The U.S. DTV transition can serve as a “model” for the successful “government-industry effort” that’s needed to make driverless vehicles a mainstream reality, CTA President Gary Shapiro said in a blog post at Nextgov.com. Shapiro buys into estimates that driverless cars have the potential of reducing traffic deaths by 90 percent, he said. The “open process and committee structure” that went into the DTV transition “attracted thousands of technical volunteers who discussed and resolved hundreds of issues,” Shapiro said Dec. 29. “Their recommendations led to several formal actions by the FCC and Congress, and resulted in a unique and robust HDTV system delivering clear, sharp pictures and sound to Americans,” he said. “The transition succeeded thanks to an emphasis on setting clear goals, an open consensus multistakeholder process and a consensus among leadership and participants to develop the best result for all Americans. The initiative remains the most successful government-industry effort in which I have had the honor of participating.” If the public and private sectors were able to band together to “undertake a successful effort like this for better pictures and sound,” then certainly President Barack Obama or his successor “can challenge us to work together to save millions of American lives,” Shapiro said. “The implementation of driverless cars on U.S. roads can and should be a bipartisan effort."

FCC protection of edge providers in its net neutrality order has had the perverse effect of "reduc[ing] the opportunity for consumer-friendly innovation elsewhere, namely by facilities-based broadband providers," the Free State Foundation said in a white paper Monday. Written by Daniel Lyons, Boston College Law School associate professor and an FSF academic advisers board member, the paper argued the order "allows the FCC to deprive consumers of services they want, in order to protect edge provider markets." While usage-based pricing and zero-rated services can lead to more competition and consumer choice, net neutrality advocates have frequently pushed for rules limiting them, and FCC recent inquiries into AT&T's Sponsored Data and Data Perks programs, Comcast's Stream TV and T-Mobile's Binge On (see 1512170030) "are likely to put a damper on Internet providers' efforts to meet evolving consumer demand though zero-rating and sponsored data programs," FSF said. The FCC didn't comment.

Public Knowledge told the FCC it should ignore broadcaster complaints about the commission's proposal to set aside vacant TV band channels in every market nationwide for unlicensed use after the TV incentive auction. “PK began with the observation that NAB continues to misinterpret both the Commission’s general statutory authority and the Commission’s specific authority pursuant to the 2012 Spectrum Act,” the filing said. “No one proposes to eliminate a single full power broadcast station or Class A [low-power] TV, which the statute requires protecting. Nor will anyone force these stations unwillingly into the VHF band.” In June, the FCC proposed to reserve at least one TV channel in every market for white spaces devices and wireless mics after the incentive auction and repacking (see 1506160043). “All that is at issue here is the post-repacking of secondary services and unlicensed services. Both of which are mentioned in the 2012 Act.” PK officials met with officials from the Media Bureau, Office of Engineering and Technology and Incentive Auction Task Force, said the filing posted Thursday in 15-146.

The FTC’s National Do Not Call Registry has more than 222 million active registrations, the agency said in a report to Congress released Thursday. The registry was launched in 2003 and continues to get bigger. The most recent numbers are up 4.9 million registrations over the previous year, the FTC said. “Consumers continue to register their telephone numbers, verify registration of numbers, and submit complaints of suspected violations at a steadily high rate,” the report said. “The FTC continues to look for and make improvements to the system to better serve both consumers and telemarketers while maintaining the efficient management and accuracy of the Registry.” In FY 2015, 2,504 entities paid fees totaling $13.3 million for access to the registry, the FTC said. Companies pay $60 per area code per year to access the registry, with the maximum fee for accessing the entire registry an annual $16,482, the FTC said. Another 20,596 accessed the registry without paying a fee because they access five or fewer area codes or are a charity. Changes to technology pose the threat of more nuisance calls, the FTC said. VoIP calling “allows callers, including law-breakers, to make higher volumes of calls inexpensively from anywhere in the world,” the FTC said. “New technologies also allow illegal telemarketers to fake the caller ID information that accompanies their calls, which allows them to conceal their identity from consumers and law enforcement.” Telemarketers are also making increased use of automated dialing technology “to make very high volumes of illegal calls without significant expense,” the FTC said. The commission voted 4-0 to authorize the report, which also addresses the impact of the five-year re-registration requirement that was eliminated in 2007 and agency response to new technologies that are increasing illegal telemarketing calls.

Forty-seven percent of Americans said they felt "confused, discouraged or impatient" when deciding whether to share personal information with companies, Pew Research Center said Wednesday of findings in a new survey asking people about their feelings about the issue. Conducted earlier this year, the survey found that 50 percent were confident they understood how their personal data were being used by companies. But Pew found that "a sizable number of U.S. adults said they were confused over information provided in company privacy policies, discouraged by the amount of effort needed to understand the implications of sharing their data, and impatient because they wanted to learn more about the information-sharing process but felt they needed to make a decision right away." The survey also found few differences in such negative feelings between men and women and between people of different income levels. But Pew said people under age 50 said they felt slightly more impatient about providing personal data than did those 50 and older. The latest survey mirrors other polls saying Americans feel they have less control over how their information is shared and used, Pew said.

