“It’s time to be more ambitious nationwide” on minimum broadband speeds, FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said Tuesday at a livestreamed California Public Utilities Commission workshop. Fiber is “future-proof,” and “we don’t have to wait ... any longer” for the private sector, said California Assembly Member Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (D), who's co-sponsoring a bill to fund and revamp the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) this year.
Local and union officials support an imminent appeal to the Supreme Court of the FCC’s 2018 small-cell orders Monday. Many localities were expected to have challenged the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision upholding much of the FCC orders by Monday’s deadline (see 2102080058). Local governments' expected cert petition wasn't yet available.
House Infrastructure Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., pressed the FCC to “take a more measured approach to the 5.9 GHz band” during President Joe Biden’s administration due to ongoing concerns about the commission’s November vote to reallocate the frequency for Wi-Fi and cellular vehicle-to-everything (see 2011180043). Some House Armed Services Committee members, meanwhile, emphasized during a Friday hearing the need for solutions to ensure DOD is able to maintain spectrum superiority over other nations for warfare purposes, while also allowing for telecom companies to gain access to more frequencies for commercial use.
Associated Community Services and nearly a dozen affiliates settled with the FTC and 46 agencies from 38 states and Washington, D.C., on charges it "bombarded 67 million consumers with 1.3 billion deceptive charitable fundraising calls," many of which were robocalls, to collect more than $110 million, a news release said Thursday. Pending court approval, ACS, its affiliates Community Services and Central Processing Services, and their owners are subject to monetary judgments of $110 million, the bulk "suspended due to an inability to pay." Funds will be paid to an escrow fund held by Florida and be "contributed to one or more legitimate charities that support causes similar to those for which the defendants solicited." The complaint also names two fundraising companies allegedly operated as spinoffs of ACS, Directele and The Dale Corp.
Comcast's peak downstream internet traffic grew 38% last year from 2019 levels, while peak upstream traffic jumped 56%, said the company Tuesday. In the four months spanning lockdowns, Comcast's network had almost two years of traffic growth, it said. Despite a rise in videoconferencing, entertainment dominated network traffic, with video streaming generating 71% of downstream traffic, 70% higher than 2019 levels. Online gaming and related software downloads (10%) and web browsing (8%) were primary drivers of downstream traffic, vs. 5% for videoconferencing. Comcast customers generated more than 1 trillion internet requests daily last year, it said.
IT decision-makers observed an “uptick in risky behaviors” online from employees since the pandemic forced most to work remotely, reported Tanium Monday. The cybersecurity vendor canvassed 500 enterprise IT leaders in the U.S. and U.K. in late November, finding 41% say employees stored sensitive data on their PCs and 38% say workers click on phishing emails. The SolarWinds attack illustrated “the systemic vulnerabilities in the ever-growing software supply chain,” said Tanium. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, 30% of respondents have observed their end users not updating software, said the company. The survey found two-thirds of companies accelerated their planned investments in cloud infrastructure after work-from-home regimens began, but cloud adoption isn’t consistent across regions. Tanium found 40% of U.S. IT decision-makers think their companies are well ahead of others in using cloud services, compared with 24% of U.K. respondents.
The Virginia Senate voted 38-1 to make permanent a pilot program letting electric utilities petition the State Corporation Commission to provide broadband to unserved areas. The House unanimously passed HB-2304 earlier this month (see 2102010035). It goes next to Gov. Ralph Northam (D), who didn’t comment.
Some 44% of U.S. broadband households, numbering about 20.5 million, don’t intend to buy a smart home device due to perceived high prices, said Parks Associates Tuesday. Other inhibitors are lack of a clear value proposition (38%) and data and privacy concerns (35%), said the researcher. Just over 10% said they're confused about setting up or using smart home technology; over 20% said they don’t want to lose control of their home to devices.
Chairman Ajit Pai said Tuesday a top challenge for the next FCC is the rising USF contribution factor (see 2012150018). “The current funding mechanism is regressive, hitting low-income Americans and seniors the hardest. We need to fix this problem, and fix it soon,” he said. Pai repeated his support for setting aside auction funds for broadband deployment in unserved communities and suggested Congress allocate $50 billion to fund USF for the next five years so lawmakers can identify a better contribution system. Pai also touted his efforts to close the digital divide during the event with the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council and National Grange. It's one of several events he is attending as he prepares to leave Jan. 20. Pai called the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (see 2012070039) his proudest initiative, saying it will “connect millions of Americans living in some of the hardest-to-serve places.” He continued responding to critics that providers may be unable to provide the services they successfully bid on (see 2012210026). The auction was “overwhelmingly a success,” he said. “There will always be those who are upset that other people are getting the money instead of themselves.” Part of the COVID-19 relief law provided funds to improve broadband mapping before the RDOF Phase II auction. “I hope that the next FCC will approach that phase with vigor,” Pai said. With millions relying on internet access for work and education, the $3.2 billion emergency broadband relief fund (see 2101070052) “will go a long way,” Pai said: “Our staff is moving quickly to stand up this program to help consumers who need that help." Pai touted his efforts to close the digital divide by visiting 49 states and two U.S. territories -- he would have visited all 50 if not for the pandemic, he joked. “I learned about a woman who was found dead in her home, clutching her cellphone,” Pai said. The woman dialed 911 38 times, but the calls never went through, Pai said: “There just wasn’t wireless coverage in her area.” The pandemic underscored the need for access to telehealth services, he said, praising the commission’s efforts to increase the budget for the rural healthcare program.
The FCC’s C-band auction appears likely to become the largest FCC spectrum auction in history, surpassing the AWS-3 auction five years ago, which brought in $41.3 billion in provisionally winning bids (see 1501300051). The rising numbers likely indicate AT&T and Dish Network are joining Verizon as major bidders in the auction, experts said Monday. The auction hit $50.84 billion Monday after 38 rounds.