The office of Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., is exploring Section 230-related legislation dealing with election misinformation, she said Tuesday at the State of the Net internet policy conference. “It’s very, very early right now, but I absolutely want to do something, even if it’s narrow on 230” of the Communications Decency Act, Schakowsky told reporters. “If we can craft something, there will definitely be some more hearings, no question about that.” Throughout her talk, she cited blatant lies hosted by Facebook.
Foster participation rather than create new obstacles to adoption for the USF Lifeline program that subsidizes low-income telecom users, industry, public interest and consumer groups pressed the FCC in comments posted through Tuesday in docket 17-287. The FCC is considering sweeping changes in attempts to curb waste, fraud and abuse, but stakeholders fear the agency is overstepping (see 1911210035).
Receiving FCC funding previously is no reason to exclude New York state from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, state government and others from New York said in interviews. New York’s state broadband office, congressional delegation and telecom companies continue to sound the alarm before the FCC’s Thursday vote on the proposed $16 billion program. FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel echoed New York concerns, in Monday tweets.
Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee members stressed Tuesday that the Spectrum Strategy Governance Subcommittee's work on potential major changes to federal oversight of spectrum is very preliminary (see 2001270046). The subcommittee updated CSMAC at the group’s quarterly meeting.
The House Communications Subcommittee’s Wednesday hearing on broadband access and digital equity is expected to be an opportunity for Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., and others to highlight their proposal for allocating proceeds from the FCC’s coming auction of spectrum on the 3.7-4.2 GHz C band. The panel will also help Democrats showcase broadband issues before the expected rollout of their new infrastructure proposal, lobbyists told us. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., indicated the infrastructure plan would come out this week (see 2001160063). House Communications’ hearing begins at 10:30 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn.
The FCC is pressing satellite operators in the C band to accept a compromise, under which they would be compensated for leaving the spectrum, but with a fixed fee, regardless of how much money comes in through an auction. Staff for Chairman Ajit Pai presented that scenario to the operators last week and reportedly held briefings for Congress' Appropriations and Commerce committees, said industry officials close to the proceeding. The FCC didn’t comment. Industry officials told us the incentive fee is expected to be only $5 billion total to be split among licensees. A trio of senators meanwhile bowed new C-band legislation Tuesday.
Tech industry officials praised the Trump administration for defending U.S. interests against France’s digital services tax. France agreed to delay collecting new taxes on tech companies until the end of the year after the administration threatened to levy tariffs on $2.4 billion of French goods (see 1908190043 and 1912030002).
Sprint said it continues to lose key postpaid phone customers at a growing rate. The company had a net loss of $120 million in the third quarter. Postpaid phone churn was 2.06 percent, much higher than other national carriers. Sprint was the first of the big carriers to report Monday. U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero is considering a lawsuit brought by state attorneys general aimed at blocking the T-Mobile deal (see 2001150077). One of the arguments the companies have made is that Sprint needs to combine with T-Mobile to stay financially viable. Sprint closed at $4.63, down 4.14 percent for the day, its lowest level in four years.
Expect this year to bring finalization of 10G standards and the first field tests by cable ISPs of 10G network technology, industry executives said in recent interviews. Modem companies are awaiting those DOCSIS 4.0 standards and those field trials so they know what to build. CableLabs Chief Research and Development Officer Mariam Sorond said the DOCSIS 4.0 specs being created by a consortium of CableLabs members with working groups and vendors should be finalized early this year. It's a process similar to how DOCSIS 3.1 was hammered out.
The Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee is looking at some radical possibilities for future spectrum regulation, including creating a new spectrum agency. The FCC and NTIA would lose oversight under two of the proposals being considered by CSMAC’s Spectrum Strategy Governance Subcommittee.