Posts Tagged ‘policy’
Verizon pushes for rewrite of “antiquated and anti-competitive” US telecom law
Tell us what you really think, Verizon. The company yesterday titled “Congress Needs to Update the Nation’s Antiquated and Anti-Competitive Telecom Rules” — which, as you can guess, isn’t exactly a love letter to the FCC.
Verizon executive vice president of public affairs Tom Tauke is quoted as saying in the release: “The grinding you hear are the gears churning as policymakers try to fit fast-changing technologies and competitive markets into regulatory boxes built for analog technologies and monopoly markets.”
The company’s frustration isn’t unwarranted. The FCC is still fighting for authority when it comes to regulating the internet, mainly because current telecom rules aren’t suited to the issues we’re facing today like net neutrality. The agency tried to in a “third way” that gave it more authority earlier this year — after a US court on providers.
Verizon’s position now is even more extreme than its stance earlier this year, when together with Google. The company is now proposing four components that it feels are necessary for a new policy to guide the internet: It should be a federal framework; allow for case-by-case rulings; government intervention should be allowed only to protect consumers from harm or to stop anti-competitive activity; and perhaps most importantly, a single federal agency should be given clear jurisdiction.
As Engadget points out, of the Telecommunications Act earlier this year. Perhaps Verizon’s prodding will move things along even more quickly.
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NSA Chief Confirms U.S. Military’s Right to Return Cyber-Attacks
Alexander is testifying before Congress as part of his confirmation as the new head of US Cyber Command. In that position, he will oversee the protection of the US data infrastructure. In his answers to questions from Congressmen before tomorrow's in-person testimony, Alexander said that the US has responded to threats against the country in cyberspace, but declined to get into specifics. He also added that while military law doesn't specifically authorize a country to retaliate with a cyber-attack, the law implicitly condones the use of retaliatory cyberwar.
In general, Alexander's testimony reflected a policy that treats a computer the same as a rifle in a military context. For him, it's a weapon, and faces the same deterrent, legal, technical issues as a fighter plane, nuclear bomb, or sharpened stick. However, it should be noted that Alexander also gave extensive classified testimony that no doubt went into more specific detail about the US's cyber-deterrence and offensive capabilities.
Still, what Alexander did reveal is mostly new information for the general public, and with live questioning set to begin tomorrow, we should end this week knowing far more about US cyber policy than we began it.
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FCC Broadband Plan Promises High-Speed Internet For 100 Million More Americans By 2015
The FCC's plan involves the expansion of both home broadband capacity, but also pays special attention to ensuring that hospitals, libraries, and schools, where most Americans currently use broadband Internet services, get upgraded as well. Ultimately, the FCC hopes to provide 50 megabits per second of upload speed, and 100 megabits of download speed, to another third of the US population over the next decade. Additionally, the FCC wants 500 megahertz of wireless spectrum, currently operated by TV stations, rededicated to servicing mobile devices.
Estimates place the cost of the plan at between $15.5 and $25 billion, but FCC claims that the majority of that money will come from altering the Universal Service Fund, a program to subsidize rural phone service paid for by telecomm companies, from paying for telephones to paying for broadband. Additional funds will come from the auction of wireless spectrum for mobile device use. And if that doesn't cover the bill, the FCC has plans to ask Congress for a one-time, $9 billion boost.
The FCC, the telecommunications industry, and Congress all agree that the expansion of broadband is key to ensuring that America remains competitive in the world. The integration of TV and the Internet, the digitizing of medical records, and an increased use of cloud computing all threaten to tax America's currently limited broadband infrastructure. Despite having more broadband users than anywhere else in the world, the US only ranks 19th in percentage use, according to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, behind economic competitors like South Korea, Germany, and Great Britain.
Starting at the end of the month, Congress will begin holding hearings on the plan. However, with a lawsuit between the FCC and Comcast over the FCC's ability to regulate the Internet still undecided, the climate change bill poised to distract the Commerce Committee members tasked with FCC oversight, and an election in November that could reverse party control in Congress, it may be some time before the FCC can begin implementing the plan in full.
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