The priority of the E-rate program in the future must be ensuring there’s “high-speed Wi-Fi in every classroom,” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a letter to Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. Now, 40 percent of classrooms are not Wi-Fi enabled, Wheeler said. E-rate modernization is “one of the most important issues before the Commission today,” he said. Goodlatte wrote Wheeler July 10 to raise general concerns about the FCC’s direction on the program, and Wheeler replied Monday. The letters were posted by the FCC Friday in docket 14-8 (http://bit.ly/YdXc5K).

Congress should work to release more government health data and encourage consumer access to their own health data, said stakeholders in comments filed to the Senate Finance Committee. Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, in June requested comment on how to improve healthcare transparency (http://1.usa.gov/1lznzv4). The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation’s Center for Data Innovation said Congress should focus on three areas: “Releasing taxpayer-funded research data in non-proprietary and machine readable formats; releasing claims data from other programs besides Medicare, including data from Medicaid, Tricare, Federal Employees Health Benefits, and Indian Health; and encouraging data sharing across the healthcare industry” (http://bit.ly/1t4hMQp). Pew Charitable Trusts also pointed to medical device performance data as critical to both doctors and patients. “One area where patients and physicians need better information is the performance of medical devices after they receive approval or clearance from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)” (http://bit.ly/1oy1n7D). The eHealth Initiative, a health IT advocate, pushed for patients’ greater access to their own health data. “Increasing the availability of mobile, medical device patient data sources for integration into the clinical health record will further enrich the data available for patients and clinicians to monitor care outside traditional settings of care” (http://bit.ly/1uybVG7). Comments were due Monday and have been published throughout the week.

The Parents Television Council (PTC) praised Local Choice, a proposal to end TV blackouts that Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., recently circulated. The lawmakers say they want to attach the proposal, which would overhaul retransmission consent rules, to Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization legislation. Broadcasters have expressed deep concerns and are expected to lobby against the proposal, and the big cable companies of NCTA have stayed silent (CD Aug 13 p4). “This proposal is a wonderful and important first step for consumer choice,” PTC President Tim Winter said in a statement (http://bit.ly/1nQ9kyV). “Consumers, not the media conglomerates, should decide for themselves which networks they want to purchase and bring into their homes. While the present measure would give consumers choice over the broadcast networks, we hope this will ultimately pave the way for consumers to enjoy greater choice for all of their cable programming.” The PTC is a member of the American Television Alliance (ATVA), which includes several pay-TV operators that have sought to overhaul retransmission consent. “Broadcasters’ opposition shows that they're unwilling to accept even a reasonable solution to our broken retransmission consent system,” an ATVA spokesman told us. “They've complained for years that they don’t get fair market value for their content and this bill provides exactly that. ... This is a simple and elegant solution that should appease both sides and consumers and it can immediately be added to STELA."

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., blasted wireless cramming Wednesday. “These unauthorized and unscrupulous third-party charges -- hidden in bills through vague and deceptive language -- have robbed consumers of billions of dollars,” Blumenthal said in a statement. “Voluntary guidelines have clearly failed to curb this growing nuisance, and phone companies can no longer be trusted to do the right thing without strong federal regulation.” He held a news conference in New Britain, Connecticut, with the state’s Consumer Counsel Elin Swanson Katz and a victim of wireless cramming. The senator intended to call “on phone companies and wireless carriers to stop the unscrupulous practice of ‘cramming’ unauthorized third-party charges onto bills,” said a Blumenthal advisory sent out before the event, which referred to cramming as a “scourge.” Blumenthal also tweeted Wednesday, signing with his initials: “Phone cramming is a billion dollar industry that brings in revenue for major carriers which keep between 30% & 40% of the profits.” He recently led a Senate Commerce Committee hearing focused on the topic.

The office of Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., fired back at the FCC on municipal broadband. Blackburn had led an effort to stop the FCC from pre-empting state laws restricting municipal broadband networks, and the agency recently released FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s response (http://bit.ly/1sVVAJn) to Blackburn, vice chairman of the Commerce Committee, and other Republicans. That “response is not only inadequate but further highlights concerns raised by Members of Congress and by Chief Justice John Roberts regarding the dangers posed by the growing power of the administrative state,” Blackburn’s spokesman told us Wednesday. “Chairman Wheeler wrongly assumes that his starting point for regulatory action is Section 706 when in reality it’s the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Dillon’s Rule. Chairman Wheeler’s letter is further confirmation that he believes that Washington knows best and that state laws are nothing more than inconvenient truths for unelected bureaucrats to ignore.” The 10th Amendment empowers state governments, and Dillon’s Rule derives from several court decisions to define what municipalities can and cannot do when up against state authority. The rule allows state lawmakers “to control local government structure, methods of financing its activities, its procedures and the authority to understake [sic] functions,” said the National League of Cities on its website (http://bit.ly/1ovdAtI). In his letter responding to Republicans, Wheeler said there is “reason to believe” that many state laws limit competition, contrary to federal policy goals, and thus are open to pre-emption. He pointed to Communications Act Section 706 as the authority charging the agency with its role here. Some municipal broadband projects have been “less successful than hoped” while others succeeded, Wheeler added: “I expect that communities will decide for themselves the appropriate type and level of financial risk to take on in light of their needs in the normal course of local self-governance.”

