Veto Vermont's data-broker privacy bill (HB-764), urged the Software and Information Industry Association in an eight-page letter to Gov. Phil Scott (R) that SIIA shared with us Friday. "Amendments to its text notwithstanding, the bill remains constitutionally defective and violates both the First Amendment and the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution," SIIA General Counsel Christopher Mohr wrote in the Thursday letter. "It imposes prohibited burdens on free speech and business while doing nothing to protect privacy." Mohr earlier said SIIA would seek veto of the bill that was passed May 12 (see 1805140060). The definition of a data broker who must register with the state is too broad, potentially capturing the author of an e-book of a biography about a Vermont public figure, he said. It also could include "companies that provide detection tools used by law enforcement and antiterrorism authorities," he said. But its requirement that the data broker is an entity that sells or licenses information means the bill wouldn't cover one who gives away private information for free on an ad-supported website, Mohr said. Also, the Vermont bill would unlawfully impose obligations on conduct occurring outside the state, SIIA said. Scott didn't comment.
BOSTON -- Massachusetts Senate leaders presented a bipartisan case for net neutrality and ISP privacy rules Thursday in a closed-door bipartisan informational caucus, a day after the U.S. Senate disapproved of the FCC repealing net neutrality rules (see 1805160064). Against heavy industry lobbying, Massachusetts Senate Majority Leader Cynthia Creem (D) and Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr (R) aim to educate members about a proposal of their Special Senate Committee on Net Neutrality and Consumer Protection, Creem said in a Wednesday interview at the State House. Meanwhile, in Vermont, a state senator urged industry to bring lawsuits against a net neutrality bill passed Saturday.
Verizon plans to launch 5G services in Los Angeles by Q4, CEO Lowell McAdam said Tuesday on CNBC, which the company later confirmed. Verizon earlier announced Sacramento as one of three to five cities to get 5G later this year (see 1804240059). The carrier will deploy more than 1,000 cellsites for the launch in California cities, McAdam said. He also noted a strong Verizon partnership with Boston Mayor Marty Walsh (D). Verizon has been “plowing money” into 5G for the past three years and expects it to be more disruptive than previous wireless generations, he said. The carrier is busting myths about 5G, including that millimeter-wave spectrum requires line of sight and doesn’t go through foliage, he said. The technology will bring a different pricing model, with the old model of charging $90-100 per subscriber per month going “out the window” with 5G, said McAdam. The company is focused on digital content and has “no interest in [acquiring] a linear content company,” he said.
NATOA and the National League of Cities plan to release a model municipal code as an alternative to what’s released by the FCC Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee, said NLC Principal Associate-Technology and Communications Angelina Panettieri, on an NATOA webinar Monday. NLC this summer plans to publish a municipal action guide about small-cells deployment, Panettieri said. All BDAC members, including local representatives, supported a municipal model code at the committee’s April meeting, and the committee plans to harmonize the code with a state model code and other proposals that municipalities oppose (see 1804300058 and 1804250064). That harmonization, expected to occur at a June meeting, may be “problematic” for local governments, Panettieri said. NLC concerns about BDAC membership continue, with only three of 30 members representing local government, but cities will stay, she said: “If you aren’t at the table, you are on the menu.” BDAC is basing recommendations on flawed premises, including that 5G is imminent, removing local process will speed 5G deployment or spur rural broadband and that localities are a problem, not a solution, said Coalition for Local Internet Choice CEO Joanne Hovis. 5G still has major technical limitations, including that it can’t pass through trees, and Wall Street analysts don’t say it’s coming soon, she said.
The Vermont legislature passed net neutrality and privacy bills, with supporters from consumer groups voicing hope that Gov. Phil Scott will sign them and the software industry seeking veto of the privacy bill. The Republican earlier issued an executive order to limit state contracts to net neutral ISPs. Monday in California, a third state Senate panel weighed SB-822, the net neutrality bill supported by ex-FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and other backers of the 2015 rules.
