TMT Law Watch : Washington, DC Telecom & Technology Attorneys & Lawyers : K&L Gates Law Firm

By J. Bradford Currier

Social networking site Myspace has agreed to a proposed consent order with the Federal Trade Commission which provides for independent privacy audits for 20 years. The FTC alleged that Myspace made their users’ unique identifiers, known as “Friend IDs,” available to advertisers despite its privacy policy promising that the company would not share users’ personally identifiable information without first giving notice to users and receiving their consent. 

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

The Senate today voted to confirm Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel and Republican Ajit Pai as new commissioners at the Federal Communications Commission. The new commissioners will fill the seats vacated by Commissioner Michael Copps, who retired in late 2011, and Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker, who left the FCC nearly a year ago to join Comcast/NBC Universal. Ms. Rosenworcel previously served as a senior staffer on the Senate Commerce Committee, working closely with Committee Chairman John Rockefeller (D-WV), and also worked for former Commissioner Copps. Mr. Pai is currently a partner in private practice specializing in communications law and previously served in the FCC’s Office of General Counsel for former Chairman Kevin Martin. The nomination process was delayed for nearly four months due to a hold placed by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), which was removed late last week. Once the nominees are sworn in, the FCC will have a full panel of five commissioners after nearly a year operating with just three commissioners.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

By Marty Stern and J. Bradford Currier

The Federal Communications Commission has proposed to reform the Universal Service Fund contribution system, finding that it is fraught with “uncertainty, inefficiency, and market distortions.” The proposed reforms would affect how provider USF contributions are assessed, collected, and recovered from customers. The Further NPRM follows sweeping reforms to the USF system adopted in 2011 designed to improve broadband investment and deployment in rural, underserved areas. The reforms proposed in the USF Contribution FNPRM would not increase the size of USF, but would instead change the entities that contribute, the services that are covered, and how contributions are assessed. It remains to be seen whether the FNPRM will meet the same level of resistance as the FCC’s most recent USF reforms. 

Comments on the proposed reforms will be due 30 days after the publication of the FNPRM in the Federal Register, with reply comments due 60 days after publication.

Below, we summarize the four key questions on which the FNPRM seeks comment:

(1)        Who Should Contribute to USF?

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

By Marty Stern and J. Bradford Currier

Rural carriers will soon experience changes to their high-cost loop support (“HCLS”) through the Universal Service Fund (“USF”) under a revised methodology recently announced by the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau. HCLS provides close to $800 million annually to offset the capital and operating costs of carriers serving rural populations. The Bureau Order finalizes the so-called “Quantile Regression Analysis” methodology proposed in the FCC’s USF/ICC Reform Order, which imposed limits on carriers’ support by first comparing spending among “similarly situated” companies in order to set benchmarks and then reducing the carriers’ support levels if they exceed such benchmarks. The USF/ICC Reform Order sparked heated debate and reaction, and numerous USF stakeholders filed comments with the FCC challenging aspects of the HCLS methodology and implementation of the support reductions.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

By David A. Tallman and Andrew L. Caplan

It is increasingly common for employers to request that job applicants and employees divulge the passwords to their Facebook accounts and to other social media sites. This trend has not gone unnoticed by the media and privacy advocates, which view this practice as an intrusive violation of individual privacy. On the other hand, employers often have valid reasons to exercise oversight over social media activities, especially in highly regulated industries where employees’ activities may be more likely to cause the company to incur liability.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

The importance of broadband deployment for economic development will be explored in a special, two-day webcast carried on Broadband US TV live from the Broadband Communities Summit in Dallas, Texas beginning tomorrow, April 24, 2012. The Summit will feature leaders from federal and local governments, public policy groups, and the broadband industry. The webcast will include discussions on the construction of advanced broadband systems, government incentives and support, innovative financing methods, and regional deployment challenges.

You can access the webcast here (free registration required).

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

By J. Bradford Currier, Marc Martin, and Marty Stern

In a move that may affect the mobile marketing industry’s best practices, the FCC recently released a Public Notice seeking comment on whether a one-time text message sent to a consumer confirming the consumer’s request to opt-out of further text messages violates the text message robocall prohibitions of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) and the FCC’s robocall solicitation rules. The Public Notice comes in response to a petition for expedited declaratory ruling filed by SoundBite Communications, Inc (“SoundBite”), which sends text messages on behalf of a number of companies, including banks, retailers, utilities, and wireless operators. This apparently represents the FCC’s first inquiry into its TCPA rules since the FCC adopted new prohibitions on robocall solicitations in February. Comments on the petition are due by April 30, 2012, and reply comments are due by May 15, 2012.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

The spectrum title of the recently enacted Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 includes sweeping provisions on public safety broadband, freeing up broadcast spectrum for wireless broadband, and the future of television white spaces. Yet significant questions remain over the meaning of the Act’s key provisions and its implementation.

