There's "strong urgency" to boost trans-Atlantic cooperation on issues such as AI, Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Calif., told a DigitalEurope webinar Thursday. The two regions share a growing set of challenges on such issues as privacy, AI and content moderation, and they should look to how the other side is handling them, because rapidly developing technology needs guardrails and there's fierce competition from ideological rivals, he said. Identify where they differ to develop the right set of rules, said McNerney, who chairs the Artificial Intelligence Caucus. Panelists agreed interest is growing at higher levels in finding common ground.
A federal judge peppered New York with questions on how the state’s law requiring $15 monthly low-income plans squares with the FCC 2018 net neutrality order. Judge Denis Hurley asked no questions of the ISPs challenging the policy at a teleconferenced oral argument Thursday in U.S. District Court for Eastern New York. Meanwhile, large telcos are seeking DSL exemptions from the law at the Public Service Commission.
As the C-band phase 1 transition moves into filtering for MVPD earth stations, we're told filter supplies are expected to be more than sufficient. Intelsat and SES have largely cleared the band's lower 120 MHz, they told an ACA Connects webinar Thursday. Tom McNamara, Intelsat vice president-C-band transition management, said the satellite operator's completing that clearing last weekend was "a big milestone."
Amazon Sidewalk goes live Tuesday, automatically enabling a feature on its hardware devices that will share a small slice of consumers’ Wi-Fi bandwidth with neighbors, unless they opt out. This raises privacy and competitive concerns, experts told us.
AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon agreed to start providing vertical-location information where available on all calls to 911 nationwide within seven days, to implement compliance plans, and to each pay a $100,000 fine, the FCC said Thursday. Public safety groups applauded the action. The agency's two Republican members were upset over process and technological issues.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology should tread lightly defining “critical software” and avoid disincentivizing innovation, officials from Microsoft, Linux, BSA|The Software Alliance and cloud providers told NIST Wednesday. President Joe Biden’s cybersecurity executive order directs NIST to publish a definition by June 26 (see 2105240072).
ISPs protested a NARUC task force’s focus on electric utilities expanding into broadband. Utility officials at the group’s virtual meeting Wednesday applauded a proposed recommendation to reduce barriers to nontraditional providers. Don’t forget wireless or anchor institutions, said other commenters.
Experts said Wednesday final details of broadband language in an infrastructure spending package will be crucial in determining whether it improves connectivity access and affordability. President Joe Biden plans to continue talks Friday with Senate Public Works Committee ranking member Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia amid what’s widely seen as the final week for talks with Senate Republicans aimed at reaching a deal (see 2106010068). Republicans continue to propose $65 billion for broadband as part of their counteroffer (see 2105270072), a figure the White House offers to back.
ISPs’ lawsuit against New York’s broadband affordability law raises similar preemption issues to cases industry lost in other venues, but law experts disagreed in interviews which side would win. Plaintiffs at U.S. District Court for Eastern New York (case 21-cv-2389) make the same arguments that failed in Maine ISP privacy and California net neutrality cases, which are “structurally almost identical” to the New York case, argued Stanford Law School professor Barbara van Schewick. Former FCC General Counsel Thomas Johnson countered that 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals case law gives ISP plaintiffs an “additional arrow in their quiver.”
Congress should enact federal privacy legislation that would give internet users the right to access and delete personal information, FTC acting Chairwoman Rebecca Kelly Slaughter wrote in a recent letter to Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. An aide for Klobuchar, who supports access and deletion rights, said Tuesday the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee chair will continue pushing for such legislation.