Improving Competitive Broadband Access to Multiple Tenant Environments

FCC takes a giant step forward on behalf of consumers.
For better or worse (and often both), loopholes are the way that creative lawyers solve client problems and make partners (read: $). Despite significant amounts of time spent drafting very precise language to minimize gaps in interpretation, even the best of legislators’ and rule makers’ intentions can be thwarted by precise surgical strikes to identify such loopholes (some might call them opportunities) and navigate through them.

Click to read more ...

Kari’s Law and RAY BAUM’S Act – What You Need to Know

In early January 2022, the terms and obligations of both Kari’s Law and RAY BAUM’S Act became enforceable federal law. And as traditional POTS lines are slowly going the way of the dodo bird (see Phil Edholm's recent piece on No Jitter, Good Old POTS is Going Away. Is Your Organization Prepared?), entities that operate traditional on-premise phone systems, rest assured of one clear point—THE UNDERLYING TECHNOLOGY DOESN’T REALLY MATTER, with very limited exception. Both Kari’s Law and RAY BAUM’S Act contain clear language defining the obligations of entities that manufacture, distribute, install, maintain and/or operate multiline telephone systems.

Click to read more ...

Reading the Tea Leaves on What to Expect from the FCC in 2022

The FCC is primed to make a number of moves in the new year around robocalls, net neutrality, and rural broadband.

The new year is upon us. I hope that this one brings us way closer to what we knew as normal — politics aside. Like each new year, I hope that you’ll join me in looking to 2022 with optimism and hope. When it comes to communications regulations, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t look forward to seeing an end to pesky unsolicited robocalls offering extended car warranties or other mostly worthless goods and services. I also believe that there’s a real hope that new funding for widespread broadband deployment is here, and now it’s simply a question of spending the money and building the required infrastructure. With recent FCC changes, we have reason to be optimistic on these fronts and others.

Click to read more ...

2021 Was the Year the Feds Got Serious About Cybersecurity

The Biden administration has addressed breaches as a matter of national security – and opened up a can of policy-implementation worms.
Almost from the beginning of the Biden administration early this year, the federal government, through its many branches and agencies, has taken a hard and continuously evolving look at improving cybersecurity across the spectrum of American enterprises. This push has primarily been focused on both improving cybersecurity itself, while also combatting the increasingly prevalent scourge of ransomware events. According to a September 2021 Bloomberg News article, ransomware alone became a $350 million criminal industry in 2020, with the bad guys paying particular attention to entities that hold large amounts of consumer data and sizable cyber insurance policies. To put an exclamation point on it, during the first week of December, the House of Representatives passed three bills with a two-third majority (who says Congress can’t get anything done if it’s properly motivated?) to address current and future cybersecurity issues.

Click to read more ...

How the Infrastructure Bill Boosts Broadband Access

This infrastructure investment recognizes that under whatever name it’s called, the Internet has become a utility.
What can you buy for $65 billion? That kind of money could purchase one Big Mac for every citizen of the Russian Federation, Kyrgyzstan, and Mongolia combined — or build and upgrade the United States’ high-speed Internet infrastructure. According to the budget breakdown for the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, signed into law on November 5, 2021—$65 billion has been allocated for the construction and upgrade of networks to provide quality high-speed Internet access. The permanent support of an existing program reduces the cost of Internet access for low-income consumers seeking to secure such services.

Click to read more ...