In a hearing delayed nearly three hours by last-minute negotiations between Intelsat and its creditors, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Keith Phillips of Richmond approved the company's plan for emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The unanimous backing of the plan by creditors, given the competing claims, is "a remarkable achievement," he said. Intelsat said the actual emergence will be early next year. Our news bulletin is here.
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
The FCC non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) spectrum sharing NPRM adopted 4-0 Tuesday (see 2112140062) and released Wednesday includes an added question about use of a throughput analysis that considers unavailability, per our side-by-side comparison with the draft NPRM. Also added were questions about how the agency could encourage NGSO operators to deploy systems capable of sharing beam-pointing data and how it can modify its NGSO sharing rules "to incentivize flexible and efficient deployment." The NPRM includes new questions about how sunsetting NGSO protections would better promote competition and if the sunset trigger should start at the date of license grant, the beginning of the license period or some other time.
Intelsat said it plans to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in early 2022, following U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Keith Phillips of Richmond OK'ing its emergence plan Thursday. The hearing, set to start at 10 a.m., was postponed three hours as Intelsat and creditors hammered out remaining issues. That unanimity, given the competing claims, is "a remarkable achievement," Phillips said.
Don't get too prescriptive in rules to prevent SIM swap and port-out fraud, telecom interests said in FCC docket 21-341 replies that were due Tuesday. Comments last month requested flexibility (see 2111160036). Local number portability administrator (LNPA) interests said they don't have a role in verifying subscribers' identities. Saying the record doesn't show that SIM swap and port-out fraud is widespread, CTIA said the commission should expand its list of “secure authentication method" examples. "Enshrining authentication requirements into rigid regulations is not an effective way to fight the bad actors behind these fraudulent schemes," it said. It opposed prescribing specific authentication methods or being rigid in authentication requirements. Opus Research urged looking at other authentication methods, such as voice biometrics. Carrier Bandwidth said creating rules solely oriented to wireless services and numbers is "unlikely to effectuate the Commission’s stated objectives." It said the FCC should "lead the industry to develop and adopt improved competitively neutral text enablement methods and procedures that are consistent with established solutions in the toll free texting space." North American Portability Management said the agency should reject proposals for the LNPA to play a role in disputes between carriers and in identification of numbers. Iconectiv said the Number Portability Administration Center service management service and LNPA aren't involved in the pre-port process, nor do they have access to customer information, and thus don't have a role in identification of a customer or the request and response of information exchanged between current and new service providers.
The Supreme Court likely will decide in late January or early February if it will hear the challenge by various localities of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision on the FCC's cable franchise fees order (see 2111010048), said Tim Lay of Spiegel & McDiarmid Monday in a NATOA webinar. He said the deadline for NCTA to seek SCOTUS review of the 1st Circuit's decision on Maine's public, educational and government access channel carriage provisions (see 2108040022) has passed, so the cable industry seemingly is hoping other states don't follow Maine legislatively. NCTA didn't comment. Congressional action on legislation will sharply drop off as it gets closer to midterm elections, making the next few months "pretty critical," said Angelina Panettieri, National League of Cities legislative director-information technology and communications. The Build Back Better Act (HR-5376) passed the House, but take it "with a whole shaker full of salt" that all its provisions -- such as an emergency connectivity fund extension -- will ultimately pass, since negotiations are ongoing, she said. The National Defense Reuthorization Act (HR-4350), which also passed the House, will likely bring with it a requirement local governments report cybersecurity incidents, she said. Key bills for coming months likely include the Broadband Incentives for Communities Act (HR-5058), the Wireless Resiliency and Flexible Investment Act (HR-1058) and the Protecting Community Television Act (S-3361), she said. Gerard Lederer of Best Best said the FCC will likely have a 2-2 split at least until mid-February. He said Democratic commissioner nominee Gigi Sohn not being up for vote by the Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday seems to indicate a lack of sufficient Democratic support. He said that points to difficulty mustering the 60 votes needed to pass a motion to end debate. He said there's a large contingent in the Senate "that is just not giving the president any of his team."
