Apple is asking a federal court to throw out the Department of Justice and FBI motion to compel the company to unlock an iPhone connected with the Dec. 2, 2015, San Bernardino, California, terrorist attack (see 1602220026). In Thursday's 36-page motion to U.S. District Court in Riverside, California, lawyers for Apple wrote that the case goes beyond "one isolated iPhone." They said it's about the government seeking a "dangerous power" from courts, one that hasn't been granted by Congress: "the ability to force companies like Apple to undermine the basic security and privacy interests of hundreds of millions of individuals around the globe." Apple also said that no court has ever authorized what the government now wants. While the government said it's only seeking unlocking for this one device, Apple said the government knows that's not true and "has filed multiple other applications for similar orders." It said that state and local officials have "publicly declared their intent to use the proposed operating system to open hundreds of other seized devices -- in cases having nothing to do with terrorism." The company added that "once the floodgates open, they cannot be closed, and the device security that Apple has worked so tirelessly to achieve will be unwound without so much as a congressional vote." U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym, who ordered Apple to help the FBI get into the locked device, has set a March 22 hearing.

This year’s Chairman’s Awards for Advancement in Accessibility will focus on innovations that address the telecom needs of people with cognitive disabilities, FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau Acting Chief Alison Kutler said in a blog post Wednesday. The commission is looking for “solutions that focus on the telecommunication needs of people with differing functional requirements, using design principles that are mindful of users’ attention focus, problem-solving and comprehension issues to achieve accessibility in ways that are simple and clear, consistent, multi-modal and error-tolerant,” she said. “Advances in accessibility make technology more useable for all people,” Kutler said. ”We are certain that advances in telecommunication accessibility for people with cognitive disabilities will help every user of these technologies.” Nominations for the Chairman’s AAA awards are due March 31. More on the nominating process is at www.fcc.gov/chairmansaaa. The FCC held a summit in October on communications difficulties faced by people with cognitive disabilities (see 1510280037).

President Barack Obama signed into law two much-discussed bills Wednesday -- the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act (HR-644), which contains language permanently extending the Internet Tax Freedom Act, and the Judicial Redress Act (HR-1428). "We take our privacy seriously," Obama said before signing the Judicial Redress Act. "Along with our commitment to innovation, that’s one of the reasons that global companies and entrepreneurs want to do business here. We enforce our privacy laws, unlike a number of other countries. And in fact, just this month, we finished a landmark new agreement called the Privacy Shield, which provides tough new protections to safeguard consumer data, and it gives certainty to thousands of businesses representing hundreds of billions of dollars in trade." Judicial Redress was seen as an important factor in the establishment of the Privacy Shield agreement between the U.S. and the EU. "We’ve also established the first Privacy Council to strengthen protections of people’s personal information and privacy rights across the federal government," Obama said. "We’ve put new laws and policies in place that clarify what we do and what we do not do when it comes to people’s data and our intelligence efforts." Lawmakers attending the signing ceremony were Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., said a White House pool report. FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez also attended, as did U.S. Trade Representative Mike Froman and David O'Sullivan, EU ambassador to the U.S.

Commissioner Mike O'Rielly asked the FCC to "Stop Unfairly Censoring Commissioners." In a blog post with that title Wednesday, he sought a change in the way the agency is applying a rule intended to protect nonpublic information, which he said "hinders commissioners' ability to engage in the fulsome dialogue and obtain the data needed to most thoroughly and thoughtfully consider and comment on items." O'Rielly also said the rule is "being applied discriminatorily as Commissioners are silenced while the Chairman, the Commission’s media relations team and select staff are not only allowed to openly discuss items, but also post blogs, tweet, issue fact sheets, brief the press, and inform favored outside parties" about the content of items. "While I’d prefer to make certain draft documents available to the public and will continue to fight for this, other changes could help improve transparency in the meantime," he said. "As a first step, let’s make it standard procedure that all Commissioners and their staffs can discuss the substance of items on circulation or a meeting agenda, minus adjudicatory law enforcement items. To effectuate this, the Chairman should provide blanket written approval to the Commissioners to permit open discussion about the items before us."

A court set a briefing schedule running through June on NARUC's challenge to an FCC order allowing interconnected VoIP providers to obtain phone numbers directly from numbering administrators (see 1601050050). NARUC's brief is due April 4; the FCC's response is due May 19; intervenor's (Vonage) brief supporting the commission is due May 26; NARUC's reply brief is due June 9; and final briefs (which include an appendix) are due June 30, said an order Wednesday from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in NARUC v. FCC, No. 15-1497. The order noted that oral argument is typically at least 45 days after briefing is completed.

