Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) Working Group 4 delivered its draft final report Friday to the full CSRIC membership on its recommendations for how the communications sector should adapt the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework for industry-specific uses. The report’s full contents will remain confidential while CSRIC reviews the report and provides feedback on possible revisions ahead of an expected March 18 vote on whether to adopt the report, Working Group 4 Co-Chair Robert Mayer said in an interview.
A Wednesday all-party meeting on the California Public Utilities Commission Comcast/Time Warner Cable deal review is likely to be crucial in determining the outcome of the CPUC review, industry lawyers and public interest advocates said in interviews. CPUC Administrative Law Judge Karl Bemesderfer released a draft decision on Comcast/TWC Feb. 13 that recommends the CPUC approve the deal with significant conditions (see 1502170059). The CPUC scheduled the meeting for 2 p.m. PST at its headquarters in San Francisco before Bemesderfer’s release of the draft decision.
Questions about the security of using non-U.S. satellite constellations to supplement GPS in determining wireless 911 caller locations and privacy concerns related to phone functionality during a 911 call will require further debate, industry executives said Wednesday during a panel at NARUC’s meeting. Nebraska Public Service Commissioner Tim Schram asked what cybersecurity measures U.S. carriers should take if they use non-U.S. global navigation satellite systems (GNSS). NARUC Telecom Committee Chairman Chris Nelson, chairman of the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission, asked whether Wi-Fi and Bluetooth functionalities on cellphones should automatically be enabled when someone calls 911.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said he's hopeful the commission will move soon on an order allowing state agencies access to the Network Outage Reporting System (NORS) database, the subject of one of two resolutions (see 1502050039) that NARUC’s Telecom Committee approved Tuesday. The committee unanimously approved a resolution urging the FCC to grant state agencies access to the NORS database in response to a November 2009 petition from the California Public Utilities Commission.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler struck back against “ill-informed” criticisms that his draft net neutrality order would institute a 1930s-level regulatory structure on broadband. He said during NARUC’s winter meeting in Washington Tuesday that his order would use a “modern version” of Communications Act Title II. The FCC is expected to vote 3-2 Feb. 26 for the net neutrality order, which would reclassify broadband as a Title II service. The draft order would forebear from 27 of Title II’s 38 sections, which Wheeler said was almost four times the seven Title II sections that the FCC forbore from when it crafted mobile voice rules under Title II and Telecom Act Section 332 following enactment of the 1996 Telecom Act. CTIA, where Wheeler was president when he backed forbearance of regulatory sections in Title II for wireless carriers, has said it will join other industry groups in suing the FCC over the new net neutrality rules (see 1502130049). CTIA President Meredith Baker is to speak during a Wednesday NARUC session.
President Barack Obama signed a cybersecurity executive order Friday to encourage cyberthreat information sharing between the private sector and the government and to effectively concentrate that sharing at the Department of Homeland Security. “There’s only one way to defend America from these cyber threats, and that is through government and industry working together, sharing appropriate information as true partners,” he said. The order represents an important step on improving cybersecurity, but isn't as far-reaching as a 2013 executive order that resulted in the production of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Cybersecurity Framework, industry executives and lawyers told us.
Industry executives praised the FCC’s new 911 wireless indoor location accuracy rules as a well-balanced compromise during an FCBA event Thursday, and FCC Public Safety Bureau Deputy Chief David Furth called the order a “watershed order” on 911 location accuracy. The rules the FCC adopted 5-0 last month were a compromise from an earlier draft order circulated by Chairman Tom Wheeler, with the final order putting additional emphasis on the industry-public safety road map’s concept of dispatchable locations. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn concurred with the rules despite concerns they were weaker than a February 2014 NPRM (see 1501290066).
Emergency communications, the IP transition and net neutrality are expected to be the main telecom issues discussed at NARUC’s meeting in Washington, state officials and industry observers told us. The meeting is to unofficially begin Friday and run through Wednesday, with Telecom Committee sessions to begin Monday. The Telecom Committee is considering two resolutions, including one that would urge the FCC to continue collaborating with state utility regulators on issues included in the commission’s November IP transition NPRM. The other telecom resolution would seek expedited FCC approval of a 2009 petition from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) for state regulators to get state-specific access to the commission’s Network Outage Reporting System (NORS) (see 1502050039).
Verizon’s proposed sale of its wireline assets in California, Florida and Texas to Frontier Communications will face scrutiny from the FCC and two state utility regulators. The $10.54 billion deal, announced last week, is expected to double Frontier’s customer base (see 1502060059). The FCC didn’t comment. Verizon plans “to file at the appropriate regulatory agencies in due course, and we expect to close the transaction in the first half of 2016,” a spokesman said.
Local governments need to continue closely following changes to the cable franchising model that are likely to accelerate with continued growth in over-the-top services, NATOA President Tony Perez said Monday during a webinar. Recent OTT developments like the HBO Go service and Dish Network’s Sling TV service (see 1502090025) show that long-forestalled changes to the cable franchising model are beginning to take hold, and that “the pace of change is likely to accelerate over the next couple of months,” said Perez, director of Seattle’s Office of Cable Communications. A 2014 Seattle survey indicated cable subscribership in the city had dropped 13 percent in the preceding four years, with the rise in OTT options being seen as a primary factor, he said.