Citing the need to modernize the FCC's high cost USF programs and align them with recent federal broadband investments through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, commissioners on Thursday unanimously adopted an NPRM seeking comment on an Alternative Connect America Cost Model (ACAM) Broadband Coalition proposal extending the program. The proposal would increase deployment obligations in exchange for additional funding, and seeks comment on whether to extend participation to carriers that haven't already been participating in the program.
Country of origin cases
Google’s incognito mode misleads users into thinking their web search and activity history isn’t recorded, said Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) in an amended complaint Thursday at Texas District Court in Victory County (case 22-01-88230-D). Paxton added that claim to his original suit claiming Google violates the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act by tracking users’ locations even if they disabled location tracking (see 2201240028). “Google claims to give users control and to respect their choice but in reality, regardless of the settings users select, the Big Tech giant is still hard at work collecting and monetizing the location and other personal information that users seek to keep private,” said Paxton. The Texas AG's case is "based on inaccurate claims and outdated assertions about our settings," said a Google spokesperson. "We have always built privacy features into our products and provided robust controls for location data. We strongly dispute these claims and will vigorously defend ourselves to set the record straight.”
The FTC voted 5-0 Wednesday approving two regulatory measures on children’s privacy and online influencer endorsements. Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya, who was sworn in this week (see 2205160058), cast his first votes at the agency.
State telecom industry groups seek to stop LTD Broadband from receiving promised Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) funding in Minnesota and South Dakota. The efforts to deny eligible telecom carrier (ETC) status to the company are the latest in a growing number of state hurdles LTD faces as it tries to secure funding it preliminarily won from FCC auction. Some said the situation shows state ETC designation review’s value, but former Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said the process isn’t working.
A report and order updating telecom service priority (TSP), wireless priority service (WPS) and government emergency telecommunications service (GETS) rules is expected to be approved by FCC commissioners Thursday with minimal changes from the draft circulated by Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel (see 2204280059), FCC and industry officials said. No group or company reported meetings at the FCC to discuss the item since it was circulated. The order casts the changes as needed “to account for changes in technology.” It notes the current rules date to the establishment of the TSP system in 1988 and WPS in 2000. There are no current commission rules for GETS, which operates via contractual arrangements with the Department of Homeland Security. “These rules were originally developed when communications networks were primarily based on circuit-switched technologies,” the draft says: “As such, the rules do not address the advanced capabilities of next-generation communications technologies that support data and voice services, or the ability of users at different priority levels to share network capacity and resources.” The FCC sought comment in 2020 (see 2007160045) and, in response, Verizon and T-Mobile urged light-touch regulation (see 2011190036). The agency should “continue affording wireless providers sufficient flexibility to voluntarily offer WPS services that are negotiated with the government for public safety users through private contract,” CTIA said.
A draft FCC order that would impose certain requirements on gateway providers would help efforts to curb illegal robocalls originating abroad and is likely to be unanimously adopted during commissioners' Thursday meeting, industry executives told us (see 2204280059). Some providers sought clarifying language in the draft, saying it would streamline efforts and further disrupt bad actors. Several said a requirement for a Stir/Shaken C-level attestation would be too costly.
World Trade Organization ratification of a third Information Technology Agreement “would bring many important emerging technologies driving the global digital economy under ITA coverage” and would “further bridge the digital divide,” said more than three dozen global tech trade associations, including CTA, the Computer & Communications Industry Association, CompTIA, the Semiconductor Industry Association and the Telecommunications Industry Association. The first two ITAs “increased employment, made innovative tech products more affordable to consumers,” and “bridged communities across the globe in ways unimagined when the original agreement was launched 25 years ago,” they said. “Another round of ITA product expansion, coupled with expansion of the geographic scope of the agreement, would yield immediate and sweeping benefits,” they said. No new technologies have been added to the agreement since its second iteration, which passed in 2015, they said: "We therefore call on ITA members to support launching another ambitious new round of negotiations to further expand this critically important agreement and carry forward the robust momentum produced by the original ITA and its 2015 expansion."
Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., is hoping for a Wednesday vote on confirmation of Alvaro Bedoya to the FTC (see 2205050050), she told us Tuesday. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., filed cloture on the nomination Monday, and it will ripen Wednesday. “I would hope” for a vote Wednesday, Cantwell said. “I think everybody’s here. I think everybody’s back in town. Every day, you just don’t know what’s going to happen.” The Bedoya vote has been delayed for weeks due to repeated COVID-19-related absences in the Democratic caucus. Schumer originally filed cloture in April before withdrawing the motion.
Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., filed the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Modernization Act Tuesday in a bid to update the 2010 Calm Act's bar on excessively loud TV ads. The FCC Media Bureau sought comment last year in docket 21-181 on whether the FCC needs to update its existing Calm Act implementation rules at Eshoo's behest (see 2104200001). The Calm Modernization Act would extend the 2010 law's excessively loud ad bar to streaming services and would strengthen the FCC's ability to investigate and enforce violations. The measure would require a study analyzing the existing law's effectiveness in moderating ad loudness. Since the original law's enactment "streaming services have recreated the problem of loud ads because the old law doesn’t apply to them, and consumers continue to complain about loud ads on broadcast, cable, and satellite TV," Eshoo said. "Today, we’re updating the legislation for the benefit of consumers who are tired of diving for the mute button at every commercial break." Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Calif., and Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., signed as co-sponsors. Eshoo's office cited support from Consumer Reports.
Some bristled at a Louisiana legislator proposing changes to a sweeping privacy bill on the Friday before a Monday legislative hearing. The House Commerce Committee cleared HB-987 by voice with Microsoft-backed amendments. Committee members from both parties listed issues they want addressed as the bill moves to the floor.