Following Elon Musk's internal Twitter file dump, which Republicans see as a smoking gun and Democrats as a bit of a dud, Republican Sen. Roger Wicker (Miss.), ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, is calling its chair to hold a hearing on the state of free speech on social media, and do it before the current Congress closes its doors.

In a letter to Committee Chairman Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) a copy of which was supplied by Wicker's office, the senator said the Twitter documents suggest the company has been coordinating with the Biden Administration to censor posts.

The Administration has been reaching out to social media on what it sees as insufficient monitoring of speech on their platforms encouraging hate and violence, as well as disinformation, the definition of which -- including particularly in this case as it relates to the infamous Hunter Biden laptop story -- is at the crux of the divide between Republicans and Democrats, both of which have bones to pick with Big Tech.

Also: Wicker Says Commerce Will Review Section 230

"Two years ago, the chief executive officers of Google, Facebook, and Twitter testified before the Senate Commerce Committee (the Committee) and promised to implement changes that would build trust and increase transparency in their content moderation practices.  Instead, the leaders of these tech giants have only increased enforcement actions against prominent political voices online while continuing to elude accountability," Wicker wrote Cantwell.

Republicans say going after disinformation online is just a cover for censoring conservative speakers by liberal Silicon Valley.

Wicker said it had been two years since the full committee held a hearing on "how to preserve the internet as a forum for open discourse," and that it was past time to follow up. "Some of our colleagues and I have long suspected that Twitter and Facebook acted arbitrarily to censor a New York Post story critical of Hunter Biden that may have affected the outcome of the 2020 election," he said, adding that intervening info supports that conclusion and not the social media company's justification that they were trying to prevent Russian misinformation.

"After the release of the 'Twitter Files,' we now know Twitter was removing content at the request of the Biden campaign," Wicker claimed.

He pointed out that legislation he has backed that would limit the social media giant's ability to remove content (by revising the Section 230 immunity social media sites have from civil liability for third-party content) and create non-discrimination rules and greater transparency around content moderation hasn't gotten anywhere due to "stiff resistance" from the committee. ■

Saying some fraud has already been uncovered, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, wants an investigation into whether billions of dollars in broadband subsidy spending already handed out went “appropriately” to unserved areas and areas economically affected by the pandemic.

Wicker is concerned the money could be used to overbuild existing providers while doing little to close the digital divide.

The CARES Act, which included COVID 19 relief-related broadband subsidies, also created the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) to try to prevent waste, fraud and abuse, which are always a potential problem in any large government subsidy.

Wicker said PRAC, which is part of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, is in the best position to review multiple broadband subsidies across multiple agencies, including the Federal Communications Commission, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the Department of Agriculture, as well as state and local governments.

“The speed at which funds were disbursed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the sheer amount of money involved, put the funds at high risk of fraud and misuse, making the work of oversight entities like the PRAC and IGs essential to a successful national recovery,” Wicker said in making the request. “We are already finding fraud within these new programs," which he said would continue absence the needed oversight from PRAC.”

In a letter to PRAC chair Michael Horowitz, Wicker pointed to the fact that the FCC's Inspector General had found that some broadband providers had been "fraudulently enrolling households in the Emergency Broadband Benefit [EBB] program."

Wicker asked Horowitz to answer a number of questions related to broadband subsidy oversight, including what broadband availability data the NTIA and the Treasury Department used to determine where the money went or is going. NTIA is counting on better maps from the FCC, which is in the process of creating them, but a process that is not yet complete.

Wicker also wants to know “what level of coordination is occurring between FCC, Treasury, USDA, and NTIA to protect against overbuilding and duplication of funding awards?;” “what, if any, federal, state, or local regulatory barriers are impeding or increasing costs to broadband deployment funded by these programs?;” and “what oversight measures are NTIA and Treasury implementing to ensure providers meet their buildout obligations?” ■

Weighing in on an issue close to the hearts and pocketbooks of cable and telecom broadband operators, Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) has called on new broadband subsidy czar Mitch Landrieu to push for more streamlined permitting processes.

That came in a letter Monday (February 7) from Wicker to Landrieu, who back in November was named senior advisor and infrastructure coordinator for the President's infrastructure spending, including $65 billion for broadband.

Wicker points to the $42 billion in broadband funds going to states and localities and asks Landrieu to work closely with those entities to streamline the process of building out service, specifically access to rights of way and poles, environmental reviews, and the permitting and application process.

Wicker said coming up with some streamlining best practices before the money is handed out would help reduce hurdles to deployment. That could include making funding contingent on adhering to "productive" permitting processes. ■

Fight for the Future (FFTF) is fighting mad over a second Senate Commerce Committee hearing on the nomination of Gigi Sohn to the open Federal Communications Commission seat and has directed its anger at the powerful committee‘s chairwoman, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.).

The group sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) calling on him to remove Cantwell as chair over what it said was “her refusal to advance [President Joe] Biden‘s highly qualified nominee to the FCC, Gigi Sohn.”

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, had suggested the need for a second hearing over issues related to Sohn's association with former TV station streamer Locast.

The committee had already held a hearing on her nomination back in December, but because no vote had been taken — likely because there were not enough Democratic votes at the time — her nomination had to be resubmitted by the President in the new year, but that did not necessarily mean she had to have a new hearing.

There is no indication that Cantwell is purposely trying to slow-roll the nomination. 

More likely is that she was making sure the vote would be favorable, and there has been some talk that Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) might need persuading after progressive Democrats hammered her — including paying for a billboard in her home state branding her "corrupt"--during the net neutrality debate for not voting to repeal the 2017 FCC decision to eliminate the net neutrality rules, rules that Sohn stumped for under then-FCC chairman Tom Wheeler. According to sources, supporters of Sohn have reached out to Sinema to tell her Sohn had no part in the billboard incident.

Cantwell had not granted the hearing but instead scheduled a vote on Sohn's nomination this week. After Democratic committee member Sen. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico suffered a stroke, though, that vote was put off due to a lack of Democratic votes for Sohn's and two other nominations with which Republicans had some issues, including a fifth Federal Trade Commission member.

Following that announced delay, and with Lujan still recovering in the hospital, Cantwell granted the second Sohn hearing for February 9.

Cantwell's office had no comment at deadline on the letter. ■

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen got an angry and attentive bipartisan audience at a Tuesday (Oct. 5) hearing of the Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Data Security, led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who called it a Big Tobacco moment for Big Tech.

A former Facebook product manager and data scientist, Haugen took documents when she left the company that she said show its algorithms “amplify polarizing and hateful content” for the sake of profit — a motive partly responsible for “tearing societies apart” — and that the company had research showing that but obscured the fact that it is harmful.

Haugen said Facebook was buying its profits with consumer safety and that it intentionally hides documents and repeatedly misleads the public. Until incentives change, she argued, the company won't.

Also Read: Sen. Blumenthal Says Facebook Weaponizes Childhood Suffering

She pointed out that the government took action to curb serious auto accidents (seat belt mandates), against tobacco and against opioid abuse, suggesting taking action now against Facebook was in the same category.

Blumenthal, the subcommittee’s chairman, called the company “morally bankrupt” and called on Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg to come before the committee rather than taking a “nothing to see here” approach by “going sailing,” as he suggested Zuckerman had done.

He said if that misleading charge is true, the Federal Trade Commission needs to step in using its authority to pursue false and misleading information.

Also Read: Hill to Hear from Facebook Whistle Blower

Citing last week’s Facebook hearing witness, Antigone Davis, global head of safety for Facebook, who said the research was not a bombshell, Blumenthal said it was the very definition of a bombshell and that Big Tech was having its Big Tobacco moment, the moment when research shows they knew its product was harmful, but concealed that knowledge for the sake of profit. As Connecticut’s attorney general, Blumenthal had led that state’s action against Big Tobacco and remembered the moment when he had the files that showed tobacco knew its product caused cancer.

Ranking member Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said Facebook abused consumers’ privacy, did not respect its users, invaded the privacy of children, and was in violation of federal law — the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), ranking member of the parent Senate Commerce Committee, said Congress must act against powerful tech companies to protect children and the public at large. He called their product addictive, and agreed that legislators on both sides of the aisle are concerned. Wicker said he had talked to an opinion maker just before the hearing who said “the tech gods had been demystified.” Wicker agreed, and said that the hearing was furthering that process.

Both Blumenthal and Blackburn suggested they would be looking to narrow Big Tech's immunity from civil liability for third-party content on their platforms under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. 

Haugen said the way to modify Sec. 230 is to exempt platform decisions about their algorithms. Those platforms may arguably not have the control over third-party content, but she said they have 100% control over their algorithms. 

But while there have been ongoing bipartisan differences between what is considered particularly sensitive data and how that should be protected, Facebook’s research revelations could potentially be the tipping point that brings Democrats and Republicans together over a common “enemy.” That certainly seemed to the the case Tuesday,

Blackburn predicted that this Congress would be the one where online privacy legislation finally passed, something both sides have been talking about for almost a decade.

Also Read: Facebook Whistleblower's Identity Revealed on ‘60 Minutes’

The time has come for action on privacy legislation, agreed Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), "and I think you are the catalyst," she told Haugen.

Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) said he agreed it was time to bridge the partisan differences and pass bipartisan privacy legislation. Blumenthal said he thought the differences were minor, particularly in the face of what they had learned about Facebook. Joined by Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) they agreed it was time to get to work and get it done.

Haugen revealed her identity on CBS’s newsmagazine 60 Minutes, which drew a strong rebuttal from Facebook. Haugen told the committee she had revealed herself at great personal risk because she believed there was still time to address the Facebook issues. Blumenthal assured her that the committee would do what it could to protect her from any retaliation.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), historically one of the strongest advocates for children's online protections and a primary author of COPPA, called Haugen a 21st Century American Hero.

