Treating the purchase of what would have been a competitor as anti-competitive and warning of regulatory overreach were among suggestions groups made to DOJ and the FTC as the agencies consider new vertical merger guidelines. Comments on the draft were due Wednesday, and the agencies plan workshops March 11 and 18 (see 2002030052). The agencies didn't publicly post comment submissions.
House Commerce Committee ranking member Greg Walden of Oregon and some other Communications Subcommittee Republicans appeared hesitant during a Thursday hearing to support swift advancement of the Reinforcing and Evaluating Service Integrity, Local Infrastructure and Emergency Notification for Today’s (Resilient) Networks Act (HR-5926) or other resiliency bills. There was more widespread support by lawmakers and witnesses for the Fee Integrity and Responsibilities and To Regain Essential Spectrum for Public-safety Operators Needed to Deploy Equipment Reliably (First Responders) Act (HR-5928) and other measures.
ANNAPOLIS -- A Maryland House vice chair asked why the state should pass net neutrality given litigation against other states and possible constitutional hurdles. The Maryland House Economic Matters Committee heard testimony Wednesday on a hybrid net neutrality/ISP privacy bill (HB-957). Two other privacy bills at the hearing covered topics that could be part of an effort this summer by a working group led by Del. Ned Carey (D) to develop a comprehensive data privacy bill for next year, said Comcast Vice President-State Government Sean Looney.
NSA’s call detail records (CDR) program cost more than $100 million between 2015 and early 2019, and led to only one foreign intelligence investigation, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board reported Thursday. Later that day, the House Judiciary Committee postponed a markup on legislation that would end the USA Freedom Act Section 215 CDR program (see 2002250065).
NSA’s call detail records (CDR) program cost more than $100 million between 2015 and early 2019, and led to only one foreign intelligence investigation, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board reported Thursday. Later that day, the House Judiciary Committee postponed a markup on legislation that would end the USA Freedom Act Section 215 CDR program (see 2002250065).
The amended T-Mobile/Sprint agreement, revealed Thursday (see 2002200066), doesn’t appear to raise any concerns, New Street said Friday. The agreement extends the outside date for closing to July 1, though the carriers aim to close as early as April 1. “The only risk to Sprint equity now would be if the deal were upended through an appeal, the Tunney Act review, or the [California Public Utilities Commission] process, all of which we consider unlikely,” New Street’s Jonathan Chaplin told investors. “Sprint stock is now a cheaper way to buy New T-Mobile, though we don’t expect many investors to have much of an opportunity to get Sprint at the discount implied by yesterday’s closing prices. Nevertheless, we upgrade Sprint to Buy, for the sake of consistency.” Sprint’s stock price was up 6% Friday to close at $10.05. MoffettNathanson’s Nick Del Deo said there remain unknowns for tower companies. “Is New T-Mobile going to stick to its plan, or end up retaining or decommissioning more sites than it has laid out?” he asked: “Is Dish [Network] going to aggressively build its network, or will it defer capex to the extent possible by relying on its wholesale deal with New T-Mobile? And how many sites will it build, and at what sort of rent?” Chairman Ajit Pai, meanwhile, assured Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., the FCC did a thorough review of the deal. “The Commission followed the standard administrative process,” Pai said in a letter posted Friday: “The Commission compiled a voluminous record following a series of public notices seeking public input on various aspects of the transaction. Commission staff conducted an exhaustive examination of the evidence, including review of hundreds of thousands of pages of pleadings, documents, and the substantial material filed by the Applicants and third parties in response to our information requests.”
APCO asked the FCC to act on the public safety organization's February petition for clarification of rules requiring national wireless carriers to meet a vertical location accuracy metric of plus or minus 3 meters for 80 percent of indoor wireless E-911 calls from z-axis capable handsets (see 2002070057). Initial comments were due Friday on a Further NPRM on advanced vertical location, mapping and 911 services. “The resolution of many questions raised in APCO’s Petition will impact whether and how to improve the location accuracy requirements,” APCO said in docket 07-114, posted Friday: “The feasibility and benefits of requiring more granular z-axis information depends on how the Commission defines what it means for carriers to deploy z-axis technology consistent with the manner in which it was tested. Which phones should consumers expect to provide vertical location information with 9-1-1 calls? How do carriers ensure that they have deployed z-axis technology in a manner that will achieve the accuracy demonstrated in the test bed?” The Industry Council for Emergency Response Technologies said “public safety’s many challenges are best addressed through technological innovation and collaboration between industry and public safety stakeholders.” The order rejected a more stringent standard, the council said: “Nothing has changed since the Order was adopted a few months ago to alter that conclusion. The establishment of a more stringent requirement, without the benefit of technical data to support it, would be arbitrary both in terms of the level of accuracy achievable and the timeframe in which it could be achieved.” The FCC asked in the FNPRM if "initiatives are underway to develop resources for mapping building heights and floor numbers," said 911 technology company RapidDeploy: “Indeed, such initiatives are underway, both private and public, at local, regional, and statewide levels.” Public safety answering points and first responders “can be ready to consume and utilize floor level information well before the proposed 5-year timeline -- many as soon as today,” the company commented.
