If the FCC moves forward with privacy rules for ISPs, it should align those rules with its customer proprietary network information rules, Verizon said in a letter. Verizon representatives reported on a meeting with Wireline Bureau staff. “We discussed the benefits of harmonizing the Commission’s CPNI rules for voice services with any new rules addressing broadband privacy,” said a filing on the meeting in docket 16-106. “Many customers purchase both services from Verizon and other carriers and a single set of rules will benefit consumers and providers through simplified notices and processes. … Harmonization also would provide the Commission with the opportunity to update its existing but outdated voice rules, including those related to authentication that may inhibit providers from taking advantage of new, more secure technologies." The FCC is considering privacy rules for ISPs, with a final order expected at October's commissioner meeting (see 1607070052).

Moderators of the presidential and vice presidential debates should ask the candidates what they would do to promote increased access to affordable high-speed broadband, several groups urged the moderators Monday. The groups said they want the moderators to pose this question: “Home broadband internet access has become an essential tool for education, employment, civic engagement, and even healthcare. Yet 34 million people still lack access to affordable high-speed internet. What will you do as president to help expand access to affordable high-speed internet for everyone in America?” The groups include Common Cause, the Communications Workers of America, Demand Progress, Engine and Public Knowledge. Voters must understand the candidates’ plans for low-cost broadband access, they said in a letter to the five moderators. "Both candidates have promised major investments in infrastructure development, and broadband internet should be a part of these plans,” they said. Lawmakers told us Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's broadband infrastructure plan has bipartisan potential but raises questions about the funding source (see 1609230040). Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump hasn't mentioned broadband when discussing infrastructure investment. The three topics for Monday's debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, were to be: America's Direction; Achieving Prosperity; and Securing America. CTA President Gary Shapiro also detailed what he would like to see from the debate. "Unfortunately, some of her proposals, such as 'free' Wi-Fi, carry staggering price tags that go unmentioned in her tech agenda," Shapiro said of Clinton's plans in a Monday blog post. "Trump promises to push 'pause' on all new rules and review all previous rules  --  a tall order, though it certainly sounds attractive. Unfortunately, Trump remains as vague as ever, saying only that excessive regulation costs our country upwards of $2 trillion a year." Shapiro hopes for attention on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the sharing economy, the deficit and immigration, he said. The candidates should talk about how to overhaul agencies, including the FCC, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance said in a blog post. The FCC “continues to assert more power (even after being rebuked by the courts) on net neutrality, expansion of government broadband, and privacy,” the group said. “TPA wants to hear from both candidates how they would fix our agencies and how they would reduce the rules and regulations being promulgated at a rate that is costing the economy more than a trillion dollars in economic activity each year.”

The Rural Utilities Service “will aim to double its annual investment in telecom broadband loans in Indian Country -- to $50 million in FY17 -- and dedicate staff to providing tribes with technical assistance to help unlock existing resources,” the White House said in its fact sheet for Monday’s Tribal Nations Conference in Washington, saying the administration is "prioritizing tribal connectivity." The White House-proposed budget also “proposed significant investments in education information IT to enhance broadband and digital access for students at [Bureau of Indian Education]-funded schools,” the fact sheet said. It said the administration already has, “as part of ConnectED, an initiative designed to connect schools and libraries to the digital age, the [FCC] E-rate program provided broadband, Wi-Fi, and telecommunications funding to 245 tribal schools serving over 60,000 students and 31 tribal libraries last funding year." Starting Dec. 1, it said, "the enhanced Lifeline program subsidy, which is available to low-income people living on Tribal lands, can be used to help cover the cost of broadband service.”

