LONDON -- Telecom regulators must be "conscious of our fallibility" as they adapt regulations to future and changing circumstances, said Anthony Whelan, director-electronic communications, networks and services for the European Commission Directorate-General Connect, at Wednesday's Digital Regulation Forum. Regulators are trying to figure out what regulation will look like in 2020 and beyond, he and Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) Chairwoman Fátima Barros said. The conference heard Tuesday that the net neutrality debate is raging in the U.K. (see 1504280001).
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The European Commission will consider possible regulation of online platforms such as search engines and social media as part of its digital single market (DSM) strategy, it said in an April 21 leaked draft document, an updated version of which was given to us Thursday. Telecom operators increasingly compete with other services that users substitute for traditional e-communications services, such as VoIP, "without being subject to the same regulatory regime," the EC said. Online platforms are playing a more central role in social and economic life, raising concerns about their growing market power, it said. The core issue in the DSM strategy is whether Europe's current "ex ante" regulatory regime will be extended to over-the-top players and/or cable companies, Brussels telecom lawyer David Cantor said. Doing so could put Europe out of touch with the rest of the world, said Bird & Bird (London) information technology and business attorney Roger Bickerstaff.
Newly introduced Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) legislation is aimed at improving U.S. digital trade provisions and leading the way for trade pacts with countries in Asia and Europe, industry groups said. Introduced Thursday, the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015 would also strengthen Congress' ability to slow trade agreement implementation bills, lawmakers said. Aside from procedural and transparency modifications, the bill largely mirrors the TPA legislation introduced in the last Congress.
The evolving 2016 White House race may fuel net neutrality legislative negotiations on Capitol Hill, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., told us. Several GOP contenders and one high-profile Democrat recently entered the presidential race, and they along with other rumored candidates showcase a strong partisan split on the issue. Several senators said in interviews that legislating will be especially challenging in the current contentious and partisan environment, but some lawmakers from both parties named such a bill as a priority.
LAS VEGAS -- Despite its large outlay in the AWS-3 auction, AT&T will participate in the 600 MHz auction, said AT&T Vice President Federal Regulatory Joan Marsh at a panel on the TV incentive auction at the NAB Show Monday. “AT&T has never sat out a major auction, we won’t sit out this one,” Marsh said. That affirms predictions by Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition Executive Director Preston Padden, who also spoke on the auction at multiple panels Monday.
USTelecom last week became the first of the major trade associations to challenge the FCC’s net neutrality rules (see 1503230066), but challenges by CTIA and NCTA also are expected, industry officials said. USTelecom is expected to file an additional appeal after the order is published in the Federal Register, which is when the other major trade groups also are expected to file. Net neutrality opponents say there are good reasons the 2015 order, which reclassifies broadband as a common carrier service, will be more broadly challenged than the 2010 order.
Some small carriers strongly opposed new net neutrality rules, contrary to comments from FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, Bluegrass Cellular CEORon Smith told the Competitive Carriers Association Thursday. Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure said his company has made no decision on whether it will pursue spectrum in the TV incentive auction. Both spoke on a CEO panel at CCA’s spring show, webcast from Atlanta.
The FCC released its municipal broadband pre-emption order Thursday, quietly posting it after its earlier rollout of the high-profile but no-less-controversial new net neutrality rules (see 1503120053). The order, as anticipated, targeted the specific portions of the North Carolina and Tennessee state laws that the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga and Wilson, North Carolina, had sought pre-emption from. In the order, the FCC defended its Telecom Act Section 706 authority to pre-empt state barriers to broadband deployment and countered pre-emption opponents’ assertions that pre-emption violates the 10th Amendment and Supreme Court precedent in Nixon v. Missouri Municipal League. The FCC’s release of the pre-emption order is seen as another step toward anticipated legal challenges in federal courts, which industry lawyers have said couldn’t begin in earnest until the order’s language went public (see 1503110060).
Privacy and data security continue to be a top priority for the FTC as the Internet increasingly becomes today’s global trade route, Commissioner Julie Brill said Tuesday at a U.S. Council for International Business event. Innovation must be allowed, but consumers must be protected as big data can serve as a tool to exclude or include populations, she said. The challenge of securing data and ensuring privacy is as “staggering as the amount of data involved,” said Daniel Sepulveda, the State Department's coordinator for international communications and information policy. Brazil, Europe and Japan have taken measures to protect consumers by adapting, passing or reshaping data privacy laws, Brill said. The Mexican government is currently working on reforming 12 different aspects of its tech policies, including transparency, said Mexico's Director General for Innovation, Services and Domestic Commerce Raúl Rendón Montemayor.
The goal of President Barack Obama’s draft proposed Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights (CPBR) legislation and the FCC net neutrality order get the support of FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez, she said at an International Association of Privacy Professionals event Thursday. “I do wish the [CPBR] were stronger.”