A NARUC draft resolution backing reseller participation in the Lifeline program advanced at the state regulators' winter meeting. The consumer committee Sunday endorsed the draft to urge the FCC to continue to allow non-facilities-based Lifeline providers to continue to receive low-income telecom subsidies. Chairman Maida Coleman, a Missouri commissioner who sponsored the draft, told us Monday the action was unanimous. The panel didn't support a conflicting draft resolution that would welcome an FCC proposal to retarget Lifeline support to facilities-based providers but did endorse a nationwide number portability draft resolution, one of four telecom drafts being considered at the meeting (see 1801300023).
President Donald Trump’s infrastructure legislative proposal included its expected focus on streamlining the federal environmental permitting process, including for small-cells deployments, along with state block grants and federal matching funds (see 1801220035, 1802090050 and 1802110001). Communications sector officials and lobbyists bemoaned lack of a dedicated broadband funding allocation in the proposal, released Monday. They told us they are in the beginning phase of negotiations with the White House and Capitol Hill. The White House also released its FY 2019 budget plan, which seeks to zero out public broadcaster federal funding. The FCC's budget would also fall (see 1802120037).
Industry is backing Commissioner Mike O’Rielly's January blog post to relax kids' video rules (see 1801260031) as public interest advocates are mobilizing against the perceived threat, officials on all sides told us last week. O’Rielly Tuesday said he believes the FCC will act in 2018. Others aren't so sure. The FCC and Chairman Ajit Pai’s office haven’t commented.
SES' signing onto the joint Intelsat/Intel plan for clearing portions of the C-band downlink spectrum for sharing with terrestrial mobile operations (see 1710020047) greatly increases the likelihood of that proposal moving forward at the FCC, satellite industry insiders told us. Citing a "duty and mission" to protect satellite C-band operations from disruption, SES CEO Karim Sabbagh said Friday the aim is to "ensure that the expansion of the C-band ecosystem in the U.S. will protect the interests of hundreds of established services and millions of American end-users, while at the same time paving the way for the creation of next-generation 5G terrestrial services.”
Lawmakers and communications sector lobbyists are watching closely for any final clues about President Donald Trump's long-anticipated infrastructure legislative proposal, before expected Monday release. Several told us they would gauge the proposal's viability based on what funding the proposal allocates directly for broadband projects. Trump's glancing mention of infrastructure plans during his January State of the Union speech, and particularly omission of broadband, left many industry officials disappointed and surprised. Some predicted it was a bad omen for their push to strengthen a broadband title in coming legislation (see 1801310071).
State regulators face competing Lifeline draft resolutions at NARUC's winter meeting on an FCC proposal to target low-income USF subsidies to facilities-based providers (see 1801300023 and 1801300023). A draft resolution to urge the FCC to continue allowing resellers to receive Lifeline funding appears to have more support than a draft that welcomed the proposed shift, some told us Friday, though compromise or postponement of consideration is always possible. Competing Lifeline draft resolutions were pulled from the last meeting (see 1711130035). At the winter meeting, which was to begin Sunday and run through Wednesday, NARUC is also to consider draft telecom resolutions on nationwide number portability and pole-attachment overlashing.
With the deadline for compliance with the EU general data protection regulation looming, many companies are still far from ready, business organizations we spoke with said. The GDPR takes effect May 25. Despite the seriousness of noncompliance, preparations are uneven, with U.S. tech companies and global digital enterprises further along than smaller businesses, industry representatives said. Lacking is final guidance from the EU Article 29 Data Protection Working Party (WP29), which said Wednesday its last set of guidelines should be completed in coming weeks.
The Arizona Corporation Commission plans to vote next month on an ethics code, said Commissioner Boyd Dunn, spearheading the effort. At a webcast workshop Thursday, Dunn and other commissioners discussed proposed modifications to a draft that would create an ethics officer and clarify rules on conflicts of interest and financial disclosure (see 1801020017). Dunn believes commissioners will be able to agree on most provisions "because they make absolute common sense."
The FCC is still trying to figure out what role it will play in cybersecurity, but that could be limited for the most part to helping other agencies that have clearer oversight, Chief Technology Officer Eric Burger told an FCBA lunch audience Thursday. Burger said network security and reliability and robocalls were areas he highlighted when Chairman Ajit Pai interviewed him for the job. Early in his chairmanship, Pai rescinded two cybersecurity items issued under former Chairman Tom Wheeler -- a white paper on communications sector cybersecurity regulation and a notice of inquiry on cybersecurity for 5G devices (see 1702060059) -- and has steered the Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council away from its former focus on the topic.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act system is broken for ISPs, and fixes aren't readily evident, said panelists at an FCBA CLE Wednesday. ISPs' safe harbor protections under DMCA are to balance their interests with those of copyright holders, but there are increasing strains on that cooperation since ISPs aren't thrilled about shutting off customers, and copyright holders often feel ISPs are using that argument to hide from their responsibilities, said cable ISP lawyer Seth Davidson of Mintz Levin. ISPs also aren't enthusiastic about demands they pass along to their subscribers copyright infringement settlement offers, he said.