These issues and others will be examined in a special two-hour live webcast carried on Broadband US TV from 1:00-3:00 pm (ET) on April 4th. Co-hosts Marty Stern of K&L Gates and Jim Baller of the Baller Herbst Law Group will be joined by two expert panels to discuss the Act’s meaning, impact, and implementation. The first panel, covering implications for public safety and other governmental entities, will feature Stephen Traylor, Executive Director of NATOA; Brett Kilbourne, Deputy General Counsel of the Utilities Telecom Council; Brett S. Haan of Deloitte Consulting; and Roger Wespe, Government Relations Manager at APCO International. The second panel, covering impacts on broadcasters, wireless carriers, and the tech community, will feature Michael Calabrese of the New America Foundation; Lawrence Krevor, Vice President at Sprint Nextel; Kevin Krufky, Vice President of Public Affairs at Alcatel-Lucent; and Peter Tannenwald, Member of Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth.

You can access the webcast here (free registration required).

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

By Marty Stern and J. Bradford Currier

The FCC’s new closed captioning rules for previously televised online video were published in the Federal Register on March 30, 2011, with an effective date of April 30 and triggering additional deadlines for various IP video captioning requirements. The new rules implement IP closed captioning obligations required by the Twenty-First Century Video Communications and Accessibility Act of 2010 and initially proposed by the FCC in September 2011. Reports indicate that affected companies may launch legal and administrative challenges to the new rules now that they have been published.

The Report and Order adopting the rules consists of four key sections:

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

By J. Bradford Currier and Lauren B. Pryor

The Federal Trade Commission recently released its long-awaited Final Report on protecting consumer privacy, in which it stated that consumers should have more choice and control over how their personal information is collected and used. The FTC’s Final Report offers non-binding recommendations for companies “that collect or use consumer data that can be reasonably linked to a specific consumer, computer, or other device.” The Final Report comes more than a year after the FTC first issued its proposed framework for regulating consumer privacy and just a month after the White House released a proposed Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights. 

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

By J. Bradford Currier

The Federal Communications Commission’s recent Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeks comment on how to best achieve interoperability in the Lower 700 MHz Band. The NPRM responds to a 2009 petition for rulemaking filed by an alliance of small regional wireless providers operating in the lower A Block of the 700 MHz Band. The petitioners alleged that the mobile devices currently developed for major wireless carriers do not support operations in the lower A Block. The NPRM focuses on four key issues:

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

By J. Bradford Currier

Under its recent Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Notice of Inquiry, the Federal Communications Commission seeks to increase the supply of spectrum for mobile broadband use by permitting flexible use of 40 MHz of spectrum located in the 2 GHz Band currently licensed for Mobile Satellite Service. Specifically, the proposed rules would allow terrestrial mobile broadband service in what the FCC termed the “AWS-4 Spectrum,” located at 2000-2020 MHz and 2180-2200 MHz. The NPRM/NOI covers four key areas:

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

By Samuel R. Castic and J. Bradford Currier

Californians who download mobile applications on their smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices should soon have greater knowledge of how their personal information is collected and used under a non-binding Joint Statement of Principals recently reached between six mobile app platforms, such as Apple, Inc., and the California Office of the Attorney General. The California announcement comes just days after the Federal Trade Commission warned app developers to improve privacy disclosures for mobile apps directed at children and within hours of the White House’s announcement of a Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights to protect citizens online.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

Susan Crawford, former science and technology advisor to President Obama and current visiting professor at the Kennedy School and Harvard Law School, recently warned of a “crisis” in American broadband competition, positing the growing dominance of cable operators over broadband access, as well as a "new digital divide" between those who have access to high-capacity broadband networks and those who do not. Ms. Crawford discusses her views on the state and future of broadband competition in an interview with co-hosts Marty Stern of K&L Gates and Jim Baller to be carried on Broadband US TV on February 28th, in a live webcast from 1:00-2:30 pm (ET). Ms. Crawford’s interview will be followed by an expert panel, featuring Larry Krevor, Vice President of Government Relations for Sprint Nextel; Dr. Lev Gonick, CIO of Case Western Reserve University; and Everett M. Ehrlich, President and business economist at ESC Company. The panel will debate Ms. Crawford’s recent articles, the battles among wireline broadband providers, the role of wireless in broadband competition, and the future of broadband competition in America.

You can register for the free live webcast by clicking here

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks