In this week's round-up of telecom policy news, Verizon makes a major investment, and the federal government lays out its plan for collecting telco data:
Verizon places money in infrastructure
Texas has reportedly benefited from Verizon's continued investment in the state's wired infrastructure – particularly fiber optic cable. The telecom recently announced that it has invested more than $348 million in fiber optic and Internet Protocol-based networks throughout Texas.
"Verizon – with its strong network and its assets in Texas – helps feed its customers' growing demand for faster broadband speed, high-quality video and sophisticated communications," said Pedro Correa, Texas region president.
CCA commends members of Congress
The Competitive Carriers Association lauded two lawmakers in Washington for their support of a band plan in the upcoming AWS-3 spectrum auction. Representatives Brett Guthrie and Doris Matsui had previously sent FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler a letter urging the organization to take greater steps to ensure that the auction remains competitive between regional and national telecoms.
"Competitive carriers need access to additional spectrum resources to meet consumers' growing demand for mobile broadband service, and their participation in the auction will increase both auction revenues and broadband deployment," said CCA President Steven Berry. "For competitive carriers to be able to participate in upcoming spectrum auctions, spectrum must be made available in sufficiently small geographic license and block sizes."
Government backs off third-party data warehouses
In the wake of the NSA surveillance scandal, the federal government has scrambled to find an alternative method of collecting and storing data that it deems important to investigations pertaining to national security. One of the proposed options was having private telecoms house that data for the government on a temporary basis. As RCR Wireless noted, officials experienced some pushback from the telecom industry as multiple companies, including AT&T, Sprint and Verizon, voiced their concerns to this plan in private.
Now, it appears that proposed solution has been tabled. According to Multichannel News, telecoms will not be asked to store data that they do not already possess for their own records. Furthermore, aside from emergency scenarios, that data will only have to be made available to government officials when requests for specific records are made through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
"It is … a relief that the Administration proposal would not require phone companies to store any records that they don't already store, and that it would require an individualized court order before the NSA could obtain any specific records," said Kevin Bankston, policy director of New America's Open Technology Institute, according to the source.
