AT&T

If a recent House Communications Subcommittee hearing on broadband infrastructure is any measure, there appears to be growing consensus that any new infrastructure bill should include dollars for broadband – arguably the most essential infrastructure for American progress and productivity. But the hearing also made clear that Congress continues to have significant concerns around how to design such a program to ensure that any dollars designated for broadband are spent wisely.

We support an approach that places responsibility on the Federal Communications Commission to disperse any new broadband dollars through its Connect America Fund (CAF) and Mobility Fund (MF) programs. These two programs, as further refined in two orders adopted by the FCC in March, provide clear evidence that the Commission has the expertise and the tools to manage a data-driven process that will ensure that any incremental broadband funding is directed where broadband does not currently exist and is needed the most.

With so many consumers and businesses voluntarily transitioning to the newer IP-based and wireless services, the Federal Communications Commission, under the prior Administration, began a series of proceedings to examine what, if any, changes needed to be made to its regulations to facilitate the transition and allow incumbent providers the ability to quickly modernize their legacy networks and services. As these proceedings concluded in 2015 and 2016, the results in many ways did not facilitate, much less accelerate, the transition to these newer, more capable services. Indeed, in many ways the orders made the transition more cumbersome. With the item set for a vote April 20, the FCC moves in a different direction.

This Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) demonstrates that FCC Chairman Ajit Pai not only recognizes the importance of the technology transition that is already underway, but that he is willing to tackle the issue head on early in his leadership. Not only will the proposed rules foster and accelerate broadband investment in unserved areas, they should make telecommunication companies more formidable competitors to cable broadband companies. AT&T looks forward to participating in the forthcoming proceeding and supports its goal of providing access to broadband services for all Americans.

As the business data services (BDS) proceeding is drawing to a close, some are still arguing for an additional delay, suggesting that resolution of this proceeding is contrary to the facts and will slow the deployment of 5G services. These objections miss the mark (and ignore the massive pile of competitive data compiled by the Federal Communications Commission). Removing unnecessary regulatory burdens will increase investment, particularly in fiber facilities, and create jobs. And, in the end, that incremental fiber investment will be essential to the deployment of the next generation of wireless technologies.

[C]ompanies that collect and use the most customer information on the internet are not the Internet service providers but other internet companies, including operating system providers, web browsers, search engines, and social media platforms. And the Federal Communications Commission rules had nothing – literally nothing – to do with these companies or their practices. Indeed, in fashioning the rules, the Tom Wheeler FCC gave consumers a false sense of security by limiting how ISPs – and ISPs alone – use internet data while knowing that other competitors in the internet ecosystem had access and freedom to use the same data across whatever platform the consumer used to access the internet.

AT&T’s approach, which is to focus on the nature of the data and have a consistent framework on collection, use and sharing, was actually the Obama Administration policy for nearly eight years until the Wheeler FCC did a sudden about-face. Hopefully, this week’s action by Congress gets us back on the path to a more rational and consumer-friendly framework. I am also hopeful that facts actually work their way back into the debate.

March 30, the Federal Communications Commission circulated a drastically different vision for the Business Data Services marketplace [than what was seen during the Wheeler FCC]. On the heels of the largest data collection in the history of the FCC, the order proposes a data- and economics-driven regulatory approach that best reflects the level of competition that exists today (though the market is likely significantly more competitive than even this data – from four years ago – reflects).

The proposal appears to eliminate outdated regulations that hinder competitive markets, and proposes a rational regulatory framework where competition has yet to take hold. Reforming outdated regulations is not only a key component of economic growth, but some economists argue that it is the most powerful tool for incenting investment and increasing productivity. The BDS rules will finally evolve to reflect the increased level of competition and will encourage incremental fiber investment as the Pai FCC begins the process of delivering on regulatory reform promises made by the Trump Administration.

Congress continues to have significant concerns around how to design an infrastructure program to ensure that any dollars designated for broadband are spent wisely. Fortunately, there is a solution. We support an approach that places responsibility on the Federal Communications Commission to disperse any new broadband dollars through its Connect America Fund (CAF) and Mobility Fund (MF) programs. These two programs, as further refined in two orders adopted by the FCC in Feb 2017, provide clear evidence that the FCC has the expertise and the tools to manage a data-driven process that will ensure that any incremental broadband funding is directed where broadband does not currently exist and is needed the most.

To be clear, current CAF II and MF II dollars are unlikely to be sufficient to complete the job of getting broadband deployment to all these remote areas. By our estimate, the $198M/year that will be made available through the CAF II auction is only 21% of the FCC’s own calculated deployment costs for all eligible areas. To address this, bids will be scored and ranked, regardless of geography, from lowest to highest with support awarded to winning projects until funding is exhausted. And we fully expect the budget to run out before all eligible areas are funded. But these programs are the best way to use available dollars and, importantly, these programs leverage private investment to the maximum extent possible by awarding funds to the bidder willing to get the job done at the lowest cost. It’s a true public-private partnership.

Federal Communications Commission reform is a topic of much discussion these days. Indeed, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has already initiated some important process reforms and we anticipate that more are coming. Clearer and more transparent processes will lead to better regulatory results. We have also been contemplating reform and will, from time to time, be posting our ideas for regulatory and structural reform at the FCC.

We start with some ideas for reforming process at the Enforcement Bureau – a Bureau that operated for many years with professionalism but whose recent practices have been marked increasingly by bad process, novel and tenuous theories of liability, and Notices of Apparent Liability (NALs) that languish after adoption. There are a number of areas where we believe the enforcement process can and should be significantly improved.

It remains unclear why the Wireless Bureau continues to question the value of giving consumers the ability to watch video without incurring any data charges. This practice, which has been embraced by AT&T and other broadband providers, has enabled millions of consumers to enjoy the latest popular content and services – for free. We hope the government continues to support a competitive marketplace that lowers costs and increases choice for consumers.

Dec 20, AT&T launches AT&T Call Protect. The free network-based service gives eligible AT&T wireless customers with HD Voice more control over unwanted calls on their smartphones. This innovative solution harnesses the power of the AT&T network to give customers automatic fraud blocking and suspected spam call warnings. You can extend this innovative network-based service and get more optional features, including temporary call blocking, by downloading the complementary AT&T Call Protect mobile companion app. Simply add the feature through your myAT&T account or the AT&T Call Protect app and get these benefits:

Automatic fraud blocking which helps reduce the chances that a customer will become the victim of a phone fraud or scam by stopping these types of calls in the network before they even reach the phone.
Suspected spam warnings on the incoming call screen which let customers choose whether or not to answer calls that originate from a suspected spam source. (Must be in HD Voice coverage area).

As we explain (again) in the response provided to the Wireless Bureau, the video entertainment marketplace is ripe for disruptive change, which is exactly why consumers have enthusiastically embraced Data Free TV in all its competitive forms. That enthusiasm has caused competitors to react with additional consumer-friendly video offerings, like the T-Mobile offer announced recently.

And although the Commission has decided to apply Title II to broadband services, the Wireless Bureau’s analysis of AT&T’s sponsored data platform abandons decades of Title II jurisprudence to raise questions about a service that undeniably increases choice and lowers costs for video consumers. This is exactly the type of pro-consumer benefit that the DirecTV acquisition was designed to achieve.