A new voluntary privacy best practices guide for commercial and private drone operators, agreed to by some participants Wednesday through a collaborative NTIA-driven process, is being praised by some organizations (see 1605180044). "This forward-thinking approach facilitates the development of well-informed and thoughtful standards that balance privacy rights with the need to protect US innovation and economic competitiveness," said the Small UAV Coalition in a statement issued after Wednesday's meeting. Chris Calabrese, Center for Democracy and Technology vice president-policy, said in a statement the document has several important elements such as restricting "persistent and continuous" data collection of people and a detailed data collection policy, saying operators can't retain data longer than "reasonably necessary," and requiring drone operators to "minimize operations" over private property without consent of the property owner or legal authority. Participants began meeting in August. While many representatives appeared to support the document, several drone industry, insurance and privacy representatives said Wednesday they didn't for various reasons, saying further meetings wouldn't be productive. “Drones are already being used for search and rescue and to assist farmers, home contractors, photographers, newsgatherers, and may soon be used for wireless internet and delivery. These standards will help ensure these technologies are deployed with privacy in mind," said Future of Privacy Forum CEO Jules Polonetsky in a statement in support. Brian Wynne, CEO of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, said in a statement that the document will help "facilitate the safe and responsible use" of drones. "Rather than create a complicated patchwork of new laws to address privacy, AUVSI encourages states and municipalities to allow commercial operators to adopt these uniform, federal privacy best practices," he said. Angela Simpson, NTIA deputy assistant secretary for communications and information, said in a blog post the voluntary guide will help build consumer trust, give users tools to innovate while respecting privacy and also provide accountability and transparency. NTIA will work with stakeholders to disseminate and promote the practices widely, she said.

The FCC is seeking comment on its proposed 2016 regulatory fees, including an increase for direct broadcast satellite from 12 cents per subscriber per year to 27 cents, said a commissioner-approved NPRM issued Thursday. The proposed fees also include a new higher population row in the table for AM and FM broadcasters, “to divide broadcasters that serve 3,000,001-6,000,000 from those that have a higher population coverage,” the NPRM said. “We now tentatively conclude adopting these proposals will make the regulatory fees for AM and FM radio more rational.” The NPRM also tentatively concludes that the top-10 market TV stations should pay “about twice” what stations in markets 26 to 50 pay. The NPRM doesn't complicate any changes to TV regulatory fees based on the incentive auction because it's still too early to determine the auction's effects. “We intend to consider any changed circumstances due to the incentive auction as part of the FY 2017 regulatory fee proceeding,” the NPRM said. The FCC proposes to collect $384 million in regulatory fees in 2016. Comments are due June 20, replies July 5.

CTIA urged caution as the FCC moves forward on an order and Further NPRM on 911 outage reporting, slated for a vote at Wednesday’s meeting (see 1605050053). In potentially the biggest development, in an FNPRM the FCC also is seeking comment on imposing Part 4 outage reporting requirements on broadband providers for the first time. CTIA and representatives of member companies met with Daudeline Meme, an aide to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, a filing in docket 15-80 said. “CTIA reiterated its support for targeted revisions to the Part 4 requirements that can provide meaningful and reasonable improvements to outage reporting, including standardized and simplified methods for calculating the number of users potentially affected by a wireless network outage and for reporting a wireless network outage to a Public Safety Answering Points [sic],” CTIA said in a filing at the commission. “CTIA also encouraged the Commission to refrain from subjecting wireless providers to unworkable rules, including those pertaining to required reporting of congestion in the radio access network, partial loss of communications to a PSAP, and sharing of [Network Outage Reporting System] data lacking effective, meaningful safeguards designed to protect such data from unauthorized disclosure.” USTelecom reported on meetings with aides to all five commissioners. “In each of these meetings, USTelecom emphasized that the Report and Order contained provisions that would increase the costs for companies to comply with new obligations without clear corresponding benefits for consumers or improvements in infrastructure reliability or resiliency,” the group said. “We noted that resources that would now have to be redirected towards implementation and subsequent reporting efforts would detract from other initiatives with clear consumer benefits such as upgrading or expanding facilities that would increase broadband availability.”

