Telecom Law Monitor : Washington D.C. Telecom Lawyer & Attorney : Kelley Drye & Warren Law Firm : New York, Chicago, Connecticut, New Jersey, Brussels

On July 14, 2011, a joint House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee hearing focused on online privacy policy and perspectives of the ‘big three’ federal agencies with potential jurisdiction over online privacy – the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). The hearing, Internet Privacy: The Views of the FTC, the FCC, and NTIA, offered a comprehensive review of the state of online consumer privacy and the appropriate industry and government response to developments in online behavioral advertising and tracking. The hearing comes on the heels of a flurry of online privacy and data security legislation introduced in recent weeks and months. Witnesses included FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, FTC Commissioner Edith Ramirez and NTIA Administrator Lawrence E. Strickling.

The hearing touched on issues including the economic impact of privacy regulation, defining the harms caused by data collection, agency jurisdiction and authority, protecting children, data security, and social networking. Click here for more detail regarding the major themes discussed at the hearing, which expanded the growing legislative record on online privacy and security.

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Form 499Q: Quarterly Telecommunications Reporting Worksheet

Carriers required to contribute to federal universal service support mechanisms must report their actual and projected end user and wholesale revenues for each calendar quarter by filing Form 499Q on a quarterly basis. The Form 499Q filing, providing historical revenue data for April 1 through June 30 and projected data for October 1 through December 31, is due to USAC by August 1, 2011.

Form 502: North American Numbering Plan Numbering Resource Utilization/Forecast Report

Carriers that receive numbers from

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On July 7, in a case of first impression, the US Tax Court (Broz v. Commissioner) reviewed the class lives (depreciation periods) applicable to wireless cellular assets to establish the permissible depreciation deductions of the taxpayer. In general, the court determined that the taxpayer should have followed the rules the Internal Revenue Service applied to determine the class lives for telephone communications equipment. The decision will affect depreciation deductions for tax years prior to 2011.
 

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Continuing the slow march to Federal Register publication -- and certain court challenge -- of the Net Neutrality rules, the FCC today published notices of the two information collection provisions subject to review by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).  The notices address the formal complaint rules for violations of the new requirements and the public disclosure rules for network management practices.  Regarding the latter, see also the clarification released by the FCC last week.

Comments on the two information collection notices are due by August 8.  Publication of the rules in the Federal Register is not likely before the comment date.

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For a while, failure to pay per-call compensation to payphone owners was as much of an enforcement focus as is failure to pay the Universal Service Fund today.  The FCC resolved one of its legacy cases this week, agreeing to a settlement with prepaid card provider Compass, Inc. d/b/a Compass Global Inc.  Notably, the Bureau settled the $466,000 NAL for $20,000 based in part on an inability to pay.

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After months of waiting for the FCC to publish its Net Neutrality Order in the Federal Register, the FCC has finally . . .  released a clarification of the disclosure rules that will eventually apply.   The action does not indicate when Federal Register publication will occur, but, buried in the clarification is an announcement that the FCC will release results of its own broadband performance measurements before the new rules become effective.  So, we may have at least one more Public Notice before Federal Register publication (or perhaps simply a notice between publication and effectiveness). 

For more on the clarification, see below

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