The FCC's upcoming quadrennial review of its broadcast ownership rules will be greatly complicated by the ongoing incentive auction and is unlikely to be resolved under the current commission, broadcast attorneys told us. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler repeatedly has said and the FCC told a federal appeals court that a draft quadrennial review order will be on circulation by June 30, but that date almost certainly will fall in the midst of the incentive auction, broadcast and public interest attorneys told us. That means at the time of circulation, neither the FCC nor the broadcast industry itself will know what broadcast stations in what markets will be staying in business, or how diverse the remaining owners will be, the attorneys told us. “The auction is a black hole,” Fletcher Heald broadcast attorney Frank Montero said. “It's going to be extremely difficult to come out with reasoned policy,” he said.
Three former federal employees who support stronger data and device encryption said Tuesday the debate over the issue is changing as several former intelligence and homeland security officials have come out in favor of end-to-end encryption. At a panel co-sponsored by the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) and New America's Open Technology Institute, Venable attorney Ari Schwartz said former CIA Director Michael Hayden and former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff are on the side of stronger encryption, and the intelligence community is no longer "as adamant" about having back or front doors to encrypted information. "They don't see it as essential" in doing their work, he said.
The FCC's backlog of public comments could complicate policymaking, especially in more technical proceedings, industry and public interest lawyers said in interviews Friday. A day earlier, a spokeswoman said that the agency has 74,000 backlogged comments, after more than 200,000 in the past four weeks were filed to its Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS). Part of the problem has been the huge volume of filings in the set-top box and ISP privacy proceedings, the spokeswoman said. The FCC is completing a long-standing overhaul of its system, which should be in place this summer, she said. Lawyers and others periodically have complained about ECFS and other FCC IT problems over recent years (see 1401150030), and at times the comment system doesn't fully work.
The FCC's backlog of public comments could complicate policymaking, especially in more technical proceedings, industry and public interest lawyers said in interviews Friday. A day earlier, a spokeswoman said that the agency has 74,000 backlogged comments, after more than 200,000 in the past four weeks were filed to its Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS). Part of the problem has been the huge volume of filings in the set-top box and ISP privacy proceedings, the spokeswoman said. The FCC is completing a long-standing overhaul of its system, which should be in place this summer, she said. Lawyers and others periodically have complained about ECFS and other FCC IT problems over recent years (see 1401150030), and at times the comment system doesn't fully work.
Charter Communications will pay a $640,000 settlement and set up a three-year compliance plan that widens the variety of third-party cable modems it accepts on its network, the FCC Media Bureau said in an order and consent decree Tuesday. The order follows a bureau investigation of Charter that it said sprung from Zoom Telephonics' petition to deny FCC approval of Charter's buying of Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable, with the cable modem maker alleging Charter infringed on the rights of subscribers to use non-harmful third-party cable modems (see 1510130054). The bureau said its investigation found that from 2012 to 2014, Charter told subscribers that they no longer could attach customer-owned modems and then provided a list of authorized third-party modems that required testing for issues not relating to network harm or theft of service. Under the order, Charter also is revising its cable modem testing regime so compliance testing will take no more than three weeks. Also, it is required under the order to appoint a senior corporate manager as compliance officer for implementing the compliance plan. Under the order, Charter can reject only certain cable modems, such as those that don't support DOCSIS 3.0 or higher. In a statement Wednesday, Charter said it is "pleased to be able to continue to give our customers the choice to use a modem provided by Charter for free or purchase an approved third party modem." "Zoom is pleased with much of the Commission’s action, including its requirement for much faster certification testing for cable modems and appropriate limits on tests," Zoom counsel Andrew Schwartzman said in an email to us Wednesday. "This is a major victory, and we hope other cable service providers will act consistent with the clear wishes of the FCC." Around the time the Charter settlement was released, the FCC also issued the text of the commissioners' order approving Charter/TWC/BHN (see 1605100050).