The FCC should consider Lifeline USF changes to "allow for subsidy aggregation to support ongoing efforts to bring fast and affordable broadband to public housing residents," New York City officials said in a meeting with staffers for Commissioner Mignon Clyburn summarized in a filing Friday in FCC docket 11-42. The NYC officials shared details of a recent trip to learn more about "Philadelphia's efforts to win unprecedented concessions from Comcast to support low income families," the filing said. They also highlighted "the importance of Wi-Fi networks" to the city's connectivity efforts and updated the status of a franchise contract proposal, "from negotiations with cable providers to efforts to convert payphones on City property to payphone and wi-fi facilities." The NYC officials "voiced strong support" for FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's proposal "to unlock the set top box market to give consumers more choice by allowing for competition," the filing said. The city officials also met with Gigi Sohn and another aide to Wheeler and with Wireline Bureau staff, other filings said (see here and here).

Google Fiber is rolling out in Huntsville, Alabama, using part of a fiber network that municipally owned Huntsville Utilities plans to build, Google said in a blog post Monday. Google said it has built most of its fiber networks from scratch but found every city was unique, prompting it to take different approaches in different places. "Few places are better positioned than Huntsville to show what’s possible with top Internet speeds. The Rocket City boasts the highest concentration of engineers in the country, and ranks among the best places in the country for STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics] workers. Ultrafast Internet will help enable Huntsville to remain at the forefront of science and tech," said Google, which noted it responded to a collaboration request from the city to fiber providers. Google said that Huntsville Utilities will design and construct its network after receiving final approvals. "Google Fiber, or any other broadband provider" will then be able to provide high-speed Internet service to the city's residents, Google said, noting that Huntsville will join 20 other metropolitan areas where the company is "serving customers, designing and building networks, or exploring the possibility of Google Fiber." Fiber to the Home Council Americas applauded Google and Huntsville for their public-private partnership to bring gigabit fiber to the city's residents. "All fiber networks are essential for communities," FTTH Council CEO Heather Burnett Gold said in an emailed statement. "Each community should have every opportunity to get better broadband."

The FCC said Friday that it’s circulating a policy statement that an agency official and industry lobbyist separately said would adopt the Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council’s (CSRIC) 2015 report on recommendations for communications sector cybersecurity risk management. The CSRIC report, which was meant to adapt the National Institute of Standards and Technology-facilitated Cybersecurity Framework for communications sector use, included nine recommendations to the FCC on how the agency can encourage industry use of the NIST framework and other cybersecurity best practices. The private sector also voluntarily committed via the CSRIC report to promoting the use of FCC-initiated confidential meetings with individual companies to discuss their cyber risks and their use of cybersecurity best practices (see 1503180056). The policy statement would in part set up a process for conducting the confidential FCC-private sector meetings, an industry lobbyist told us.

FCC proposals on industry regulatory fees and consumer protection are circulating, according to the agency’s list of such items, which was updated Friday. One NPRM would seek comment on a schedule of industry regulatory fees to conform with congressional appropriations mandates for FY 2016, a commission spokesman said Monday. A second NPRM would propose rules to address federal debt collection under Telephone Consumer Protection Act amendments in 2015, which gave the FCC nine months (from enactment) to adopt any new restrictions, another commission spokesman said. He said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is making various proposals to help consumers avoid unwanted debt collection robocalls, including on: consumer rights to stop unwanted calls; limiting calls only to debt collection of delinquent debts, including debt servicing calls that can help consumers avoid default; and limiting the number of calls per month.

NARUC opposed any Lifeline USF changes that would usurp state regulators' role in designating eligible telecom carrier (ETCs) participation in the program subsidizing low-income telecom service. NARUC General Counsel Brad Ramsay met with FCC officials recently to discuss proposals by others that the agency give Lifeline USF support to non-ETCs, establish a federal designation process that bypasses state ETC designations in the first instance, or fund broadband without requiring carriers to provide voice service. “The impetus for this seems to be the misguided notion that, by cutting States out of the process, it will somehow encourage cable providers of broadband services to focus on providing facilities-based lifeline service at a discounted rate very close to the current lifeline subsidy rate,” Ramsay said in a filing posted Friday in docket 11-42. He said the Communications Act doesn't allow the FCC to: create a federal ETC designation process bypassing state commissions from the beginning, give funds to entities that aren’t telecom service providers and are ETCs, or give subsidies to carriers that don’t offer all designated support services. He said Section 214(e) makes “crystal clear” that states are to designate carriers as ETCs before they can receive USF support and that the FCC has no ETC role unless the state can't act due to state law. He also said the proposals were bad policy because they would: take “state cops off the beat” and thus lead to more Lifeline fraud and abuse; undermine other state efforts to promote service to low-income consumers; seem unlikely to succeed in getting cable and others to provide Lifeline service; and “certainly will undermine the program’s service quality.” AT&T, Comcast, Public Knowledge and others have urged eliminating or streamlining Lifeline ETC designation requirements. Ramsay met with aides to all four regular FCC commissioners or gave them copies of the filing. He also met with FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's counselor Gigi Sohn, incoming Wireless Bureau Chief Jon Wilkins, Wireline Bureau Telecom Access Policy Division Chief Ryan Palmer and Eric Feigenbaum of the Office of Media Relations. Some lobbying was during NARUC's meetings last week in Washington, where a resolution was adopted on Lifeline (see 1602150004).