Municipal broadband supporters see an opening to lift restrictions in Virginia, after Democrats flipped the legislature blue in the November election, they said in interviews this month. In week one of this year's session, Democrats floated three bills to explicitly authorize localities to provide broadband service. They're HB-1052 by Del. Mark Levine, HB-1242 by Del. Steve Heretick and SB-351 by Sen. Louise Lucas. Local advocates said it's a big policy turn from a 2017 bill to tighten such restrictions (see 1702210037).
Two telcos didn't meet all deployment requirements for having gotten USF money from the federal government, they reported Thursday. That drew concern from some state officials.
Washington state senators’ privacy bill lacks teeth and should have a private right of action, said the state attorney general’s office at a Senate Environment and Technology Committee hearing. Microsoft supported the bill, and other tech and internet companies said they are almost on board. The American Civil Liberties Union raised concerns, including on facial recognition bias and no private right of action. Also Wednesday, facial identification also got a U.S. House Oversight Committee hearing (see 2001150035).
Terrier Media wants to sell the Ohio daily newspapers acquired from its buy of Cox’s stations, said an FCC Media Bureau letter posted Wednesday in docket 19-98. Terrier planned to reduce the daily publication schedule of the papers -- which include the Dayton Daily News -- to three days a week to comply with the restored newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rules (see 1911220069). It was granted an extension of the deadline to arrange the sale, said the Media Bureau. The Thursday deadline to reduce publication was extended to March 16.
FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel warned the Senate Commerce Committee Wednesday the U.S. isn’t leading the world on 5G and can’t without more mid-band spectrum. Rosenworcel asked the committee to develop C-band legislation. Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said the FCC isn’t necessarily behind, though a winner won’t be known for some time.
Permitting T-Mobile to buy Sprint would defy the “loud and clear message” of Congress and courts to “trust competition,” said plaintiff states’ outside counsel, Glenn Pomerantz of Munger Tolles, in the bench trial’s closing argument Wednesday in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York. T-Mobile lawyer David Gelfand, with Cleary Gottlieb, countered that the states “fell far short” at trial of their “burden” of proving the deal would be anticompetitive. He said the transaction will do “exactly the opposite” and “greatly improve competition.”
Broadband interests back a draft order on the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund up for a vote at the Jan. 30 FCC meeting (see 2001080049). They told us to expect commissioners to approve the rulemaking this month. Industry continues visiting the agency's eighth floor to ask for changes.
House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., is eyeing a markup after the Martin Luther King Jr. Day recess of the Expanding Broadcast Ownership Opportunities Act (HR-3957) and potentially three other bills aimed at increasing media diversity. The measures got some bipartisan backing during a Wednesday subcommittee hearing.
The commercial space universe is about to see mergers and acquisitions, particularly in the small-satellite and small-satellite launch market, investment experts said Tuesday at a Washington Space Business Roundtable event. Expect more business failures over the next year or two in the smallsat launch market as the imbalance of many startups vs. a minimal commercial market starts to catch up with the burgeoning industry, said Bryce Space and Technology CEO Carissa Christensen. Launch supply always outstrips demand, as nations want their own launch capabilities, and governments are the chief market for small launchers, she said.
At times over about the past week, the FCC's primary document filing and public access system didn't always appear fully operational. At some points last week, the electronic comment filing system wouldn't allow some filings to be searched for and/or accessed. Through early this week, pleadings that would have normally been publicly accessible on a particular day because they were filed in time for that didn't appear until a subsequent day.