A bipartisan bill unveiled Thursday would require the federal government to share data by default. Reps. Derek Kilmer, D-Wash., and Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, plan to introduce the Open, Public, Electronic and Necessary (OPEN) Government Data Act in the House, and Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, will sponsor the bill in the Senate. Schatz said he has support from Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb. Schatz, Kilmer and Farenthold announced the bill at an event hosted by the Center for Data Innovation. The bill codifies many principles from President Barack Obama’s 2013 executive order on open data. The OPEN Act would require government data to be machine-readable and available in open format, require use of open licenses for government data, and encourage agencies to engage with public and private entities about innovative uses for data. It would require agencies to use existing resources to develop, maintain and regularly update a public Enterprise Data Inventory. It would mandate a single online portal, currently Data.gov, to share all open government data. The requirements won’t apply retroactively, but will force the government to embrace the digital age, Farenthold said. “This is 21st century government. It’s open and transparent. It’s bipartisan. It’s bicameral.” The bill will "empower government to be more effective,” Kilmer said. “It’s going to empower private sector to innovate. It’s going to empower citizens to participate." Accessing government data should be “painless,” Schatz said. Data and documents shouldn't be posted only online, but should be machine readable, he said. The Center for Data Innovation supports the bill. “The U.S. government has a wealth of data, and turning this data over to the public creates a powerful platform for innovation,” center Director Daniel Castro said in a statement. The bill would “improve the public’s ability to scrutinize wasteful, fraudulent, or abusive government spending, help agencies better manage their own data resources and create valuable new public services, and support private sector efforts to develop new business models supported by open data,” he said. A mandate from Congress is needed to “force change” in the government, said Tim Day, vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Center for Advanced Technology and Innovation.
FairPoint sheds provider-of-last-resort (POLR) obligations in several Maine markets under a bill signed into law Wednesday by Gov. Paul LePage (R). The Legislature approved LD-466 Monday. FairPoint pushed for the law, and after a long stakeholder negotiation, the bill won support from the Maine Public Advocate because it imposes rate caps and adds teeth to service quality enforcement by the Public Utilities Commission. A free-market supporter said POLR obligations are outdated and should be removed across the U.S.
Fifth generation wireless gives cable operators an opportunity to become wireless network operators, said Rogers Chief Technology Officer Bob Berner in a keynote at a CableLabs conference in New York. While there’s not yet a 5G standard, Berner and other industry officials said the next generation of wireless will be a major shift from 4G, supporting many new use cases including IoT. Wireless officials said 3.5 GHz spectrum could allow better and more efficient indoor coverage, as long as the top U.S. carriers cooperate.
The U.S. should make more unlicensed spectrum available, FCC commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Mike O’Rielly said in a session at a CableLabs conference Wednesday in New York. The Democrat and Republican also agreed the FCC should move quickly on 5.9 GHz spectrum. The FCC must release high-frequency millimeter wave spectrum if the U.S. is going to lead on 5G, Rosenworcel said. Earlier at the conference, others discussed 5G (see 1604130032).
The Utility Reform Network (TURN) lined up several big consumer and labor groups against a California bill authorizing telcos to end legacy copper service in 2020. The TURN coalition against AB-2395 includes AARP California, Center for Accessible Technology, Communications Workers of America, National Consumer Law Center, National Hispanic Media Coalition and Public Citizen. A hearing is set for 1:30 p.m. PDT Wednesday on the bill, which would allow telcos in the state to transition to IP-based services in four years, if they first educate consumers about the transition (see 1603300054). TURN said the bill would authorize AT&T to strand many Californian customers who still rely on the copper network, including people in rural areas, low-income households, seniors and people with disabilities (see 1603290055). “Rather than modernizing phone service, this bill would take us back to the dark days when consumers were totally at the mercy of AT&T,” said TURN Executive Director Mark Toney Monday. “It will eliminate the most basic consumer protections, regardless of the enormous impact abandoning copper could have on emergency services and vital communications.” In a news conference Monday, AB-2395 sponsor Assembly Member Evan Low (D) called the bill a move toward the future: “California telecommunications law established in the 1950’s needs to be modernized so our state can continue to be the world’s innovation leader as well as the pioneer in addressing climate change. This legislation establishes a state policy for a clearly communicated, planned and orderly transition from the last vestiges of the outdated, and carbon unfriendly plain-old-telephone-service (POTS) network to modern, fiber-optic networks and services.” Local supporters include CALinnovates, the Congress of California Seniors, Sacramento Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the San Jose Police Officers Association. The latter group’s vice president, James Gonzalez, responded directly to TURN’s claim the bill would make 911 less reliable for emergency calls, saying 75 percent of 911 calls “come from mobile phones, so we have to adapt to what consumers are using.”
Two Pennsylvania state offices supported the Public Utilities Commission’s right to investigate the quality of Verizon’s copper network. In briefs filed Friday to the PUC, the state Office of Consumer Advocate and the PUC Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement said the Verizon probe can move forward despite the telco’s arguments that an administrative law judge set an unlawful procedure for the investigation, which was requested last year by the Communications Workers of America (see 1602230036).
Crown Castle acquired Tower Development Corp, for $461 million cash Friday, Crown said in a news release. TDC, part of Berkshire Partners, owns and operates 336 towers in the U.S. and Puerto Rico with an average of two tenants per tower. Crown Castle said it expects the deal to add between $25 million and $27 million to site rental gross margin in the first full year of the acquisition. Crown funded the acquisition with available cash, including cash on hand, cash from borrowings under its revolving credit facility and cash from the sale of about 3.5 million net shares of common stock at an average price of $85.52 per share.
Frontier Communications said it’s working to resolve lingering transition problems after its week-ago acquisition (see 1604010036) of Verizon wireline customers in Florida, Texas and California. The telco said it resolved service disruptions in Tampa and is tackling complaints about video content and online account access. The Public Utility Commission of Texas told us it received an uptick in telephone complaints last week, while complaints sent to the consumer protection authority in Florida highlight a variety of issues experienced in the first week.
The value of cybersecurity training for local public safety agencies may outweigh its cost, Texas fire and police officials said in testifying Thursday at a field hearing of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity at Austin College in Texas. But providing staff with affordable training can be a challenge, they said. Finding skilled staff also is difficult, a state-and-local panel said at a workshop in Gaithersburg, Maryland, on the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Cybersecurity Framework (see 1604060047). Separately, the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) released a states’ guide to cyber disruption response planning.
Friends and foes of municipal broadband networks clashed Wednesday over who should be pre-empted -- state or local governments -- after a conservative state leadership group released a paper Wednesday saying municipal networks should be deployed only as a last resort. The paper, commissioned by the State Government Leadership Foundation (SGLF) and written by Phoenix Center Chief Economist George Ford, supported state laws restricting local governments from deploying muni broadband networks and condemned action by the FCC to pre-empt those laws. But an advocate for community broadband said it defies logic to argue that states know better than both local governments and the FCC.