The Consumer Technology Association began looking into the enhanced CES security measures it announced Dec. 17 immediately after the Nov. 13 Paris terrorist attacks (see 1512170062), Karen Chupka, senior vice president-CES and CTA corporate business strategy, told us earlier this month. The announced measures include the strictest policy on bags ever enforced at CES, outdoing even the security at the January 2002 CES after the Sept. 11 attacks. That year's security included bag searches, but no bag restrictions, and no metal-detector pat-downs (see 0111010038). With the Paris attacks, “we realized we would have to start relooking at our plans, and looking at what was going to make sense to upgrade” CES security, Chupka said. “The one thing we did differently this year is that we’re looking at restricting the size of bags,” she said. “The fact is that if we are doing searches, we need to be able to move people through as quickly as possible. We just can’t have huge backpacks with thousands of pockets because that just slows everything up.” The new CES rules bar luggage from show facilities, and rolling bags of any size, including laptop bags. Attendees also are limited to two bags per person, each no bigger than 12 x 17 x 6 inches. CTA is working “with different people” to put the enhanced security steps into practice, Chupka said. She doesn’t know how many entry checkpoints will be at each CES venue and whether any entry points that were open at past CES events now will be closed, she said. “I don’t have that answer yet because we’re still working through all the different plans as far as where we’re going to have different access points,” she said. “But for the most part, most of the things that we’ve had open in the past, we will try to keep those major areas open.” CTA will try to maintain “secured areas” between adjacent CES buildings to minimize security disruptions on showgoers, Chupka said. “When you’re coming out of the Westgate, for example, and you’re coming into the North Hall, we’ll keep a secured area so you won’t have to go through another checkpoint there,” she said. However, for those moving to the Venetian from the North Hall, rescreening will be required “because that’s a separate building,” she said.

Bruce Kushnick asked a federal court to force the FCC to release records under the Freedom of Information Act about an Enforcement Bureau investigation of Verizon Wireless (Cellco Partnership) over allegations it improperly billed customers for unauthorized third-party products and services ("cramming"). In a complaint Tuesday seeking injunctive relief from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Kushnick, executive director of New Networks Institute, said the FOIA request was "relevant to his work as a journalist." Kushnick said the bureau and Verizon Wireless entered into a consent decree May 12 in which the company agreed to make $90 million in payments to consumers, states and the U.S. Treasury to "ostensibly" resolve the cramming allegations (see 1505120047). He said he then submitted a FOIA request for all documents reviewed or generated by the FCC in the probe, including third-party documents and documents exchanged by Verizon and the agency. The FCC released 1,788 pages of documents in three batches that generally Verizon had agreed to with redactions, he said, but it withheld 14,327 pages it had identified as relevant, plus internal agency documents the commission said it didn't have to identify or produce. "There is no clear explanation of why information is redacted and why documents are not produced," said Kushnick, who said some redactions included publicly available information. He called an FCC summary explanation "plainly inadequate under FOIA standards as interpreted by the courts," and he said agency claims of exemptions couldn't withstand scrutiny. "Even when Verizon had no objection to the disclosure of documents, the FCC without explanation, did not disclose certain documents," he said. Kushnick recently wrote a Huffington Post piece headlined "Exposing One of the Largest Accounting Scandals in American History." He said AT&T, CenturyLink, Verizon and other major telcos had "manipulate[d] their financial accounting to make the local phone networks and services look unprofitable and have used this 'fact' in many public policy and regulatory decisions that benefited the incumbent telecommunications utilities." He said at the core of the scandal was the "FCC's Big Freeze." He detailed his charges against Verizon in recent filings to the agency in docket 10-132. The FCC and the telcos didn't comment Wednesday.

The FCC said it reached a settlement with the New York City Department of Education resolving a commission investigation into whether the school system violated competitive bidding rules for the E-rate USF support program. Under a consent decree entered into with the FCC Enforcement Bureau, the NYC DOE will pay $3 million to the U.S. Treasury and withdraw funding requests for the 2011-2013 period, which already had been frozen by the commission, said an FCC news release and a bureau order issued Wednesday. The NYC DOE also agreed to withdraw claims for any further E-rate funding for services it purchased in 2002-2010, adhere to a detailed compliance plan and auditing schedule, and provide "extensive employee training on E-rate rule compliance," among other measures, the release said. The NYC DOE had no immediate comment.

Richard Wiley, former FCC chairman and founder of Wiley Rein, is stepping down as chairman of the firm effective Jan. 1, Wiley Rein said Wednesday. Wiley is retiring from the firm’s executive committee, but will continue at the firm as chairman emeritus. Wiley has also headed the firm’s 80-attorney communications practice. Bert Rein, a specialist in antitrust and commercial law and the firm’s co-founder, is also leaving the executive committee and will become vice chairman emeritus, the firm said. Industry lawyers said the change isn't a surprise, at least within Wiley Rein, and that a succession plan had been in the works for a long time. Wiley was at the FCC 1970-1977, rising from general counsel to commissioner to chairman. There has been an orderly transition, starting with Peter Shields being named managing partner several years ago, Andrew Schwartzman, senior counselor at the Georgetown Institute for Public Representation, told us in an email. “Dick is unquestionably the most influential member of the private communications bar and, if anything, this change gives him more time to practice law. I don't see any sign that he is slowing down.” Kathleen Kirby, co-chair of the telecom, media and technology practice, and Kimberly Melvin, partner in the insurance practice, will replace Wiley and Rein on the executive committee.

Nearly two dozen privacy, civil liberties and transparency groups urged President Barack Obama to light a fire under the White House budget office to comply with the requirement to develop an open government plan. The coalition, which sent a letter Monday, said the Office of Management and Budget failed to release a plan in 2012 and 2014, when every other agency did as mandated by the 2009 presidential memo. "Many of us have repeatedly expressed concern over the failure of OMB to meet this obligation in multiple forums," the coalition's letter said. "The failure is particularly troubling because OMB is an agency with a central oversight role on information policy, it has responsibility for implementation of this plan, and it often serves as the right hand of the President." The coalition said complying with the directive is important because the open government plans "encourage agencies to articulate how openness helps them fulfill their missions, address public concerns, and build openness into the way they operate." OMB, which developed a plan in 2010, hasn't updated it and declined to say when it might be published, said the letter signed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Project on Government Oversight, the Sunlight Foundation and others. "And we believe it is on course to fail again," it said.