Cable interests, AT&T and competitive fiber providers continued to lobby the FCC against potential business data service (BDS) regulation they say would be unjustified. Rate regulation of Cox Communications offerings "will significantly impact BDS investment decisions, particularly on competitive providers," said a Cox filing Monday in docket 16-143 on a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Mike O'Rielly. "We urged the Commission to reject competitive market tests ('CMTs') based on overly granular areas such as census blocks or specific locations, and to reject CMTs that would require multiple competitors before finding a market competitive. We noted that such tests would lead to exceedingly broad price regulation that is not supported by the record." Cox said any new regulation should be limited to incumbent telco TDM-based services where they have substantial market power. The American Cable Association opposed any rate regulation of nonincumbent BDS providers, which merit "light touch" regulation, said ACA on a meeting with General Counsel Howard Symons, Wireline Bureau Chief Matt DelNero and another staffer. AT&T said a competitive market test should deem a census tract competitive if at least two providers have deployed fiber facilities within 2,000 feet. AT&T questioned the proposals of competitors, including Incompas/Verizon, that would count competitors only if they have actual customers or connections in the relevant area. It also made filings on: "endogeneity" problems it said plagued market power conclusions based on regression analysis conducted by FCC consultant Marc Rysman (here); a study disputing Sprint arguments (here); and various BDS issues discussed with Symons, DelNero, an aide to Chairman Tom Wheeler and other staffers (here). Lightower Fiber Networks and Lumos Networks argued against regulating competitive fiber provider rates, as did Uniti Fiber. Granite Telecommunications urged the FCC to "delink" a tech-transition wholesale platform service remedy from the BDS proceeding and retain the wholesale "regulatory backstop" until it completes an examination of the wholesale voice platform market. The Quilt, a nonprofit group representing research and education (R&E) networks, asked the FCC not to sweep R&E networks into the same BDS regulatory category as commercial providers.

Technology can mean more inclusion for people with disabilities, but only if that tech is designed to be accessible, said Karen Peltz-Strauss, FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau deputy chief, at a National Consumers League event Wednesday, according to a written remarks posted online Friday. Too many websites remain inaccessible to people with vision loss, she said. But Peltz-Strauss said agency actions in recent years on high quality captioning, text-to-911 access, hearing aid compatibility and distribution of free communication devices to low-income people with disabilities "not only made the virtual world vastly more accessible [but] also created a greater awareness of the needs of this population." She also said the private sector is incorporating accessibility features into products more than ever.

The FCC shouldn’t hold back zero-rating services, which don’t count toward consumer wireless data limits, those on a Mobile Future panel said on a webinar Friday. Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council CEO Kim Keenan said intervention would be "chilling and devastating to consumer freedom and empowerment." Zero rating is important for connecting low-income and minority communities, she said. "There are a lot of people who are cost challenged and they can't just buy unlimited data.” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler at first praised zero rating, but has become more skeptical, she said. But the commission should wait and see what happens, intervening on a case-by-case basis if only there are bad actors, Keenan said. Panelists also supported sponsored data, where companies pay for a free-data service. It’s not a net neutrality problem, said Doug Brake, telecom policy analyst for the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. A smaller company could set a smaller budget for their sponsored data campaign, and it’s “not something that’s a huge capital expenditure to participate in,” he said.

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology and Wireless Bureau are watching closely efforts to evaluate the coexistence of LTE-unlicensed and Wi-Fi, OET Chief Julius Knapp said in a Friday blog post. Knapp said the FCC will start to move forward on certifying license assisted access (LAA) devices that have been submitted to the agency. “We are aware that equipment manufacturers have since developed devices based on this standard and we will proceed to grant equipment certification for LAA devices that meet the Commission’s rules,” he said. LAA is considered a close cousin to LTE-unlicensed. The Wi-Fi Alliance released its long-awaited test plan Wednesday (see 1609210069). “Throughout this process we have strongly encouraged industry to address and resolve sharing concerns while preserving the principle of permission-less access for unlicensed devices throughout the spectrum,” Knapp wrote. "We are pleased with the progress that has been made. OET and [the Wireless Bureau] will continue to closely monitor the roll-out of unlicensed LTE technology to ensure there is no detrimental impact on consumers." Consumers win "with the news that the FCC agreed with our position to authorize LTE services for unlicensed spectrum, which will help us meet users’ demands for mobile-first lifestyles,” CTIA said in an emailed statement. In a second blog post, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said Friday that 5G was a major theme of his visit to Seattle and the Competitive Carriers Association conference. “In a separate visit to T-Mobile’s headquarters, I saw a demonstration of technology under development, including 5G technologies, and heard about the work they are pursuing to bring next-generation products to market,” Wheeler wrote. “It’s not just wireless carriers that have begun thinking about our 5G future. Boeing welcomed me to their facilities, where they are already using number of advanced fabrication technologies that rely on unlicensed spectrum, and they have begun exploring the possibilities of more robust 5G connectivity.”

