Any FCC broadband privacy rules should be consistent with the FTC approach, which is “flexible” and “time-tested,” said seven communications industry groups as a related rulemaking looms. The FTC framework is “grounded in prohibiting unfairness and deception” and protects consumer privacy while accommodating innovative models in a dynamic market, said the American Cable Association, Competitive Carriers Association, CTA, CTIA, Internet Commerce Coalition, NCTA and USTelecom, which sent a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler Thursday. Three weeks ago, consumer-oriented groups urged the FCC to start a broadband privacy rulemaking, in what observers said was a likely prelude to one (see 1601190077). The FCC could consider a broadband privacy Further NPRM at its March 31 meeting, informed sources told us Thursday.
An FCC draft cable set-top box NPRM "fully respects" content copyright interests, General Counsel Jonathan Sallet said Wednesday at an Incompas conference. The draft, which the agency is to consider Feb. 18, is intended to encourage competition and give consumers more choice in the cable set-top retail market, he said, lauding the vision and principles of the 1996 Telecom Act. Meanwhile this week, filings on lobbying for and against the NPRM were posted in docket 15-64 (see here and 1602100036).
The FCC's Democratic majority renewed its support for extending Lifeline USF subsidies to broadband service to low-income consumers as part of a broader restructuring of the program. Opening a meeting of the agency's Consumer Advisory Committee, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler also continued to push for fomenting more competition in the cable set-top box market and continued to count down to the March 29 incentive auction. "We are 54 days away from the world's first incentive auction, not that anybody is keeping track," he quipped.
Repeated complaints by small and independent programmers and public, education and governmental (PEG) programmers about access and carriage issues resulted in the notice of inquiry to be considered by commissioners at their February meeting (see 1601280069), Commissioner Mignon Clyburn told us Friday. "For a number of years, I've heard from independent programmers who basically said, 'I've got this content, I've got these concepts [but] I can't get my phone call answered, I can't get my content to market, I'm dying on the vine because I don't seem to have a distribution outlet.'"
Skirmishing over the FCC’s broad special access review began Wednesday, though many hadn’t yet filed comments in a rulemaking after the deadline was pushed back until Thursday due to the recent blizzard in Washington. In comments and releases shared with us, Sprint and some allies said the FCC needs to act to counter incumbent telco business broadband market dominance and practices. But USTelecom said 2013 industry data would show competition already was robust, and it had only strengthened since then, blunting the need for new regulation.
The FCC is moving forward with a rulemaking process based on the work of the Downloadable Security Technology Advisory Committee (DSTAC) even as pay-TV, content and consumer electronics companies announced (see 1601270023) the formation of a group opposing such a plan. The proposals are contained in an NPRM that FCC officials said will be circulated to eighth-floor offices Thursday and voted on at the FCC's Feb. 18 meeting. Communications Daily had first reported that the NPRM was coming (see 1512150072). Proponents framed it as injecting much-needed competition into the pay-TV device market, while cable and other incumbents criticized it.
The FCC is expected to proceed with its monthly meeting Thursday, assuming the government reopens in time after its closure due to Winter Storm Jonas, a knowledgeable source told us Tuesday. The Office of Personnel Management as of late Tuesday hadn't announced the status of government offices for Wednesday. The FCC is to vote on a broadband deployment report pursuant to Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act, an order to require cable and satellite TV operators and broadcast and satellite radio companies to post public inspection files on the agency's online database, and a rulemaking notice on strengthening the emergency alert system. The broadband report is expected to say advanced telecom capabilities aren't being deployed in a timely and reasonable fashion under Section 706 (see 1601070059). The agency's two Republican commissioners appear likely to dissent from the report, the knowledgeable source said. Meanwhile, the FCC appears unlikely to address rural rate-of-return USF reforms at its Feb. 18 meeting (the tentative agenda for that is due out Thursday) but seems more likely to act on that issue at its March 31 meeting, an industry source told us. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn also recently said the agency planned to address Lifeline USF reform this quarter (see 1601210031). Spokespeople for the commission and Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Ajit Pai had no immediate comment.
USTelecom said it's starting a campaign to urge the FCC to consider the "enormous growth and investment" in the business marketplace as it conducts its special access review. "Newly released 2013 data collected by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) show a multitude of providers -- cable, fiber and fixed wireless -- compete for business customers in a thriving marketplace," a release said. Competition is working and prices are declining for backhaul and other special access services, USTelecom said. "A major game-changer is entry of the nation’s major cable operators, which are using their large network footprints to serve multiple business locations," the group said. "New competition from cable and other providers isn’t captured in the FCC’s 2013 data, which at best provides a snapshot of a single point in time. In just the last two years -- 2014 and 2015 -- cable business service units have invested an estimated $6 billion in capital, while competitive fiber providers an estimated $9 billion." It urged the FCC to recognize the marketplace changes and modernize its policies. Comments in the FCC's broad special access rulemaking were due Friday but haven't been posted yet because the agency is closed due to Winter Storm Jonas.
Cable is capable of providing broadband service to 77.1 percent of business customers, and probably more, in five Verizon markets, said a consultant hired by the telco. “Cable companies are now a ‘disruptive wild card’ in the marketplace," said Verizon in a filing posted Friday in FCC docket 05-25 on special access, which included a sworn declaration from Arthur Menko, president of Business Planning Inc. Menko said he studied cable business broadband offerings and capabilities in “core-based statistical areas” of the greater Albany (New York), Boston, Philadelphia, Virginia Beach and Washington, D.C., markets. “If a cable company is both DOCSIS 3.0-enabled and is providing voice service to a business customer in a Census Block, I used that as a proxy to demonstrate that business customers have access to business broadband services from that cable provider throughout the Census Block,” Menko said. He called his approach "conservative" because it didn't necessarily pick up areas where cable companies provide data-only services to business customers. Initial comments informed by industry data collected in the FCC’s special access rulemaking are due by Friday.
A group of some 40 public interest groups is sending a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler asking the commission to begin a privacy rulemaking. Industry observers said Tuesday that the letter is likely a prelude to an expected FCC NPRM on privacy (see 1601110065).