The draft NPRM on low earth orbit satellite spectrum sharing on Tuesday's FCC agenda (see 2111230068) will surely pass, but some of its provisions could face friction from some satellite operators, we were told. A lawyer with satellite clients said sunsetting a non-geostationary orbit fixed satellite system's interference protections could get operator pushback. He said there's some gray area in the current FCC rules, so some clarity of what it means to be a first- or second-round licensee could help. ITU has no concept of a sunset, and ITU priority is forever, he said. The FCC draft NPRM in docket 21-456 wants input on sunsetting protections for an NGSO FSS system before the expiration of its 15-year license term and what protections should apply after sunsetting. Astroscale regulatory associate Laura Cummings emailed that there will be a divide among operators over rights sunsetting, because some that were licensed in earlier processing rounds invested first and heavily with the expectation of FCC protection, though later-round applicants would like easier entry into an already crowded spectrum market. She said an FCC decision to sunset first processing round protection rights could result in a legal challenge. She said another issue that could have diverging operator views is on sharing beam-pointing information, which some operators view as proprietary business information. She said operators with government clients also expect client opposition to that sharing. Between spot beams and the sheer number of beams, real-time coordination "would require incredible computing power and logistics" if mandated across thousands of satellites with multiple beams each, she said. She said most operators should agree there should be rules clarity on issues such as the sharing regime, since there has been a struggle to work out how first-round and subsequent licensees can share spectrum across processing rounds. The draft item got mixed feedback from operators. SES/O3b officials told International Bureau Chief Tom Sullivan last week they have concerns about the NPRM, and that other countries also dealing with NGSO sharing might be watching closely. Amazon Kuiper officials, in discussions with aides to Commissioners Brendan Carr, Geoffrey Starks and Nathan Simington and with Sullivan, said that licensees "need reasonable protection and certainty [but] the current rules risk hampering competition and placing the promise of satellite-delivered broadband in the hands of a small group of earlier-licensed incumbents" if there aren't limits on priority protections. SpaceX also told the aides the draft NPRM had its support.
Issues from the retransmission consent regime and carriage agreement contractual terms such as most-favored nation (MFN) clauses could be the focus of a forthcoming FCC proceeding on carriage headwinds faced by independent programmers. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has said the agency would look into carriage issues, commonly called hurdles by programmers and allies, and the effect of streaming on the video market (see 2111180047). NCTA didn't comment Friday.
The U.S. is in the midst of a huge run of fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) deployments by broadband providers, though its reach will remain outside a significant part of the country, an ACA Connects webinar heard Thursday. Many providers are transitioning to fiber, but that transition is focused on profitable areas and leaves behind minority communities, some said.
Augmenting or backing up of GPS needs to be balanced with toughening GPS resiliency, said Bradford Parkinson, National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) advisory board first vice chair, at the board's meeting Thursday. He said government response to the growing threat of jamming and spoofing of GPS has been to focus on supplementing the GPS system with a terrestrial service, but there's no current or foreseeable alternative to global navigation satellite service that can deliver the same level of accuracy or global coverage. Possible toughening steps include use of multi-element digital beam forming and null steering antennas and inertial systems. He said the FAA should emphasize use of toughened GNSS receivers, particularly those using directional antennas. He said International Traffic in Arms Regulation antenna restrictions should be removed because they limit U.S. access to important commercial components. He said the advisory board should create a committee on toughening that would help identify burgeoning civil threats to GPS signals, plus mitigation steps and roadblocks to implementation. He said that committee could then make recommendations to the National Security Council.
The U.S. is “in great shape” on 5G competition internationally, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr told a Media Institute virtual event Thursday. He said the agency's approach over the past five or six years of freeing up spectrum and lowering infrastructure barriers has been a proven success. He waved off former Google Executive Chairman CEO Eric Schmidt's repeated warnings of the U.S. lagging behind other nations such as China as "the Chicken Little of 5G leadership." Google didn't comment. Carr said more should be done in spectrum availability and infrastructure reform, citing completion of the 2.5 GHz auction and authorizing very low power use in the 6 GHz band as goals. Asked about 6G planning, Carr said the U.S. could start contemplating issues like the terahertz spectrum it might require, but the U.S. has "got to tend to our knitting" with 5G foremost. Asked about the likelihood of a resumption of net neutrality rules, he said it's "largely baked in" that the agency will at least debate a return to Communications Act Title II rules, though he was dismissive. "It's such an old debate of the past," he said, saying regulatory focus shouldn't be on ISPs but on edge provider behavior. He said if rate regulation were taken off the table, it would be relatively easy to find consensus about net neutrality rules for blocking and throttling. He said there could be a route for Communications Decency Act Section 230 changes that puts an affirmative anti-discrimination requirement on platforms while remaining consistent with the First Amendment. He said the Supreme Court's rulings on the First Amendment, when put on a continuum, include an opening for regulating tech companies' actions as a speech conduit while not implicating the First Amendment. Asked whether the FCC's 2018 broadcast ownership quadrennial review is likely to get done in 2022, Carr said there "is some precedent" for rolling it over: "These may start to run together a little bit."