Administration debates over spectrum use for satellite vs. 5G "have been intense," Commerce Department Office of Space Commerce Director Kevin O'Connell said in Senate Commerce Committee testimony Wednesday. He said a worry on the space side is protecting taxpayer investments in federal capabilities like GPS and weather prediction via NOAA satellites, and Commerce wants to ensure the space community has an advocate while a 5G strategy is formulated.
Matt Daneman
Matt Daneman, Senior Editor, covers pay TV, cable broadband, satellite, and video issues and the Federal Communications Commission for Communications Daily. He joined Warren Communications in 2015 after more than 15 years at the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, where he covered business among other issues. He also was a correspondent for USA Today. You can follow Daneman on Twitter: @mdaneman
Cable and state franchise authority interests agree about the need for updating the basic cable rate regulatory regime but beyond that are at odds, according to docket 17-105 reply comments posted Tuesday. The lack of consensus beyond the FCC's doing "a nonsubstantive house cleaning" of the current rules points to the need for eliminating outdated requirements but refraining from changes beyond that, Hawaii said. Pushing all rate setting to franchising authorities removes the FCC from its statutorily required role and could lead to inconsistencies in interpretation, Hawaii said. It said the agency shouldn't let cable operators set regulated rates based on what they charge for comparable services in other communities since those rates are often inflated. It said decades of FCC precedent and court decisions are justification for continuing to subject all equipment used to receive basic service tier (BST) to rate regulation. The Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable (MDTC) said the proposal to use an unregulated rate comparison as a means of rate regulation violates federal law by ignoring most of the seven criteria the agency is supposed to use in determining BST rates are reasonable. MDTC disagrees with Hawaii that the Further NPRM adopted in October (see 1811300003) could lead to a regime under which any equipment that can be used for both the BST and expanded tiers would be unregulated, and the FCC should make clear that's not the aim. It opposed using the unregulated rate before a franchising authority's certification as the initial regulated rate since rates in unregulated communities aren't "necessarily ... reasonable." NCTA said in many cases the Hawaii and MDTC proposals would worsen existing burdens on operators, local franchise authorities, consumers and the agency. It said its updated competitive benchmark methodology for rate setting falls within the FCC's recognition that a benchmark based on rates charged by systems subject to effective competition is consistent with the Communications Act. NCTA said arguments against changes to equipment rules aren't grounded in policy or law.
Comcast could join Charter Communications in trying to take a legal fight over racial discrimination claims by a video programmer to the Supreme Court. Experts told us odds of the issue getting taken up -- while long -- are better than many competing petitions for writ of certiorari. Charter's rates "at least an 8 or 9" out of 10 for getting a hard look by the court, said Barry McDonald, Pepperdine University professor of law.
A growing number of cable operators are lined up against the C-Band Alliance 3.7-4.2 GHz band clearing plan, but opinions differ on whether the opposition is hurting CBA. With CBA seen having Verizon support (see here) and potentially close to also getting AT&T backing, "that's usually been quite convincing to the FCC to move forward," said telecom and satellite consultant Tim Farrar. AT&T said it continues to support the idea of CBA crafting and running an FCC-approved auction (see 1812120010).
Regulatory approval for Disney's buy of Fox's entertainment assets should come "soon," Disney CEO Bob Iger said at the company's annual meeting Thursday. He said the ESPN Plus streaming service has more than 2 million subscribers, which "bodes well" for the Disney Plus streaming service launching later this year. He said some Fox businesses -- such as FX and the motion picture operations -- will keep the Fox brand after close. He said Disney Plus will include "the entire Disney motion picture library" plus original content. DOJ last year said it would seek to stop Disney/Fox unless 22 Fox regional sports networks were sold (see 1806270016).
Even with FCC progress in easing the infrastructure path to 5G deployment and extending broadband connectivity, industry officials at a Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council event Wednesday sought lower barriers to infrastructure deployment. Some commissioners also said the draft Telecom Act Section 706 broadband deployment report points to big progress in closing the digital divide.
A C-Band Alliance proposal for how CBA would protect earth stations in the 3.7-4.2 GHz band from interference from flexible use operations in the lower part of the band isn't winning over all critics. American Cable Association Senior Vice President-Government Affairs Ross Lieberman emailed that CBA's docket 18-122 posting Tuesday "fails to address the most pressing concerns ... like higher prices, lost programming, and foregone investments. CBA’s failure to acknowledge and offer solutions to these problems highlights why they are not suited -- whereas the FCC is -- to manage any reimbursement program for C-band users.”
The private sector is working on technology for tackling orbital debris problems, but it's not clear what the business case is to support that industry, space experts told us. Some said if anything drives commercial demand for such offerings in the next few years, it will be mandates such as could come from the FCC's orbital debris proceeding. The draft NPRM adopted in November (see 1811150028) includes questions about whether the FCC should require that satellite operators actively remove debris, acknowledging such operations "remain at the more experimental side" and "have significant costs."
Some form of broadband regulation is inevitable but may wait awhile for political heat around what's become a politicized issue to die down, said Public Knowledge CEO Gene Kimmelman in an interview posted Friday of the American Cable Association podcast. He told ACA CEO Matt Polka there's more agreement than disagreement over a "reasonable framework" of regulation. "We're in troubled times" due to a particularly polarized political process, even as a rapidly changing digital market requires an active Congress. He said advocates need to stick to substance and avoid hyperbole. Kimmelman is encouraged by interest on Capitol Hill for privacy legislation, which could be a galvanizing moment for Congress. He said any such legislation needs to lead to more transparency for and choice by consumers about what of their data is being handled and how, and perhaps nonnegotiable limits on how data can be used. Asked about the likelihood of a DOJ-led breakup of big tech companies, Kimmelman said there's "some logic" to that, but antitrust laws aren't "well equipped" for that and there needs instead to be a look at other government accountability tools to prevent discrimination and abuse. DOJ's intervening in vertical mergers like AT&T/Time Warner was "very refreshing," though the Justice loss in court was disappointing. He hopes that won't dissuade Justice in the future. Kimmelman said Nexstar/Tribune will surely face the same regulatory scrutiny about concentration in local markets and calls for some station divestiture, but they're likely more willing to work with the government than Sinclair was, so the deal is more likely to go ahead.
With an appellate court Tuesday deciding DOJ didn't prove the case for stopping AT&T's buy of Time Warner (see 1902260017), Justice threw in the towel on any further challenges (see 1902260067). Experts had widely expected that.