The full federal government got back to work Monday, after a prolonged partial shutdown that shuttered the FCC, FTC, NTIA and other agencies overseeing communications policy. Incoming FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks will be sworn in Wednesday by Chairman Ajit Pai in an eighth-floor conference room and will participate in the commissioners’ meeting that follows, said industry officials. President Donald Trump signed off Friday on a continuing resolution to reopen the FCC and other shuttered agencies through Feb. 15, after the House passed the measure as expected (see 1901240016).
Despite doomsday scenarios about artificial intelligence, useful data doesn’t exist to determine if the technology would harm U.S. jobs, GAO Chief Scientist Tim Persons told us Friday. “We’re worried about it taking over the world and still can’t answer some basic questions about it,” Persons said after speaking at a Software & Information Industry Association event.
Despite relatively low bids in the first U.S. high-band spectrum auction ended Thursday (see 1901240034), it was a success, regulators and industry officials said. The next step is the start of the 24 GHz auction, which the FCC will announce this week. It plans an auction of the 37, 39 and 47 GHz bands later in the year. “This will allow Americans to see even faster, more competitive, & next-gen broadband services,” Commissioner Brendan Carr tweeted Friday.
Over a dozen court cases on recent FCC actions to spur 5G wireless buildout have largely been consolidated in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and appear likely to be completely consolidated. The D.C. Circuit Friday asked parties to show cause why a final batch of wireless cases shouldn't be transferred to the 9th Circuit, and none objected. The 11th Circuit also is considering an FCC request to transfer to the 9th Circuit a challenge to an August pole attachment order, which the commission had combined with a declaratory ruling prohibiting local and state moratoriums on infrastructure deployment (see 1808090011).
Media deals making their way through federal court -- AT&T/Time Warner at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Disney/Fox at U.S. District Court in Manhattan -- shouldn't face a delay in judicial action due to the partial federal shutdown, antitrust and law experts told us. The month-long shutdown also isn’t seen having much effect on broadcast deals, analysts and attorneys told us.
Frontier Communications pushed back on a scathing service-quality assessment by the Minnesota Commerce Department that said the carrier possibly violated at least 35 laws and rules, based on about 1,000 customer comments. "It maybe is not as large a crisis as the department has portrayed it to be," said Frontier General Counsel Kevin Saville at the Public Utilities Commission's livestreamed Thursday meeting.
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., met Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and former FTC members Wednesday about online privacy, the lawmakers told us Thursday. “My goal is to listen and see what we can do to make sure companies have skin in the game,” Scott told us. The ex-FTC officials talked about preventing future privacy breaches, he said.
The House Commerce Committee will step into the messaging battle about the ongoing partial government shutdown next week via a planned Jan. 31 hearing aimed at examining the shuttering's effects on federal agencies under the committee's jurisdiction, which include the FCC and FTC, Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said during a Thursday committee meeting. House Commerce is working to schedule an expected net neutrality hearing for February. It’s also considering a joint hearing with the House Judiciary Committee to examine T-Mobile's proposed buy of Sprint, lobbyists said.
The FCC is continuing to prepare for the 24 GHz auction and future auctions, including pushing forward on the C band and other bands being looked at for 5G. The 28 GHz auction closed Thursday. Nevertheless, the agency remains constrained in how much staff can do as the longest shutdown in federal history continues. “Staff continues to work on future auctions,” a spokesperson emailed Thursday.
The shutdown is having immediate FCC consequences in the form of delayed filing deadlines and shuttered websites. It could also ripple out to delay expected rule changes for 2019, industry officials told us this week. Since staff isn’t available, expected early-2019 policy decisions on kidvid and rate regulation, court cases and progress of deals such as T-Mobile buying Sprint are considered likely to be delayed.