The Regulatory Mix, TMI’s daily blog of regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of a TMI Regulatory Bulletin.
TELECOM
Delaware
The PSC proposes to eliminate its Regulation Governing Payphone Service Providers in Delaware. The proposed changes are a result of legislation (HB 96) which became effective in July 2013. Written comments may be submitted on or before April 2, 2015. A Public hearing on the proposal is scheduled for April 15, 2015. TMI Regulatory Bulletin Service subscribers see Bulletin dated 3/27/15.
FCC
Chairman Tom Wheeler’s Address at Ohio State University
In remarks made at the Ohio State University School of Law Symposium on “The Future of Internet Regulation,” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler spoke about recent developments regarding an open Internet and the recent FCC Order.
“The job of government is to decide based on the facts and the record in a media-saturated era when issues are advocated in apocalyptic terms. One day demonstrators at my home kept me from leaving my driveway with a huge banner saying “Free the Internet.” About a hundred feet from the driveway a stop sign (and multiple others in the neighborhood) has affixed to it a sticker causing it to say “STOP Wheeler from braking [sic] the Internet.” If only choices in the real world were as simple as those opposing positions.
The Commission’s Open Internet Order rejects these two purported choices as false. We can have both an Open Internet and continued investment in bigger and better broadband. We can have an Open Internet and light-touch regulation that encourages innovation and consumer choice. The Commission’s Open Internet Order rests on a basic choice – whether those who build the networks should make the rules by themselves or whether there should be a basic set of rules and a referee on the field to throw the flag if they are violated.”
See Chairman Wheeler’s entire statement here.
FTC
The FTC announced the formation of the Office of Technology Research and Investigation (OTRI), a successor to the Bureau’s Mobile Technology Unit (MTU) that will expand the agency’s technology expertise in an age of rapid technological innovation.
The OTRI will provide expert research, investigative techniques, and further insights to the agency on technology issues involving all facets of the FTC’s consumer protection mission, including privacy, data security, connected cars, smart homes, algorithmic transparency, emerging payment methods, big data, and the Internet of Things. See the release here.
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