Consumer Watchdog wants Uber to divulge more details about its plan to test self-driving vehicles in Pittsburgh (see 1608180059), including whether it will agree not to sell collected data and whether it has used adequate cybersecurity. In a Wednesday letter to Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, John Simpson, the consumer group's privacy project director, said the ride-hailing service needs to be "completely transparent" when it tests modified autonomous Volvos, which will have safety drivers behind the wheel to take control if needed, in the next few weeks. The group asked 10 questions, including whether Uber would "agree not to store, market, sell, or transfer the data gathered by the self-driving car robot car, or utilize it for any purpose other than navigating the vehicle?" And whether the company has technology to prevent hackers from taking control of the cars or any of its systems? Several other questions dealt with safety, such as if Uber will publish data from crashes or other "anomalous situations." Simpson said the company should publicly report all crashes involving test vehicles, release technical data and videos of crashes, issue monthly testing reports with miles traveled by the "cars in self-driving robot mode," and release "disengagement reports" detailing when and why human drivers needed to intervene. Uber didn't comment.

With fully autonomous vehicles only a “few years” away from mass production, “regulators, business leaders and consumers should embrace this revolution, not fear it,” CTA President Gary Shapiro said in a Monday opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal. For self-driving car technology “to truly gain speed,” carmakers “need to be able to test their cars on all kinds of roads in various conditions,” Shapiro said. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is drafting operational guidelines on self-driving cars (see 1608250049), Shapiro said. “In the absence of federal guidance, state regulatory policies run the gamut. ... Instead of squashing experiments in the states, federal regulators ought to defer, allowing controlled markets like those in California and Michigan to grow. What happens there now will make its way into fully autonomous cars for the rest of us later.” Shapiro emailed us Tuesday to emphasize that "my point" in the opinion piece "was that states need some leeway to experiment and compete in the early stages" of autonomous-car development, not that federal regulators should bow out of any involvement. In fact, Shapiro thinks "there is a huge federal role" to be played in autonomous cars, he said, and even called on President Barack Obama in a December op-ed piece to convene a government-industry advisory committee on driverless cars modeled after an effort in the 1980s during the Reagan administration that helped jump-start the transition to digital TV.

Big telcos clashed with competitors and a state consumer advocate over how to regulate fixed interconnected VoIP services in Iowa, in comments in docket RMU-2015-0002 Thursday at the Iowa Utilities Board, following up on oral argument last month where one IUB member wrestled aloud with the question of jurisdiction (see 1608090021). AT&T and Verizon supported complete deregulation of fixed interconnected VoIP, but T-Mobile and Windstream said the board should maintain regulation at least for wholesale VoIP services. The Office of Consumer Advocate and the Iowa Communications Alliance said the board should continue regulation for all interconnected VoIP services. FCC indecision on VoIP classification shouldn’t be read as an interpretation that fixed VoIP is a telecommunications service, Verizon commented. Regulation of fixed VoIP services, it said, “would undeniably result in discriminatory treatment of the subset of VoIP services offered by companies actually investing in deploying broadband facilities in Iowa … dissuading the sort of growth and investment the Board should instead strive to encourage.” VoIP is already an information service, AT&T said. “Mere deregulation of the service simply preserves the status quo and leaves it improperly classified as a ‘telecommunications service,’ far short of what the Board must do to bring its rules into conformity with federal law.” Windstream urged the IUB to deregulate retail but not wholesale VoIP, expressly retaining jurisdiction over customer complaints and intercarrier disputes including interconnection and switched access issues. Regulation is still needed for wholesale, T-Mobile commented. "ILEC networks remain the only way for competitive carriers to indirectly exchange traffic with many networks within Iowa. As a result, the largest ILECs continue to have market power in the wholesale market that, absent a regulatory backstop, could empower them to dictate unreasonable terms for traffic exchange and interconnection that would harm competition if exchange of IP-enabled traffic between carriers is outside the scope of the Board’s jurisdiction." But the Office of Consumer Advocate said state law requires the board to regulate all “communications services,” and the legislature never excluded VoIP from the definition. "The Board may not use the device of promulgating rules to change or add to the law," the office said. If companies seek deregulation, they should file a petition under Iowa’s statutory process for deregulation, it said. The Iowa Communications Alliance, an association of community-based telcos, said the FCC never preempted state regulation of VoIP. Since most LECs use VoIP to deliver landline, deregulating VoIP could remove board jurisdiction over most voice calls, it said. "The Board must regulate essential communications services based on core public interests, not based on the technology used to deliver the service,” it said. “Suggestions that the Board should single out VoIP services for deregulation -- or that the Board should single out VoIP services for regulation only on the wholesale level -- are inconsistent with Iowa law and ignore the Board’s important public interest functions.”

California CLECs shouldn’t be fined for service or facility issues of an unaffiliated underlying carrier, said the California Association of Competitive Telecommunications Companies (CalTel). The CLEC association filed a petition, dated Aug. 30 and posted Tuesday, to modify a Public Utilities Commission August service quality order (see 1608180060). Starting Jan. 1, the order requires phone companies to face automatic daily fines of up to $25,000 for failure to meet service quality measures. But CalTel said CLECs should be fined only “if the failure was primarily due to the CLEC’s action or inaction.” The CPUC decision’s “determination that CLECs have contractual recourse against underlying facilities-based carriers that caused the CLEC to fail to meet a service quality measure and be subject to fines is both legally and factually incorrect,” it said.

