The FCC’s repacking plan is successfully relocating broadcasters to their new frequencies, but to meet deadlines many are relying on interim antennas that don’t necessarily reach all their viewers, said broadcasters and tower officials in interviews. “430 TV stations have moved off their pre-repack channels; 557 to go,” tweeted FCC Chief of Staff Matthew Berry Wednesday. “The process is going well, but a lot of work remains.” Success “is measured differently by the FCC,” said Ron Scalfani, logistics coordinator for tower company Precision Communications: “The FCC is reporting victory; we’re seeing a backup.” The transition's phase 4 ended last week; phase 5 has just begun and lasts until September.
President Donald Trump's administration appears to be slow-walking work to nominate a permanent NTIA administrator nearly three months after David Redl's abrupt departure from the agency (see 1905090051), lawmakers and lobbyists told us. Several telecom-focused Hill Republicans said they're pessimistic about confirming a nominee any time soon, with some admitting they haven't even recommended potential candidates to the White House. Lobbyists also were pessimistic on the chances for a confirmation before the 2020 presidential election, pointing to publicly aired views of spectrum policy confusion within the Trump administration (see 1907310033). Deputy Administrator Diane Rinaldo is acting administrator.
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr is weighing next steps after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit reversed a key part of the FCC’s March 2018 wireless infrastructure order Friday (see 1908090021). The court said in United Keetoowah Band v. FCC, No. 18-1129, the FCC unlawfully excluded small cells from National Environmental Protection Act and the National Historic Preservation Act review. The court upheld other parts of the order. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals hasn't heard oral argument in a challenge to other small-cell permitting rules the FCC approved last year (see 1906180022),
CenturyLink reported Q2 2019 revenue of $5.58 billion Wednesday, down from $5.9 billion in the same quarter last year, as it continues to expand its fiber network. The company's "guiding principle" is growing free cash flow per share, said CEO Jeff Storey during an earnings call (requires login). The company generated $956 million in free cash flow in Q2, excluding cash paid for integration and transformation costs and special items of $55 million, it said in an earnings report.
Government-supported internet connectivity, already an important market for geostationary orbit (GEO) satellite operators, is set to be a notable driver of business for non-geostationary systems as well, satellite industry officials and experts told us. Except for perhaps the poorest nations, government-backed connectivity is "everywhere and it's growing," said Telesat CEO Dan Goldberg. Telesat announced a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in July signed with Canada for the country to buy capacity on Telesat's planned low earth orbit (LEO) constellation as part of its universal service goal.
The C-Band Alliance told the FCC its proposal remains the best alternative for opening the band for 5G. Other commenters endorsed a proposal by America’s Communications Association, the Competitive Carriers Association and Charter Communications, or a study by Jeff Reed of Virginia Tech and Reed Engineering on sharing the band with fixed point-to-multipoint (P2MP) operations (see 1907020061). Industry officials said there's little consensus on the band. Comments were due Wednesday in docket 18-122.
Walmart believes all stakeholders “should engage further to address good faith concerns” about curbing the trafficking of pirate and counterfeit goods through online third-party marketplaces, it said in July 29 comments posted Tuesday in docket DOC-2019-0003. President Donald Trump’s April 3 memorandum directed the Commerce Department to collaborate with other federal agencies on a report due Oct. 30 with recommendations on how to reduce the bad behavior (see 1907300001).
Three Democratic 2020 presidential hopefuls -- Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts -- separately called Wednesday for major investments in broadband deployments as part of their release of competing rural-focused policy platforms in Medium blog posts. That's one of the first major forays into telecom policy for any of the Democratic candidates during this campaign cycle. Much of the tech-focused debate thus far focused on the antitrust implications of the growth of major tech companies, including Warren's proposal to break up big tech companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon (see 1904170046 and 1906270010).
Broadcaster disputes with AT&T and Dish will likely wrap up by September, political advertising will be bigger than ever before in 2020, and chipmaker partner Saankhya made its first sale of ATSC 3.0 chips, said Sinclair Broadcast executives on the company’s Q2 earnings call Wednesday. Sinclair’s total revenue for Q2 was $771 million, versus $730 million the prior year, it said in a news release.
The FCC will create grounds for a legal challenge based on the Administrative Procedure Act if Chairman Ajit Pai circulates an order approving the T-Mobile/Sprint/Dish Network deal without seeking additional comment, Rural Wireless Association Counsel Carri Bennet told us. RWA and NTCA formally asked the FCC to seek comment on T-Mobile's DOJ-supported buy of Sprint and the sale of assets to Dish (see 1908050061). FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks also sought another pleading cycle (see 1907260071). Bennet said the transaction itself isn’t subject to the APA, but the Dish license transfers and extensions that are part of the larger deal are. The companies and the FCC declined to comment.