Markey warned that Facebook lobbyists would he making visits after the hearing telling Congress it can't act.

Facebook took aim at Haugen's authority on the subjects on which she testified, and again said they supported some regulation of Big Tech.

“Today, a Senate Commerce subcommittee held a hearing with a former product manager at Facebook who worked for the company for less than two years, had no direct reports, never attended a decision-point meeting with C-level executives – and testified more than six times to not working on the subject matter in question," said Ena Pietsch, director of policy communications. "We don’t agree with her characterization of the many issues she testified about. Despite all this, we agree on one thing; it’s time to begin to create standard rules for the internet. It’s been 25 years since the rules for the internet have been updated, and instead of expecting the industry to make societal decisions that belong to legislators, it is time for Congress to act.”

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) says that TikTok should have no role in the upcoming first-ever U.S. Cyber Games.

Also Read: Biden Rescinds Trump's TikTok WeChat Ban

The games are a private industry-led effort to promote careers in cybersecurity, but receive funding from the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

That could be tough since the social media giant is a founding sponsor of the games and is on the advisory board alongside representatives of U.S. defense and intelligence agencies.

For Wicker, ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, that‘s the big problem and he made that clear in a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.

“Allowing TikTok to play any role in the first U.S. Cyber Games, including joining its board alongside U.S. federal officials, is unacceptable,” Wicker wrote. “TikTok should be given no opportunity to interfere in any of the nation’s cyber initiatives, let alone those carried out with financial support from American taxpayers.”

Wicker pointed out that last April the Chinese Communist Party took an ownership stake in a subsidiary of ByteDance, the parent of TikTok.

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) is asking the Federal Aviation Administration to make sure a drone restriction over a Texas bridge does not prevent media outlets from reporting fully on the migrant situation there.

That is according to a letter from the senator to FAA administrator Steve Dickson, a copy of which was supplied to Multichannel News by the senator.

The two-week temporary restriction on drone flights over the international bridge into Del Rio, Texas, stil allows flights, but under a waiver process.

Wicker wants the FAA to explain just why it instituted the tighter drone access policy in the first place and give its assurance that will not impede media coverage of the border issue.

"To ensure that the First Amendment is protected, I expect that the FAA will promptly process any waiver sought by the media, which I understand is standard practice," said Wicker.

He said he wanted more than a reply to his letter. "Given the concerns raised by this matter, I request a briefing with an explanation for implementing this aviation restriction at the Mexican border."

Conservative media have been positing a nefarious motive for the restriction, linking it to viral footage of the migrants that got airplay on Fox News, with reporter Bill Melugin saying that the border patrol had been overwhelmed by more than 8,000 migrants.

The FAA tweeted Friday:

The agency made clear that "Media Coverage Providing Crucial Information to the Public" is one of the cases for expedited approval of such waiver requests.

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) has asked the National Telecommunications & Information Administration to review its broadband data collection, suggesting it is using “woefully inaccurate” data that threatens the effectiveness of billions of dollars in broadband subsidies.

Accurate data collection has been a big issue, particularly at the FCC, as the need for universal broadband grew during the COVID-19 pandemic and the spotlight on the digital divide, both rural and urban, grew stronger.

Also Read: Wicker Seeks Oversight Hearing on Broadband Mapping

Last month, NTIA released what it was billing as the first interactive map showing "key indicators of broadband needs across the country. The Administration said the "Indicators of Broadband Need" interactive mapping tool illustrated the digital divide to the public.

President Joe Biden has proposed more than $100 million in broadband subsidies to try and close that divide. The goal, NTIA said at the time, is to “illustrate the reality that communities experience when going online, with many parts of the country reporting speeds that fall below the FCC’s current benchmark for fixed broadband service of 25 [Megabits per second] download, 3 Mbps upload.”

The map combines poverty and lack of access to show how high poverty relates to internet use and lack of computers and equipment.

In a letter to NTIA acting head Evelyn Remaley, according to a copy supplied by Wicker‘s office, the senator said he was concerned that NTIA‘s most recent National Broadband Availability Map, which NTIA produces in concert with the FCC, is no more accurate than previous federal maps. Putting the newest map out has “created confusion regarding the state of broadband availability in the United States,“ the letter said.

Democrats, including current acting FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel (“maps before money” was her mantra), complained about the previous, Republican-led, FCC's launching of billion-dollar broadband subsidy programs before better data collection programs were in place.

Wicker said the NTIA map data is outdated — including info from a 2019 Census survey, for example — and also relies on FCC data that “vastly overstates broadband coverage,” data the regulator is working to replace, in part under orders from Congress.

“As a result, we have a map that overstates coverage in some areas and understates it in others, leaving us with a skewed picture,” he wrote. Wicker pointed out that even NTIA knows the info is questionable, pointing to NTIA‘s disclosure boilerplate that NTIA “does not warrant the accuracy, adequacy, or completeness of this information and expressly disclaims any liability for any errors or omissions.”

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), ranking member of the House Communications Subcommittee, has introduced the Promoting Rights and Online Speech Protections to Ensure Every Consumer is Heard (PRO-SPEECH) Act.

He said it will provide "baseline protections to prohibit Big Tech from engaging in unfair, deceptive, or anti-competitive practices that limit or control consumers’ speech."

Republicans, including Wicker, have consistently argued that Silicon Valley has a bias against conservative speech that it expresses through blocking and throttling speakers.

Also Read: Wicker Says Congress Should Curb Big Tech

"My bill would put safeguards in place to preserve internet freedom, promote competition, and protect consumers from these blatantly biased practices," said Wicker. “The big social media companies continue to abuse their market power by censoring content, suppressing certain viewpoints, and prioritizing favored political speech,” he added, saying Congress needed to step in to make sure all viewpoints can be heard.

According to Wicker's office, the bill would include a net neutrality provision, preserving the ability of web users to "access lawful content, applications, services, or devices that do not interfere with an internet platform’s functionality or pose a data privacy or data security risk to a user."

It would also:

1. "Prohibit internet platforms from taking any actions against users based on racial, sexual, religious, partisan, or ethnic grounds;

2. "Prohibit large internet platforms from blocking or discriminating against competing internet platforms by declaring such actions presumptively anti-competitive;

3. "Require an internet platform to disclose to the public accurate information regarding the platform management practices, performance characteristics, and commercial terms of service of any app store, cloud computing service, operating system, search engine, or social media network it owns; and

4. "Authorize the Federal Trade Commission to enforce the Act under Section 5 of the FTC Act notwithstanding any other provision of law."

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, who has called for reform of Big Tech's Sec. 230 immunity from civil liability for their content moderation practices, saying they are censoring conservatives, applauded the bill.

"While Section 230 reform remains necessary, it is not sufficient standing alone to address Big Tech’s discriminatory conduct," he said. "Section 230 reform must be paired with a broader effort to apply anti-discrimination requirements to large internet platforms." 

Senator Wicker’s legislation would take this important next step in the ongoing efforts to hold Big Tech accountable.

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, has called on Committee Chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) to hold an FCC oversight hearing with the FCC commissioners and acting chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel within the next month focused on broadband mapping.

Also Read: FCC Launching Public Input Mapping Tool

Wicker is looking for a timeline from the FCC, an issue that came up in a hearing earlier this month on "Recent Federal Actions to Expand Broadband: Are We Making Progress?"

At the hearing, both Cantwell and Wicker expressed their hopes that the FCC could get out better maps on where broadband is and isn't as soon as possible, with Wicker saying that Congress was just looking for guidance on how it could help speed that timeline.

At the March 17 hearing, after Wicker had said Rosenworcel recently said a mapping revamp would not be completed until 2022, Cantwell said that she had had a conversation with the acting chairwoman and Rosenworcel had "intimated she thought it was a four-month answer on the mapping."

Wicker referenced that conversation in his letter to Cantwell asking for the hearing, a copy of which was obtained by Multichannel News.

He also pointed out that he and other Republicans had sent a letter to Rosenworcel  asking about her plans and timelines, but that the response they got "simply gave a broad overview of the process of developing new maps, without any target completion date."

"I hope you and I can work together to compel the FCC to address this issue quickly," he told Cantwell. "I am therefore requesting that the Committee hold an FCC oversight hearing within the next month." 

Last month, Rosenworcel created a Broadband Data Task Force to implement "long-overdue" improvements to the commission's broadband mapping and data collection. She has long argued that the FCC should put maps before money when it came to handing out billions of dollars to subsidize broadband service.

With broadband subsidies much in the news these days--billions of dollars of new COVID-19-related connectivity money for example--Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), ranking member of the House Communications Subcommittee, wants the FCC to provide him with an accounting of the state of the Universal Service Fund.

Also Read: FCC Seeks Input on Remote Learning Subsidy

USF is the multi-billion-dollar advanced broadband subsidy for low-income and rural residents, as well as schools and libraries paid for by fees on telecom sub bills.

In a letter to acting FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, Wicker pointed out that the pandemic had made closing the digital divide even more urgent and, as he evaluated the fund, wanted some facts and figures. (He also took the opportunity to praise the FCC for its work in keeping Americans, particularly rural ones, connected.)

Wicker wants, by March 9, a detailed report on the status of funds for the Connect America Fund (CAF), Lifeline program(low-income), E-Rate (schools and libraries), and rural health care. He wants to know the status of all funds, obligated, committed, or available, he said.

Also Read: Digital Disparities Must Not Stand

The FCC is currently deciding whether to free up more USF money for schools and libraries and is setting up $3.2 billion in one-time (or at least confined to the pandemic) subsidies in an Emergency Broadband Fund authorized by Congress, as well as the second of two congressionally mandate telehealth initiatives related to the pandemic.