Windstream cited "flaws" and Broadband Coalition "crocodile tears" in disputing CenturyLink arguments against business data service regulation, but CenturyLink said the critics were comparing "apples and oranges." Windstream said CenturyLink's opposition to Incompas/Verizon-proposed cuts in legacy BDS rates centered on claims that DS1 and DS3 service costs had increased. "This conclusion uses an inflated view of costs and completely ignores accompanying increases in revenues -- which are significantly outstripping costs (even as alleged by CenturyLink) and show that incumbent LEC BDS operations require greater commission oversight," said a Windstream filing Thursday in FCC docket 16-143. Windstream said CenturyLink data show that its "BDS revenue increases in recent years far exceed its supposed BDS cost increases," with net operating income per circuit rising by 47 percent over four years. “CenturyLink is crying a river of crocodile tears in hopes it can continue floating its boatload of BDS profits," said a release from the Broadband Coalition (comprised of EarthLink, Level 3 and Windstream). CenturyLink emailed in response: “Windstream and the Broadband Coalition are comparing apples and oranges by looking at all of our ILEC costs and revenues, but dividing them by special access circuits alone and ignoring all of our residential customers.” Replying to prior comments in the BDS docket, consultant Jonathan Baker made a detailed filing on behalf of Level 3 and Windstream, saying the presence of one nearby rival is insufficient to constrain the BDS prices of ILECs with market power. The Ad Hoc Telecommunications Users Committee disputed it had made any accounting proposal similar to what AT&T alleged in a previous filing, but the group fleshed out its views on price cap rules. "If these requirements are what AT&T was attempting to target in its ex parte filing, then its hyperbolic mischaracterization of them merely confirms that Ad Hoc was correct to identify them as effective measures for incenting BDS providers to charge rates consistent with the Commission’s price caps rules," said an Ad Hoc letter. Former Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., now chairman of the Internet Innovation Alliance, wrote a commentary saying competition is the best way to promote BDS deployment and innovation. "Unjustified" FCC regulation that ignores economic realities would cause a BDS "investment depression," he wrote. Possible "benchmark" regulation would harm competitive fiber providers in their efforts to deploy new fiber networks, including for mobile backhaul, said a Uniti Fiber filing on meetings with aides to Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioners Mike O'Rielly, Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel.

FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai backed a delay of the planned Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition. Capitol Hill Republicans also are pushing for an IANA transition delay and are focusing on mandating it through proposed language in the short-term continuing resolution to fund the government when FY 2016 ends Sept. 30 (see 1609220067). The CR language would extend an existing rider in the Department of Commerce's FY 2016 budget that bars NTIA from using its funds during the fiscal year to execute the IANA transition (see 1609130050). The existing internet governance model “has been a tremendous success,” Pai said in a Wednesday statement. When NTIA announced in 2014 its intention to spin off its oversight of the IANA functions, ”I argued that the burden of proof was on those favoring this momentous change,” Pai said, and “getting it right is far more important than getting it done right now, and additional time to consider the merits of the transition would benefit all stakeholders.” Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump earlier backed a transition delay (see 1609210070). Commissioner Michael O'Rielly backed a transition delay during a Tuesday International Bar Association conference. “All details of the transition must be worked out, fully considered and all questions answered before this transition goes any further,” O'Rielly said in prepared remarks.

The FCC Disability Advisory Committee (DAC) approved a recommendation Thursday saying all information and communications technology (ICT) stakeholders should stay informed about the needs of people with cognitive disabilities as communications technologies evolve. “Where appropriate, ICT stakeholders” should follow and participate in research, “learning about emerging standards and guidance from knowledgeable organizations,” the resolution said. ICT companies also should attend cognitive disability conferences and follow the discussions in online communities of people with disabilities and their caregivers, the resolution said. The FCC held a summit last October on communications difficulties faced by people with cognitive disabilities (see 1510280037). The DAC also got a report on potential problems with Apple’s new operating system, IOS 10.0.1, which offers text telephone (TTY) capabilities used by some with hearing disabilities. Toni Dunne, external affairs manager at Intrado, said 911 calls made using the service come through as “silent calls” at call centers. “IOS TTY does not send TTY tones to activate the TTY equipment at the 911 center,” she said. Christian Vogler, DAC member from Gallaudet University, confirmed the report. “Apple does know there are issues with the iOS; however, I don't know what their plan is at this time and I don’t know what your expectations are, but there are issues,” Vogler said. Apple didn’t comment. "With iOS 10 and a cellular connection on your iPhone, you can make TTY calls without any extra hardware," said an Apple support webpage. "You can also find transcripts of your previous TTY calls.”