FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's office has been signaling that the most likely date for a vote on revised net neutrality rules is the Dec. 14 commissioners' meeting, though it could come as early as Nov. 16, industry and government officials said Thursday. One big advantage for Pai of a later vote is that his confirmation could face an easier time on the Senate floor if the order is still pending, the officials said. The number of comments in docket 17-108 stood at almost 21.9 million at our deadline Thursday.
Wireless industry officials welcomed FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s outreach to the tribes on siting issues Tuesday. But industry officials also said they fear that without FCC action little progress will be made in curbing what they see as roadblocks to building small cells and other infrastructure on tribal lands. Pai didn’t release a statement about the meeting in Flagstaff, Arizona, but tweeted about it Tuesday, complete with photos from the closed-door meeting. “Excellent exchanges with tribal leaders, from Nez Perce to Pueblo,” Pai tweeted. “Thanks to Navajo Nation Pres. @RussellBegaye for hosting consultation!”
Commenters formed battle lines on an FCC proposal to undo its Title II regime regulating broadband providers as common carriers. Net neutrality advocates called for preserving the 2015 order that reclassified broadband as a Communications Act Title II telecom service and instituted open internet rules. Telco and cable ISPs and others urged the commission to return broadband to a Title I information service and ease regulation. Many made highly detailed filings and a few offered more mixed views in initial comments due Monday.
The FCC voted 2-1 along party lines to approve a business data service order that will substantially expand price deregulation for incumbent telcos and rely on existing and potential competition to discipline providers. The order finds price regulation inappropriate for packet-based BDS offerings with data speeds above 45 Mbps because competition is widespread; and it creates a competitive market test to determine the counties where additional ILEC legacy TDM-based special-access services (DS1, DS3s) can be deregulated, and the counties where they would remain subject to price caps, said an agency release Thursday.
An FCC draft wireline infrastructure rulemaking notice got more support than opposition heading into a scheduled vote Thursday, despite language proposing to roll back technology transition copper-retirement rules and streamline the process for discontinuing telecom services, which include safeguards backed by telco competitors (see 1704060046). In final lobbying before Sunshine Act restrictions took effect April 13, Verizon welcomed the agency's efforts to boost fiber deployment, and Google Fiber and the American Cable Association (ACA) voiced support while suggesting some tweaks to an NPRM section on pole attachments.
Rollback of the FCC’s ISP broadband privacy rules is “rapid implementation” of a “no-cops-on-the-beat approach,” which will continue to be the case until the common carrier exemption is lifted, said FTC Commissioner Terrell McSweeny at a Monday event hosted by New America’s Open Technology Institute and Public Knowledge. Congressional Republicans who voted for the law killing the FCC privacy rules, meanwhile, came under fire at town halls held during the congressional two-week recess. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., wants to ensure through legislation the FTC still has authority to act and is introducing the Managing Your Data Against Telecom Abuses Act, also known as the My Data Act.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's efforts to take on net neutrality could start with an NPRM in a few months, we're told. Approving new rules could take as long as a year, current and former commission officials said Friday. Pai and staff have started talking to industry representatives about the process of taking on net neutrality and repeal of broadband classification as a Communications Act Title II service. A staff team within the FCC has been working on an NPRM, agency officials and others said Friday. The goal apparently is to seek a vote by the June 15 commissioners’ meeting, since Commissioner Mignon Clyburn’s term expires June 30, they said.
An FCC draft rulemaking would seek to roll back ILEC technology transition duties in retiring copper networks and simplify the process for discontinuing telecom services under Section 214 of the Communications Act. The draft NPRM, which would also tee up potential actions to facilitate pole attachments, proposes "to remove regulatory barriers to infrastructure investment at the federal, state, and local level; suggests changes to speed the transition from copper networks and legacy services to next-generation networks and services; and proposes to reform Commission regulations that increase costs and slow broadband deployment."
Surveillance experts testifying at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendments Act said they support reauthorization of FISA, which targets foreign people who may pose a national security threat. But Elizabeth Goitein, co-director-liberty and national security program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, said major changes are needed, especially on incidental collection of possibly millions of electronic communications of Americans during surveillance. The section sunsets at year's end.
Boomerang Wireless asked the FCC to delay revoking its Lifeline broadband status until the agency or state regulators act on its long-pending petitions to become a USF-eligible telecom carrier (ETC) in numerous states. Boomerang said de-enrolling 17,538 affected Lifeline subscribers under the Wireline Bureau's Feb. 3 Lifeline broadband provider revocation order would be disruptive despite a 60-day transition given the company to migrate the customers to rivals. Some other providers criticized the FCC decision to revoke the LBP designations of nine companies, including Boomerang, pending further review (see 1702030070).