Three-fourths of U.S. broadband households intend to acquire a security or privacy service in the next 12 months, blogged Parks Associates Tuesday. Thirty-eight percent said receiving such services with their broadband service at no additional charge is most desirable; 62 percent would pay an additional fee for the services via subscription, warranty or one-time fee. Consumers showed interest in security and privacy services including parental controls, malware detection and network activity monitoring, but they “still show a reluctance toward recurring fees”; just 27 percent would opt for a subscription model, said analyst Lindsay Gafford.
The flurry of FCC activity on pre-emption authority to restrict states and municipalities from imposing barriers to deployment comes amid a push for fiber-based broadband, Robert Quinn of Wilkinson Barker blogged Monday for the Washington Legal Foundation. "The latest ... targets" are cable franchising rules putting additional fees on ISPs for providing non-cable services, limiting franchise fees to video service (see 1908010011), he said, following July pre-emption of a San Francisco ordinance on landlords' provision of competitive access to inside cable wiring (see 1907110015). With the 5G race, "expect the FCC to remain active and vigilant in this area," Quinn said.
The FCC granted a petition Monday, and ordered discovery and briefing completed by Dec. 4, after defendant 123.Net dba Local Exchange Carriers of Michigan filed an unopposed motion to modify a proceeding schedule in a billing dispute (FCC docket 19-222) by complainant AT&T (see 1908080035). The response to the complaint is due Sept. 25 instead of Sept. 3, with AT&T's reply pushed back to Oct. 9, and joint statements due Oct. 18, said the FCC. It scheduled a status conference for Oct. 30.
The FCC Enforcement Bureau Fraud Division had its first day Monday. Charged with overseeing efficient use of USF money, it's headed by Rakesh Patel (see 1908090010), the agency said. Patel had been director of the USF Strike Force within the agency. Eight people are assigned to the division, a spokesperson said.
The FCC said it has stayed proceeding 19-119 between BellSouth Telecommunications (doing business as AT&T Alabama) and the defendant in a utility pole rate dispute, Alabama Power, so they can pursue arbitration, in a letter to the companies Thursday. A joint use agreement that allows each of the companies to attach facilities and equipment to the other's utility poles in Alabama, which dates back to 1978, contains a mandatory arbitration clause, the agency said.
The Telecommunications Industry Association unveiled a new industry plan Wednesday to provide official auditing and certification to data centers conforming with the ANSI/TIA 942 standard. “The new certification scheme will establish conformity assessment bodies (CABs) deemed competent to verify data center conformity with the standard,” TIA said: “CABs will be accredited through the independent evaluation of an organization against recognized standards to ensure their impartiality, competence, and consistency.” TIA selected Certac, which provides program service management for accreditation and certification bodies, to help manage the process.
The government's decision to rely heavily on residents answering census questions online "is probably ten years premature," said a blog Wednesday by CCG Consulting President Doug Dawson. "This seems like an odd decision since there are still a lot of people who don't have home broadband," the blog said. It sounds "poorly conceived" to "those of us who understand the FCC's dirty little secret -- the FCC has no idea how many homes don't have broadband." Undercounting in the census could lead to underfunding for federal programs allocated by population. FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel tweeted her concerns on the topic in recent weeks.
NTIA will host a series of public webinars as part of its BroadbandUSA program to help accelerate broadband connectivity, improve digital inclusion, strengthen policies and support local priorities, says a Federal Register notice for Wednesday. BroadbandUSA will host the webinars on the third Wednesday of each month starting Oct. 16 and through Sept. 16, 2020, except in December and August. Registration information will be posted under Events at https://broadbandusa.ntia.doc.gov.
Verizon subsidiaries XO Communications Services and XO Virginia plan to grandfather and eventually discontinue certain service offerings, said an ex parte letter in docket 19-203 Tuesday. The services include remote call forwarding, DSL and a cybersecurity protection called Distributed Denial of Service Mitigation, as well as managed modems service.
The Universal Service Administrative Co. projects it will spend $59.56 million during the fourth quarter, including $33.8 million in direct costs to support individual USF programs plus $25.76 million administrative common costs, it said in a report Friday. It budgeted $13.58 million for its program to deploy broadband in high-cost areas, $17.28 million to help subsidize telecom services for low-income consumers, $3.75 million to support rural healthcare, and $24.95 million for broadband aid to schools and libraries. The individual program budgets include both direct and common costs. USAC said it did extensive outreach to program participants in the last quarter in the form of webinars.