With Verizon partway through its massive copper-to-fiber transition, state consumer advocates are urging the carrier ensure no customers are left behind. The Communications Workers of America wants the same. The latest policy jockeying relates to the wireline IP transition.
Charter Communications may have escaped New York state’s boot after agreeing to expand broadband to 145,000 homes and businesses entirely in unserved and underserved areas of upstate by Sept. 30, 2021, and spend another $12 million on additional broadband deployment. Friday’s submission of the proposed settlement to the Public Service Commission tees up a 60-day comment period. The PSC votes this summer.
The FCC is under increasing pressure to open more mid-band spectrum as 5G deployments start. Most agree none will be available before next year and the auction of the licensed tier of the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band. The other two main bands in focus at the FCC, 2.5 GHz and the C band, are expected to be opened after the 3.5 GHz auction. Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks are leading the effort.
The Indiana Supreme Court’s top justice appeared to bristle Thursday at Indiana’s view that individuals may not refuse to unlock their phones for law enforcement. “If we say that a citizen can be compelled to unlock their cellphone just based on a warrant … what’s left of the Fifth Amendment?” asked Chief Justice Loretta Rush at oral argument livestreamed Thursday in Katelin Seo v. Indiana (18S-CR-00595). She and other justices wrestled with how to apply analog precedents to a digital age.
T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T dodged Sen. Ron Wyden’s request for specifics on customer location data incidents in April 5 letters to the Oregon Democrat obtained by us Thursday. Instead, companies cited the life-saving benefits of sharing data with police and specific examples of customer rescues in emergencies. Verizon and T-Mobile also described generally how companies report location data breaches to the FBI and Secret Service through the FCC.
Washington state’s controversial privacy bill is most likely dead for this session after the House missed a Wednesday deadline to vote it out of the chamber. “Without some extraordinary effort the bill will not be considered further by the WA legislature, until next year,” though no bill is truly dead until the legislature adjourns sine die April 28, wrote House Innovation, Technology and Economic Development Committee Chairman Zack Hudgins (D) in an email update Thursday. Consumer privacy advocates cheered demise of the bill that was backed by Microsoft and other tech companies.
The FCC’s draft order on FM translator interference would create a 45 dBu contour limit for interference complaints, establish a minimum number of such complaints based on population served, and allow translators to move channels with a minor change application, according to the version released Thursday. The FCC also posted the China Mobile and other items also set for a vote at the May 9 open meeting.
Social media companies are boosting their artificial intelligence systems to identify harmful online content, but that alone won't solve the problem, they and others said. Twitter has suspended thousands of accounts under its violent extremist groups policy, most of which were flagged by its proprietary tools, it told us. Facebook is "scrutinizing how to employ AI more effectively," Public Policy Director Neil Potts told the House Judiciary Committee April 9. Google has "invested heavily" in automated flagging technology, said Global Human Rights and Free Expression Counsel Alexandria Walden at the hearing. But AI can't replace "nuanced human review," said DigitalEurope Director-General Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl, a member of the European Commission High-Level Expert Group on AI.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., shrugged off EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager’s suggestion that Warren’s proposal to break up big tech is “far-reaching” (see 1903180058). “It would give competition a better chance to flourish, and that’s what competition law should be all about,” Warren told us.
With a federal decision on T-Mobile/Sprint likely close, the deal's fate is anything but certain. T-Mobile/Sprint also must pass state review, which some analysts see as a potential sticking point. Both stocks were down Wednesday after The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that DOJ staffers told the two companies the deal's unlikely to be approved as structured (see 1904160036). T-Mobile closed at $72.46, down 2.2 percent; Sprint at $5.64, down 6.16 percent. Analysts said the transaction's still alive, even if it’s in trouble.