USTelecom and Incompas jointly asked the FCC to allow parties to make public aggregated data derived from industry filings in the agency's special access business broadband rulemaking, which the commission has prohibited as confidential or highly confidential information subject to a protective order. USTelecom and some ILECs previously made such requests (see 1602230057 and 1601290053), but Incompas represents CLECs and wireless critics of the ILECs, giving the telco request broader backing. In a filing posted Monday in docket 05-25, USTelecom and Incompas want parties to be able to include in their public comments and filings “numerical, statistical, and graphical descriptions of data aggregated at the national level, including the presence of providers and their facilities,” with data allowed to be aggregated for industry segments such as ILECs, CLECs and cable, but not for single providers such as Level 3. They also asked that parties be able to make public such data aggregated at a regional level and for metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), states, or urban, suburban or rural areas, without identifying the particular MSAs, states, or areas. They asked that the data descriptions be allowed "at the national, regional, anonymized MSA or other anonymized location or circuit level concerning the adequacy and completeness of the data.” They provided examples for each of the categories listed, but said the list wasn't meant to be exhaustive and asked the FCC to confirm there may be other categories of nonconfidential aggregated data that could be filed in the public record. They also said the category lists were included only to clarify the requests, not to mean that either group was expressing a view as to their “relevance or probative value.” USTelecom further asked that the commission encourage all parties to review the redactions in their comments or filings "to remove any improper redactions of non-confidential information, consistent with the categories on the list (as those categories may be revised and approved by the FCC), and to resubmit those comments and filings into the public record" to inform the debate. The FCC had no comment.
Public interest and consumer groups pressed the FCC to move forward on a privacy rulemaking, which the agency is expected to do at its March 31 meeting (see 1603030066). The letter slams a “consensus” proposal offered last week by major associations representing ISPs (see 1603010069).
The FCC appears likely to cast a wide net in proposed ISP privacy rules, said Mark Brennan, telecom lawyer at Hogan Lovells, during an FCBA panel Thursday evening after remarks by Wireline Bureau Chief Matthew DelNero. DelNero offered a preliminary glimpse of the rules, which are expected to get a vote at the FCC’s March 31 meeting (see 1603030066).
Public Knowledge's complaint against Comcast's Stream TV streaming video service and data caps is no surprise, even though other companies have their own zero-rating products that have raised red flags, legal experts said in Thursday interviews. Comcast is a far more obvious target than T-Mobile's Binge On, "which can build a case we need to engage in zero rating in order to compete against the big dogs," Boston College Law School associate professor Daniel Lyons said. Stream TV's being "an obvious net neutrality violation ... makes it an obvious target," said Barbara van Schewick, director of Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society.
That the “video ecosystem” continues to evolve in ways that have changed the role of the “traditional cable DVR for consumers” means TiVo also “will need to evolve,” interim CEO Naveen Chopra said on a Tuesday earnings call. TiVo has no plans to scrap the consumer business, but does see itself “redirecting some of our investments,” said Chopra, who is doubling in his normal role as chief financial officer until a permanent replacement for CEO Tom Rogers is found.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler faced many questions about his set-top box proposal during Wednesday's Senate Commerce Committee oversight hearing. Both committee leaders questioned the merits. But there was little rancor at the two-and-a-half-hour hearing, with much attention devoted to spectrum policy and relatively little to the agency’s net neutrality order.
With a rulemaking imminent, major industry trade associations submitted to the FCC a consensus proposal on ISP privacy rules Tuesday. Meanwhile, FTC Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen said the FCC would be better off leaving ISP privacy to her agency, which has expertise in the area, rather than approving its own set of rules. Ohlhausen spoke Tuesday on an Information Technology and Innovation Foundation panel.
The FCC voted 3-2 Thursday to launch a rulemaking (see 1602160072) seeking comment on numerous changes to set-top box rules intended to make it easier for third parties to build and sell retail set tops that can access pay-TV content. Commissioners Ajit Pai and Mike O’Rielly as expected (see 1601280066) opposed the proposal, which they said was “slanted” and an unnecessary regulatory intrusion. “I’m confident that most consumers would rather eliminate the set-top box altogether,” Pai said.
The FCC is well positioned to write privacy rules to protect broadband consumers, Public Knowledge and allies said Wednesday. Broadband providers are collecting huge amounts of information, leaving consumers, in effect, “sitting naked in a glass house,” said PK Senior Vice President Harold Feld at a news conference hosted by the group and New America’s Open Technology Institute (OTI), joined by members of the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) and the Alarm Industry Communications Committee. The FCC may consider a broadband privacy NPRM at its March 31 meeting, informed sources have told us.
Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., compared the FCC's coming Thursday set-top box NPRM vote to the recent net neutrality fights, lauding the agency in both instances. “This is gonna be a debate that is fairly identical to the debate we had over net neutrality,” Markey said Wednesday. “Many of the same arguments are going to be made. But the truth is, it is technologically possible to effectuate this revolution.”