Agenda

After months of delay, the Trump Administration is finalizing plans to revamp the nation's military command for defensive and offensive cyber operations in hopes of intensifying America's ability to wage cyberwar against the Islamic State group and other foes, according to US officials. Under the plans, US Cyber Command would eventually be split off from the intelligence-focused National Security Agency. Details are still being worked out, but officials say they expect a decision and announcement in the coming weeks. The officials weren't authorized to speak publicly on the matter so requested anonymity. The goal, they said, is to give US Cyber Command more autonomy, freeing it from any constraints that stem from working alongside the NSA, which is responsible for monitoring and collecting telephone, internet and other intelligence data from around the world - a responsibility that can sometimes clash with military operations against enemy forces.

Prominent technology-industry leaders and venture capitalists gathered in the White House’s state dining room in June 2017 to discuss tech policy with President Donald Trump in an event that Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, helped organize. Seated at the rectangular table alongside the corporate luminaries, university presidents and senior White House officials was a less-prominent figure: Zachary Bookman, the 37-year-old CEO of a small startup called OpenGov. Kushner’s brother, through a venture-capital firm, is a part owner of OpenGov, according to government disclosures and data from Dow Jones VentureSource. Until earlier this year, Kushner owned stakes in the venture-capital firm that he sold to his brother, according to a person familiar with the matter. Kushner’s connection to OpenGov isn’t widely known. Many senior Trump administration officials hail from the business world, triggering concerns about potential conflicts between their private interests and public duties. The OpenGov situation—in which a top White House official helped organize a prestigious event where one of the participants was financially connected to his family—is an example of how such potential conflicts can play out.

Key tech industry leaders are expressing openness to having Congress step in to legislate net neutrality — putting pressure on Democrats who've been adamantly opposed to such a move. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg said they’re willing to work with lawmakers on the issue, and Reddit’s Alexis Ohanian expressed a similar view. That flies in the face of the resistance many Democrats and activists have shown to working with Republicans on enshrining open internet protections into law. Democrats have been focused on stopping the GOP-led FCC from rolling back the current net neutrality rules, and fear their Republican colleagues want to pass weaker standards than what the FCC has already put in place.

AT&T plans to separate its telecom operations from its media assets after clinching a takeover of Time Warner, putting veteran AT&T executive John Stankey in charge of the Time Warner business, according to people familiar with the matter. The reorganization would separate AT&T’s wireless business and its DirecTV satellite television business from the newly acquired Time Warner assets, including HBO, Warner Bros., and the Turner cable unit that houses CNN. The new structure would keep AT&T Chairman and Chief Executive Randall Stephenson atop the company with two top lieutenants, in an organization that would resemble Comcast Brian Roberts, Comcast’s chairman and chief executive, has two segment chiefs: one in charge of the cable business and the other heading NBCUniversal. Under the new structure, DirecTV would be combined with the company’s telecom operations, which are run out of AT&T’s Dallas headquarters and include both the wireless and landline business, the people familiar with the matter said. That segment would be run by John Donovan, another AT&T veteran who is currently chief strategy officer.

[Commentary] A curious thing happened on a day that many internet companies and public policy groups had christened a “Day of Action” aimed at protesting the Federal Communications Commission’s plan to overturn so-called net neutrality rules. The curiosity was that several broadband companies — the very same companies that pushed to rewrite the rules that undergird net neutrality — put out statements suggesting that they, too, supported the aims of the protesters.

So why, now, are broadband companies suggesting that they support the aims of the other side? There are two possibilities: A cynic might argue that it’s just puffery, that the broadband industry is simply trying to present a friendly image to an outraged online horde. Or you might take them at their word. Here’s one idea for longtime proponents of network neutrality: Call the broadband companies’ bluff, if that’s what it is. Maybe it is time to push Congress, rather than the FCC, to take up the neutrality fight — and maybe, finally, end the debate for good. Internet giants control the world’s most important channels for information, from your Facebook feed to Google results to your phone’s home screen. They are more than capable of applying enormous pressure to members of Congress to push for what they want. And then, if nothing else, we’ll be able to see where the broadband companies really stand.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced that the following items are tentatively on the agenda for the August Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday, August 3, 2017:

