Washington state’s House Innovation, Technology and Economic Development Committee advanced Senate-passed SB-6281 6-3 Friday (see 2002270065). An amendment establishing a private right of action passed. One that would remove a controversial facial recognition section failed.
The FCC voted to propose an Oct. 22 auction date for the first phase of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund and to release a public notice for docket 20-34 on procedures for its auction 904. That was despite pushback from Democratic Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks, as was expected (see 2002270004). They partly dissented. The PN would seek comment on proposals such as how large the eligible bidding areas should be and how much information should be collected in short-form applications.
The FCC has a plan for dealing with a pandemic if necessary, said Chairman Ajit Pai and others answering our queries during news conferences Friday. So far, the main coronavirus effect on the regulator has been cancelation of an annual wireless conference, members told us. Commissioner Geoffrey Starks worries about impacts on 911 systems and about getting more people connected to residential broadband.
Commissioners Mike O’Rielly, Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks Friday criticized an FCC NPRM, approved 3-2, proposing sharing communications outage information with other federal and state agencies. The two Democrats dissented.
The livestream of monthly commissioners' meetings have had technical problems making it difficult for people to watch, several users said in interviews Friday. The problems seemed to have increased for Friday's gathering versus others this year and in late 2019, some said. We experienced problems streaming this gathering, both at the commissioners' meeting itself and offsite. Users told us the live video on the regulator's website would unexpectedly pause or entirely stop working. Several of those we spoke with had tweeted about the issues, including here and here.
The FCC handed down proposed fines Friday against the four national carriers for failing to safeguard data on their customers' real-time locations (see 2002270063). T-Mobile faces the biggest at more than $91 million, followed by AT&T, $57 million; Verizon, $48 million; and Sprint, $12 million. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai announced during the news conference after the commissioners’ meeting that the notices of apparent liability had been approved and would be issued shortly (see 2002280040). Three commissioners raised questions about the FCC approach, including in media Q&A with us.
Who gets what accelerated relocation incentive payments in the FCC's C-band auction regime went largely unchanged in the band-clearing order approved 3-2 along party lines Friday (see 2002280005), said Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner Mike O’Rielly. Big rewrites of the draft order weren't expected (see 2002270048). The meeting was at times contentious, with pointed Republican and Democratic statements. Incumbent small satellite operators (SSO) plan to go to court.
Treating the purchase of what would have been a competitor as anti-competitive and warning of regulatory overreach were among suggestions groups made to DOJ and the FTC as the agencies consider new vertical merger guidelines. Comments on the draft were due Wednesday, and the agencies plan workshops March 11 and 18 (see 2002030052). The agencies didn't publicly post comment submissions.
Wireless carriers and CTIA had no comment Thursday on a report that Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint face proposed FCC fines for failing to safeguard data on their customers' real-time locations. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said the FCC is doing too little too late. The companies face hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and the FCC isn't offering a settlement, The Wall Street Journal reported.
House Commerce Committee ranking member Greg Walden of Oregon and some other Communications Subcommittee Republicans appeared hesitant during a Thursday hearing to support swift advancement of the Reinforcing and Evaluating Service Integrity, Local Infrastructure and Emergency Notification for Today’s (Resilient) Networks Act (HR-5926) or other resiliency bills. There was more widespread support by lawmakers and witnesses for the Fee Integrity and Responsibilities and To Regain Essential Spectrum for Public-safety Operators Needed to Deploy Equipment Reliably (First Responders) Act (HR-5928) and other measures.