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.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai urged tribes to pursue 2.5 GHz licenses when a six-month tribal opportunity opens Feb. 3. Tribal officials told us the level of attendance at the Tuesday workshop where Pai spoke shows they're interested. In July, the agency revised rules over partial dissents of Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks. The FCC gave only the tribes a shot at seeking licenses before auction.
House Communications Subcommittee members told us they are figuring out their path forward on media policy legislation, before a Wednesday hearing on bills aimed at improving media ownership diversity (see 2001090048). Senate Commerce Committee leaders are also seeking a path forward on their planned examination of media policy. Lawmakers in both chambers want to address media issues they couldn’t tackle last year during the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization process (see 1912310001). Those talks resulted in a skinny renewal that addressed few additional issues (see 1912190068).
It’s “absolutely fair to say” the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act FTC rule “lacks clarity,” Commissioner Noah Phillips told reporters Monday. The agency is reviewing COPPA for potential changes, which spurred discussion about how the agency defines child-directed content (see 1912120062). “I also think it’s important to ask what the statute requires and then what is the proposed thing you think would add clarity,” Phillips said after a TechFreedom event.
As the first largely online U.S. census approaches, nonprofits, telecom providers and media companies are heightening efforts to safeguard its integrity and increase participation. Many groups historically vulnerable to undercounting, including rural residents, low-income and homeless populations, and ethnic minorities, overlap with those underserved by broadband, said interviewees this month.