Charter Communications will pay a $640,000 settlement and set up a three-year compliance plan that widens the variety of third-party cable modems it accepts on its network, the FCC Media Bureau said in an order and consent decree Tuesday. The order follows a bureau investigation of Charter that it said sprung from Zoom Telephonics' petition to deny FCC approval of Charter's buying of Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable, with the cable modem maker alleging Charter infringed on the rights of subscribers to use non-harmful third-party cable modems (see 1510130054). The bureau said its investigation found that from 2012 to 2014, Charter told subscribers that they no longer could attach customer-owned modems and then provided a list of authorized third-party modems that required testing for issues not relating to network harm or theft of service. Under the order, Charter also is revising its cable modem testing regime so compliance testing will take no more than three weeks. Also, it is required under the order to appoint a senior corporate manager as compliance officer for implementing the compliance plan. Under the order, Charter can reject only certain cable modems, such as those that don't support DOCSIS 3.0 or higher. In a statement Wednesday, Charter said it is "pleased to be able to continue to give our customers the choice to use a modem provided by Charter for free or purchase an approved third party modem." "Zoom is pleased with much of the Commission’s action, including its requirement for much faster certification testing for cable modems and appropriate limits on tests," Zoom counsel Andrew Schwartzman said in an email to us Wednesday. "This is a major victory, and we hope other cable service providers will act consistent with the clear wishes of the FCC." Around the time the Charter settlement was released, the FCC also issued the text of the commissioners' order approving Charter/TWC/BHN (see 1605100050).
Charter Communications will pay a $640,000 settlement and set up a three-year compliance plan that widens the variety of third-party cable modems it accepts on its network, the FCC Media Bureau said in an order and consent decree Tuesday. The order follows a bureau investigation of Charter that it said sprung from Zoom Telephonics' petition to deny FCC approval of Charter's buying of Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable, with the cable modem maker alleging Charter infringed on the rights of subscribers to use non-harmful third-party cable modems (see 1510130054). The bureau said its investigation found that from 2012 to 2014, Charter told subscribers that they no longer could attach customer-owned modems and then provided a list of authorized third-party modems that required testing for issues not relating to network harm or theft of service. Under the order, Charter also is revising its cable modem testing regime so compliance testing will take no more than three weeks. Also, it is required under the order to appoint a senior corporate manager as compliance officer for implementing the compliance plan. Under the order, Charter can reject only certain cable modems, such as those that don't support DOCSIS 3.0 or higher. In a statement Wednesday, Charter said it is "pleased to be able to continue to give our customers the choice to use a modem provided by Charter for free or purchase an approved third party modem." "Zoom is pleased with much of the Commission’s action, including its requirement for much faster certification testing for cable modems and appropriate limits on tests," Zoom counsel Andrew Schwartzman said in an email to us Wednesday. "This is a major victory, and we hope other cable service providers will act consistent with the clear wishes of the FCC." Around the time the Charter settlement was released, the FCC also issued the text of the commissioners' order approving Charter/TWC/BHN (see 1605100050).
An FCC rulemaking notice that would remove the last physical vestiges of the broadcaster public file as well as a requirement for cable carriers to keep on hand the location of their control centers (see 1605050060 and 1605040066) is expected to get little pushback, broadcast attorneys and cable industry officials told us. Though most aspects of the public file are online, broadcasters still have to keep physical copies of public correspondence in a physical public inspection file, and cable carriers must do the same for the addresses of their network control centers, under current FCC rules. Broadcasters and cable carriers said the requirement to make physical documents available to the public compromises their security.
An FCC rulemaking notice that would remove the last physical vestiges of the broadcaster public file as well as a requirement for cable carriers to keep on hand the location of their control centers (see 1605050060 and 1605040066) is expected to get little pushback, broadcast attorneys and cable industry officials told us. Though most aspects of the public file are online, broadcasters still have to keep physical copies of public correspondence in a physical public inspection file, and cable carriers must do the same for the addresses of their network control centers, under current FCC rules. Broadcasters and cable carriers said the requirement to make physical documents available to the public compromises their security.
The FCC may have bolstered a forthcoming media ownership draft order and chances of not further angering three appellate judges by issuing a study that found a possible linkage between Hispanic ownership of TV stations and local programming, public interest lawyers told us Friday. The study, which was a long time in the making and was revealed Thursday, was mentioned April 19 at oral argument in broadcaster and public interest group challenges to media ownership rules at the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Judges were skeptical of FCC delays in acting on media ownership and diversity after two previous losses for the commission in related cases before the 3rd Circuit (see 1604190041). Now, a peer review by FCC Wireline Bureau economist/industrial organization expert Octavian Carare of the study will be completed by Thursday, interviews and agency documents show. Then, the agency will accept public comments, it said in a news release.