The FCC believes its push to expand the scope of industry’s wireless resiliency cooperative framework to include electric utilities will help better address wildfire threats, Chairman Ajit Pai wrote House Communications Subcommittee Vice Chair Doris Matsui, Rep. Anna Eshoo and two other Democrats in California’s House delegation, in letters released Friday. Matsui, Eshoo and Reps. Jared Huffman and Mike Thompson raised concerns in December that the FCC Public Safety Bureau’s review of the wireless resiliency framework “lacks targeted recommendations for wildfires.” The bureau sought additional feedback on the framework in April 2019 in light of seven hurricanes that hit the U.S. in 2017 and 2018 (see 1904010047). Eshoo, Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Calif., and others have been pressing for more attention to the telecom impact of 2019 California wildfires (see 1911010039). “Expanding the scope of the framework to include electric utilities is especially important given the role a lack of power has played in cutting off access to communications to consumers,” Pai said in letters released Friday. “I have directed agency staff to engage with all stakeholders to ensure the whole swath of those responsible for keeping the communications networks up and running are participating in an expanded framework.” Matsui and the three other California Democrats filed their Emergency Reporting Act (HR-5918) in a bid to improve network outage reporting practices. The bill would direct the FCC to issue reports and do field hearings after activating the Disaster Information Reporting System. It would also require the FCC to do a rulemaking aimed at improving wireless carriers’ alerts to public safety answering points on network outages that prevent consumers from making 911 calls or hinder phone number identification. HR-5918 is one of eight public safety communications measures House Communications will examine during a Thursday hearing (see 2002200060). In a letter also released Friday, Pai told House Commerce Committee Vice Chair Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., the FCC "remains committed to assisting Puerto Rico's efforts to strengthen and harden its communications networks," including through its Uniendo a Puerto Rico Fund. FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks hosted a field hearing in Puerto Rico Friday about the need for network resiliency after widespread damage from hurricanes in 2017 and more recent earthquakes (see 2002200021).
The amended T-Mobile/Sprint agreement, revealed Thursday (see 2002200066), doesn’t appear to raise any concerns, New Street said Friday. The agreement extends the outside date for closing to July 1, though the carriers aim to close as early as April 1. “The only risk to Sprint equity now would be if the deal were upended through an appeal, the Tunney Act review, or the [California Public Utilities Commission] process, all of which we consider unlikely,” New Street’s Jonathan Chaplin told investors. “Sprint stock is now a cheaper way to buy New T-Mobile, though we don’t expect many investors to have much of an opportunity to get Sprint at the discount implied by yesterday’s closing prices. Nevertheless, we upgrade Sprint to Buy, for the sake of consistency.” Sprint’s stock price was up 6% Friday to close at $10.05. MoffettNathanson’s Nick Del Deo said there remain unknowns for tower companies. “Is New T-Mobile going to stick to its plan, or end up retaining or decommissioning more sites than it has laid out?” he asked: “Is Dish [Network] going to aggressively build its network, or will it defer capex to the extent possible by relying on its wholesale deal with New T-Mobile? And how many sites will it build, and at what sort of rent?” Chairman Ajit Pai, meanwhile, assured Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., the FCC did a thorough review of the deal. “The Commission followed the standard administrative process,” Pai said in a letter posted Friday: “The Commission compiled a voluminous record following a series of public notices seeking public input on various aspects of the transaction. Commission staff conducted an exhaustive examination of the evidence, including review of hundreds of thousands of pages of pleadings, documents, and the substantial material filed by the Applicants and third parties in response to our information requests.”
Reps. Donald McEachin and Abigail Spanberger, both D-Va., touted existing broadband legislation and sought input on additional measures during a Thursday event in Disputanta, Virginia. FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks noted his ongoing concerns about updated language in the commission’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund that won’t prevent ISPs that win bids for program funding from seeking additional support from state broadband programs but bars census block groups that received state subsidies for 25/3 Mbps from participation (see 2002070031). Industry and local representatives highlighted other barriers to rural broadband deployments.