1. Connect America Fund Phase II Auction (Auction 903) – The Commission will consider a Public Notice to initiate the pre-auction process for the Connect America Fund Phase II auction which will award up to $198 million annually for 10 years to service providers that commit to offer voice and broadband services to fixed locations in unserved high-cost areas. (AU Docket No. 17-182)
2. Mobility Fund Phase II Challenge Process – The Commission will consider an Order on Reconsideration and Second Report and Order that lays out a robust challenge process that will enable the Commission to direct Mobility Fund Phase II support to primarily rural areas that lack unsubsidized 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) service. (WC Docket No. 10-90; WT Docket No.10-208)
3. Form 477 - The Commission will consider a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that takes a focused look at the Commission’s Form 477 to improve the value of the data we continue to collect. (WC Docket No. 11-10)
4. Expanding Flexible Use in Mid-Band Spectrum Between 3.7 GHz and 24 GHz – The Commission will consider a Notice of Inquiry that explores opportunities for next generation services – particularly for wireless broadband – in the 3.7 GHz to 24 GHz spectrum range and asks about how we can increase efficient and effective use of this spectrum for the benefit of all services and users. (GN Docket No. 17-183)
5. Wireless License Renewal and Service Continuity Reform – The Commission will consider a Second Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would adopt unified construction, renewal, and service continuity rules for the Wireless Radio Services, while seeking comment on a range of additional possible actions to increase the number of Americans with access to wireless communications services. (WTB Docket No. 10-112)
6. Transmitter Identification Requirements for Satellite Digital Video Uplink Transmissions – The Commission will consider a Memorandum Opinion and Order that waives the requirement that satellite news trucks, and other temporary-fixed satellite earth stations transmitting digital video, comply with the Digital Video Broadcasting-Carrier Identification (DVB-CID) standard if the earth station uses a modulator that cannot meet the DVB-CID standard through a software upgrade. (IB Docket No. 12-267)
7. Hearing Designation Order – The Commission will consider a Hearing Designation Order.
8. Enforcement Bureau Action – The Commission will consider an enforcement action.

Facebook, Google, Twitter and other companies, activists and startups that rallied in support of net neutrality probably aren’t going to stop the Trump administration from killing the rules currently on the government’s books. But the organizers of the so-called “day of action” insist they reached more than 10 million users with their message, while generating at least 2.1 million comments urging the Federal Communications Commission to rethink its plans. That’s a drop in the bucket, seeing as the tech companies that took part in the protest reach billions of users every day — but the event’s planners stress that they’ve touched a nerve. Some of the web’s largest companies — including Amazon, Facebook and Google — took a more reserved approach. They didn’t darken their webpages, like some companies did during a massive online protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act, and their alerts to users weren’t always easy to find.

[Commentary] Could a consumer revolt against cable television rates before the 1992 election replay with digital data in the upcoming election cycle?

Rep Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), chair of the of the House Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, introduced a bill that requires internet service providers to get opt-in consent from consumers before sharing sensitive personal information, and allow opt-out of sharing other information. Her abrupt and unconventional turn on internet privacy came after widespread public reaction to the congressional repeal of the Federal Communications Commission’s privacy rules.

Those who believe that the bill is not likely to pick up any legislative momentum might argue that general anxiety about digital trails left across the internet does not pack the political punch of rising cable rates that consumers could feel when they balanced their checkbooks each month. Blackburn’s bill also may be seen as a response to some of the edge providers that were most vocal in their objections to the repeal of the privacy rules.

July 12 marks another milestone in the incentive auction transition – the deadline for TV stations that have been assigned a new channel to file for construction permits for their new facilities and to submit their estimated eligible costs for relocation. The cable and satellite companies that carry those relocating stations will also file their estimated costs today. Tomorrow, the 36-month phased transition schedule to implement construction, testing, and operation on the reassigned channels formally begins. Although construction permits and cost estimates aren’t due until tonight, we wanted to give you a preview on how the next steps in the construction permit and reimbursement process will unfold.

There’s an emerging technology that promises to make computing radically more accessible—even obvious and intuitive—and it’s being applied right now to some of our nation’s biggest challenges. It’s called spatial computing, a term used by some to describe augmented reality (AR) technology, and if we enlist it in service of our national priorities, we can ramp up society’s inclusivity, while also empowering citizens. That’s exactly why public officials, nonprofit leaders, and aspiring social entrepreneurs ought to understand its current applications in order to start envisioning strong civic-use cases. Imagine this: What if the information on your desktop computer or mobile phone wasn’t bound to the screen, but instead projected into the space in front of you—such as on your kitchen table, inside your child’s classroom, or into the produce aisle at the grocery store? That’s the basis of spatial computing. Its aim, basically, is to create a sort of Iron Man, just without the suit.