The Senate Commerce Committee plans to hold a hearing next week on privacy and data.

Committee chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) announced the hearing, “The Invalidation of the EU-US Privacy Shield and the Future of Transatlantic Data Flows,” for 10 a.m. Wednesday (Dec. 9).

Related: EU, U.S., Working on New Privacy Shield

The hearing will look at the policy issues that led to the invalidation of the shield framework, as well as that decision's impact on U.S. businesses, and where the U.S. is in the process of coming up with a successor shield.

The U.S. started huddling with the EU back in August about fixing the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield after the EU's Court of Justice ruled that the U.S. can't live up to its part of the bargain, promising to strengthen privacy protections.

Concluding that it does not sufficiently protect data transferred from the EU to the U.S., the Court of Justice invalidated the shield.

The privacy shield replaced the safe harbor agreement that a European Union court invalidated in October 2015 over concerns about the U.S. being able to hold up its end of the agreement given the government surveillance revealed by the Edward Snowden leaks. The voluntary framework requires companies to provide notice of what personal data is being collected and stored, the purposes it is used for, and an "opt out" mechanism.

The shield was a way for U.S. companies to be considered in compliance with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) simply by signing on to the shield's data protection guarantees rather than having to come up with individual policies and agreements to comply with the GDPR protections of cross-border data flows. 

Senators Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.) have introduced the “Connecting Minority Communities Act,” saying it will further accelerate broadband development in underserved and rural communities. The bill codifies the existing Minority Broadband Initiative at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) in a new Office of Minority Broadband Initiatives (MBI). It proposes a $100 million grant fund to supply equipment and maintenance support to the newly empowered communities.

The proposed legislation would also create a pilot program to provide grants to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), and Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) to expand access to broadband and digital opportunity in their communities.

“Closing the digital divide remains a top priority for the Commerce Committee, but too many minority communities remain unconnected,” said Wicker, who chairs the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. “The new Office of Minority Broadband Initiatives would focus federal efforts to address this challenge.”

He said that the pilot program’s grants to the three academic groups will “further economic development where it is needed most.”

Related:FCC Broadband Fund Decision Draws Crowd

Scott pointed out that the “current pandemic has highlighted this disadvantage” of access in underserved areas, calling the proposal a way to accelerate broadband into “our nation’s most vulnerable communities.”

Their plan envisions the new MBI working with Federal agencies to determine how to increase access to broadband and other digital opportunities in communities near the HBCUs/TCUs/HSIs and working with those institutions plus state and local governments “to expand broadband access and digital literacy in these communities.”

The bill will also create a Connected Minority Communities Pilot Program, which would provide $100 million in grants to HBCUs, TCUs, and HSIs to purchase broadband service, broadband equipment (wi-fi hot spots, connected devices, routers, and modems), or compensate information technology personnel, to facilitate online learning or to operate a small business or nonprofit.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) is convening an oversight hearing on the Federal Trade Commission.

The Aug. 5 hearing will feature all five commissioners, which includes chairman Joe Simons.

Among the issues likely to come up are the FTC's role in regulating the edge in terms of social media content, privacy and transparency, and antitrust oversight of Big Tech.

With the FCC's reclassification of ISPs as information services, the FTC has primary regulatory responsibility over internet access. If the FCC does follow the President's lead to come up with a framework for potentially regulating web content, the FTC would also be the primary enforcer under its unfair and deceptive practices authority.

It divides up antitrust reviews of mergers, so will definitely have a role if the antitrust laws are changed to better capture Big Tech mergers.

That issue was on display Wednesday (July 29) in a House Antitrust Subcommittee hearing with the CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google.

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), chairman of the powerful Senate Commerce Committee, signaled to the FCC commissioners Wednesday (June 24) that his committee would be looking into edge provider's Sec. 230 exemption from civil liability for how they treat third party content on their sites. 

That came in an FCC oversight hearing, where Wicker said in his opening statement: "This committee will evaluate the merits of Sec. 230 and whether modifications are necessary to promote more transparency and accountability across internet platforms and services."

President Donald Trump has signaled, via executive order, that his administration is petitioning the FCC to come up with a way to prevent censorship of political speech by those edge providers by clarifying what their terms of service allow them to do vis-a-vis Sec. 230. 

Wicker said Sec. 230 was intended to preserve a vibrant and competitive online marketplace" but said that he was "deeply troubled by recent reports that suggest some online platforms are disproportionately censoring conservative voices or imposing an unfair bias through their policies or terms of service." 

He cited reports that Google threatened to "demonetize" online magazine The Federalist (not serve ads to the site) due to "complaints by NBC News" over certain posts in The Federalist's comment section. Its publisher said it does not moderate those comments.  

Related: Hawley Joins Cruz in Google Attack 

It was his understanding, said Wicker, that the comments "were, indeed, derogatory and impermissible." But he also said that while "policing offensive content was one thing, threatening the demonitization of an entire site is quite another." 

He also cited comments by Facebook moderators that he said "seemed to confirm a blatant anti-conservative bias." 

If there is going to be a debate over the future of Sec. 230, he said--and there almost certainly is going to be--"it is clear that each side has a responsibility to insure that the internet remains a forum for a true diversity of political discourse that promotes competition and innovation."  

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, is getting a shout out from wireless internet service providers (WISPs) for a bill he is introducing (co-sponsoring the bill are Shelley Moore Capito [R-W.V.] and Marsha Blackburn [R-Tenn.]), the “Accelerating Broadband Connectivity Act of 2020” (ABCA), to speed up the FCC's Rural Digital Opportunities Fund auction so it can get broadband deployed more quickly to close the rural digital divide in Mississippi and elsewhere. 

The divide has been magnified by the COVID-19 pandemic-generated reliance on remote life and work.  

"This bill will help even more rapidly more rural Americans get the Internet. We want thank Chairman Wicker for his dedicated leadership on this integral matter – one which accommodates today’s exigencies and works to comprehensively expand broadband deployment in unserved areas," said WISP Association president Claude Aiken."Rural providers who have won RDOF support and who voluntarily choose to begin construction within 180 days and deliver broadband within one year would be eligible to receive expedited, one-time funding offers from the FCC to build those networks. Importantly, it does this in a truly technologically neutral manner, leaving the decision process to the FCC and its upcoming auction." 

Related: FCC Votes on Rural Broadband Subsidy Framework 

The FCC is scheduled to auction access to the first $16 billion (phase one) of the $20.4 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), starting Oct. 22.   

Wicker's bill would direct the FCC to allocate money to applicants who were expected to be the sole bidder and who promised gigabit speeds. It would also require the FCC to start processing provider applications for the auction by July 31 (it could more quickly identify which sole bidders might be able to get money early).  

Wicker says he has heard from providers in his home state who are ready to deploy in unserved areas--the first $16 billion is targeted to unserved areas--but need the subsidy money to do so.  

The senator said expediting the funding could help close the digital divide. He said that while Congress is considering the bill and is cognizant of the legal and procedural constraints on modifying FCC rules already approved, Wicker wanted some questions answered--by June 12--to help them with the legislation.  

They include how the FCC would modify the auction to meet accelerated deadlines or make awards of money early and when it will update its March 17 list of areas eligible for that phase one support.  

Wicker's desire to advance the auction and funding is in contrast to a number of Democrats who have been arguing the auction should be delayed until the FCC can collect more accurate data on where broadband is and isn't.  

FCC commissioner Michael O'Rielly signaled to the Senate Commerce Committee that he won't vote on a final order to start handing out billions in 5G buildout subsidy money before the FCC comes up with new availability maps as directed by Congress.

The FCC voted in April to seek comment on a proposal to give out up to $9 billion over a decade for 5G buildouts, which is about $450 million per year more than the Universal Service Fund (USF) Mobility Fund allocation, which it is replacing. The extra money will also come from USF. The FCC will target rural areas that will be less likely to get 5G absent that support. 

The "maps before money" mantra is more associated with Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel and the FCC's $16 billion Rural Digital Opportunities Fund, but O'Rielly, who was being grilled in his nomination hearing in the Senate Commerce Committee Tuesday (June 16), draws a distinction. 

"[U]nlike the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) proceeding which was already in motion prior to the passage of the Broadband DATA Act, the Rural 5G Fund mechanism appears to be within the ambit of a 'new award of funding' for which the FCC would need to use the statutorily-required maps," he said when he voted for the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking back in April. 

O'Rielly is all for expanding 5G, but as a former Hill staffer, O'Rielly is also keenly attuned to "intent of Congress" issues in implementing legislation and has questions about the FCC's legal authority to proceed with funding before the FCC has produced mobile coverage maps as directed by the Broadband DATA Act.  

But those appeared to have been answered in the negative. He first said he would be "hesitant" to move forward, but Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Ohio), chairman of the committee, elicited a full stop. 

O'Rielly said that if Wicker's position as one of the authors of the Broadband DATA Act, which required new maps, was that the FCC could not proceed without them, then he agreed.  

"So, we've moved from serious reservations to you would commit not to support moving forward until we get the maps?"  

"Yes," said O'Rielly. 

FCC chairman Ajit Pai has pointed out that the FCC can't get those maps done until Congress appropriates money for the job.

Sen. Roger Wicker, the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, is asking FCC chairman Ajit Pai to weigh in on how the FCC will speed the allocation of billions of dollars for rural broadband subsidies. 

The FCC is scheduled to auction access to the first $16 billion (phase one) of the $20.4 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), starting Oct. 22.  