The FCC debuted its online Consumer Complaint Data Center Wednesday intended to provide “greater transparency into consumer complaints,” the agency said in a news release. “This online platform will provide the public with more information about consumer complaints and tools to customize how they view the data,” the release said. “Greater transparency of our consumer complaint data further empowers consumers and provides the public -- as well as communications providers -- with greater insight into consumers’ concerns,” said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in a statement. The database will be updated daily with data on informal complaints submitted to the FCC, and will include information about the communications service being complained about, the method the consumer uses to get the service, the problem and the consumer's location, the release said. The information in the database will go back to 2015, the release said. “Such complaints can be used to inform policy decisions by the Commission, allow companies to facilitate resolutions to specific problems raised, and can be used by the Enforcement Bureau to track trends and enforce the Commission’s rules,” the release said. “This launch is another step in the broader effort of the FCC to streamline its consumer complaint processing and make more detailed, real-time data available to the public.”

Sprint said the FCC shouldn't extend business data service (BDS) comment deadlines, as requested by NCTA last week (see 1605130039). "There is no basis for any further delay in adopting long-overdue [BDS rules], also known as special access, reform," said a Sprint filing Tuesday in docket 05-25. NCTA asked that the initial comment deadline of June 28 be extended at least 45 days and replies due July 26 be given at least a 30-day extension. Noting NCTA arguments about the challenges of analyzing the FCC's largest data collection in its history, Sprint said that dataset has been publicly available for more than six months. "All participants in these proceedings -- including NCTA -- have had ample opportunity to analyze the BDS data collection, and the Commission has allowed more than enough time for parties to address the issues," it said. Sprint disputed NCTA arguments the cable industry was blindsided by proposed BDS regulation: "The cable industry has been anything but an idle bystander in this proceeding." Cable operators have been active participants in a proceeding in which the FCC made clear its intent to address market power and commenters have asked for a regime that applies equally to all BDS providers, including cable, Sprint said. "It appears that NCTA’s real complaint is not that the cable industry lacks sufficient notice or time to comment on the Further Notice, but that the cable industry does not agree with the proposals in Further Notice," Sprint said. "This proceeding has already undergone eight separate extensions of pleading cycles, each one delaying the reform that will repair the marketplace. ... Rather than seeking additional delays, NCTA and its members should air their grievances in their comments."

Verizon and striking union workers entered federal mediation after a productive meeting Tuesday in Washington, U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez said. Verizon, the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers met with Perez and Allison Beck, “an experienced federal mediator who the parties agreed today would assist in the ongoing contract negotiations,” Perez said in a news release Tuesday evening. “Discussions will continue in Washington this week under the auspices of the Department of Labor.” The parties and federal officials pledged not to make public statements during the talks, Perez said. “I’m encouraged by the parties’ continued commitment to remain at the bargaining table and work toward a resolution. We will continue to facilitate conversations to help the unions and the company reach an agreement.” Labor dispute experts have said that mediation could be critical in breaking through the parties’ stubborn disagreement (see 1605020044).

