The Regulatory Mix, TMI’s daily blog of 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. 

TELECOM

US Congress

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade Subcommittee Chairman Michael C. Burgess, M.D. (R-TX), and Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) sent a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler regarding the FCC’s Broadband Privacy Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.  See our 4/1/16 blog FCC Votes on Lifeline and ISP Privacy.  TMI Briefing Servicesubscribers see Briefing dated 4/12/16.  The members said that when it reclassified broadband as a telecommunications service the FCC “removed broadband Internet access service providers from the FTC's jurisdiction, creating a two-tiered Internet.”  They went on to say that: “[u]ltimately, the FCC's proposal for new ISP-specific privacy rules seems to miss the point: rather than serve the public interest, these new rules will create public confusion. By subjecting data to multiple and varying privacy regimes within a consumer's single Internet experience, consumers will be left to question which privacy rules apply.”  They concluded that: “[w]e recognize that even in a world where the FCC erroneously considers the Internet to be common carriage, consumers deserve to be protected. However, rather than a prescriptive rulemaking, we believe that the FCC should create a more consistent privacy experience for consumers by mirroring the FTC’s successful enforcement-based regime. … Knowing that an enforcement-based approach at the FCC, modeled on the FTC’s success, can work to protect consumers without injecting new complexity and uncertainty into the Internet economy, we urge you to reconsider your approach.”

FCC

The FCC announced that the revised FCC Form 481 (Carrier Annual Reporting Data Collection Form) and instructions were approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).  The form must be filed by July 1, 2016, by Eligible Telecommunications Carriers (ETCs).  Reports must clearly reference WC Docket No. 14-58 and be filed with the Office of the Secretary of the FCC; USAC, and the relevant state commissions, and relevant authority in a U.S. Territory, or Tribal governments, as appropriate.  Parties with questions about the forms and instructions or are otherwise in need of assistance should contact the USAC High Cost Customer Service Support Center at hcquestions@usac.org.