Related: Bill Would Goose Broadband Buildouts 

Wicker points out that legislation, the Rural Broadband Acceleration Act (H.R. 7022), has been introduced to get money out even before that auction. It would direct the FCC to allocate money to applicants who were expected to be the sole bidder and who promised gigabit speeds. It would also require the FCC to start processing provider applications for the auction by July 31 (it could more quickly identify which sole bidders might be able to get money early). 

Related: House Democrats Update Broadband Plan

Wicker said he has heard from providers in his home state who are ready to deploy in unserved areas--the first $16 billion is targeted to unserved areas--but need the subsidy money to do so. 

The senator said expediting the funding could help close the digital divide. He said that while Congress is considering the bill and is cognizant of the legal and procedural constraints on modifying FCC rules already approved, Wicker wanted some questions answered--by June 12--to help them with the legislation. 

Related: Pai Circulates Framework for Rural Broadband Fund

They include how the FCC would modify the auction to meet accelerated deadlines or make awards of money early and when it will update its March 17 list of areas eligible for that phase one support. 

Wicker's desire to advance the auction and funding is in contrast to a number of Democrats who have been arguing the auction should be delayed until the FCC can collect more accurate data on where broadband is and isn't. 

The bipartisan leadership of the Senate Commerce Committee has introduced a bill to update the government's tech ed program. 

The bill, the Advanced Technological Manufacturing Act, would reauthorize the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program but also retool it given that COVID-19 has put an exclamation point on the need for more high tech workers in a world having to connect remotely. 

"This legislation would spur economic recovery in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic by developing a workforce prepared to fill roles in advanced technological sectors," said Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), chairman of the Committee, who joined with ranking member Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) to introduce the bill. 

Cantwell said the idea is to spur STEM education, particularly with the community colleges and technical colleges that have "led the way," in STEM. 

The bill would direct the National Science Foundation to reestablish pilot programs expanding the number of colleges and universities that can compete for NSF grants. 

The bill also does some linguistic housekeeping, changing the language in the program from "scientific and educational content" to STEM. 

As promised, Senate Republicans have introduced a data privacy bill targeted at cell phone data collection in the age of pandemic--when user data, including location, could be key to contract tracing to help combat the COVID-19 virus. But there were no Democrats identified as supporting the bill, which was not an encouraging sign of the bill's prospects beyond the Republican-controlled Senate, at least in its current form. A draft was circulated last month. 

The only apparent difference in the summaries of the bill's key points was the addition of "device" information to the data being protected.

COVID-19 Consumer Data Protection Act would provide more transparency, choice and control over users' personal health, device, geolocation, and proximity data, all key to contact tracing, as well as hold businesses "accountable" to consumers if they use that data to fight the virus, according to the backers, though at least one advocacy group sees it much differently. 

There have been bipartisan concerns that contact-tracing technology employed by companies including Apple and Google could wind up producing a surveillance state or put consumer data at risk for misuse or follow-on use by third parties. 

Related: Sen. Markey Pushes Back on White House Pandemic Database 

Introducing the bill were top Republicans on key committees: Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee; John Thune (R-S.D.) chairman of the Communications Subcommittee; Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), chairman of the Transportation and Safety Subcommittee; Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), chairman of the Manufacturing, Trade, and Consumer Protection Subcommittee; and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.). 

Related: Senators Seek Google Assurances on COVID-19-Related Aggregation 

“During the COVID-19 pandemic, many tech companies are using data to track the spread and help keep Americans healthy,” said Fischer. “I helped introduce this legislation which will allow companies to continue innovating while providing Americans with more transparency and safeguards for how their personal data are managed.” 

The bill would: 

• "Require companies under the jurisdiction of the Federal Trade Commission to obtain affirmative express consent from individuals to collect, process, or transfer their personal health, device, geolocation, or proximity information for the purposes of tracking the spread of COVID-19. The "device" category is an addition from the draft summary of the bill.
• "Direct companies to disclose to consumers at the point of collection how their data will be handled, to whom it will be transferred, and how long it will be retained.
• "Establish clear definitions about what constitutes aggregate and de-identified data to ensure companies adopt certain technical and legal safeguards to protect consumer data from being re-identified. 
• "Require companies to allow individuals to opt out of the collection, processing, or transfer of their personal health, geolocation, or proximity information. 
• "Direct companies to provide transparency reports to the public describing their data collection activities related to COVID-19. 
• "Establish data minimization and data security requirements for any personally identifiable information collected by a covered entity. 
• "Require companies to delete or de-identify all personally identifiable information when it is no longer being used for the COVID-19 public health emergency. 
• "Require companies to delete or de-identify all personally identifiable information when it is no longer being used for the COVID-19 public health emergency. 
• "Authorize state attorneys general to enforce the Act." 

“This is an anti-privacy bill, not a privacy bill," said Fight for the Future Executive Director Evan Greer. "Congress has been dragging its feet for years on enacting meaningful federal data privacy legislation. This bill guts the FCC’s strong privacy limits on mobile carriers, while utterly failing to give the FTC the ability to respond to abuses." 

A bipartisan quintet of senators has introduced a bill to help close the telecommunications workforce gap.

The senators are John Thune (R-S.D.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.). 

The bill is the Telecommunications Skilled Workforce Act. 

“This legislation builds off the work I’ve already done to make 5G a reality in South Dakota by getting skilled workers to industries that will deliver 5G services and technology across the country, particularly in rural areas of my state,” said Thune in a statement.  

The bill would help create a next-gen workforce by: 

1. "Establishing a Department of Labor (DOL)-led interagency working group that, in consultation with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and other federal and non-federal stakeholders, would be tasked with developing recommendations to address the workforce needs of the telecommunications industry. 

2. "Requiring the DOL, in consultation with the FCC, to issue guidance on how states can address the workforce shortage in the telecommunications industry by identifying all of the federal resources currently available to them that can be used for workforce development efforts. 

3. "Directing the Government Accountability Office to conduct a study to determine the specific number of skilled telecommunications workers that will be required to build and maintain broadband infrastructure in rural areas and the 5G wireless infrastructure needed to support 5G wireless technology." 

“CTIA supports the efforts of Senators Thune, Tester, Moran, Peters, and Wicker to ensure we have the skilled workforce necessary to deploy next-generation networks," said Kelly Cole, senior VP of CTIA, "which will enable the U.S. to secure its global leadership in the emerging 5G economy." 

“NATE Chairman Jimmy Miller recently testified before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation on the workforce development challenges currently confronting the industry," said Todd Schlekeway, executive director of the National Association of Tower Erectors. "NATE believes this bipartisan legislation is a strong response to the issues that were highlighted at the hearing and can serve as a springboard to fostering greater collaboration between the federal government and state workforce boards..."

Even before FCC chair Ajit Pai formally unveiled his plan for a C-band spectrum auction to reassign bandwidth for 5G wireless services, legislative and public interest forces began voicing their opposition to or endorsements for the proposal. Details of Pai's rulemaking draft, previewed on Thursday in a Washington speech, is being fully disclosed on Friday (Feb. 7), and the FCC will vote to proceed with the examination at its Feb. 28 open meeting. 

Pai's goal is to begin the auction on Dec. 8, with an eye toward awarding the first funds from a predicted $9.7 billion revenue bonanza by late 2021. Incentive payments from winning bidders would add $3 billion to $5.2 billion to pay satellite operators for new satellites, equipment and other technologies.

During a brief Q&A session after his prepared remarks, Pai acknowledged that clearing the band quickly raises the potential for "risks in transition." But he insisted that, "We have thought very carefully through all the steps for repurposing the 280 MHz" that will be auctioned. FCC staff has conducted talks with organizations likely to be involved with the auction process during recent months in preparation for the rulemaking.

At a briefing following Pai's presentation, a senior FCC official explained that the "Emerging Technologies Framework" that is part of the auction process would include payments to incumbent earth station operators and others for expenses such as reorienting antennas or installing new equipment. Those payments may be capped, but he offered no details.

The Commission expects satellite companies will accept accelerated payments and vacate the bandwidth promptly. If the accelerated deadlines are not triggered, then the timetable will revert to previously announced September 2025 deadline for spectrum clearing.

"We are very optimistic that satellite operators will make decisions that are in their best interest," the FCC official explained.

Related: Pai Proposes FCC Auction of C-Band

Pai's draft rules would make the lower 280 megahertz of the C-band (3.7-3.98 GHz) available for flexible use, including for 5G. The 20 MHz above that (3.98-4 GHz) would serve as a guard band. Existing satellite operations (delivering video programming to cable headends and broadcasters) would be repacked into the upper 200 MHz (4.0-4.2 GHz) of the band, with relocation costs covered by the auction and paid directly by winning bidders to the satellite carriers.

Satellite operators could receive accelerated relocation payments if they can clear the lower portion of the C-band on a sped-up timeline, thus advancing the national priority of making spectrum available for 5G deployment more quickly.

Rhetoric Begins Quickly

Within hours of Pai's speech, Washington's predictable verbal sparring began - although it included upbeat responses from potential participants in the auction process as well as discouraging words from policy makers who contend the FCC is overstepping its authority and that not enough of auction revenue will go to the federal treasury.

Mobile providers such as Verizon Communications Inc. and T-Mobile US Inc. are expected to bid for the newly available frequencies for the 5G networks that will be deployed for applications such as Internet-of-Things and self-driving vehicles to telehealth.

Sen. John Kennedy, (R-La.), who has opposed a big payout to satellite providers, characterized Pai's plan as "much too high" and "highly unfair to taxpayers." Kennedy pointed to a bipartisan spectrum bill (of which he is a co-sponsor) "that would pay down the national debt, modernize public safety and finally free rural communities from their dial-up prison."

