Space experts anticipate many of the orbital debris regulatory proposals the FCC moved from April's order to an accompanying Further NPRM (see 2004230040) will be in a future second order. They spoke in interviews this week. Enforcement of the initial order likely wouldn't be until fall, so a draft order before next winter seems unlikely, said Satellite Industry Association Senior Director-Policy Therese Jones.
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
Satellite operators reject concerns mobile network operators (MNOs) raised about terrestrial operations in the 27.5-28.35 GHz upper microwave flexible use service (UMFUS) band (see 2005050034). Verizon and U.S. Cellular red flags are "a last-minute sandbagging attempt" at getting the FCC to revisit settled out-of-band emission (OOBE) issues in the adjacent 28.35-28.6 GHz band, said SES/O3b, Inmarsat and Hughes/EchoStar in a docket 17-95 posting Thursday. They challenged the call for OOBE limits specific to earth stations in motion (ESIM) to protect UMFUS in the 27.5-28.35 GHz band, saying the millions of licensed fixed terminals communicating with geostationary orbit satellites haven't caused UMFUS problems, so extending those rules to non-geostationary satellites shouldn't, either. They said deployed ESIMs will be a fraction of the fixed blanket-licensed earth stations already authorized for the 28.35-28.6 GHz band, so aggregate interference also isn't a realistic worry. Viasat said the ability of ESIMs to operate on a co-frequency basis with UMFUS systems in the 27.5-28.35 GHz band is extraneous to the draft ESIM order on the May 13 commissioners' agenda (see 2004220048). It said internationally, there's an interference threshold to protect terrestrial fixed and mobile services from co-frequency ESIM operations on a cross-border basis, so terrestrial fixed and mobile operators need to plan co-frequency ESIM operations in the 27.5-28.35 GHz band. Verizon emailed it and other U.S. carriers "have made significant investments to deploy robust 5G services to Americans using the 28 GHz band. Given the stakes in the international race to 5G, it is important that the FCC consider the interference risk that the proposed new ESIM satellite operations would pose to incumbent 5G operations in the adjacent 28 GHz band." CTIA said it argued in conversations with aides to Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner Mike O'Rielly co-channel sharing between ESIMs and UMFUS isn't feasible and the spectrum frontiers proceeding was specific about allowing only limited siting of new earth stations in UMFUS bands.
The Disaster Distress Helpline had a big jump in traffic attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, though other emergency helplines haven't had increases, administrators told us. The pandemic could intensify a push for implementation of 988 as the nationwide three-digit suicide prevention and mental health crisis hotline because of the need for an easy-to-remember accessible service, said Vibrant Emotional Health President Kim Williams. Lawmakers are pushing for Capitol Hill leaders to include the National Suicide Hotline Designation Act (HR-4194/S-2661) in the next COVID-19 stimulus legislative package.
Cable interests didn't agree about possibly eliminating the rule that cable operators maintain records in online inspection files about attributable interests in video programming services, in docket 20-35 comments posted this week. An NPRM on axing or modifying the rule was approved at commissioners' March 31 meeting (see 2002280044). Verizon said Tuesday there's "simply no basis" for requiring cable operators to keep attributable interest records in their public inspection files because the agency or local franchise authorities can just request records from operators, and responding to those requests is less burdensome for operators. NCTA called the rule "regulatory underbrush [that] serves no meaningful purpose." ACA Connects said vertical integration information could be useful in bringing a program access complaint but urged the FCC to find "a less burdensome" means for making it available. It suggested such possibilities as eliminating the part of the rule requiring reporting carriage of a particular system, or revising rules to require cable operators post the information only once and then make updates when it changes.
