Consumer Affairs Committee Examining Criticisms of FCC Website Revamp
The FCC’s Consumer Affairs Committee is looking at the FCC’s controversial new website, with an eye on whether it’s user friendly for consumers, CAC member Ed Bartholomew of Call for Action said during a meeting of the advisory committee Friday. Bartholomew, who chairs the Consumer Empowerment Working Group, said CAC members are planning a call with FCC officials to ask about the commission’s goals in making major changes to the website.
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"Hopefully we'll like what we're hearing” from the FCC, Bartholomew said. “If not, we would probably be in favor of making a recommendation expressing some concerns with the direction that [the website] has taken.” Several members of the committee have acknowledged they generally hit a button that takes them to the old website as soon as they get to the revamped site, said CAC Chairwoman Debra Berlyn of the National Consumers League. “We felt like we had to look at this a little more closely from the perspective of the consumers who would be getting information, filing complaints, and wanting to participate and get their views heard at the FCC,” Berlyn said. “We are anxious to talk to someone at the FCC about that.” Berlyn said some CAC members have expressed concerns that it’s hard to even locate the CAC on the new website.
The FCC’s revised website has been controversial since it was introduced. Steve VanRoekel, former FCC managing director and current federal Chief Information Officer, defended the site in an interview last year as being aimed at consumers rather than regulatory lawyers and others who use the site everyday (CD June 6 p2).
The FCC will move quickly to take the steps required after President Barack Obama signed legislation giving the agency authority to conduct incentive auctions, Josh Gottheimer, a senior aide to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, told CAC. “We'll have more to say soon on that,” Gottheimer said. “That was a very big accomplishment for the country and an important step for connectivity.” Broadband adoption also remains a top priority for Genachowski, Gottheimer said. “We know that a third of the country is not adopting broadband at home, which is a very, very significant number,” he said.
Claude Stout, a CAC member representing the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Consumer Advocacy Network, told Gottheimer one big issue the FCC must address is that video phones from different manufacturers often are not interoperable. “If you have an iPhone and I have an iPhone then we could talk through video,” Stout said. “But if I have an iPhone and you have a BlackBerry, then we can’t chat on the phone through video chat.” Gottheimer said the FCC is committed to working through problems like the one Stout raised. “I was just at a meeting yesterday talking about these issues,” he said.
Kris Monteith, the new acting chief of the Consumer and Government Affairs Bureau, told the CAC she was working hard to get up to speed on consumer issues. “It’s day four on the job for me,” she said. “I've had lots of meetings. I've been briefed on new issues and important priorities for the bureau, but I have lots to learn.”