Commissioner Mike O’Rielly, and sought comment on additional rule changes (see 1609290060). Instead of mandating what the opt-out menu will look like, the FCC should “allow the best consumer experience based on different companies’ hardware, operating systems, and user interfaces,” Apple said. The maker of the iPhone also said the FCC shouldn’t rely solely on third-party applications to implement additional alerting functionality. The National Weather Service said geotargeting of alerts isn’t accurate enough and must be improved. “The NWS supports the public safety agencies who overwhelmingly agree on the need for device-assisted geo-targeting that matches the geocode, circle, or polygon defined by the alert,” the agency replied. The NWS also reminded the FCC it repeatedly has urged a requirement that carriers include an interactive map showing the recipient’s location relative to the alert originator’s defined threat area. A coalition of groups representing the deaf and hard of hearing said alerts should be made available in American Sign Language (ASL). “For many individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, deafblind, and deaf with mobility issues, there simply is no adequate substitute for ASL,” the coalition said. “Contrary to popular public perception, ASL is not derived from English, nor any spoken language. Instead, it is an independent linguistic system with morphological and grammatical complexity comparable to or exceeding that of spoken languages.” Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, the National Association of the Deaf, Deaf and Hard of Hearing Consumer Advocacy Network and Association of Late-Deafened Adults were among those who signed the comments. Wireless carriers urged the FCC to proceed with caution. The “proposed improvements” are “premature in many instances and unworkable in others,” AT&T wrote. “Imposing upon the voluntary WEA participants a set of requirements that they cannot satisfy can only cause the Participating Cellular Mobile Service Providers to reexamine the nature of their commitment to the system.”

An expected Republican rollback of telecom regulation and further industry consolidation are among factors Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts see influencing the communications sector in 2017. The rollback of the FCC net neutrality and broadband reclassification order "would be positive for all telecom and cable fixed and wireless broadband providers including AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Charter, Sprint, T-Mobile, CenturyLink, Frontier, Windstream and Cincinnati Bell," they wrote investors Tuesday. But they said the biggest factor affecting industry valuations was "the rate at which the market believes video is migrating to broadband (OTT) and specifically to mobile broadband." Another significant factor is "the interplay of fiscal forces on interest rates, taxes and the dollar," they said, suggesting AT&T "is poised to be among the biggest beneficiaries of corporate tax reform." The analysts said Commissioner Ajit Pai is likely to become acting chairman and "at a minimum refuse to enforce rules he opposes and possibly go further and officially forbear from all aspects of Title 2 price and other regulation of broadband." Some sort of bipartisan compromise could be attempted to codify net neutrality principles, "but to what degree they ban services like 'paid prioritization,' 'zero rating' and other related services remains a very open question with positive optionality for carriers," they wrote. In the incentive auction, the analysts said the most they expect industry to bid collectively is $20 billion, with cable, and particularly Comcast, the biggest swing factor. They believe AT&T buying Time Warner will likely win approval. But "the market is vastly over-reacting" to the prospect of a Sprint/T-Mobile materializing, though odds of regulatory approval under the Republicans would be better than they were under the Democrats, they wrote: And 5G fixed wireless broadband is coming, with Verizon having the most aggressive deployment schedule.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology's long-anticipated draft "Version 1.1" (v1.1) update to the Cybersecurity Framework, released at our deadline Tuesday, includes a new section on developing effective cybersecurity metrics. NIST has been considering potential updates to its existing 2014 framework in response to comments last year from stakeholders who encouraged the agency not to pursue a major revamp of the document (see 1602240065). NIST's framework “can be used as the basis for comprehensive measurement” of the efficacy of cyber risk management practices, the draft said. The framework's implementation tiers and categories are themselves metrics, NIST said. Any metrics on cyber risk management “should be designed with business requirements and operating expense in mind,” the agency said. “The expense of a measurement system may increase as the accuracy of measurement increases. To mitigate undue cost to the organization, the accuracy and expense of a system need only match the required measurement accuracy of the corresponding business objective.” NIST included the metrics section in the draft “to get the conversation started,” said Framework Program Manager Matthew Barrett in a news release. “Measurements will be critical to ensure that cybersecurity receives proper consideration in a larger enterprise risk management discussion.” V 1.1 also includes additional information on managing cyber supply chain risks and clarifications of framework terms. NIST said it's collecting stakeholder feedback on the v1.1 draft through April 10.

The Stage 4 forward auction is expected to start Jan. 18, the Incentive Auction Task Force said Wednesday in an announcement on the incentive auction Public Reporting System. The Stage 4 reverse auction is expected to end Friday, and the IATF will announce the official start of the forward auction and bidding schedule on Jan. 17, but bidders should be ready to begin bidding Jan. 18, the IATF said.

Eliminating a requirement that broadcasters keep a hard copy correspondence file will be the focus of the first FCC commissioners' meeting after the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, according to a release Tuesday on the tentative agenda for the Jan. 31 meeting. Current Chairman Tom Wheeler indicated he will resign Jan. 20, meaning an interim chair, expected to be Commissioner Ajit Pai, likely will conduct the meeting. The so-far sole agenda item is based on a May NPRM that was unanimously supported by all five commissioners and was inspired by Commissioner Mike O'Rielly, Wheeler said then (see 1605250054). The requirement that broadcasters keep a publicly accessible hard copy file in their station is a security risk, O'Rielly said. Along with eliminating the broadcast rule, the NPRM also proposed a similar requirement for cable headend information. Since the NPRM was issued, the proposal to eliminate the hard copy file was the focus of a heated exchange of filings (see 1611180060) between NAB and public interest groups Free Press and the National Hispanic Media Coalition. The public interest groups said eliminating the hard file disadvantages those without access to broadband, and NAB said in support of the proposal that the public rarely if ever requests such files.

Comments are due March 10 at NTIA on proposed broadband information collection, said a notice in Monday's Federal Register, pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act. "NTIA proposes to add 58 questions to the U.S. Census Bureau's November 2017 Current Population Survey (CPS) to gather reliable data on broadband (also known as high-speed Internet) use by U.S. households through the Computer and Internet Use Supplement," said the notice. NTIA said it's working with Congress, the FCC, other agencies, state and local governments and the private sector to develop and promote policies fostering broadband deployment and adoption. "Collecting current, systematic, and comprehensive information on broadband use and non-use by U.S. households is critical to enabling policymakers to gauge progress made to date, and also to identify specific areas and demographic groups in which broadband adoption is a concern with a specificity that permits carefully targeted and cost-effective responses," the notice said. The agency also released a blog post about the survey.