California consumer groups urged the California Public Utilities Commission to reject CTIA objections to their March petition (see 1803270037) seeking updated privacy rules for wireless carriers’ use of consumer proprietary network information. CTIA opposed the petition in docket P18-03-014, but The Utility Reform Network and the Consumer Federation of California Foundation disagreed, in reply comments that TURN forwarded us Friday. “Current rules didn’t anticipate location tracking, the risks customers would face, or the greed with which phone companies would jump into data sales,” said Ashley Salas, staff attorney for TURN, in a Friday news release. Wireless companies "are committed to protecting their customers’ privacy by complying with applicable federal and state laws, as well as following enforceable self-regulatory codes of conduct," CTIA said in April 30 comments forwarded to us by the association. Technology-specific rules proposed by consumer groups "would do little, if anything, to enhance consumer privacy," it said. "A wireless-specific, California-only set of privacy standards would be ineffective at best, and cause consumer harm and confusion at worst."
The net neutrality fight lost a giant liberal voice with the resignation of Eric Schneiderman as New York attorney general (see the personals section of this publication's May 9 issue). Some observers said his exit last week shouldn’t affect New York’s lawsuit against the FCC with 22 other Democratic state AGs at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. “What can get lost in the scandal,” said State and Local Legal Center Executive Director Lisa Soronen, “is the value that this guy added -- or from the other side’s perspective, the detriment that this guy added.” But NARUC General Counsel Brad Ramsay said it’s “hard to see how the departure of one attorney in a case with so many appellants could be crucial to either organization efforts or advocacy,” especially so early in the process.
Charter Communications slightly overstated how many new homes and businesses it reached with broadband, but still "comfortably exceeded" a December target that was a state condition of the carrier's Time Warner Cable acquisition, said Charter, answering New York Public Service Commission orders to show cause (see 1803190046). "Although Charter is withdrawing a small number of reported network extensions based upon its investigation and review of considerations raised by the Expansion Show Cause Order, and as a natural result of certain internal processes ... Charter remains in full compliance with the Expansion Condition’s modified targets,” Charter said Thursday in docket 15-M-0388. Charter said expansion was limited by severe weather, including hurricane season, delays gaining access to utility poles and regulators' unexpected interpretations of merger conditions. Statewide, more than 76 percent of Charter applications for pole access were pending without approval for more than 45 days, and 61 percent for more than 100 days, the company said. The PSC has “no legitimate basis” to disqualify 14,522 of the addresses the ISP claimed to have passed, the operator said: The PSC didn’t show the MVPD failed to meet buildout targets, but “forces Charter to respond to a speculative future Commission order that may disqualify some of Charter’s completed network extensions, while depriving Charter of knowledge of the specific contours of the finding to which it is responding.” Charter defended its processes for ensuring compliance with the buildout condition in a separate response. The order asking Charter to show cause "rests on mistaken assumptions regarding key facts concerning Charter’s network expansion efforts in New York and a series of legal errors,” it said. “The proposals in the Order are inconsistent with the Commission’s prior orders, exceed the legal limits on the Commission’s authority, and lack the required substantial evidentiary support.” The responses are under review, a PSC spokesman emailed. The governor’s office last week threatened to revoke the operator's franchise over claims it missed buildout targets (see 1805030025).
The Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority “disregarded legislative intent” in ruling Wednesday that the "municipal gain" space on utility poles or underground ducts -- reserved by a 2013 state law for municipalities to use “for any purpose” without charge -- may not be used to provide muni broadband, state Sen. Beth Bye (D) said in a Wednesday interview. “I’m just so sad for consumers,” said Bye, who sponsored the bill that provided the space and told PURA that the law allowed broadband. Commissioners said the law was hard to interpret. Frontier Communications applauded PURA, and Connecticut Consumer Counsel Elin Swanson Katz said she and municipalities are disappointed and “considering next steps.”
Sunday’s local number portability administrator transition succeeded in the Midwest, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, North American Portability Management (NAPM) and observers said Monday. “The NPAC maintenance window has closed, and NPAC users in the Southeast, Midwest, Northeast, and Mid-Atlantic regions may now submit porting transactions to the iconectiv NPAC,” NAPM said Sunday. An iconectiv spokesman emailed: “All went well.” Neustar isn't aware of any big problems from the cutover but is monitoring "as it appears from our vantage point that activity remains lower than usual," a spokesman emailed. NARUC General Counsel Brad Ramsay said he understands it was a smooth process with only some minor issues. Multiple state utility commissions we contacted in affected regions reported no problems. The first regional NPAC migration from incumbent Neustar to iconectiv succeeded April 8, and the final three regions (Southwest, Western and West Coast) will be cut over May 20, with final acceptance for the new LNPA set for May 25 (see 1805020018).