FCC commissioners will vote on a C-band item at their Feb. 28 meeting, Chairman Ajit Pai confirmed Thursday. Pai said he will circulate an order next week (see 2001300035). Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said the FCC needs to work with industry and raised concerns about forcing a solution. Other commissioners said they're waiting to see the details. Meanwhile, the FCC said Thursday the clock phase of the FCC’s third high-band auction had just ended.
States with their own broadband subsidy programs or partnered with federal programs could face reduced funding opportunities through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, after language was added to an order Wednesday, Democratic commissioners told reporters Thursday. Commissioners voted along party lines to approve the order for the $20.4 billion program. Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks approved in part and dissented in part.
Apple stock reached a 52-week high Wednesday after a December quarter earnings report Tuesday showing iPhone, wearables and services growth. IPhone sales rose 8 percent to $56 billion. Shares closed 2.1 percent higher Wednesday at $324.34. Quarterly revenue was a record $91.8 billion, 9 percent above a year ago, said CEO Tim Cook on the call for Q1 ended Dec. 28. International sales generated 61 percent of revenue.
The many complicated “provisions” for implementing the U.S.-Canada-Mexico Agreement on free trade plausibly means July 1 is the “absolute earliest” it can “enter into force,” Nicole Bivens Collinson, international trade expert with Sandler Travis, told a Sports & Fitness Industry Association webinar Wednesday. President Donald Trump signed USMCA’s enabling legislation Wednesday, saying the agreement “contains critical protections for intellectual property, including trade secrets, digital services and financial services.”
5G smartphone customers attending Sunday's Super Bowl at Verizon 5G Stadium in Miami will get access to a multi-camera live-view feature via the NFL OnePass app, said the carrier and the NFL Wednesday. Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband service is available in parts of the stadium, where demos are planned.
The FCC’s new political ad file rules would burden broadcasters, swamp transparency advocates in irrelevant disclosures, and may be unconstitutional, said NAB, America's Communications Association, state broadcast associations and station groups. Their replies were filed in docket 19-363 by Tuesday night’s deadline in support of NAB’s petition for reconsideration. The rules cross “a constitutional line,” said Tech Freedom, comparing them to the fairness doctrine.
Maryland should tax digital ad giants like Facebook and Google so they pay their fair share to fund vital education infrastructure, state Senate Democrats and advocates said Wednesday. Various Republican Senators questioned a Democratic tax proposal considered Wednesday at a hearing before the Senate Taxation Committee, which didn’t make a formal recommendation. The Internet Association and advertisers testified the legislative proposal is a discriminatory tax that violates the Constitution.
House Democratic leaders proposed $98 billion in funding over five years for broadband and next-generation 911 projects as part of a new infrastructure plan released Wednesday. Infrastructure Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio of Oregon, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal of Massachusetts and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone of New Jersey released the $760 billion plan. It took the form of a framework, contrary to earlier expectations for a bill (see 2001160063).
The FCC is expected to make changes to a draft Rural Digital Opportunity Fund order, responding to industry concerns that USF recipients could have trouble meeting financial requirements under the version that circulated earlier this month, agency officials told us Wednesday. They and stakeholders expect changes to address industry concerns about RDOF letter of credit (LOC) requirements (see 2001230005). Changes to allow New York state providers to bid in the program's phase one auctions (see 2001280039) aren't expected.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai appears to be preparing to play C-band hardball, officials indicated. Pai is considering a proposal that satellite operators be given incentive payments totaling about $5 billion to move, regardless of how much money comes in through an auction (see 2001280063). Senior aide Nick Degani apparently told the companies in a meeting last week that if they won’t go along the FCC could “sunset” their licenses, forcing them off the band. Intelsat stock closed down 30 percent Wednesday at $3.78.