Today: Form 477 Deadline, FCC Broadband Privacy Rules, Senate Commerce Committee hearing on Infrastructure

Senate Commerce Committee Hearing on Infrastructure

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation announced the committee will hold a hearing entitled, “Connecting America: Improving Access to Infrastructure for Communities Across the Country” on March 1, 2017 at 10:00 a.m.  The hearing will examine the challenge of connecting Americans, particularly in rural communities, to transportation and information networks.  “With a national discussion on federal infrastructure investment underway, it’s worth remembering that many Americans live far away from the highest-ticket projects their tax dollars are asked to fund,” said Thune.  “This hearing will look at how wise infrastructure investment decisions can ensure that all Americans benefit from improvements to national transportation and digital networks.”  Witnesses include the Honorable Dennis Daugaard, Governor of South Dakota; the Honorable Carlos Braceras, Executive Director, Utah Department of Transportation; and Ms. Shirley Bloomfield, Chief Executive Officer, NTCA-The Rural Broadband Association.

FCC Form 477 Deadline 

The FCC announced it was extending the March 1 filing deadline for submission of Form 477 data as of December 31, 2016, due to technical difficulties with its online filing system.  The FCC said it will announce the new filing deadline by Public Notice once technical difficulties in the filing interface are resolved.

FCC Broadband Privacy Rules

The FCC released a Statement concerning the Chairman’s intent to stay the pending March 2, 2017, effective date of the FCC’s new data security rule (47 CFR §64.2005).  The FCC said that the Chairman is seeking to act on request to stay this rule before it takes effect on March 2.  If Commissioners are willing to cast their votes by March 2, then the full Commission will decide the stay request.  If not, then the Wireline Competition Bureau will stay that one element of the privacy rules pending a full Commission vote on the pending petitions for reconsideration.  (The rules at issue require that providers take reasonable measures to protect customer proprietary information from unauthorized use, disclosure, or access.  To comply with this requirement, a provider must adopt security practices appropriately calibrated to the nature and scope of its activities, the sensitivity of the underlying data, the size of the provider, and technical feasibility standard.)

In response, Commissioner Clyburn (in a joint statement with FTC Commission McSweeny) said “Today Chairman Pai has created an unfortunate dilemma: accept a Bureau-level action that indefinitely unwinds key consumer privacy protections established by the FCC last year, or accept four business days (rather than the usual three weeks) to evaluate and vote on a decision that has massive ramifications for the security of private information held by broadband providers.”  Commissioner McSweeny said she was “very troubled by the news that the data security protections of the Broadband Privacy Rule will be put on hold” and noted that “[t]he rules the FCC adopted conform to long standing FTC practice and provide clear rules on how broadband companies should protect their customers’ personal information. This action weakens the security requirement guarding every consumers’ most personal data and should be reconsidered.” They warned that “[t]he outcome is clear. Chairman Pai is determined to take action that leaves consumers without a cop on the beat protecting their personal information from misuse by their broadband service provider. This means no federal data security requirements whatsoever for broadband providers. This is the antithesis of putting #ConsumersFirst.”

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The Regulatory Mix, TMI’s daily blog of telecom related regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of a TMI Briefing.