FCC Establishes Privacy and Data Protection Task Force

Earlier this month, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced the establishment of a new Privacy and Data Protection Task Force to coordinate across the agency on rulemaking, enforcement, and public awareness needs in the privacy and data protection sectors.  These issues include data breaches involving telecommunications providers and supply chain vulnerabilities involving third-party vendors. The group is led by Enforcement Bureau Chief Loyaan A. Egal. 

Wireless Emergency Alerts Pleading Cycle

The FCC’s Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking to increase the accessibility, performance, and functionality of Wireless Emergency Alerts (“WEA”) was published in the Federal Register last week (Vol. XX, Issue 14).  The Commission proposes requiring providers to translate alerts into thirteen different languages and enabling authorities to send two test alerts per year.  In addition, the proposed rules would establish reliability, accuracy, and speed benchmarks to improve WEA’s performance.  

USF Contribution Factor

The FCC’s Office of Managing Director issued a Public Notice announcing that the proposed universal service contribution factor for the third quarter of 2023 will be 29.2 percent, absent any action from the Commission.  The 29.2 percent assessment on end-user interstate and international telecom service revenues is projected to meet the third quarter’s requirement of $1.912 billion for the four original universal service programs (E-Rate, rural health care, high-cost, and Lifeline) and the Connected Care Pilot Program.  

Senate Approves $98 Million for ReConnect Program

Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee unanimously approved the fiscal year 2024 appropriations for Agriculture, rural development, Food and Drug Administration, and other related agencies, which includes $98 million in additional ReConnect funding.  The bill provides at least $193 million for rural broadband grants and loans and would permanently cancel $9.16 million of unobligated funds previously appropriated for the Broadband Treasury Rate Loan program.  For Reconnect funding, it would require that at least 90% of the households covered by a ReConnect project be in a rural area lacking broadband service and that the project build out capacity of at least 100/20 Mbps.

Tracy P. Marshall, Thomas B. Magee, Kathleen Slattery Thompson, Sean A. Stokes,  and Wesley K. Wright contributed to this article