House Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden will subpoena Google if necessary to get a top executive to testify, the Oregon Republican told us Thursday. A day earlier, the platform was criticized for its absence at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing (see 1809050057). “Someday, we will have the Google execs in just like we had [Facebook CEO Mark] Zuckerberg, just like we had [Twitter CEO Jack] Dorsey," Walden said. "We’re just going to continue to march right through, and obviously we have tools to get there if we have to use them. We shouldn’t have to use them.”
No further action by the New York Public Service Commission is needed to require Charter Communications and any successor ISP to follow net neutrality rules, a PSC spokesman said Thursday. He responded to Democratic state legislators urging the agency to use its leverage in the Charter dispute to require adherence to FCC now-retracted 2015 rules. Observers on each side of the net neutrality debate said not to count out net neutrality rules in an expected settlement that could let the company remain in New York. In California, legislators urged Gov. Jerry Brown (D) to sign their net neutrality bill to build momentum elsewhere.
Local government officials warned concerns continue over wireless 911 location accuracy, at an NG911 Institute lunch Wednesday. Meanwhile, CTIA said the four nationwide wireless providers -- AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon -- are adding new location-based tools to existing wireless 911 location technologies starting this year.
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh attempted to parse his views on deference by courts to agency expertise under the Chevron decision, saying he's not totally opposed to the precedent, during the Senate Judiciary Committee's Wednesday confirmation hearing session. Kavanaugh's views on Chevron as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit mean many in the communications sector believe he would raise the bar for FCC regulations (see 1807100020). Kavanaugh defended his dissent in the D.C. Circuit's 2017 en banc affirmation of 2015 net neutrality rules in USTelecom v. FCC, as expected (see 1705010038 and 1808310045). Questions continued into the evening.
From encouraging spectrum sharing to ensuring regulatory streamlining, Congress has plenty of levers to promote the commercial space industry, space interests said during a Satellite Industry Association panel Wednesday. To have a bigger voice in spectrum policy issues, the space community needs to be unified, said House Space Subcommittee Chairman Brian Babin, R-Texas. "Without spectrum, there is no space business."
Parties diverged on how to curb abuse of toll-free-number originating access charges, which the FCC proposed to phase out over three years. Large telcos, cable interests and others backed transitioning all "8YY" call hand-offs to a bill-and-keep regime, under which carriers exchanging traffic recover costs from users not each other. Rural carrier groups, one cable company and others opposed such a move and sought different solutions. Comments were posted Tuesday and Wednesday in docket 18-156 on a June 8 Further NPRM. Chairman Ajit Pai says the intercarrier compensation (ICC) system is being gamed, including by robocallers generating toll-free traffic to spark payments.
Local franchising authorities shouldn't use video franchising power to regulate incumbent operators' non-cable services offered over their cable systems, under a tentative conclusion in a draft Further NPRM on the Sept. 26 commissioners' meeting tentative agenda. The agency Wednesday released other draft meeting items that would propose to improve 911 calling in buildings and complexes, establish a framework for auctioning toll-free numbers, set rules governing earth stations in motion (ESIM) and eliminate the cable data collection Form 325 reporting requirement (see 1809040058). A draft wireless infrastructure was posted (see 1809050029).
Twitter is considering releasing historical data to increase transparency about account takedown and suspension decisions, CEO Jack Dorsey told the Senate Intelligence Committee Wednesday. Dorsey, at a hearing with Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, said the platform might expand its transparency report to include archived suspension data. Transparency is key to calming concerns, he said.
A dangling national ownership cap proceeding and a flurry of TV dealmaking mean there’s an expectation the FCC will act to change the 39 percent audience reach cap, officials said. But broadcasters, industry analysts and attorneys aren’t sure when the commission will do so. The agency was seen as on the brink of issuing a cap order in July, and though that didn’t happen, broadcasters have considered an order possible ever since. Some think the midterm elections could affect timing, and others said the jockeying to buy Tribune could lead the agency to act. Commissioners' Sept. 26 tentative agenda Wednesday (see 1809050029 and 1809050056) doesn’t include action on the cap. Attorneys said a vote on such a contentious issue outside a meeting is unlikely.
The FCC draft wireless declaratory ruling and order, circulated Wednesday, says it isn’t targeting most local state governments, but “outlier conduct persists.” Commissioner Brendan Carr announced Tuesday the item would get a vote at the commissioners’ Sept. 26 meeting (see 1809040056), which has seven other items on its tentative agenda (see 1809050056). Meanwhile, at least two petitioners asked the FCC to reconsider provisions approved 3-1 in August that pre-empt state and local legal barriers to deployment, including express and de facto moratoriums (see 1808020034).