With shovels about to go into the ground for BEAD, focus must shift to performance testing, broadband policy experts said Tuesday at NARUC's Winter Policy Summit in Washington. There’s a critical need for accountability to show that the service being paid for is actually operating within the parameters that ISPs promised, said NTCA Executive Vice President Mike Romano. Drew Garner, director of policy engagement at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, added that previous federal deployment programs “have done a horrible job” at performance testing and ensuring accountability.
The relative success of the citizens broadband radio service remains a contentious issue, judging from discussions Tuesday during a Technology Policy Institute webinar. Arpan Sura, a top aide to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, indicated that the agency wants to get a more granular view of how well CBRS is working as it explores the future of the band.
Spending plans for BEAD non-deployment funds haven’t yet been determined but will “hew to the law,” and additional BEAD program demands from states by ISPs like Starlink “will not be accepted,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told the Senate Appropriations Commerce Subcommittee during a hearing Tuesday.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told us Tuesday that he's still evaluating whether the FCC should raise or eliminate its 39% national TV station audience-reach cap, despite a line of dialogue during a panel hearing in which he voiced skepticism about commission action. Other committee members were largely divided along party lines, with Republicans either outright backing proposals to lift the FCC’s cap or at least not opposing them. Most Democrats strongly opposed the cap's elimination.
Telecom executives and analysts discussed the rise of satellite broadband offerings, cybersecurity concerns and the future of fixed wireless in panels and remarks Monday at NARUC's Winter Policy Summit.
House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., warned FCC Chairman Brendan Carr on Monday that he does “not have the authority to alter or eliminate the 39 percent national television ownership cap.” Pallone raised his concerns in a letter to Carr ahead of the Senate Commerce Committee’s planned hearing Tuesday on the ownership cap (see 2602030070).
The U.S. can lead the world on AI, but that requires consistent regulation and the ability of providers to build new infrastructure, FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty told the State of the Net conference Monday in Washington. Trusty emphasized the broader Trump administration theme that state laws shouldn’t be allowed to slow growth. “Leadership in AI is not something you declare. It is something you earn and something you must continuously defend.”
President Donald Trump endorsed the Nexstar/Tegna deal and called national TV networks “THE ENEMY” in a social media post Saturday, which was quickly seconded by FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. “Letting Good Deals get done like Nexstar-Tegna will help knock out the Fake News because there will be more competition, and at a higher and more sophisticated level,” Trump said on Truth Social.
Wireless and satellite interests are reinforcing their arguments on whether a spectrum slice in the 28.35-28.6 GHz band needs to remain a guard band protecting upper microwave flexible-use service (UMFUS) networks from adjacent-band earth stations in motion (ESIM). Docket 17-95 comments last week saw those interests largely buttress claims made last month as the FCC seeks comments about communications with ESIMs in the 28.35-28.6 GHz band (see 2601220027). In comments posted Friday, wireless interests also pushed back on SpaceX calls for the FCC to green-light ESIM operations across a wider array of Ku-band frequencies.
Industry commenters advised the FCC against handing down more regulation in response to a Further NPRM seeking comment on tougher caller ID rules (see 2601070012). Numerous comments called the state of the call-branding market “nascent.” Reply comments were due last week in docket 17-59 on the FNPRM, which commissioners approved in October (see 2510280024).