Referring to the "foreign satellite companies" (European-based Intelsat, SES and Telesat) that operate C-band services in the U.S., Kennedy said, "We shouldn’t be in the business of spearheading Luxembourg bailouts when there are towns in Louisiana and across the country without access to broadband service.” Last month, Kennedy, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) introduced the Spectrum Management And Reallocation for Taxpayers (SMART) Act, that would cap spectrum clearing reimbursements at $6 billion, inclusive of $1 billion in accelerated clearing incentive payments.

Pai's auction agenda was also quickly challenged by the Democratic chairs of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and its Communications and Technology Subcommittee. Full committee chair Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ) and subcommittee chair Mike Doyle (D-Pa.), in a joint statement, insisted that the plan "only reiterates the need for legislation."

"The questionable legal basis for the satellite incentives will likely result in litigation, which will delay the deployment of 5G," they contended. "Moreover, without Congressional action, this auction will not fund critical public safety infrastructure or bridge the digital divide." They said they will "continue to work with our Republican colleagues to achieve that end.”

Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America’s Open Technology Institute, added to the assault, charging Pai with proposing "to stretch the FCC’s authority to require auction winners to make excessive windfall payments to foreign satellite companies that are not fully using C-band spectrum."

"That $9.7 billion will come straight out of taxpayers’ pockets," Calabrese said. “The FCC should give Congress a chance to pass legislation that clarifies its authority, sets reasonable incentive payments, and earmarks the revenue for rural broadband and public safety."

Satisfaction from Potential Supporters

On the other side, potential bidders and groups representing current satellite operators were quick to endorse Pai's plan.

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science, & Transportation Committee, endorsed Pai's outlook.

“Winning the race to 5G requires having additional spectrum available in order to deploy advanced networks,” Wicker told Multichannel News. “I have advocated giving the commission the flexibility to get this done quickly while protecting taxpayers.”

Verizon chairman/CEO Hans Vestberg Tweeted a "Hat's off" to Pai's auction plan that will help "ensure continued U.S. leadership in 5G."

In more formal statement, Vestberg called said Pai’s "historic announcement sets forth a bold vision for bringing much needed mid-band spectrum to auction this year. Most importantly, his plan ensures that this critical spectrum is not only auctioned quickly, but cleared on an accelerated basis." He predicted that the process "will produce hundreds of billions of dollars in economic benefits for the country."

The C-Band Alliance, which includes global satellite operators Intelsat, SES and Telesat, called Pai's comments "significant" but otherwise blandly and noncommittally acknowledged that the "draft order reflects the tireless efforts of many over the past several years to ensure that this critical spectrum comes to market U.S." CBA called Pai's efforts "a significant development in this important proceeding" but postponed its appraisal until it can review the plan "in full context.”

Last month, CBA suggested that the C-Band spectrum was worth up to $77 billion.

Mike Rogers, chairman of 5G Action Now and former chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, focused on the global value of Pai's plan, especially the goal to "beat China in the race to 5G leadership."

“This is a not a partisan issue," Rogers said, "but one that affects every American and every part of our country. ... Much work remains to be done and cooperation is critical to moving this process forward. I hope that the Executive branch and Congress continue to work together to ensure that America can achieve 5G leadership, and that we, and not Beijing, define our future.”

The Wireless Internet Service Providers Association said it was heartened by the proposed FCC auction because of the current way in which the C-Band is “grossly underutilized, especially in our spectrum-constrained world.” WISPA vice president Louis Peraertz commended the spectrum-sharing approach, pointing out that such "sharing has been proven."

"Satellite earth stations have coexisted with point-to-point fixed wireless services for decades," Peraertz said. "It is also a potent way to open the remainder of the band to fixed wireless providers and other competitive innovators.”

Randy May, president of the Free State Foundation, called Pai's plan "a thoughtful effort to balance the various interests in a way that advances overall consumer welfare and the national interest." He focused on the "speed in repurposing the C-Band spectrum [and] providing sufficient compensation to the incumbent satellite operators." May expects that the process will encourage "active cooperation and avoid litigation that might derail implementation."

An untitled group of conservative think tanks (such as Americans For Tax Reform, American Consumer Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Innovations Economy Institute, Heritage Action for America and the Institute for Policy Innovation) applauded Pai's aggressive plan because it "echoed our concerns that delay could threaten U.S. leadership in 5G."

"The idea of accelerated payments to incentivize putting the band into use for 5G is also laudable," the group said in a statement.

Dissent Within the FCC

Pai's two Republican FCC colleagues voiced support for his plan.

"Freeing the 280 MHz of spectrum, while protecting existing systems and remaining users, was my highest priority," said commissioner Michael O'Rielly. He cited efforts to develop "appropriate incentive payment for the satellite providers," saying he is "pleased that an agreement was reached that should allow them to fully and voluntarily participate in this transition."

Commissioner Brendan Carr said the "mid-band spectrum [plan] will power American 5G" while at the same time "C-Band services that Americans rely on will be protected." He added that, "Unlocking the C-Band’s potential has been one of the most challenging public policy puzzles to solve that I’ve seen in my time on the FCC."

The Commission's Democrats were not as upbeat. Jessica Rosenworcel, in a statement contended that Pai is “putting the future of 5G service on shaky legal ground” by ignoring Congress. A spokesman for commissioner Geoffrey Starks said his office has just received the proposal is and "reviewing it closely."

ACA Connects said it would withhold any comments until after it reviews the FCC's official proposed order. NCTA – The Internet & Television Association also had "no comment" about Pai's initial announcement.

The Republican leadership of the Senate Commerce Committee has come out strongly in favor of the FCC auctioning C-band spectrum, which works out since their proposed bill came out the same day FCC Chairman Ajit Pai announced he is proposing to auction that spectrum.  

Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee and Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), chairman of the Communications Subcommittee, have introduced the 5G Spectrum Act. 

The FCC had already said it planned to free up as much C-band spectrum as possible to turn over to carriers for 5G, but the senators want to make sure the framework jibes with their own, which would:  

"Provide the coverage and capacity essential for deployment in America’s rural communities. 

"Require the FCC to conduct a public auction of C band spectrum.

"Require the auction to start no later than December 31, 2020.

"Require the FCC to make available at least 280 MHz of spectrum.

"Require the FCC to capture for the taxpayer at least 50 percent of the fair market value of the spectrum.

Related: FCC's Pai: U.S. Will Lead Way in 5G Deployment

Pai's announced proposal would check at least three of those boxes: 1) public auction, 2) of 280 MHz of spectrum, 3) by the end of 2020.  

It must still be voted, but the chairman would not likely have announced his plan--via Twitter--had he not had at least two other commissioners on board.

Competitive Carriers Association President Steven K. Berry liked what he saw in the Wicker-Thune bill, though at press time he had not commented on the Pai proposal.

“The 5G Spectrum Act clearly has the public interest in mind by ensuring at least fifty percent of the auction proceeds are reserved for American taxpayers," he said. "The C-band spectrum is a taxpayer-owned resource, and it only makes sense that a significant portion of the proceeds benefit the U.S. Treasury or are otherwise used as directed by Congress. It is a good day for consumers, competition and the economy, and I thank Senators Wicker and Thune for their work on this important issue.”

The Wire does not know if this has any bearing on whether the satellite compulsory license has finally established itself as a fixture in the legislative firmament — pay TV providers hope so — but the law’s name game appears to have found a winner, given that it deals with heavenly bodies, as it were.

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) on Nov. 6 introduced the Satellite Television Access Reauthorization (STAR) Act (see Rules), the latest reauthorization of STELAR, which is itself the latest legislative incarnation of the law that allows satellite operators to import distant network-TV station signals to viewers who can’t get a local, off-air, signal.

RELATED:Stars Collide: Committee Chairs Diverge Over STELAR

At one time or another, the legislation, as a bill or a draft bill, has been called SHVA (the Satellite Home Viewer Act), SHVIA (the Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act), SHVERA (the Satellite Home Viewer Extension & Reauthorization Act), SHVURA (the Satellite Home Viewer Update and Reauthorization Act), the vowel-challenged SHVDTA (the Satellite Home Viewer Digital Television Act), STELA (the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act) and before Wicker’s latest stab, STELAR, the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act Reauthorization, and now, a STAR is born. Perhaps it is appropriate for a bill coming out of Congress that a star begins life as a big cloud of gas.

The last two versions of the name were at least an adjectival effort to tie it to the topic, i.e. twinkling celestial bodies that some people are wishing on (“geostationary satellites flash with glints of reflected sunlight,” says a post on the NASA website). Broadcasters wish the license would go away, while cable operators wish legislators would use the law to reform retransmission consent rules.

In any case, the name has come full circle to only four letters and a pronounceable four letters at that. Having tracked this law, and good-naturedly tweaked its namers, from SHVA’s unpronounceable origin, The Wire’s work appears to be done.

WASHINGTON — A new battle is brewing on Capitol Hill over renewal of the compulsory license that allows satellite operators to deliver distant network TV station signals to markets that lack them, and the legislative vehicle that cable operators would like to use to reform retransmission consent.

The chairs of the Senate committees that jointly oversee the issue, both Republicans, appear to be poles apart, with only a handful of legislative working days left (19 as of Nov. 12) before the license expires and hundreds of thousands of viewers could lose access to their favorite network shows.

The Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELAR) sunsets every five years unless renewed, in this case by Dec. 31.

Broadcasters and multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) have been on different sides of this issue for years. TV station owners have lobbied to get rid of the license, which they said allows MVPDs to pay below-market rates while choosing not to deliver local stations into some local markets, instead importing stations from Los Angeles and New York since they have the distant-signal alternative.

MVPDs have said the license allows them to serve viewers whose stations have failed to deliver signals to the markets whose public interest they are duty-bound to serve as the quid pro quo for that free spectrum.

