That “middle-of-the-road” House Republicans CTA supported lost in Tuesday's midterms was “one of the greatest tragedies of the night,” President Gary Shapiro told us Wednesday. Of the 91 House and 12 Senate candidates backed by CTA’s political action committee, roughly 10 were defeated, said Shapiro.
Having oppositely controlled chambers of Congress bodes well for bipartisan negotiation on regulating online privacy, tech trade group executives told us Wednesday. Industry allies agreed Republicans and Democrats remain far apart on specific policy. President Donald Trump in a post-election news conference said he’s open to working with Democrats on regulating social media companies, though he called Silicon Valley’s alleged anti-conservative bias a “serious problem.”
New York voters removed a big obstacle to passing a state net neutrality bill by flipping the state Senate in Tuesday’s election. Fresh Democratic trifectas there and elsewhere could encourage more state action to counter recent FCC decisions on net neutrality and privacy, some said. And broadband and net neutrality supporter Phil Weiser will be attorney general in Colorado, where additional local governments cleared ballot initiatives on municipal broadband. Incumbents and Republicans performed strongly in state commissions with elected commissioners.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai likely faces a more complicated next two years than his first two, after Democrats retook the House (see 1811070054), if Pai stays through President Donald Trump's term. With some races still unsettled, Democrats hold a slim majority in the House and Pai will encounter the same dynamic as many predecessors after their parties lost control of the House, Senate or both. Most industry officials agreed FCC work likely will slow slightly on some of bigger, controversial items.
Voters delivered a split decision Tuesday in elections to Congress, as expected (see 1811050050 and 1811070002). The division between a Democratic House and Republican Senate reduces the likelihood for legislative progress on some divisive telecom issues but possibly opens up opportunities for compromise on others, officials and lobbyists said in interviews. The election resulted in turnovers to leadership of House and Senate telecom-focused committees. Many said they are now watching the tight race between Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and Republican Gov. Rick Scott.
Wedbush Securities' Michael Pachter advised Pandora shareholders to reject SiriusXM’s September $3.5 purchase offer in an all-stock deal (see 1809240030), after Pandora’s Q3 earnings and its revenue topped guidance of $390 million-$405 million and consensus analyst forecast of $402 million. Pandora's $417.6 million was 16 percent higher than the year-ago quarter.
Two tech trade group representatives played down the value of consumer data during Tuesday’s FTC policy hearing (see 1810310052). Another industry official argued too much focus is on drawbacks of big-data collection, not enough on benefits.
Disagreement over VoIP classification is complicating a state pole-attachment rate-setting proceeding. The Vermont Public Utility Commission is mulling a single rate for pole attachments to replace a two-tier system based on occupied space that treats LEC and cable attachments differently. Pole owners resisted cable and CLEC pleas for a lower single rate, in Monday comments emailed to us by the PUC on a petition by the CLEC Association of Northern New England (CANNE) asking the agency amend rules.
The FCC pressed small voice service providers to assist "efforts to trace scam robocalls that originate on or pass through their networks." Letters were sent to eight providers not participating in industry traceback efforts, the agency said Tuesday, a day after Chairman Ajit Pai sent letters demanding major voice providers adopt a call-authentication framework by 2019 to fight illegal caller ID spoofing and robocalling (see 1811050055). Separately, several backed IHS Markit asking urgent motor vehicle recall messages be exempted from Telephone Consumer Protection Act wireless calling restrictions (see 1810050005).
A consolidated appeal of the FCC’s September wireless infrastructure order on state and local barriers to siting small cells will be heard by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, not the 9th Circuit, as sought by local governments, and that could be positive for the FCC, court observers said. The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation randomly picked the 10th Circuit Friday (see 1811020061). AT&T, Sprint and the Puerto Rico Telephone Company also appealed the order, forcing a lottery. AT&T’s appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit was left out of the lottery.