Executives who are members of Communications Security, Reliability & Interoperability Council (CSRIC) Working Group 4 said they're optimistic about ongoing FCC efforts to improve the communications sector’s cyber-risk management. Public Safety Bureau Chief David Simpson said during an FCBA event Tuesday night that FCC work on cybersecurity via CSRIC and other efforts “won’t be a recipe for perfection,” but he hopes it will improve the resiliency of 911 and other communications networks. “I think we'll see that in the outage reports” and other data, he said. Working Group 4 updated CSRIC Wednesday on its work to adapt the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework for communications sector use. (See separate report in this issue.) Working Group 4 Co-Chairman Robert Mayer had told us before the CSRIC meeting that the group had made “substantial progress” on that work (CD Sept 24 p4).
Communications Security, Reliability & Interoperability Council (CSRIC) Working Group 4 will be able to report at CSRIC’s meeting Wednesday that it has made “substantial progress” on its work to use the National Institute for Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework for communications sector needs, said Working Group 4 Co-Chair Robert Mayer in an interview.
Call completion record-keeping requirements associated with the rural call completion order the FCC approved in October (CD Oct 29 p2) haven’t taken effect, but major telcos said Friday they're planning to at least partially comply with the rules anyway. The record-keeping requirements mandate that telcos collect call completion data on calls destined to rural ILECs, report that data to the FCC every quarter and retain the data for six months. Those rules haven’t taken effect because the Office of Management and Budget’s review of the rules remains “underway,” said Claude Aiken, Wireline Bureau Competition Policy Division acting deputy chief, at an FCBA event. The FCC’s relationship with OMB on large-scale information collection policy has been “rocky lately” but the commission is hopeful it can work with OMB to make the call completion rules “sail through,” Aiken said. The FCC has received four requests for waivers and five petitions for reconsideration of the rules, he said. Representatives from AT&T and CenturyLink said the telcos intend to submit as much call completion data as possible, but both telcos are also seeking waivers on the record-keeping rules. AT&T would have trouble fully complying with the rules because it would “have to update some very old switches” that the telco no longer maintains because it’s phasing them out as part of its transition to an all-IP network, said Brian Benison, director-federal regulatory. AT&T filed a waiver request seeking to provide data only on a “statistically significant” portion of calls on which it does track call completion data, he said. CenturyLink is implementing the safe harbor policies included in the order, which will “significantly reduce our use of intermediate carriers,” said Jeb Benedict, vice president-federal regulatory affairs. CenturyLink is also seeking a waiver of the reporting rules so it won’t have to report data on calls that involve multifrequency signaling and LEC-to-LEC calls -- two types of calls it’s technically difficult to collect data on, he said.
Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority should adopt the public interest settlement agreed to by Frontier Communications, Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen and state Consumer Counsel Elin Swanson Katz as part of PURA’s ongoing review of the telco’s proposed purchase of AT&T’s broadband, video and wireline assets in the state, said Jepsen’s and Katz’s offices Friday. The settlement, along with additional voluntary commitments from Frontier, “has satisfied the applicable criteria” PURA requires for approval of Frontier/AT&T Connecticut and makes it acceptable on public interest grounds, said Jepsen’s and Katz’s offices in a joint filing (http://bit.ly/1r6SoKE). Frontier reached the agreement with the two state offices in August (CD Aug 13 p13), but PURA later sought a redraft (CD Sept 3 p16).
The FCC is confident the communications industry will voluntarily lead commission-facilitated efforts to improve the industry’s cybersecurity risk management practices, but could look to its recent 911 annual reliability audit order as a model for regulatory action if the industry doesn’t “pull it together,” said Public Safety Bureau Chief David Simpson Wednesday. Simpson’s remarks at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event echoed the FCC’s message all year on the need for a voluntary industry-led effort on cybersecurity risk management. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said in June that the FCC’s vision of a “new paradigm” on cybersecurity would include readiness to act if voluntary efforts failed (CD June 13 p1).
The U.S. government needs to continue to push for expanded cybersecurity information sharing capabilities as a way to protect critical infrastructure sectors, federal officials said Tuesday during a Billington cybersecurity conference. Recent federal efforts have focused on expanding information sharing via legislation like the House-passed Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), but former federal officials and industry stakeholders expressed doubts that Congress can complete effective legislation during the 113th Congress. The Senate Intelligence Committee cleared its own CISPA equivalent, the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA), but industry officials have said they're increasingly pessimistic that the full Senate will vote on the bill this year (CD July 30 p6 ).
Recent shifts in the makeup of FirstNet’s board will likely improve its relations with state governments, while other changes within the authority in recent months have significantly improved prospects for success, said participants and observers in interviews last week. The Department of Commerce said earlier this month that it was appointing five new members to FirstNet’s board, and reappointing board member Ed Reynolds. The new members include ex-Vermont Republican Gov. Jim Douglas and Houston Mayor Annise Parker, a Democrat. Salt Lake City Chief of Police Chris Burbank, telecom executive Frank Plastina and Richard Stanek, sheriff of Hennepin County, Minnesota, are also new to the board (CD Sept 5 p13). The board set its first meeting with the new members for Tuesday and Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1uLMJca).
The California Public Utilities Commission put on hold Thursday plans to submit reply comments to the FCC supporting its net neutrality Title II NPRM. The decision came on a vote to overturn an earlier 3-2 decision to submit comments urging the commission to reclassify broadband as a Communications Act Title II service and use that authority in conjunction with other authorities as jurisdiction bases for new net neutrality rules. Commissioner Carla Peterman, who had originally voted in favor of reclassification, decided later in the meeting to officially abstain, tying the vote 2-2. The tied vote means any comments are on hold, a CPUC spokeswoman said. Commissioners Mike Florio and Catherine Sandoval had voted in favor of the staff’s set of recommendations, while Commission President Michael Peevey and Commissioner Michael Picker voted against them.
FCC consideration of petitions to pre-empt municipal broadband laws in North Carolina and Tennessee remains controversial, more so than the issue in states, said industry observers and lawmakers in interviews this week. There’s been some partisanship in the national debate over the petitions from the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Wilson, North Carolina (CD July 28 p5). But lawmakers and officials see any state-level debate on pre-emption as not falling along strict party lines. They differed on what a more unified response at the state level would look like and said it’s too early to call the issue’s impact on state elections.
Several groups representing state government entities urged the FCC not to pre-empt North Carolina and Tennessee state laws restricting municipal broadband deployment, saying in filings posted Tuesday that pre-emption would constitute bad public policy. They also said the FCC doesn’t have authority under Telecom Act Section 706 to pre-empt state laws. Pre-emption opponents have repeatedly said the FCC can’t use Section 706 as a basis for granting pre-emption petitions from the Electric Bower Board of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and the city of Wilson, North Carolina (CD Sept 2 p2). Comments in the two proceedings -- dockets 14-115 and 14-116 -- were due Friday. Other pre-emption opponents and supporters who filed comments also noted the public policy implications of the petitions.