More than 800,000 viewers are in markets where one or all of their network affiliates aren’t available. Also affected are truckers and tailgaters who get distant signals on the road.

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, made it clear at a Hill hearing last month that he wants to renew the license, and last week introduced a one-page bill, the Satellite Television Access Reathorization (STAR) Act, that would simply re-up it for five more years.

Wicker said he believed STELAR remained critical for preserving access to video services for rural residents — such as those in his home state — and others on the wrong side of the digital divide. Wicker on Nov. 6 introduced a STELAR reauthorization bill to be marked up Nov. 13.

Cable and satellite operators are rooting for that outcome in hopes of getting some elements of retrans reform — mandatory arbitration, a ban on blackouts — that they have been trying to add to the bill in recent renewal cycles.

That’s because another provision in STELAR that will sunset at year-end unless renewed is the requirement that the FCC ensure broadcasters and cable operators negotiate retrans agreements in good faith.

Enter Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who wrote to the Big Four networks’ top Washington executives a letter that could have been drafted by those lobbyists (see sidebar below). Graham effectively assumed the law was sunsetting and suggested a one-year transition plan for the license to prevent the dislocation of those three quarters of a million viewers.

“The 2011 Copyright Office study Report on Marketplace Alternatives to Replace Statutory Licenses urged the end of the compulsory video licenses in Title 17,” Graham wrote. “Three years later, Congress agreed and the STELA Reauthorization Act of 2014 extended the Section 119 Compulsory license in our nation’s copyright laws only until Dec. 31, 2019. As this expiration date approaches, I am writing to inquire about ABC’s transition plan to a free market at the end of this calendar year to avoid any impact on consumers.”

Graham was right about the Copyright Office, which has indeed recommended a sunset. But saying Congress agreed is a bit of a stretch since the law did not sunset it in 2014. Instead it was renewed for the full five years until 2019.

Cable lobbyists countered the Graham missive with one of their own, circulating a letter to the Hill from the powerful International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers calling for renewal.

Given the divide between broadcasters and MVPDs, and now between Graham and Wicker, it is unlikely that either extreme sought — major retrans reform in a renewed STELAR on one hand, or a sunset and transition to the “free market” Graham invoked repeatedly in his letter — will be the result.

A more likely outcome would be renewal, but perhaps on a shorter, three-year time frame. It’s also possible that with so few days left, lawmakers fail to reach agreement and extend the license for a month or two into the New Year, as happened two cycles ago.

Graham’s Un-STELAR Free-Market Glide Path

WASHINGTON — Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) laid out a plan for transitioning from the compulsory satellite license, but posed in the form of a series of questions to top lobbyists at the four major broadcast networks:

• “Is [your network] willing to provide a one-year license to satellite providers for network]-owned shows, provided you receive market-by-market usage data from each satellite provider, including the total usage by long distance truckers and RV owners?

• “Will the rate [your network] charges for your shows be comparable to the 2018 rate set by the Copyright Royalty Board for the compulsory Section 119 license?

• “Will [you] commit to supporting your affiliates as they negotiate with satellite providers during this one-year transition period on a carriage agreement for full local-into-local on both satellite providers that would begin no later than Jan. 1, 2021?

• “For areas without local affiliates, will [your network] commit to negotiating with both satellite providers during this one-year transition period on a carriage agreement that would begin no later than Jan. 1, 2021?

• “Will [your network] commit to regularly informing my committee of your ongoing efforts to reach such carriage agreements?”

WASHINGTON — FCC chairman Ajit Pai has said his agency is still vetting various proposals for freeing up C-band spectrum, amid signals that it could be leaning toward a marketplace sale rather than an commission-conducted auction.

That would be good news for the C-Band Alliance, a group of international satellite carriers with those spectrum licenses looking to cash in on sales through deals with carriers. It could also be a payday for cable operators and broadcasters.

Democrats on Capitol Hill have been pushing back publicly on marketplace deals, so the issue was very much in the spotlight and remains complicated.

The Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously in July 2018 to find ways to open up the C-band spectrum (3.7 to 4.2 Gigahertz) — either all of the proposed 500 Megahertz or some portion of it — for terrestrial wireless use. Those ways could include an incentive or capacity auction, a market mechanism in which incumbents voluntarily strike deals to reduce their footprint, or some other means.

“The FCC is still considering the merits of various proposals and making sure that whatever it does is legally supportable,” one cable lobbyist following the proceedings said.

Repack Proceeds Possible

One of those proposals includes cutting cable and broadcast in on the proceeds from a C-band repack. That’s something ACA Connects, the trade group for smaller, independent MSOs, has said should happen as long as whatever the FCC decides protects incumbents from interference from wireless carriers getting the spectrum.

The FCC has asked stakeholders to comment on what authority they think the regulator has to compensate satellite operators that use the spectrum to deliver network programming to cable operators and TV stations, as well as its authority to compensate incumbent MSOs and broadcasters that might have to find other spectrum or use another delivery system, depending on how much spectrum it winds up reclaiming in the band.

Pai told Congress following the request for the targeted input on a “certain course of action” that the last thing the FCC wanted to do was something it thought was “in the best interests of the American people but [would] then be stuck in the courts for a long time.”

That the FCC was delving deeper into the compensation issue was good news for the alliance. So was a letter to the chairman from two top Senate Republicans who together chair the committee and subcommittee with primary jurisdiction over the FCC.

In that letter, Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and John Thune (R-S.D.) signaled speed is of the essence, given that the C-band (3.7-4.2 GHz) is midband spectrum, ideal for 5G because of its propagation characteristics.

The senators did more than that. They said, in no uncertain terms, that getting that C-band spectrum to market ASAP could be the difference between winning and losing the race to 5G, a race that President Donald Trump has said the United States must win.

“Your action to speed up the availability of midband spectrum for 5G will play a crucial role in determining whether the American people will reap the full benefits of next-generation technology and whether the United States will win the massive economic benefits associated with leading the world in 5G,” Wicker and Thune wrote.

They did not tell the FCC to forgo an auction for marketplace deals, but they did urge the agency “to act quickly.”

Diane VanBeber, a vice president at C-Band Alliance member Intelsat, called the Thune-Wicker input “the right letter at the right time … We’ve got some solid footing here and we’re continuing to build our case.”

Pai has signaled that an FCC auction, though it would put money in the U.S. Treasury rather than in satellite operators’ pockets, might not be the fastest route to freeing up the spectrum.

Could Be Years Away

With another millimeter-wave auction scheduled for the end of the year and a Universal Service Fund auction to conduct, it could be a couple of years before a C-band auction could be completed. At a recent Senate Appropriations Committee budget hearing, and again in a House oversight hearing, Pai was pressed about the potential billions of dollars to the treasury that might be lost to a marketplace approach.

He said the FCC had to balance a number of factors, but it’s focused on the speed of freeing up that spectrum given that 5G leadership is a top U.S. priority, not only for competitiveness but for investment and innovation.

While Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.) has signaled new legislation could help resolve the issue, Pai suggested that waiting for Congress could work against the need for speed.

Senate Republican leaders have urged FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to move faster to free up midband spectrum, signaling that doing so could help determine the winner in the race to 5G, a race President Donald Trump says the U.S. has to win.  

It seemed a bit like carrying coals to Newcastle, but the Republican chairs of the Senate Commerce Committee and Communications Subcommittee sent a letter to Pai last week urging him to speed the freeing-up and deployment of 5G spectrum, particularly midband spectrum. 

They are looking specifically at the C-band (3.7-4.2 GHz), which the FCC is currently considering just how to, and how much to, free up, including extending the comment period last week to get more input on what authority it has to compensate incumbent stakeholders in that effort. 

Related: Senate Looks to Speed Up Spectrum Availability 

They said the FCC has been making enormous progress, particularly in higher bands, but that the U.S. lags other countries in freeing up mid-band and needs to pick up the pace. They put the onus on the chairman in no uncertain terms. 

"Your action to speed up the availability of mid-band spectrum for 5G will play a crucial role in determining whether the American people will reap the full benefits of next-generation technology and whether the United States will win the massive economic benefits associated with leading the world in 5G." 

The FCC has been auctioning high-band (millimeter wave) spectrum over the past few months--the 24GHz and 28 GHz spectrum-- with more on the way, something the senators acknowledge. But the senators, Commerce Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Subcommittee Chair John Thune (R-S.D.),  say they want Chairman Pai to pick up the pace on the C-Band spectrum, which is in the mid-band sweet spot of propagation and resiliency. 

“In MOBILE NOW [Thune motormanned that bill]  Congress directed the FCC to evaluate commercial wireless use of spectrum in the 3.7 GHz to 4.2 GHz band, and the Commission has begun the process," they wrote. "In the year since passage of that law, the need for action has become even more acute. It has been estimated that accelerating infrastructure deployment by one year could drive an additional $100 billion in economic impact in the next three years. Therefore, we urge the Commission to act quickly to make spectrum in the 3.7 GHz to 4.2 GHz band available for 5G.” 

The Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing Wednesday (April 10) on an issue that has been heating up over the past few weeks--how the FCC collects and maps data on the availability of broadband connectivity.

Commerce Committee Chairman Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Mass.) said it was crucial to have accurate broadband maps on where broadband is and isn't available at certain speeds if the country wants to close the digital divide. There is pretty general agreement the FCC does not have those accurate maps yet. 

The maps are used to direct broadband subsidies, so if they aren't right, unserved areas can show up as served and vice versa. Wicker said inaccurate maps waste money and stifle opportunity for economic development in rural areas. 

