Public interest attorney and former Media Access Project head Andrew Schwartzman will join Georgetown’s Institute for Public Representation (IPR) to lead the new Public Interest Communications Law Project, said the Benton Foundation and Georgetown Law in a news release Tuesday. The project is a joint creation of the foundation and school, and Schwartzman will be Benton senior counselor, funded through grants from the Alphawood Foundation, Ford Foundation and the Media Democracy Fund, the release said. Schwartzman’s appointment will “expand IPR’s capacity to provide public representation in such critical areas as the transition of traditional wireline telephone service to broadband (known ’the IP transition'), Universal Service Fund reform, particularly of Lifeline and E-Rate, Diversity of Media Ownership and Spectrum Policy,” he said. Schwartzman will be able to continue as senior adviser to other Washington-based public interest groups, along with his private law practice, the release said. “I have long sought to help create a new generation of public interest advocates able to promote the public’s First Amendment rights to have access to a diverse and vigorous debate on important issues,” said Schwartzman. “This position is an ideal way to continue and extend that mission."

Revamping the telecom relay service for an all-IP world will require the participation of users, researchers and companies, as the FCC moves toward its vision of a “neutral” communications platform that allows universal interoperability, said agency and industry officials Tuesday at an FCC workshop. As part of its IP transition order (CD Jan 31 p1), the agency is looking to fund and develop research IP-based technologies for people with disabilities. Tuesday’s workshop was to gather input on how to improve the functional equivalency during the transition.

Revamping the telecom relay service for an all-IP world will require the participation of users, researchers and companies, as the FCC moves toward its vision of a “neutral” communications platform that allows universal interoperability, said agency and industry officials Tuesday at an FCC workshop. As part of its IP transition order, the agency is looking to fund and develop research IP-based technologies for people with disabilities. Tuesday’s workshop was to gather input on how to improve the functional equivalency during the transition.

Senate Democrats have no plans to overhaul the Communications Act any time soon, Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mark Pryor, D-Ark., told NARUC Tuesday during its meeting in Washington. NARUC Telecom Committee Chairman Chris Nelson had asked Pryor where the Senate stood on any Communications Act update following Pryor’s remarks on his 2014 priorities. House Commerce Committee Republicans announced in December their intent to overhaul the landmark telecom law and recently received more than 100 comments from stakeholders on what an update should look like.

Senate Democrats have no plans to overhaul the Communications Act any time soon, Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mark Pryor, D-Ark., told the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) Tuesday during its meeting in Washington. NARUC Telecom Committee Chairman Chris Nelson had asked Pryor where the Senate stood on any Communications Act update following Pryor’s remarks on his 2014 priorities. House Commerce Committee Republicans announced in December their intent to overhaul the landmark telecom law and recently received more than 100 comments from stakeholders on what an update should look like.

There’s an ongoing need for a new Connect America Fund program tailored to rate-of-return regulated rural LECs to help them “sustain and promote technological evolution for the benefit of all rural customers,” NTCA told an aide to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler Friday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/1farA1O). Such a program would be tailored for smaller company operations, would recognize the “unique challenges” associated with being a smaller network in rural areas, and wouldn’t require “complex rules changes, unpredictable shifts, or wholesale disruptions in universal service distribution,” NTCA said.

Digital currencies could solve longstanding problems for online gambling and payment processors, but the lack of regulation of the currencies such as Bitcoin has made some banks and investors wary, said virtual currency entrepreneurs and academics in interviews last week. Consumer protections are expected, they said. Bitcoin has the potential to reduce gambling fees, while increasing anonymity, and could disrupt traditional brick-and-mortar casinos, said gambling sources, and payment processing could become cheaper and faster with digital currencies. Recent guidance issued by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) was seen as helpful in clearly defining money transmitters for virtual currencies (WID Feb 3 p14).

The White House education initiative, ConnectED, will bring more than $500 million of private funding to enhance the broadband and technological capabilities of schools across the country, President Barack Obama said Tuesday. “This is something we can do without waiting for Congress,” Obama said at a Maryland middle school. “We picked up the phone and we started asking some outstanding business leaders to help bring our schools and libraries into the 21st century.” Obama expanded on the “down payment” he hinted at in last week’s State of the Union Address (CD Jan 29 bulletin; Jan 30 p6). Carriers and technology companies will donate as much as $100 million each in free iPads and wireless service to low-income students, or teacher training to make the most of the new technologies.

The FCC will invest an additional $2 billion in high-speed Internet for schools and libraries over the next two years, it said Monday in a news release. Chairman Tom Wheeler called it, in a statement, a “down-payment on the goal of 99 percent of America’s students having high-speed Internet connections within five years.” Wheeler will lay out more details at a “Digital Learning Day” at the Library of Congress Wednesday, the agency said.

The FCC will invest an additional $2 billion in high-speed Internet for schools and libraries over the next two years, it said Monday in a news release. Chairman Tom Wheeler called, in a statement, it a “down-payment on the goal of 99 percent of America’s students having high-speed Internet connections within five years.” Wheeler will lay out more details at a “Digital Learning Day” at the Library of Congress Wednesday, the agency said.