Today:  US Congress MAP Broadband Act, US Congress Privacy Resolution 

Have a safe and memorable Memorial Day

US Congress MAP Broadband Act

U.S. Senators Roger Wicker, R-Miss., Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and Jerry Moran, R-Kan., today introduced S. 2955, the “Mobile Accuracy and Precision Broadband Act” (MAP Broadband Act). If enacted, the bill would help improve the accuracy of the FCC’s mobile broadband coverage map and ensure that federal resources are targeted to unserved communities that do not have access to reliable mobile broadband service.  According to its sponsors the legislation would address problems with the FCC’s Mobility Fund Phase II (MF-II) presumptive eligibility maps which: (1) misrepresent the existence of 4G LTE wireless broadband service in many areas based on on-the-ground experience; and (2) if left uncorrected, would exclude many areas that lack sufficient wireless broadband access from being eligible for MF-II funding, which is expected to be $4.53 billion over 10 years.  The legislation would also address concerns with the time frame for FCC’s challenge process for the presumptive eligibility map.

Specifically, the “MAP Broadband Act” would require the FCC to:

• Extend the challenge process window by 90 days to ensure that challengers with limited resources and personnel have enough time to challenge the map; 
• Disclose the eligible handsets (i.e. phones) that each mobile wireless service provider has approved for challengers to use in the challenge process;
• Provide monthly updates on the number of entities that the FCC has approved to participate in the challenge process as challengers, and the percentage of the total geographic areas initially determined to be ineligible for MF-II support that have been challenged under the challenge process; and
• Provide annual updates on the expansion of mobile wireless service through the MF-II program.

More information is available here.

US Congress Privacy Resolution

Senators Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today introduced a Senate Resolution 523 calling for U.S. companies and institutions covered by the European Union’s new privacy law, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), to provide Americans with privacy protections included in the European law.  That law is set to take effect May 25, 20018.  The robust EU privacy protections include clear opt-in consent before users’ information is used; notification to users about all collection, use, and sharing of users’ personal information; data security requirements; notification to affected individuals in the event of a data breach; and requiring companies to implement special protections for children’s data, among other rules.

Protections in the European privacy law include, but are not limited to, the following requirements and rights:

• The requirement that data processors have a legal basis for using individuals’ data, including opt-in consent.
• The requirement that data processors design their systems in a way that minimizes the processing of data to only what is necessary for the specific purpose stated to the individual, and the requirement that data processors, by default, protect personal information from being used for other purposes.
• The requirement that entities processing children’s data institute special protections, particularly with reference to the use of children’s data for marketing purposes.
• The individual’s right to know who has access to her/his data.
• The individual’s right to revoke permission to use her/his data at any time.
• The individual’s right to not be subject to automated decision making, including profiling, without human intervention that has legal or otherwise significant effects on the individual.

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The Regulatory Mix, Inteserra’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 an Inteserra Briefing.