Related: Microsoft: FCC Has to Clean Up Its Broadband Accessibility Data Act

Congress's goal, and the FCC's as well, is to collect more granular and useful data. Wicker said the issue would be a priority for his committee.

Wicker wanted to know how long the FCC's data collection process (form 477) had been deficient.

Tim Donovan of the Competitive Carriers Association said the FCC form was showing its age, as FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has acknowledged, and was not designed to be used to distribute Universal Service Fund subsidies, but instead to show over time where resources were being deployed.

Jonathan Spalter, president of USTelecom, agreed that the process needed to be updated ASAP, as USTelecom is trying to do with its mapping initiative.

Ranking member Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) decided not to make an opening statement at the hearing, saying there had been too much talking about mapping and that it was time for action. 

She said there needed to be better data on the cost of build-outs so they could determine what role the federal government should play. 

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) made it clear she thought the FCC's form 477-based maps had outlived their usefulness and that it was time to "do some things differently." She said, flatly, that 80% of Mississippi does not have access to high-speed broadband. She also said that as they talked about broadband and mapping and 5G and its revolutionary nature, what Congress needed to do was to make sure that everyone gets to be part of that revolution.

Only a couple of days before his committee's hearing on data privacy, Senate Commerce Committee chair Roger Wicker headed a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai wanting some answers following a story in Business Insider that the company had failed to disclose that there was a microphone it its Nest Secure home security device.

Google said that not to have mentioned the mics in the devices' technical specs was an "error." The senators want to make sure that was all it was, and that there are no similar errors out there yet to be discovered.

Wicker, joined by Sens. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), chairman of the Consumer Protection Subcommittee, and John Thune (R-S.D.), chairman of the Communications Subcommittee, want to know when Google realized the mics had not been disclosed, how it developed those specs, and more.

In the letter, the senators pointed out that there is growing concern about large tech companies "collecting and using personal data about [consumers] without their knowledge."

They said it was important that Google be "completely transparent" and provide "full disclosure," something that could well be part of general privacy legislation that both Democrats and Republicans are suggesting needs to be hammered out on online privacy.

They also pointed out that Google's chief privacy officer testified last September before the Commerce Committee that "transparency is a core value." They told Pichai that given that pledge, the failure to disclose the mic raised "serious questions" about its commitment to that value.

Even if Google was not using the mic, hackers could have activated it to record illicitly, they said, though not pointing out the irony of using a "secure" device to do so.

The senators want a half dozen questions answered by March 12 (by 5 p.m.), including whether Nests have always had mics, when and how it became aware it had failed to list it in the spec, if Google is aware of any third party having used the device for any unauthorized purpose and whether there are any other "similar omissions" in the tech specs for other Google products.

The Senate Commerce Committee drilled down on the 5G rollout Wednesday (Feb. 6) in a hearing aptly titled "Winning the Race to 5G and the Next Era of Technology Innovation in the United States." It was the first hearing of the committee in the new Congress and in a 5g, IoT-driven world, the shadow of Chinese tech in U.S. telecom loomed large over the proceedings.

In his opening statement, committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) talked mostly about the promise of 5G across multiple sectors and the need to win the race to 5G, sounding much like President Trump, but others weighed immediately into the issue of security and Chinese telecoms.

Related: Bill Introduced to Ban ZTE, Huawei Tech

Ranking member Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) said she wished she had heard more from the President on cybersecurity at the State of the Union, but regardless Congress needs to make sure the 5G network is safe and that the promise of 5G does not come at the expense of national security and a secure supply chain,

"We can't tolerate a leaky valve or a back door into these networks," she said, adding that Congress needs to determine what, if any, level of foreign components can be allowed into that network.

Cantwell also said there needs to be as much enthusiasm about bringing rural and tribal areas into the broadband fold as there is about rolling out 5G. Sen. Wicker said there was much bipartisan consensus around the issue.

The presence of Chinese telecom components in U.S. networks has been a hot-button issue, specifically regarding Huawai and ZTE.

Wednesday's hearing was no exception.

Michael Wessel, commissioner of the U.S.-China Economic & Security Review Commission, told the senators that many other countries have embraced the security concerns of the U.S. about ZTE and Huawei. He said if Chinese companies provide equipment and software, it is a problem. He said access to telecom systems and connectivity are potentially unacceptable vulnerabilities.

"In my view it is better to err on the side of safety, as 5G will be the backbone of communications in the future," said Wessell. "We cannot afford to ignore the actions and activities that China has engaged in with regard to predatory and protectionist policies, what their public pronouncements have identified are their plans and what actions they have engaged in in the cyber realm."

Cantwell was concerned about Chinese telecoms participation in network tech standard setting. She said it needed to be made clear to the International Telecommunications Union that state actors should not be sitting on standards boards.

Wicker did press Wessell on whether the horse was already out of the barn with regard to Huawei and ZTE IoT devices.

Wessell said Huawei has about 9% of essential patents, but that the horse was still partway in the barn and there were risk mitigation strategies that could still be helpful.

Wicker asked if he thought the "proper authorities" were "on this issue."

Wessell said it is such a broad and deep problem that much more needs to be done. Wicker said he hoped so.

Sen. Brain Schatz (D-Hawaii) asked about the cybersecurity concerns about the supply chain and Huawei or "any other company."

Wessell said the cyber risks are paramount. He said Huawei saying they will protect data in a foreign market isn't accurate since they must comply with what the Chinese government tells them to do.

Schatz said as regards the competitiveness issue, we can live with someone else having a share of the market, but as a security issue, a company that is a security risk with 7% of the market has to be brought down to zero percent.

Sen. Wicker said there is a reason China is giving away technology at a cut-rate price. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) agreed, saying they want "our data" and saying ZTE is "well known" for imbedding spyware.

Blackburn said there needs to be better information sharing between industry and government about the threat.

Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) asked why, given the threat of Chinese tech, Competitive Carriers Association President Steve Berry's members still used that tech in their systems.

Berry said it was a tough issue, but that most didn't have that tech, but that most that did were in small rural areas trying to build out nets on a shoestring. He said the good thing is that moving to the 5G net is an opportunity to better secure

networks and "cycle" some of those small carriers into a more "acceptable position" in terms of security.

The hearing featured a host of other issues, from access to spectrum, low, mid and high-band, C-Band, L-Band and 3.5--to the FCC's ability, or inability, to accurately determine where broadband has and hasn't been built out, part of the larger issue of getting broadband to rural areas using both licensed and unlicensed spectrum.

Blackburn made a pitch for the National Telecommunications & Information Administration, which is taking over the broadband mapping function.

On the issue of broadband subsidies, Sen. Brain Schatz (D-Hawaii), said the FCC is "chicken" to do Universal Service Fund contribution reform, which is why the government doesn't have more money to put into building out broadband.

Berry said he could not agree more. He signaled broadband providers, not just phone service providers, should be contributing to the Universal Service Fund, particularly since the fund is migrating to subsidizing broadband as the new advanced communications baseline.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) put in a plug for coming up with estimates of the value of spectrum to society--one of Markey's complaints has been that in scoring legislation, the value of unlicensed spectrum, for example, is not sufficiently recognized--and for incentivizing government spectrum users to give up some of their turf.

Sen. Markey cited IoT cybersecurity standards from the Consumer Technology Association, but said that given that Americans were were reeling from the dark side of the internet revolution, consumers should have access to that information as well.

He said ZTE and Huawei can't be allowed to sell their tech to national security agencies. Markey and others in a letter have called on the Administration to investigate Chinese efforts to secretly manipulate technology. Sen. Wicker said he would insert that letter into the record.

Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) put in a plug for protecting C-band incumbents--which includes cable and broadcast network distribution--but witness Brad Gillen of CTIA pointed out that China has 500 Mhz of C-band and the U.S. needs to get access to more. Berry said he also wanted to see more C-band spectrum made available and that it could be done without hurting incumbents. He said whether it should be made available through a government auction or "private" auction is a novel question.

Sullivan asked why not have a government auction, so the proceeds could go toward, say, rural broadband, rather than let private companies keep all the money.

The Senate Commerce Committee will hold its first hearing on one of the hot-button communications issues of the day.

According to new chairman Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), that hearing will be Feb. 6, the topic: "Winning the Race to 5G and the Next Era of Technology Innovation in the United States."

Related: Telecom Tech Cos. Say Shutdown Threatens 5G Rollout

“The committee’s first hearing on 5G deployment and technology innovation will highlight an important issue not only to Mississippians, but to all Americans,” said Wicker. “Expanding broadband service and fostering innovation are top priorities of mine, and I look forward to continuing the committee’s efforts to close the digital divide in our nation and maintain U.S. leadership in 5G technology.”

The hearing immediately follows an executive session the same day at which subcommittee membership will be finalized.

Witnesses for the 5G hearing will be:

Meredith Atwell Baker, president and CEO of CTIA and former head of NTIA under President George W. Bush (NTIA is the White House's chief spectrum advisor and oversees government spectrum); Steve Berry, president, Competitive Carriers Association;
Shailen Bhatt, president, Intelligent Transportation Society of America; Michael Wessel, commissioner, U.S.-China Economic & Security Review Commission; Kim Zentz, CEO, Urbanova.

A trio of Republicans wants some answers from Marriott on the breach of half a billion guest records going back over four years.

That came in a letter to Marriott president Arne Sorenson from Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee; Roger Wicker, chairman of the Communications Subcommittee, and Jerry Moran, chairman of the Consumer Protection Subcommittee.

Marriott has apologized and has set up a Web site and call center to answer questions, emailed those impacted, and will provide a free online security monitoring service.

But the legislators still have a lot of questions about the breach they want answered. Those include when it discovered the breach, which dated back to 2014, how many credit card numbers were exposed (Marriott says they were encrypted, but isn't sure that the hackers didn't get the keys to unlock them), and a timeline of events, including relevant notifications or investigations.

