FCC Proposes Updated Data Breach Reporting Rules

Last week, the FCC released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking launching a proceeding to strengthen the Commission’s rules for notifying customers and federal law enforcement of breaches of customer proprietary network information (“CPNI”).  The Commission proposes expanding its definition of “breach” to include inadvertent disclosures of customer information and eliminating the current seven business day mandatory waiting period for notifying customers of a breach.  It also proposes requiring carriers to notify the FCC as well as the Secret Service and FBI as soon as practicable after discovering a breach. 

Suicide Lifeline Outage Reporting NPRM

The FCC will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking at its Open Meeting on January 26 that would implement reporting and notice requirements for service outages potentially affecting the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (“988 Lifeline”).  The 988 Lifeline experienced a nationwide outage lasting several hours on December 1, 2022.  In response, the Commission proposes requiring a new category of “covered 988 service providers” to report certain outages that affect the 988 Lifeline to the Network Outage Reporting System (“NORS”).  The Commission also seeks input on whether to also require cable, satellite, wireless, wireline, and interconnected VoIP providers to report outages.  

2.5 GHz Band Licenses Granted

Last week, the FCC granted four long-form applications and issued twelve licenses from the 2.5 GHz band auction (“Auction 108”) (Vol. XIX, Issue 49).  Auction 108 made available 8,017 new flexible-use, county-based overlay licenses in the 2.5 GHz band.  The licenses were won by Farmers Mutual Telephone Company, Inc.; Michigan Wireless, LLC; Northwest Open Access Network; and Rocky Mountain Broadband, LLC.  The auction raised a total of $419,133,261 in net bids and $427,789,670 in gross bids, with 63 bidders winning a total of 7,872 licenses. 

ECF Funding

The FCC announced that it is committing over $34 million in a new funding round through the Emergency Connectivity Program (the “Program”).  The commitment will support applications from the third funding window and will support over 250 schools, 15 libraries, and two consortia.  To date, the Program has provided support to approximately 10,000 schools, 1,000 libraries, and 100 consortia.