The public interest in the FCC disclosing the IP addresses, user-agent headers and related time stamps of net neutrality proceeding comments filed in its electronic comment filing system "is great because the importance of the comment process to agency rulemaking is great." That's according to Judge Lorna Schofield of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in an order Thursday (in Pacer, docket 18-cv-08607) granting a summary judgment motion by New York Times Co. It sued after the agency denied its Freedom of Information Act request for the application programming interface proxy server log containing the requested information (see 1809200023). The order denied an FCC motion for summary judgment and a Times motion for Plaintiffs’ motion for reasonable attorneys’ fees. The commission didn't comment. Litigation "should not have been necessary to get this vital information," emailed Benton Institute Senior Counselor Andrew Schwartzman. "I hope the Commission will now comply promptly rather than drag things out with appeals that will not succeed." Tweeted Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel: "It's time for the agency to come clean."
MVPDs and subscribers shouldn't expect rebates from programmers due to the lack of live sports content, sports and cable experts said in interviews last week. At least one cable ISP indicated it expects a rebate or discount, and multiple ones have brought up the issue with programmers. The idea of sports costs is also getting political pressure.
A slowdown in video customers canceling service might be temporary, resulting from shelter-in-place orders, Charter Communications CEO Tom Rutledge said Friday, announcing Q1 results. He said the company expects residential broadband demand to stay strong, but unemployment and economic issues could be a headwind. Nonpolitical advertising in March was down 18% year over year in large part due to sports cancellations (see 2005010011), Chief Financial Officer Chris Winfrey said. Q2 for advertising “will be challenging,” he said, saying Charter expects ads to pick up when the economy picks up. He said 140,000 customers are in its disconnection protection program, with 65,000 of them carrying past-due balances beyond the point of normal disconnection. He said those numbers are likely to grow in Q2. Charter has 25.47 million residential broadband customers, up 1.45 million; 15.55 million residential video customers, down 400,000; and 9.36 million residential voice customers, down 655,000. In Q1, it lost 70,000 video customers compared with a loss of 152,000 in Q1 2019. Revenue was $11.7 billion, up 4.8%. Rutledge said the FCC's April 6 GHz order (see 2004240011) was "a transformational step for broadband," but it didn't affect what value Charter might see for citizens broadband radio service auction spectrum.
The COVID-19 pandemic began hurting Comcast business operations in Q1, but bigger effects are expected in Q2, the company said Thursday, announcing Q1 results. Cable and broadcast advertising, already down, will be weaker in Q2 due to canceled sports programming and a weak economy, said Chief Financial Officer Mike Cavanagh. Film revenue will be down heavily in Q2 and Q3, as tentpoles like Fast and Furious and Minions sequels move to 2021, he said. Residential broadband and enterprise trends are better than feared, New Street Research analyst Jonathan Chaplin wrote investors. Pivotal Research's Jeffrey Wlodarczak said 2020 is "a wash [with] a return to relative normalcy for cable in ’21." He said the cable business should have slower growth this year and "a nice rebound in '21 while NBC and Sky will have an ugly ’20 [and] return to normalcy by ’22." For the quarter, Comcast revenue was $26.6 billion, down 0.9%. Filmed entertainment revenue was down 22.5%. Comcast said since March 1, upstream traffic has grown 33% and wireless data use over Wi-Fi is up 40%. It said 95% of its call center employees are working from home. Comcast ended Q1 with 19.9 million residential video subscribers, down 950,000 year over year; 26.9 million residential broadband customers, up 1.4 million; and 9.8 million residential voice customers, down 250,000. It has 2.27 million wireless subscribers, up 862,000.
Ligado hopes to have its L-band spectrum deployed terrestrially within 18 months, now that it has FCC approval (see 2004200039), CEO Doug Smith told us Wednesday. Senate Armed Services Committee leaders are eyeing a hearing next week on DOD opposition to the FCC’s Ligado decision, Capitol Hill aides and lobbyists told us.
There's no consensus whether mobile and fixed communications services are complementary or substitutes in docket 20-60 comments this week for the FCC's communications market competitiveness report to Congress. The agency got requests for further smoothing access to poles and rights of way for wireline broadband access.