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
US Senate
The Committee on the Judiciary has scheduled a hearing on “Reforming the Electronic Privacy Act” for September 16, 2015, at 10:15 AM in Room 226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. Scheduled witnesses include Elana Tyrangiel, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice; Andrew Ceresney, Director, Division of Enforcement, U.S. Securities Exchange Commission; Mr. Daniel Salsburg, Chief Counsel, Office of Technology, Research and Investigation, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission; Richard Littlehale, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation; Richard Salgado, Director, Law Enforcement and Information Security, Google, Inc.; and Chris Calabrese , Vice President, Policy Center for Democracy & Technology.
FCC
Lifeline Proceeding
The FCC has clarified the dates for filing oppositions and replies to Oppositions to Petitions for Reconsideration of its recent Lifeline Order. Oppositions to the petitions are due on or before September 17, 2015, and replies to any oppositions are due on or before September 28, 2015. See the Regulatory Mix dated 8/28/15. TMI Regulatory Bulletin Service subscribers see Bulletins dated 7/2/15, and 7/1/15.
Open Meeting
The FCC released the final agenda for its September 17, 2015, Open Meeting. The FCC will consider two items: (1) a Report and Order to provide broadcasters greater flexibility in their disclosure of contest terms; and (2) a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that proposes to require submarine cable licensees to report outages. In addition, as part of its consent agenda, the FCC will consider ten Petitions for Review of Media Bureau actions, one Petition for Reconsideration of a Media action and one Petition for Review of a Consumer and Governmental Affairs action. These items will not be presented individually.
Robocall Workshop
The FCC released the agenda for its September 16, 2015, Robocall Workshop. See the Regulatory Mix dated 9/10/15. The first panel will discuss “Why do consumers need blocking services, and what types of services work best?” The second panel will discuss “What third-party solutions are available, and what are the challenges to making them more effective?” The third panel will discuss “What do carriers and other providers currently offer, and what are the challenges they face in making them more effective?” The final panel will discuss “How can gateway providers help stop unwanted robocalls?” The workshop will be streamed live on the FCC’s website at www.fcc.gov/live. Each panel will utilize a moderated discussion format. Because of time limitations and the expected large audience, panelists will be unable to respond to audience questions.
One goal of the workshop is to provide relevant parties the opportunity for a detailed discussion of possible steps and timelines toward improved blocking of unwanted robocalls and reducing the incidence of caller ID spoofing. To facilitate that discussion, the Public Notice includes suggested benchmarks and timelines for accomplishing each benchmark.
