The FCC is "solidly on track" for a 2020 C-band auction, said Commissioner Brendan Carr in an interview with The Communicators, posted online Friday and to have aired on C-SPAN over the weekend. Noting concerns that such an auction might be three or more years out, he said "that's not going to happen" due to the auction's being such an agency priority. “A lot of regulators right now are struggling with a lack of vision” on 5G, and he said it will be more consequential than the transition from analog to digital. He said that lack of vision is reflected in opposition to T-Mobile buying Sprint. Support of deals like it shows "you understand where technology is going," he said: "A lot of consumers aren't happy with the status quo," and want to see new competition. He has "significant concerns" about China Unicom and Chinese Telecom being licensed to operate in the U.S., and favors an investigation of whether existing Communications Act Section 214 licenses should be pulled. He said there's unanimity among U.S. allies on the issue. Carr doesn’t think there's a need for a new agency like the FCC to regulate just edge providers; instead, antitrust authorities need to have "forward-looking vision" to see where the tech industry is going.
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
DOD has been raising issues behind the scenes with the FCC to avoid technical or legal review of its arguments against Ligado's license modification applications, and its opposition isn't grounded in data in the docket, said the company in a docket 11-109 filing Thursday to be posted. It includes a June 7 letter to the FCC from then-acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan and Nov. 18 letter from now-Secretary Mark Esper. DOD opposition "appears to be an attempt to grab spectrum" not allocated to it, Ligado said, saying the lack of public communication on its views "means the DOD lacks any legitimate basis" for opposition.
A declaratory ruling interpreting the so-called VoIP symmetry rule, a modification of licensing for noncommercial educational full-service FM and full-power noncommercial educational (NCE) TV and low-power FM broadcast stations, and a proposal to change the deadline for when cable distributors have to notify subscribers if a channel is going dark, will be among the top items at the Dec. 12 FCC meeting, Chairman Ajit Pai blogged Wednesday. Also on the agenda will be a previously announced NPRM for designating 988 as a national suicide prevention hotline number (see 1911190054) and items on sharing the 5.9 GHz band between auto safety and Wi-Fi and clearing the lower 3.1 GHz band (see 1911200055). The draft item texts are expected to be released Thursday.
The Dec. 12 FCC agenda will include an NPRM on designating 988 as a national three-digit suicide prevention and mental health crisis hotline. A draft NPRM announced Tuesday tees up several issues, including network configurations, Chairman Ajit Pai said after a National Council for Behavioral Health event. Asked how soon the commissioners might have a draft order before them, he said he couldn't guess how long it might take to assess what comes up in the public comments, but 988 "is a special priority for me." An item on 5.9 GHz band sharing is also expected for December (see 1911190066).
Federal legislation on privacy and net neutrality could be the common ground that helps break the balkanization and incivility endemic in politics, Comcast Chief Diversity Officer David Cohen told a Media Institute event Thursday. The rapid pace of technological and societal change needs to be met with a return of civility in political discourse and universal connectivity to facilitate training people to hold down post-artificial intelligence jobs and an embracing of diversity, he said. He argued public spending on broadband connectivity for underserved areas is likely being wasted.
Beyond whatever steps the FCC takes to open up the C band to other uses, spectrum issues will become more complicated and challenging, and incentive mechanisms are needed for incumbents, said Office of Economics and Analytics acting Chief Giulia McHenry at an FCBA CLE Tuesday evening. For auctions, take the prohibited communications rule very seriously, said Jonathan Cohen of Wilkinson Barker, who when at the FCC co-wrote rules for the agency's first spectrum auctions. "It would be a death sentence" for a lawyer to be a conduit for prohibited information, he said.
Supreme Court justices seemed skeptical Wednesday of Comcast and solicitor general assertions about but-for causation needing to be proved when stating a claim under Section 1981 of federal anti-discrimination law. A decision is likely in about three months, Erwin Chemerinsky, outside counsel for respondents Entertainment Studios and the National Association of African American Owned Media, told us after oral argument in the docket 18-1171 case. Outside the courthouse there was a protest that tried to tie Comcast's treatment of ES/NAAAOM to the cabler's dropping Starz from its Premium tier.
Both the C-Band Alliance and erstwhile member Eutelsat are pitching to the FCC transition plans for how to clear 300 MHz of the 3.7-4.2 GHz band. In talks with eighth-floor aides, Eutelsat backed private market-based deals for spectrum clearing instead of an FCC auction. But it worries none of the proposals is detailed and transparent enough to let the agency make a decision. Eutelsat left CBA in September (see 1909030041).
The FCC Media Bureau's finding that a group of broadcasters violated per se good-faith negotiating standards in talks with AT&T could be a seminal moment that puts teeth into what some consider toothless rules, lawyers with retransmission consent negotiation experience told us. Others said the rules aren't ambiguous, so Friday's decision (docket 19-168) in response to AT&T's complaint (see 1906190027) provides little new clarity. Everyone agreed such rulings in favor of complainants are rare, and some attorneys told us they believe this is the first time broadcasters have been found in violation of the good faith rules.
Whether Dish Network can keep going its Q3 video subscriber-loss rebound remains to be seen. CEO Erik Carlson called the 66,000 decline in direct broadcast satellite subscribers "notable progress." Wall Street was less bullish but saw Dish as increasingly confident in its wireless strategy.