Chairman Ajit Pai is expected to announce Wednesday he will seek a vote at the April 23 commissioners’ meeting on an order that would open 6 GHz to sharing with Wi-Fi, industry and FCC officials said in interviews. The issue has seen heavy lobbying in recent weeks. Much recent debate involved when the FCC will require automatic frequency coordination (AFC) or allow low-level use without. The agency is expected to post the draft item Thursday.
COVID-19 could reprioritize two California telecom funds. The California Public Utilities Commission sought comment Thursday on how it can respond to the pandemic using the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF). In prehearing statements due that day on a possible overhaul to California LifeLine that could shift support to broadband, some urged focus on increasing participation of especially vulnerable low-income residents.
The Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee ended on a note of concern Friday. BDAC met online, as have other groups since the FCC closed headquarters and sent staff home.
COVID-19 is having a negative impact on radio advertising, which could worsen once ratings start showing drops in listenership due to less telecommuting and rising unemployment, said analysts, broadcasters and company news releases late last week. iHeart Radio, Salem Media and Urban One rescinded projections for 2020, citing uncertainty caused by the pandemic.
FCC interaction with constituents is changing in the face of the pandemic, with ex parte meetings down in recent weeks, according to our analysis of more than 400 electronic comment filing system filings. Agency officials said stakeholders presumably are reluctant to set up meetings on non-pressing matters, and commissioners' Tuesday meeting agenda lacks major items. That could change in April with the 6 GHz order expected (see 2003270032), one agency official said. The regulator said aides in Chairman Ajit Pai's office don't seem less busy.
The U.S. should rethink antitrust policies, experts said at an Information Technology and Innovation Foundation webinar Thursday. China is giving its companies an advantage, said Berkeley Research Group Chairman David Teece. St. Mary’s University London Senior Lecturer in Law Aurelien Portuese recommended antitrust enforcers shift to qualitative analysis to account for big tech’s free-services model.
A draft FCC NPRM on wireline phone charges is stirring some industry concerns, stakeholders said. Small, rural LECs may have different interests than ILECs owned by national companies in a proposed FCC rule to change the way wireline voice services are billed, said NTCA Senior Vice President-Industry Affairs and Business Development Mike Romano in an interview. Commissioners vote Tuesday on a draft NPRM on docket 20-71 to determine whether the agency should prohibit telcos from assessing certain access charges as separate line items once the FCC mandates they're detariffed (see 2003100065).
Low-power and TV translator stations can start getting reimbursed for expenses for being displaced by the post-incentive auction repack, said a public notice Thursday from the FCC Media Bureau and Incentive Auction Task Force. Stations “may immediately begin submitting documentation of actual expenses incurred for approval to be drawn down against their individual allocations,” blogged IATF Chair Jean Kiddoo and Deputy Chair Hillary DeNigro. “It is important to make an initial allocation promptly and without waiting for greater visibility into any future changes so that LPTV/Translator stations can begin to be reimbursed for their expenses, which in some cases have already been incurred,” the PN said.
State commissioners should keep watch on telecom to protect consumers during the COVID-19 outbreak, said NARUC President Brandon Presley in a Thursday interview. “Once this crisis is behind us, we’ve got to view broadband service as a national security issue, in the sense of economic security,” he said. “I won’t have much toleration for anybody that comes to tell me that internet is a luxury.”
More Democrats are signaling interest in pushing to include broadband capacity and distance learning provisions in a potential fourth bill addressing the effects of COVID-19. Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., earlier cited those issues as a continued priority (see 2003250046). The Senate voted 96-0 Wednesday to pass the third economic stimulus measure, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (HR-748). The legislation includes telehealth provisions and pandemic-related appropriations for the FCC, Rural Utilities Service and CPB, as expected.