Jimm Phillips

The California Public Utilities Commission withdrew its consideration of whether to submit comments to the FCC on the federal body's net neutrality NPRM Wednesday, prompting outcry from several public interest groups at a CPUC meeting Thursday. The CPUC had been set to vote Thursday on whether to submit the comments to the FCC and whether to recommend that the FCC reclassify broadband as a Communications Act Title II service. The CPUC had held off on a vote on the comments at its Oct. 2 meeting at Commissioner Carla Peterman’s request (see 1410030047). The CPUC originally voted 3-2 in September to recommend Title II reclassification, but then placed the comments on hold after Peterman decided to change her vote in favor of Title II to an abstention (see 1409120054).

A hearing before California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) Administrative Law Judge Jean Vieth set for Thursday is likely to clarify CPUC’s schedule for its review of the Comcast/Time Warner Cable deal and associated TWC Information Services and Bright House Networks deals, industry stakeholders told us. The hearing is also likely to clarify the scope of discovery requests sought by the commission’s Office of Ratepayer Advocates (ORA), stakeholders said. The CPUC temporarily paused its review last week pending Thursday’s hearing. The delay is in part a reaction to the FCC’s decision to pause its own review of Comcast/TWC until at least Oct. 29, but it’s also due to an ORA request that CPUC revise its review timeline because of the extensive outstanding ORA data requests that Comcast, TWC and others need to fill 1410140022.

The information and communications technologies (ICT) sector is now substantially aware of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Cybersecurity Framework and is working to align it with often-robust existing cyber risk management practices within the sector, industry stakeholders told NIST in filings released through Tuesday. That level of awareness also extended into state governments, state agencies said. NIST sought feedback from stakeholders within critical infrastructure sectors about the “Version 1.0” framework, which it released in February 1402130026. Comments were due Friday.

California Public Utilities Commission President Michael Peevey’s plans to leave the CPUC in December are unlikely to affect its telecom regulatory policy priorities, industry participants and observers said in interviews Friday. Peevey, who led the CPUC since 2002, said the day before he won’t seek reappointment to the commission when his term expires in December. Peevey’s critics had called for his ouster last week over what they said were unethical back-channel discussions between his office and Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) (CD Oct 10). The protests stemmed from the contents of emails that PG&E released last week between the utility and members of Peevey’s staff as part of a federal investigation into the relationship between CPUC and PG&E. The rest of the commission declined to comment.

Several Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee subcommittees said during a CSMAC meeting Thursday that they're moving closer to issuing final recommendations to CSMAC, but said further revisions are necessary. CSMAC Co-Chairman Larry Alder said it was important that CSMAC send “clear” recommendations to NTIA, while NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling said the CSMAC recommendations would be important to guiding NTIA’s future spectrum work.

The Seattle Citizens’ Telecommunications and Technology Advisory Board (CTTAB) is moving ahead with its review of the feasibility of municipal broadband in concert with the city government’s moves to figure out the best path forward after its partnership with the University of Washington and the now-defunct Gigabit Squared failed earlier this year. Seattle announced plans in December 2012 to launch a fiber network in 12 neighborhoods (CD Dec 14/12 p10), but Mayor Ed Murray said in January that the partnership was dead due to persistent funding and debt issues with Gigabit Squared (http://bit.ly/1vON5PL).

A recent data breach at AT&T is statistically smaller than other recent incidents, but still highlights security implications for the telecom sector, said industry participants in interviews Tuesday. AT&T has begun to notify about 1,600 customers whose information may have been compromised in August during an internal data breach. A now-former AT&T employee apparently violated the telco’s privacy rules and accessed customer information that could include Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers, along with customer proprietary network information (CPNI), the company said in a form letter posted online by the office of Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell.

One of the parties in Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority’s review of Frontier Communications’ proposed buy of AT&T’s broadband, video and wireline assets in the state whose proposed conditions didn’t make it into PURA’s draft decision approving the deal said it’s unlikely to challenge the decision, while another said it hasn’t decided. The draft decision, issued Tuesday, would approve the deal in conjunction with a public interest settlement between Frontier and the offices of state Attorney General George Jepsen and Consumer Counsel Elin Swanson Katz, along with additional commitments Frontier made after PURA rejected the initial settlement. The decision denied proposed conditions sought by Connecticut Light and Power (CL&P) and the Connecticut Internet Service Providers Association (CTISPA) (CD Oct 1 p13). Written objections to the draft decision are due Tuesday, with oral argument Oct. 14, PURA said.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., is continuing to work with Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., to deal with “political tantrums” over the House-passed Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) and the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA), he said during an event Wednesday. Experts consider CISPA (HR-624) and CISA (S-2588) relatively analogous, though CISA’s proponents say it has better privacy protections than CISPA. Critics of CISA argue those privacy protections are insufficient (CD July 30 p6). “Tantrums” over CISA threaten to result in “holds and other things” in the Senate that could kill the bill’s prospects for the rest of the 113th Congress, Rogers said during a Washington Post event. Rogers said he fears if the Senate isn’t able to pass CISA during the post-election lame-duck session, the legislative process “all starts over.” Rogers and Senate Intelligence Vice Chairman Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., are retiring at the end of the 113th Congress, adding to future problems for cybersecurity information sharing legislation, Rogers said. There aren’t any holds on CISA because the bill “hasn’t been hotlined,” a committee aide told us. Senate Intelligence hopes to address all potential issues before it’s hotlined “to allow it to be passed,” the aide said.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler emphasized the importance of partnership between the commission and local and state telecom regulators, saying in a speech Wednesday to NATOA its members have a shared responsibility to increase broadband competition and robust 911 service. Wheeler invoked folk musician Bob Dylan to say the U.S. needs to collectively improve access to high-speed broadband, and those that don’t would “sink like a stone.” Success in high-speed broadband deployment would mean nationwide access to at least 100 Mbps broadband, Wheeler said.