Promoting broadband adoption is critical to promoting equality for groups that have been disfavored, FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and FCC Broadband Coordinator Blair Levin said Friday at the Minority Media & Telecom Council’s Broadband and Social Justice Summit. Clyburn also stressed the importance to these groups of maintaining the low barriers to entry that the open Internet offers. Clyburn said the challenge is “last half-mile” -- the distance from those without broadband to the physical infrastructure right outside their doors. The Internet can worsen inequality, Levin said. He said adoption can been spurred by a social infrastructure that “weaves our investments in digital access into the fabric of our communities,” including libraries and community centers; “social innovation” like online credit counseling or grant programs to “micro entrepreneurs;” and “social purpose media” -- high-quality government and private content, Levin said. What has happened with U.S. minority media ownership shouldn’t happen to the Internet, Clyburn said, advocating open Internet rules to empower communities of color. There has been no discussion of the importance for under-represented groups to maintain the low barriers to entry that the Internet has provided, she said. “I believe in smart regulation,” Clyburn said. That’s why the commission has started a process that will account for reasonable network management, she said. Clyburn endorsed imposing strong rules that don’t cede control of the “most significant communications advancement.” With an open Internet, “we have the chance to lower the bar,” she said. CEO Andrew Schwartzman of the Media Access Project said Clyburn understands that transferring old media ownership models to the Internet, and increasing gatekeepers’ control over it, would reduce its benefits in free expression civil rights.

Promoting broadband adoption is critical to promoting equality for groups that have been disfavored, FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and FCC Broadband Coordinator Blair Levin said Friday at the Minority Media & Telecom Council’s Broadband and Social Justice Summit. Clyburn also stressed the importance to these groups of maintaining the low barriers to entry that the open Internet offers.

To more efficiently respond to technology convergence, the FCC needs written policies on inter-bureau coordination, GAO said in a report released Tuesday. GAO also urged improvements to the commission’s public notice and ex parte processes, and said the FCC must polish its strategy for recruiting experts to the agency. The FCC mostly concurred with GAO’s recommendations, saying it “had begun action in each of these areas even before the GAO prepared its draft report.” In statements, House Commerce Committee Ranking Member Joe Barton of Texas renewed his call for legislation, while Democratic members praised initial reform efforts by Chairman Julius Genachowski.

The three judges who heard Fox. v. FCC oral arguments expressed varying degrees of skepticism that the agency can effectively or constitutionally find unscripted curse words indecent under certain circumstances. Judges Rosemary Pooler and Pierre Leval asked the most questions and appeared the most skeptical on the three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Appeals Court in New York. Judge Peter Hall homed in on the commission’s exception to its fleeting indecency policy for news.

The FCC could get a new member, replacing longtime Commissioner Michael Copps, as soon as summer, industry and commission sources told us. Copps’ term expires in June and he could serve until January 2013 without confirmation to an additional term. But most indications are the Obama administration is eager to put its mark on the commission. Copps took office in May 2001. He declined to be interviewed for this article.

Cablevision won an FCC waiver to become the first cable operator allowed to encrypt basic cable channels. The company and supporters have said the action will reduce pollution by allowing the company to turn service on and off without sending technicians to homes (CED Oct 26 p6). The CEA and Public Knowledge had some qualms about the ruling, made by the Media Bureau and released Friday. The order requires Cablevision to make good on its promise to give CableCARDs or set-top boxes without charge to subscribers who don’t have either.

Cablevision won an FCC waiver to become the first cable operator allowed to encrypt basic-cable channels. The company and supporters have said the action will reduce pollution by allowing the cable operator to turn service on and off without sending technicians to homes (CD Oct 26 p3). The CEA and Public Knowledge had some qualms about the ruling, made by the Media Bureau and released Friday. The order requires Cablevision to make good on its promise to give CableCARDs or set-top boxes without charge to subscribers who don’t have either.

The three appeals judges who heard FCC v. Comcast expressed skepticism that the commission had ancillary authority to find the company had violated net neutrality principles in blocking peer-to-peer file transfers (CD Aug 4/08 p1). Judges at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit pressed FCC General Counsel Austin Schlick Friday to cite a statute that gave the regulator direct authority over an ISP’s network management. Comcast’s lawyer was challenged to show how the company was harmed by the commission’s order against it, since no fine was imposed.

The three appeals judges who heard FCC v. Comcast expressed skepticism that the commission had ancillary authority to find the company had violated net neutrality principles in blocking peer-to-peer file transfers (WID Aug 4/08 p1). Judges at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit pressed FCC General Counsel Austin Schlick Friday to cite a statute that gave the regulator direct authority over an ISP’s network management. Comcast’s lawyer was challenged to show how the company was harmed by the commission’s order against it, since no fine was imposed.

An appeals court decided last week to hear oral argument Jan. 13 on an indecency case remanded from the Supreme Court (CD April 29 p2), a participant in the case said. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York will hear arguments of 22 minutes for each side in Fox v. FCC, said President Andrew Schwartzman of the Media Access Project.