The FCC has more work to do in promoting broadband adoption after adopting a Lifeline modernization order, said Gigi Sohn, counselor to Chairman Tom Wheeler, Wednesday at the Net Inclusion 2016 gathering in Kansas City, Missouri. Sohn said the order directs the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau to develop a comprehensive digital inclusion plan to help the commission "better understand non-price barriers to broadband adoption" and to propose ways to remove those obstacles. The CGB is also to engage with community-based organizations, local and tribal governments, and industry stakeholders to pursue strategies for promoting broadband adoption through Lifeline and increased digital literacy, she said. The bureau is also tasked with helping broadband ISPs work with schools, libraries, community centers and others that serve low-income consumers, she said. Sohn asked for audience members to help. "Successful broadband adoption programs come from the bottom up, not the top down," she said in prepared remarks. "Trusted community-based organizations and anchor institutions know how best to serve residents most in need of the tools to get connected. We at the FCC will be counting on you and your partners to do one-on-one work with people in your communities to help eligible consumers who don’t have Internet access take advantage of the new Lifeline." A Wireline Bureau public notice asked any carriers with pending Lifeline compliance plan requests or petitions to be a Lifeline-only eligible telecom carrier to affirm in writing by June 7 that they still want bureau review of their applications. The Lifeline order is "part of a much greater accomplishment that I don’t think people rightly appreciate -- largely because it happened so gradually over a span of seven years," said Sohn, referring to FCC moves to shift various USF voice mechanisms to broadband support. "With the modernization of the FCC’s universal service programs -- notably Lifeline -- we are in a stronger position to bridge the digital opportunity gaps in the years ahead. If we seize this opportunity and do the day-to-day work to get people connected, we will look up in a few years and there will be millions more Americans enjoying the benefits of high-speed Internet -- for employment, for education, for entertainment, for health care, for civic engagement, for a better quality of life. Now that’s very gradual change we can believe in."

Participants in an NTIA-driven process to develop privacy best practices for commercial and private drone operators are meeting Wednesday to review and possibly approve the draft document that was released nearly a month ago. A small subgroup of stakeholders involved in developing the latest document said it has gotten wide support among drone manufacturers and service providers, privacy groups and some technology companies. They said the larger NTIA multistakeholder group may reach consensus on the draft (see 1604280066). But Ryan Hagemann, the Niskanen Center's technology and civil liberties policy analyst, said his organization didn't support the draft because it doesn't "properly account for potential innovative uses of drones" and could potentially result in some negative unintended consequences for startups (see 1605030031). Wednesday's meeting, which will be webcast, will be 2-5 p.m. at the American Institute of Architects boardroom, 1735 New York Ave. NW.

Protect Internet Freedom (PIF) is pleased some comments opposed to the FCC NPRM on privacy rules for ISPs are finally showing up in the agency’s electronic comment filing system (ECFS), a spokesman for the group emailed Tuesday. Last week, the group accused the FCC of "throttling" (see 1605110058). Among the comments are “many of those from Protect Internet Freedom members outraged by the FCC's omission of Google and the other biggest personal data collectors from the NRPM,” the spokesman said. “Hopefully the ECFS has been fixed so that the thousands of comments that we have collected and submitted to date will have their voices publicly heard.” PIF is still trying to resolve how comments on its comment portal can be directly filed at the FCC, the spokesman said. “Despite multiple conversations with various FCC staff there is still no resolution. … In the meantime, we have delivered some comments by hand and have also created a temporary, albeit clunky online workaround, until the FCC ‘glitch’ can be resolved."

AT&T filed a legal challenge to an FCC business data service (BDS) tariff order barring certain ILEC pricing practices that the agency said harm competition and slow the IP transition (see 1604280057 and 1605030001). In a petition for review filed last week that was made available Tuesday, AT&T asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to vacate the order "on the grounds that it is arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion within the meaning of the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. § 701 et seq.; violates federal law, including, but not limited to, the Constitution, the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, and Commission regulation promulgated thereunder; and is otherwise contrary to law." The FCC had no comment. The order prohibited prospectively the "all-or-nothing" discount plans of AT&T, CenturyLink, Frontier Communications and Verizon, and sought further comment on how to treat existing plans. It also found AT&T, Frontier and Verizon were charging excessive shortfall penalties to customers with volume commitments, and AT&T and Frontier were charging excessive early termination fees to customers with term commitments. The telcos were given 60 days to change their tariffs. Frontier indicated it doesn’t plan to file an appeal at this time. CenturyLink and Verizon didn't comment.