They want those answers no later than 5 p.m. on Dec. 17.

A bipartisan, bicameral bill has been introduced to insure there is enough money to fund efforts to get federal spectrum users to give up spectrum or share spectrum with commercial users.

Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) in the Senate, and Reps. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.) and Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) in the House have introduced the Supplementing the Pipeline for Efficient Control of The Resources for Users Making New Opportunities for Wireless (SPECTRUM NOW) Act. It "would allow the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), in consultation with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), to use existing Spectrum Relocation Fund (SRF) funding (approximately $8 billion) to support research-related activities that examine the feasibility of federal spectrum users relocating or sharing spectrum with non-federal users as long as those monies are not already obligated to support federal agencies."

The SRF was created in 2004, but in 2015, the Spectrum Pipeline Act broadened the expenses that could be covered by the fund and, while it also authorized $500 million specifically to exploring spectrum re-purposing, that money is running out, say the Senators.

But the bill also says the SRF research money can only be spent if 1) "a research and development (R&D) plan by the incumbent federal spectrum user to explore relocating of sharing spectrum has been submitted and approved by the Technical Panel, which was established by Congress and is composed of three members representing the NTIA, OMB, and Federal Communications Commission (FCC); 2) as of the date of certification to Congress by NTIA and OMB that the R&D plan is approved, Spectrum Pipeline Act funds are insufficient to support that R&D plan; and 3) R&D payments will leave sufficient amounts in the SRF to complete ongoing transition plans from previous auctions."

“The ultimate success of next generation communications networks will depend on the United States using finite wireless spectrum more efficiently,” Wicker said in a statement. “It is important for Congress to consider ways to support innovation in this crucial sector and to free up existing resources accordingly.”

“As demand for licensed and unlicensed spectrum continues to grow, we need to find new ways to maximize our country’s spectrum resources,” said Schatz of the new bill. “By freeing up more licensed spectrum, we can give innovators a strong foundation for building new technologies and help grow an industry that fuels our national economy.”

“This bill makes it possible for federal agencies to more efficiently and innovatively use spectrum and, in turn, provide new opportunities for spectrum to be re-purposed for commercial use," said Matsui.

Related: House Joins Senate in Trying to Free Up More Spectrum

“Freeing up spectrum is key to furthering innovation and increasing high-speed internet access across the country,” said Guthrie.

“The AWS-3 spectrum auction proved that providing additional funds for spectrum research is money well spent, and reforms included in the SPECTRUM NOW Act have the potential to produce positive results," said Competitive Carriers Association President Steven K. Berry. “The SPECTRUM NOW Act will allow additional funds for spectrum research, including identifying best practices, which will greatly benefit the industry, the economy, and ultimately consumers."

"WISPA members across the country stand ready to deploy and innovate in rural areas to ensure reliable broadband is available in the communities that need it most," said WISPA President Claude Aiken. "We look forward to working alongside Congress to close the broadband gap and bring affordable service to the millions who lack access and choice.”

A bipartisan Hill duo wants consumers to get smart about protecting smart devices.

Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) have introduced the Internet of Things Consumer Tips To Improve Personal Security Act (S.2234), which would require the Federal Trade Commission to develop cybersecurity info for consumers.

The goal is to get consumers to protect their internet-connected devices from cybercriminals. The bill's introduction comes the same week that the Justice Department secured guilty pleas in the case of the cyber attack involving the Mirai distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks that blocked access to web sites along the East Coast in October of last year, including Twitter and reddit.

It also comes as  holiday shoppers start stocking up on the devices, which include everything from Fitbits to fridges, cars to cameras and as the FTC is preparing to get new authority, or more like reclaimed authority, over 'net regulation now that the FCC has reclassified internet access providers out from under Title II, which returns authority over ISP privacy issues to the FTC.

Related: New Bill Would Create IoT Seal of Approval

[M]any consumers are buying the latest internet-connected devices for their loved ones," said Senator Wicker. "As these devices enter the marketplace, it is important that Americans know how to protect themselves from cybercriminals. If enacted, this legislation would help consumers learn a few simple tricks to help guard against potential cyber intrusions.”

Wicker and Hassan cite studies projecting there will be 8.4 billion connected devices in use by the end of 2017, and over 20 billion in 2020.

Related: Tech Companies Offer National IoT Plan

The FTC for several years has been collecting comment on privacy and security issues around IoT devices, including sponsoring a contest for the most innovative tool to protect consumers from security vulnerabilities in home Internet of Things devices like thermostats.

Those include:

•"Identify the scope of security support from IoT device vendor after purchase;
•"Initiate or set-up an IoT device for use;
•"Update the software of an IoT device during operation or use;
•"Recover or fix compromised IoT devices;
•"Reset, delete, or modify data collected or retained by an IoT device when it is no longer in use; and
•"Access security services, tools or platforms that may help consumers manage connected devices."

Related: FTC Recommends Tweaks to IoT Guidelines

“CTIA applauds Senators Wicker and Hassan for introducing the IOT Consumer TIPS Act recognizing the importance of consumer education and awareness to Internet of Things cybersecurity," said Kelly Cole, SVP for government affairs at CTIA, the wireless association. "IoT will improve our lives and transform entire sectors of the economy by unlocking more innovation and productivity, and this bill will help consumers better protect themselves from emerging cyber threats.”

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) took to the Senate floor Thursday (Sept. 28) in support of the nomination of FCC chair Ajit Pai.

That followed a number of Democrats over the past two days who have taken the opposite tack in floor speeches, including Sen. Maria Cantwell, Sen. Ron Wyden and Sen. Ed Markey, who called the Pai FCC the "Forgetting Consumers and Competition" agency.

Wicker said that in nine short months, Pai had taken steps to keep the internet free and open for consumers, and would keep the "heavy hand of government away from the controls."

Wicker said he is working with Pai to help promote rural connectivity and that the FCC would be in good hands with Pai as its chairman.

Related: Sen. Wicker Backs Trump's Rural Broadband Support

"Mr. Pai has proven he is capable of being an exemplary FCC chairman," said Wicker. "He understands the strong connection between technology and innovation."

Wicker also said he hoped Pai would continue to hold the FCC to the highest standards of transparency, citing his decision to publish the draft texts of items before they were voted on.

Related: Gigi Sohn Says Pai Should Be Fired

The Senate will vote later today on closing debate on Pai's nomination, and subsequently on the nomination itself either today or Monday (Oct. 2).

Senate Republicans were said to have wanted to confirm Pai to a new, five-year term, before the Columbus Day (Oct. 9) break.

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said he is on board with President Donald Trump's proposal to include rural broadband money in an infrastructure legislative package.

Related: Trump: Rural Broadband Will Be Part of Infrastructure Package

“President Trump understands high-speed broadband service is essential to supporting rural economies, boosting job creation, and helping farmers deploy precision agriculture technology,” Wicker said in a statement. “I look forward to working with the president to close the broadband gap in rural communities and bring American Internet infrastructure into the 21st century.”

The president, in a speech to Iowa college students, said getting broadband to rural areas was crucial for the high-tech current and future farmers of America.

This has been Technology Week for the Administration, including meetings with tech leaders about next-generation wireless broadband. Wicker chaired a hearing on the Universal Service Fund this week, which is used to subsidize broadband in hard-to-reach and tough-to-make-a business-case-for areas.

Wicker has also introduced the Rural Wireless Access Act of 2017, which would ensure the government has good data so those dollars are spent where they are really needed.

The Senate Communications Subcommittee Tuesday (June 20) took a deep dive into the FCC's Universal Service Fund, with a focus on rural broadband deployment and telehealth.

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), chair of the subcommittee, signaled that he and ranking member Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) were reintroducing the Reaching Underserved Rural Areas to Lead [RURAL] on Telehealth Act, which would qualify some rural healthcare providers for USF funds. He said robust broadband connections are vital to the adoption of "lifesaving technology."

Wicker, who previously has introduced a bill requiring the FCC to improve broadband data collection, said, "[E]nsuring broadband deployment to rural healthcare providers is a critical component of the USF program."

He also said the importance of delivering broadband to rural areas -- Mississippi has a lot of them -- cannot be understated, citing economic and digital innovation.

FCC chair Ajit Pai has promised that closing the digital divide, particularly the rural divide, is a priority.

Sen. Schatz said all Americans need the essential connection to broadband to fully participate in society, from applying for a job todoing homework to accessing government services. He said the FCC's yearly broadband report demonstrates that millions of Americans (north of 30 million) lack access to high-speed broadband. "We can't close that divide without USF," he said.

He said the FCC should remain "vigilant" against waste fraud and abuse.

That was one of the reasons Pai cited in suspending the designation of nine telecoms as eligible for Lifeline USF subsidies, which are the subsidies for basic connectivity for low-income residents.

Related: O'Rielly, Clyburn Seek Comments on Broadband Subsidies

Schatz said the FCC needs to take into account unique geographical and topographical challenges--like those in his home state of Hawaii, that make broadband deployment particularly difficult and costly.

Shirley Bloomfield, CEO of NTCA-The Rural Broadband Association, told the legislators that the USF program's "viability and effectiveness" were "in peril" due to a flat budget.

She said that lack of money is leading to cancelled buildouts and layoffs. She then brought it home for committee chair Wicker. "In Mississippi, instead of upgrades in Fulton, the only investments will be to remain operational."

She said the FCC should tap USF fund reserves if necessary, to meet the shortfall, or increase the contribution factor, by only the cost of a Starbucks coffee a year, she added. She said another option would be for Congress to direct some infrastructure money to the program.