RLEC groups expect the FCC will adopt the rural telco rate floor elimination order on Friday's agenda, the only question mark being Commissioner Mike O'Rielly's vote. ITTA Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Mike Jacobs said he would be surprised if O'Rielly supports the order, given past support of the rate floor concept. O'Rielly's office didn't comment Wednesday. The other commissioners' approvals were seen likely. The FCC didn't comment.
LAS VEGAS -- FCC Chairman Ajit Pai circulated draft FM translator rules to the other eighth-floor offices to be voted on at the May 9 commissioners' meeting, he told a crowded auditorium at the NAB Show Tuesday. Pai said long-awaited forms to allow broadcasters to transition to ATSC 3.0 (see 1904100043) will be ready “by the end of Q2” and urged broadcasters to increasingly think of themselves as digital media companies. “You find yourselves in a war for attention with well-funded media giants, internet companies, and telecom companies,” he said. The show had 91,460 attendees, down from 92,912 in 2018.
The FCC is considering a revised position offered by NTIA on future use of the 37 GHz band. NTIA offered new language after carriers complained that under the proposed rules, coordination zones with the department change even after the band is auctioned, industry and government officials said this week.
Supporters of the Save the Internet Act net neutrality bill (HR-1644/S-682) were looking beyond House passage Wednesday, despite dim prospects (see 1904100014). The House passed HR-1644 on an almost uniformly party-line 232-190 vote, as expected (see 1904090045). One House Republican voted for the bill -- Bill Posey of Florida. No Democrats defected to vote against it. Ten lawmakers didn't vote. HR-1644/S-682 would add a new title to the Communications Act that reverses the FCC order rescinding its 2015 net neutrality rules and restores reclassification of broadband as a Communications Act Title II service (see 1903060077).
Raising an issue that has arisen repeatedly about the Mobility Fund Phase II program, commenters urged the FCC to create a robust challenge process if it moves ahead with auction of subsidies in areas completely or almost completely served by unsubsidized broadband competitors. Form 477 data, by itself, isn’t good enough, commenters said. Rural telco interests earlier raised concerns about an auction in general (see 1903110032). The FCC sought comment in a December Further NPRM (see 1812120039) and replies came through Tuesday in docket 10-90.
Additional hearings are needed to examine questions about Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and other tech issues, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., told us. Members of both parties blamed each other for not properly addressing hate- and race-related activity, at a hearing earlier Tuesday.
Washington state legislators failed to agree on a privacy bill, House sponsor Rep. Zack Hudgins (D) said Tuesday. Legislators seemed to run out of time to move the much-debated measure after the House Appropriations Committee didn’t act Monday on SB-5376 “after 12 hours of work on a large agenda,” Hudgins said in an email update. "In legislative language, we would describe the bill as 'dead for now.'"
Huawei and other Chinese companies pose a major challenge for the U.S. and other nations, said Jamil Jaffer, executive director of the National Security Institute at George Mason University's law school, during a Technology Policy Institute panel Tuesday. “The risk is real.” A Trump administration supply chain security executive order apparently is off the table (see 1903250055).
LAS VEGAS -- DOJ's view of broadcast competition as concerned only with spot TV advertising is narrowly defined and unlikely to change, broadcasters and broadcast attorneys told us Tuesday. Their remarks followed an NAB 2019 panel headlined by Owen Kendler, chief of the Antitrust Division's Media Entertainment and Professional Services Section.
LAS VEGAS -- Radio license renewals are moving to a new system, the delayed FCC decision on a top-four combination in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, isn't related to the quadrennial review, and the chairman's office nixed a prison phone company deal before it reached other eighth-floor offices, said commissioners and Media Bureau staff on panels Monday and Tuesday at NAB 2019. There was heated onstage back-and-forth between Commissioners Mike O'Rielly and Geoffrey Starks on pirate radio. And Video Division Chief Barbara Kreisman suggested broadcasters walk back calls to relax some reporting requirements.