Jimm Phillips

SAN FRANCISCO -- NARUC Telecom Committee Co-Vice Chairman Paul Kjellander, Idaho Public Utilities Commission president, urged state regulators Monday to be cautious about using Communications Act Section 706 as a legal authority for regulating broadband and other advanced communications services at the state level. “In Idaho, if I tried to exercise any kind of regulatory authority under Section 706, I wouldn’t get very far” before state courts would likely rule against such actions, Kjellander said during a panel discussion at a NARUC conference. Kjellander said he believes the ongoing debate over a Section 706 interpretation included in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit's decision in Verizon v. FCC could be "put to death" if Congress were to revise the Telecom Act.

Top telecom issues set for discussion at NARUC’s annual meeting this week in San Francisco include states’ authority under Communications Act Section 706, 911 reliability, the USF contribution base and municipal broadband, NARUC members said in interviews.

The New York Public Service Commission (PSC) said Wednesday that it’s delaying a decision on its review of the Comcast/Time Warner Cable (TWC) deal to allow “additional time to analyze and digest” issues related to the deal. The commission had been set to vote Thursday on Comcast/TWC and the associated Charter license swap, with the focus remaining on what public interest concessions the PSC might attach to its expected approval of the deal. The PSC said it had accepted a staff request to delay a final vote on the review “given the depth and breadth of the public record and the importance of the issues presented.” Parties in the New York PSC review have been engaged in an ongoing dispute over document confidentiality that had also been an issue at the FCC and with the California Public Utilities Commission (see 1410230045), though a PSC spokesman had previously expressed confidence the commission would move ahead with a vote.

National Institute of Standards and Technology officials said they're encouraged by sector-specific work that critical infrastructure industries are doing to adapt NIST’s Cybersecurity Framework. Adam Sedgewick, NIST senior information technology policy advisor, cited the communications sector’s work to adapt the NIST framework via FCC Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council Working Group 4 as an example of a market driver in moving framework use forward. Industry groups’ adaptation of the framework was a major topic at NIST’s framework workshop in late October (see 1410300050), something that NIST officials found “very informative” as they decide how to proceed on any future work on the framework, said Matthew Scholl, NIST acting chief-Computer Security Division.

The information and communications technology (ICT) sector doesn’t view the Republican takeover of the Senate and enlarged majority in the House as a result of Tuesday’s election (see 1411050043) as likely to change the overall chances of cybersecurity legislation passing during the upcoming lame-duck session, industry lawyers and lobbyists told us. Several major cybersecurity bills are awaiting full Senate action, but it remains unclear how Senate leadership will rank those bills among their priorities during the lame duck, lawyers and lobbyists said. Congress is set to reconvene Wednesday but the lame duck isn't expected substantially begin until December due to new member orientations, leadership elections and the Thanksgiving holiday.

Voters in five municipalities and three counties in Colorado voted to exempt their communities from the state law restricting municipal broadband deployments. Colorado law lets communities opt out of the law via local ballot initiatives, which three other municipalities -- Centennial, Longmont and Montrose -- did in previous elections. Rio Blanco, San Miguel and Yuma counties and Boulder, Cherry Hills Village, Red Cliff, Wray and Yuma approved the ballot measures Tuesday with between 72 and 83.8 percent of the vote. The results were a “vindication” for advocates who’ve said local control over broadband deployment had bipartisan support, said Next Century Cities Policy Director Christopher Mitchell in an interview. Heavily Democratic Boulder and heavily Republican Yuma County voted overwhelmingly in favor of exemption, said Mitchell, who is also director of the Telecommunications as Commons Initiative at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. It’s unclear whether a potential Republican takeover of the Colorado House and Senate would jeopardize any push to have the legislature repeal its municipal broadband law, Mitchell said. Partisan control of both chambers remained in doubt Thursday pending recounts for seats in Adams and Jefferson counties. The elections yielded few other results of interest to municipal broadband advocates, though Mitchell said he was pleased that Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy, a Democrat, won re-election. Malloy’s administration was “very supportive” of an effort by New Haven, Stamford and West Hartford to develop gigabit broadband networks (see 1409160049), Mitchell said. Malloy’s re-election “bodes well” for that project and a possible expansion into other cities, Mitchell said.

Status quo prevailed in 16 of the 17 state regulatory commission races where a winner was clear Wednesday. The Democrats gained one net seat after former New Mexico Public Regulation Commission Chairman Sandy Jones defeated PRC Commissioner Ben Hall, a Republican, by 1,482 votes. The Republicans retained at least 13 seats they held before the election, while the Democrats retained their three seats. The results in one seat on the Louisiana Public Service Commission (PSC) remained unclear. A Republican is assured of winning the remaining Louisiana PSC seat following a Dec. 6 runoff because both of the candidates -- incumbent PSC Commissioner Eric Skrmetta and energy policy advocate Forest Wright -- are Republicans.

Eighteen seats on 10 states’ public utilities commissions (PUCs) were up for election Tuesday. Industry observers said in recent interviews that the results of elections to the Montana Public Service Commission and Nebraska Public Service Commission are the ones that could have the most impact on telecom regulation. Two Montana PSC seats were up for a vote, and one Nebraska PSC seat was on the ballot.

Broadband deployment has gained traction this year as a campaign issue for gubernatorial candidates, government and industry observers told us in interviews, but it still isn’t viewed as a marquee component for most campaigns. Broadband has been a campaign issue in multiple contests this election cycle, taking a special prominence in Iowa and New York. Incumbent governors in the two states -- Terry Branstad, R-Iowa, and Andrew Cuomo, D-N.Y. -- have both issued plans to encourage broadband development as part of their re-election bids. Recent polls have shown both Branstad and Cuomo leading their opponents by double digits.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has “heard very clearly” that it’s still too early to consider a full-fledged Version 2.0 update of the Cybersecurity Framework, said Kevin Stine, Computer Security Division manager-Security Outreach and Integration Group, during a framework development workshop Thursday. Industry stakeholders have told NIST major changes to the framework aren’t a good idea because NIST released the Version 1.0 framework only in February (see 1410140173). A White House official said Wednesday that he believed it was unlikely that major changes would be coming in the near future (see 1410290046). The NIST workshop and comments submitted to the agency have shown there’s “very strong” awareness of the framework in all critical infrastructure sectors but all stakeholders should continue to raise awareness, Stine said.