The White House Wednesday declined to endorse the Christchurch Call, an international campaign for curbing social media extremists. The campaign has the support of 18 governments, including Australia, Canada and the U.K. Major platforms back it, including Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter.
The U.S. likely will be headed to the 2019 World Radiocommunication Conference with an agenda that ranges from a possible fight over high-band spectrum to efforts again to reduce the problem of registration of nonexistent satellite systems, an FCBA event heard Wednesday.
A Connecticut bill to resolve a long-standing fight about municipal broadband is headed to the Senate floor. SB-846 got wide support from the Joint Finance Committee, which voted 42-6 Tuesday. It clarifies local governments may use a reserved space on poles called the “municipal gain” for municipal broadband. Frontier Communications claims the bill would stunt broadband growth.
A draft order on cable leased access rules set for the June commissioners’ meeting would eliminate requirements that cable companies provide part-time access to leased access programmers and include a Further NPRM on modifying the rate formula, FCC General Counsel Tom Johnson said Wednesday at a Media Institute luncheon. Cable companies have supported eliminating the part-time requirement, while leased access programmers want it preserved (see 1905140059). Along with leased access, Johnson discussed upcoming FCC legal cases and the Office of General Counsel (OGC) under Chairman Ajit Pai.
The FCC will take up cable leased access rules and an NPRM on aviation safety, in addition to the declaratory ruling and Further NPRM on robocalls (see 1905150041), Chairman Ajit Pai blogged Wednesday. The FCC isn’t slated to tackle the 2.5 GHz educational broadcast service (EBS) band or a notice on the 5.9 GHz band, as some had expected (see 1905130054 and 1905140050). "We’ve certainly had monthly meetings with more items on the agenda, but with a major item to crack down on unwanted robocalls, this could be one of our most impactful meetings of the year," Pai said.
House Communications Subcommittee Democrats criticized FCC Chairman Ajit Pai on a range of actions during a Tuesday hearing. That fulfilled expectations House Commerce Committee's oversight of the majority-GOP commission would be more critical since Democrats gained a majority in the chamber (see 1905140060). Lawmakers' ire was tempered by other communications policy interests. Top House Communications members used the hearing as a venue to float legislative proposals on broadband infrastructure, C-band spectrum reallocation and 911 fee diversion.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said Wednesday he will ask commissioners to vote June 6 on a declaratory ruling allowing carriers to block unwanted calls to their customers “by default” and giving consumers the ability to block callers not on their contact list. Pai said an accompanying Further NPRM will ask how caller ID authentication standards can help with call blocking.
President Donald Trump Wednesday handed down a long-awaited executive order addressing use of technologies by foreign companies in U.S. communications networks (see 1812270037). The Commerce Department is to issue interim regulations in 150 days and will seek comment, administration officials told reporters. Speaking on condition they not be identified, they stressed that the order is “country agnostic” and doesn’t specifically address Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer Huawei or the Chinese government.
AT&T will have a “nationwide 5G footprint” by this time next year, CEO Randall Stephenson said at a JPMorgan financial conference. Adam Koeppe, Verizon senior vice president-network strategy and planning, defended the company’s first high-band 5G deployments at a MoffettNathanson conference also Tuesday.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said Tuesday at the Wi-Fi World Congress the commission will soon take another look at the 5.9 GHz band. Wi-Fi backers cheered the remarks. Pai has long been expected to circulate a Further NPRM seeking comment (see 1811140061). The FNPRM could come as early as the June 6 commissioners' meeting, industry officials said.