Rural broadband stakeholders urged the federal government to continue encouraging connectivity improvements via legislation and agency action, in written testimony for a Thursday Senate Commerce Committee field hearing. The hearing, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, wasn't webcast and footage wasn't immediately available. There's increased attention on broadband among 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls (see 1909040061). The House Communications Subcommittee plans a hearing next week on legislation to improve the federal government's collection of broadband coverage data (see 1909040080).
The FCC proposes eliminating access arbitrage in a 43-page draft order for docket 18-155 updating the intercarrier compensation regime. Commissioners are scheduled to consider that and four other proposals at the Sept. 26 commissioners' meeting. They are USF funding for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands; auction procedures for the 3.5 MHz band; public notice simplifications for broadcast filings; and direct broadcast satellite licensing rules (see 1909040073).
Leading 2020 Democratic presidential candidates' proposals for major broadband funding likely signal a definitive end to hopes for enacting a long-sought infrastructure package before the next election, communications sector officials and lobbyists told us. But focus on the issue is a net positive for the ongoing policy debate, they said. Experts question, though, whether attention to broadband as part of rural-focused campaign platforms will translate into a shift in support among those voters who moved away from Democrats in the 2016 election.
Many ultra-wideband companies want the FCC to explore changes to the rules, but the GPS Innovation Alliance (GPSIA) said the current rules are working. Reply comments were due Wednesday in RM-11844 on a June filing by engineering company Robert Bosch, which said the FCC should launch an "early” and ”comprehensive” review of Part 15, Subpart F regulations on ultra-wideband devices and systems (see 1907190010). Now the FCC will have to decide whether to launch a rulemaking or take no further steps.
Google will pay $170 million to settle allegations that YouTube illegally collected personal data from children without parental consent, the FTC said Wednesday in a 3-2 party line vote.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai circulated a draft order on the eighth floor Wednesday to direct $950 million in a second round of USF funding to strengthen broadband networks in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, after Hurricanes Maria and Irma in 2017 (see 1805290028). The commissioners will vote on the draft order at the agency's Sept. 26 public meeting, the FCC said Wednesday (see 1909040073). The agency has collected public input for over a year on the Uniendo a Puerto Rico and Connect USVI funds in docket 18-143 (see 1805180075).
FCC Democrats have been given about a week to vote on an order to approve the Nexstar/Tribune deal, an FCC official told us. The chairman’s office had sought to approve the deal sooner on delegated authority but is holding off at the Democrats' request. The item is expected to be approved 3-2 on circulation by next week or shortly afterward, FCC and industry officials said. The order doesn’t contain explicit conditions but may involve concessions from Nexstar related to the top-four duopoly rule, an FCC official said.
Eutelsat's no longer being allied with the C-Band Alliance (CBA) (see 1909030041) hurts its band-clearing plan before the FCC, though it remains to be seen how much, experts told us. The key is why Eutelsat left and what it does now. Chairman Ajit Pai’s office and Eutelsat didn’t comment.
The FCC will start the long-awaited 3.5 GHz auction June 25, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said Wednesday in a blog on the agenda for the Sept. 25 commissioners’ meeting. The FCC will also take up USF funding for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands (see 1909040028), a proposal to update intercarrier compensation rules and a media modernization Further NPRM, among other items.
Broadband providers disagree whether and how the FCC should draft new regulations on how occupants of apartment buildings, malls and other multi-tenant environments access competing broadband services. Proponents of broadband competition want the FCC to allow states and municipalities more flexibility in oversight of agreements between landlords and communications providers. Comments on an NPRM posted through Tuesday in docket 17-142 (see 1908300058).