Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

Outgoing FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler warned against attempts to "gut" the agency, including by moving core telecom oversight functions to the FTC. He also defended the commission's actions on net neutrality, broadband reclassification, privacy, zero rating, the incentive auction, USF changes and other issues. He was interviewed on C-SPAN's The Communicators (scheduled to air Saturday and Monday and posted here), the latest in a series of exit interviews and farewell appearances (see 1701190069 and 1701130064) before Donald Trump's inauguration as president on Friday, Wheeler's last day at the agency.

FCC staff approved video relay service interoperability and portability standards for services, equipment and software. Acting on delegated authority, the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau also issued a Further NPRM seeking comment on the scope of the application of a technical standard for user equipment and software, said the item in docket 10-51 listed in Wednesday's Daily Digest. Sorenson Communications, the largest VRS provider, criticized the action. Previous interoperability and portability requirements were intended to allow VRS users to make and receive calls through any provider without changing access technologies, and to ensure users can make point-to-point calls to all other VRS users, regardless of the default providers, the item said. In an August FNPRM, the bureau proposed adopting the technical standards of both a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Forum task force and the successor Relay User Equipment (RUE) Forum (see 1608050031). The order this week incorporated the SIP interoperability standard into FCC rules, effective 120 days after publication in the Federal Register, as requested by VRS providers. It said consumer groups supported incorporating the RUE standard into the rules but providers said imposing it on all hardware and software would impose major costs. The bureau said it incorporated the RUE standard "on a limited basis that preserves providers’ flexibility to continue offering user equipment and software that does not conform to the RUE Profile in all respects, pending further determinations in this proceeding." It set a compliance date of one year after FR publication and teed up related questions in the new FNPRM. "The Bureau went far beyond what was necessary and has adopted what providers all told them were unneeded and costly requirements without any cost/benefit analysis," emailed Sorenson Chief Marketing Officer Paul Kershisnik. "The industry is already implementing interoperability standards, and has developed a more cost-effective means of ensuring consumers can move their contacts from one provider to another. We will be urging the Commission to review and correct these midnight regulations." Consumer advocates and Republican Commissioners Ajit Pai and Michael O'Rielly didn't comment.

Regulatory oversight is a critical part of reducing cyber risk on telecom networks, the FCC Public Safety Bureau said Wednesday. “As the end-to-end Internet user experience continues to expand and diversify, the Commission's ability to reduce cyber risk for individuals and businesses will continue to be taxed,” the bureau said in a white paper. “But shifting this risk oversight responsibility to a non-regulatory body would not be good policy. It would be resource intensive and ultimately drive dramatic federal costs and still most certainly fail to address the risk for over 30,000 communications service providers and their vendor base.” The FCC can’t rely on organic market incentives alone to reduce cyber risk, it said. “As private actors, ISPs operate in economic environments that pressure against investments that do not directly contribute to profit. Protective actions taken by one ISP can be undermined by the failure of other ISPs to take similar actions. This weakens the incentive of all ISPs to invest in such protections. Cyber-accountability therefore requires a combination of market-based incentives and appropriate regulatory oversight where the market does not, or cannot, do the job effectively.” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, who steps down Friday, mailed the cybersecurity white paper to Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va. “This whitepaper outlines risk reduction activity engaged in by the Commission during my tenure and suggests actions that would continue to affirmatively reduce cyber risk in a manner that benefits from and incents further competition, protects consumers, and addresses significant national security vulnerabilities,” Wheeler wrote. Earlier, Wheeler was seen as backing off more ambitious cybersecurity plans (see 1611300063).

A defiant Tom Wheeler defended the policies developed under his chairmanship Friday and said the newly reconstituted FCC may find it difficult to quickly undo the net neutrality order and reclassification of broadband under Title II of the Communications Act. Wheeler, who leaves office Jan. 20, spoke at the Aspen Institute in what he had said will be his last major speech while chairman. Some industry officials have questioned the impact of a major policy address by a departing chairman (see 1701120062).

It will take roughly two years, until Q4 2019, for the FCC's new home at Sentinel Square III at 45 L St. NE to be constructed, an official connected with the project told us. Former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt keeps a swatch of the carpet that lines the agency's current Portals headquarters in his office as a memento of his involvement in that building's interior design, and it could be an interim chair or the commission's next permanent chair who will oversee the design of the work spaces in the new building.

California may rule next month that cable companies don’t have the right to attach wireless equipment to utility poles. A proposed decision released Monday by the California Public Utilities Commission would deny a petition by the California Cable & Telecommunications Association (CCTA) to extend right-of-way rules of commercial mobile radio services to wireless pole attachments by cable companies (see 1607210030). Also at the CPUC, opponents to Google’s acquisition of Webpass’ CLEC license in California withdrew their objections, allowing the transaction to move forward uncontested. And the commission Tuesday released an agenda for its Jan. 19 meeting, including items on implementing the FCC’s Lifeline order and another extension of its high-cost fund rulemaking.

The communications industry might not know for a while who the permanent FCC chairman will be under Donald Trump, said industry lawyers and former senior FCC officials Tuesday. At CES last week, there was widespread speculation Trump may tap a relative unknown. One name that keeps coming up is Indiana State Sen. Brandt Hershman, who's reportedly close to Vice President-elect Mike Pence, the Indiana governor. Industry officials said if history is a guide, the next chairman could be a surprise choice, made by the president himself with the FCC transition team playing only a minor role.

The Congressional Review Act could pose privacy risks if Capitol Hill Republicans use it to abolish the FCC’s ISP privacy rules, Democratic lawmakers warned. A CRA resolution of disapproval is a tool that can nix federal regulations within a certain time frame after their issuance. It requires only a simple majority in the Senate, unlike normal legislation, and it prevents any similar rules from coming out in the future without specific congressional authorization. It's subject to presidential veto. Observers question whether Senate timing constraints will allow Congress to even target such rules using the tool, given other GOP priorities.

New Mexico Public Regulation Commissioner Sandy Jones named chairman; new Commissioner Cynthia Hall named vice chairwoman ... Commissioner Donald Polmann began Thursday on the Florida Public Service Commission, appointed by Gov. Rick Scott (R) to a term ending in January 2021 ... Among those Trump-Pence Presidential Transition Team adds to White House policy team are Zina Bash, Doctors Hospital at Renaissance, for areas including regulatory reform, and Peter White, ex-FCC and FTC and most recently aide to Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., as senior policy analyst ... BakerHostetler adds to Federal Policy team as senior advisers ex-Rep. Heath Shuler, D-N.C., and government affairs consultant James Murphy, ex-Donald J. Trump for President, who has done telecom work.

News Friday that Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., will lead the House Communications Subcommittee (see 1701060001) sparked a range of reactions from industry observers. They foresaw the potential for her to take action on what have often been partisan priorities on net neutrality and municipal broadband. She succeeds Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., the new chair of Commerce, and was seen as having the edge among Commerce Republicans for the positions (see 1612300029), with people judging her both knowledgeable and effective but also divisive. The subcommittee overseeing the FTC also got a new head who is known to FCC watchers: Rep. Bob Latta, R-Ohio. Blackburn, an executive vice chairwoman for the transition team of President-elect Donald Trump, pledged last month the new Congress would get started on net neutrality legislation soon.