The FCC should hold some of its fall net neutrality roundtables outside of Washington, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., told FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in a letter released Wednesday. “While the roundtables the Commission is holding in Washington will help to promote further public input, I strongly urge you to expand your listening sessions outside of the Beltway,” Leahy said (http://1.usa.gov/1q8KwUq). He described a field hearing he held last month in Vermont on net neutrality, and cited the more than 1 million comments on the issue that the FCC has received. “The roundtable events are designed to incorporate a wide range of views on this important topic, and they will be open to the public and streamed live online,” an FCC spokeswoman told us of Leahy’s letter. “In addition, both online viewers and those who attend in person will have the opportunity to ask questions.” Most of those who commented “will not be able to come to Washington to participate in the roundtables that have been scheduled, but their voices are more important than industry lobbyists and Members of Congress,” Leahy said. “Holding roundtables across the country will help ensure that Americans have a meaningful opportunity to participate.”

House Communications Subcommittee Vice Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio, will join with Republican FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai Thursday to discuss telecom, Latta said in a news release Tuesday. “Commissioner Pai has been a leading advocate for rural areas when it comes to building robust communications networks and delivering next-generation services to these communities,” Latta said in a statement (http://1.usa.gov/1sOIyvf). “His visit provides the opportunity to demonstrate how policies in Washington, D.C., directly affect Americans across the country and why continued investment in our rural areas is critical to the future growth and prosperity of our nation’s economy.” They plan a roundtable discussion at the American Legion hall in McClure, Ohio, at 11:30 a.m. with local telecom business owners, and tour the Buckeye Telesystem in Toledo starting at 2:15 p.m.

Last-mile broadband networks have “unique control” of access to their customers, Microsoft told Congress in its comments about interconnection. Several stakeholders have submitted comments, due Friday, to the House Communications Subcommittee on the topic, none officially posted online yet by the committee. The subcommittee is considering ideas for a rewrite of the 1996 Telecom Act. “Last-mile broadband network operators should not be permitted to leverage their control over or role in interconnection to their networks to circumvent open Internet policies,” Microsoft said. “The goals of a legal framework for interconnection should be to promote efficient connection between and among those networks, regardless of the particular network transmission medium, i.e., wireline or wireless, copper or fiber; and to enable frictionless exchange of traffic across those networks, regardless of the particular content, application, or service being exchanged,” Microsoft said. Yet Microsoft cautioned that Congress must not “simply transfer last century’s interconnection regime to a 21st century broadband interconnection regime,” saying interconnection policy must evolve in the IP environment. Level 3 did not file comments, its spokeswoman told us. “We didn’t file public comments, although we are working with Congressional staff on these issues,” she said. “Any Communications Act update needs to ensure that the networks of the future interconnect on reasonable terms, no matter the technologies involved.” Any update to the Communications Act “must recognize those principles” of past interconnection policy “and must continue to provide backstop rules to ensure fair interconnection,” the Level 3 spokeswoman said. NARUC filed comments defending the state role in interconnection as well as Communications Act sections 251 and 252, which ILECs have argued should not apply to IP interconnection. “Unfortunately, the FCC has, through inaction, encouraged carriers to ignore Congress’s instructions in Sections 251 and 252,” NARUC said. “The FCC’s failure to clarify VoIP’s regulatory status, through both Republican and Democratic Administrations, has spawned numerous otherwise unnecessary (and wasteful) State and Federal administrative proceedings and appeals at taxpayer and ratepayer expense.” The FCC “lacks the resources” to handle all interconnection policy disputes, NARUC added.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler told a House lawmaker that the agency is looking into the phone devices known as international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) catchers. “I have recently established a task force to initiate immediate steps to combat the illicit and unauthorized use of IMSI catchers,” Wheeler said in a letter to Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla. (http://bit.ly/1pMOV1O). “The mission of this task force is to develop concrete solutions to protect the cellular network systemically from similar unlawful intrusions and interceptions. The task force can also leverage the agency’s risk responsibility with our federal partners ... in order to clamp down on the unauthorized use of these devices and promote consumer privacy.” An IMSI catcher is a device used to intercept cellphone traffic and track the movement of wireless subscribers by simulating a fake wireless tower between the phone and the real tower used by the carrier.

Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, praised the town government in Rockport, Maine, Monday for opening its municipal-owned gigabit fiber network. The network -- a partnership among the town, ISP GWI, Maine Media Workshops and College, and Networkmaine -- is already in operation but the partnering groups held a ceremony Monday to officially launch the project. “Rockport ... has taken a significant step forward in ensuring that it is well-positioned to utilize and enjoy the many benefits of this tremendous new technology,” King said in a news release (http://1.usa.gov/1oY6psw).