Google Fiber urged Nashville residents to support “One Touch Make Ready” pole attachments policy under consideration by the city council. The ordinance would speed the rollout of fiber broadband in the city, the company said in a blog post Thursday. The Nashville Metro Council plans to vote on the ordinance Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. CDT at the Metro Courthouse. The meeting will be live-streamed. “We have -- like many of you -- been disheartened by the incredibly slow progress,” Google Fiber Director-National Deployment and Operations Chris Levendos wrote on the blog. He blamed delays on the current make-ready process for pole attachments, in which each existing provider on the pole sends out a separate crew to move its line to make room for a new one. “This may have worked a generation ago when there were only one or two attachers, but it’s extremely time consuming -- not to mention disruptive to residents of Nashville -- to do this with the numerous attachers we have today.” More than half of the 88,000 poles Google needs require make ready work, but only 33 so far are ready to go, said Levendos. The proposed one-touch ordinance would allow the work to be performed in a single visit by a crew approved by the pole owner, he said. “However, some existing providers disagree, and would prefer to keep the current system.” Incumbent telco AT&T recently accused Google of seeking favoritism from governments after running into obstacles deploying fiber (see 1608300057).

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission should allow Windstream objections to Verizon's planned buy of XO Communications, Windstream said in a filing Thursday in docket A-2016-2535279. Verizon and XO had asked to strike the objections because they were filed after the PUC April 25 deadline (see 1608170034). “The Joint Applicants mischaracterize Windstream's Amicus Brief as a protest or intervention, concocting a claim that the brief is in violation of the Commission order regarding those procedures,” Windstream said. Windstream didn’t violate the applicants’ due process rights because its filing was not factual testimony, it said. “Windstream's arguments are, for the most part, legal arguments in connection with which Windstream is not required to submit evidence.” Pennsylvania and New York are the last two state approvals needed by Verizon and XO for their $1.88 billion deal (see 1608250058).

His term is ending, but California Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D) said others may resurrect his California Public Utilities Commission overhaul proposals. In a statement Friday, Gatto said he has “been approached by like-minded reformers with resources to place a more comprehensive set of reforms on the ballot.” State legislators failed to pass Gatto’s CPUC reform bill (AB-2903) before the legislative deadline, punting on a review of how the state regulates telecom among other proposals (see 1609010058). The bill was part of a four-bill compromise package negotiated by Gatto, two state senators and Gov. Jerry Brown (D), but only two of the bills survived the deadline. “My office continues to hear scuttlebutt as to who banded together to kill the landmark CPUC reforms,” Gatto said. “The breach of the reform agreement and the manner in which it was thwarted has only re-confirmed the need for genuine regulatory reform in California.” A Gatto spokesman clarified that the “like-minded reformers” are legislators and nonelected officials. The measures could be moved without legislative action, he said, because under the state’s rules, “one can bypass the legislature by placing an initiative on the ballot.”

The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission delayed mandatory 10-digit dialing in central Indiana’s 317 area code to Oct. 15 from the original Sept. 17 date, it said in an order Wednesday. The Electronic Security Association asked for more time because some alarm companies are behind in preparations to make the switch, the commission said. The commission is overlaying a new area code, 463, for the existing area, because 317 numbers are projected to run out by year-end, it said.

States, the FCC and industry plan extensive outreach​ to reduce consumer confusion about changes to Lifeline that will allow the USF program for low-income people to get broadband and not just phone service, officials said on a Wednesday webinar staged by the National Regulatory Research Institute, the research arm of NARUC. "We think it's very important that we help in getting the word out … because there will be a lot of confusion," said Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable Commissioner Karen Charles Peterson. Lifeline tops the department’s list for planned outreach efforts, and the state government hopes the low-income program will play a big role in a state effort to increase broadband adoption, she said. The FCC plans to make copious amounts of information available through its website and other outreach venues, said Wireline Bureau Telecommunications Access Policy Division Chief Ryan Palmer. TracFone plans targeted communications to customers rather than a broad and generalized approach, said the company’s Corporate Counsel Stephen Athanson. AT&T sees potential for customer confusion because it will take some time for states to sync their programs with the federal program, said Executive Director-Public Policy Beth Fujimoto. She said the company supports a USTelecom reconsideration request pending at the FCC, including deferring the effective date of the streamlined eligibility criteria to give states more time to make necessary changes (see 1608090023). States won’t find a uniform method to implement the order, said Peterson. "Each state is unique and they're going to have to address it in their own way." The commissioner said one concern of states is what happens to consumers’ ability to call 911 if they're moved from voice to broadband plans. She said the issue is “hard to explain to the average citizen.” Massachusetts plans to work with consumers, industry and the FCC “to make sure a consumer doesn’t have to pick” between voice and broadband, she said.

With the California legislative session racing to a finish, Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed into law a bill aimed at improving call routing of wireless emergency calls. AB-1564 requires commercial mobile radio service providers to provide free access to local 911 service and route calls through the Department of the California Highway Patrol unless an alternate route meets certain requirements. It requires state and local government agencies to determine the most efficient routing of wireless 911 calls, with a statewide review and routing decision-making process to be completed annually. Other bills waiting to be signed include SB-1137, to define ransomware as a form of extortion; SB-745, which requires the California Public Utilities Commission to prioritize unserved housing developments and other changes to grant programs provided by the California Advanced Services Fund; and SB-215 and AB-2168, two parts of a proposed CPUC overhaul (see 1608110007). With a midnight legislative deadline having loomed Wednesday, the legislature was considering several other telecom and CPUC revamp measures. Tuesday, the Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee unanimously concurred with Senate amendments to AB-2570, requiring the CPUC adopt a portability freeze rule for the state LifeLine program by Jan. 15, and SB-62, creating a new safety advocate office at the CPUC.