Texas telecom providers opposed a state bill to expand state USF to rural broadband, at a livestreamed House State Affairs Committee hearing Monday. Phone companies said they’re open to a separate bill allowing rural electric cooperatives to provide broadband. The committee took testimony but didn’t vote on those and multiple other broadband bills at the hearing, continuing late into the afternoon.
The FTC is examining how it can better protect consumers and promote privacy and competition, Chairman Joe Simons said during the agency’s latest policy hearing. The Electronic Privacy Information Center organized a demonstration outside the hearing Monday at agency headquarters, where the group sought a conclusion to the FTC’s investigation into potential Facebook privacy violations. EPIC seeks enforcement of the agency’s privacy consent order with the social network, President Marc Rotenberg tweeted.
Facing issues like rapidly growing content costs, cable operators said the inflection point where some systems might get out of the video business is coming closer, though that won't happen in the next year or two. The decision on video will be based on profit margin, "and for a lot of guys, it's [already] little or none," said Vast Broadband CEO Jim Gleason.
The Save the Internet Act net neutrality bill (HR-1644) remains likely to clear a Tuesday House Communications Subcommittee markup but by a potentially narrow margin, lobbyists told us. All sides of the net neutrality policy debate say the more dramatic aspect they will monitor is whether enough House Communications Democrats end up supporting an expected set of GOP-sponsored amendments aimed at altering the bill’s intent. The markup is to begin at 10 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn.
A Trump administration supply chain security executive order addressing use of telecom equipment by Chinese equipment makers Huawei and ZTE in U.S. networks appears to be off the table, at least for now, experts said. The administration apparently is concerned about questions by small carriers that have equipment from two providers embedded in their networks. The FCC also hasn't acted.
Washington is on the verge of passing the nation's strongest privacy bill, representatives for Microsoft and Internet Association told state House lawmakers Friday, while raising concerns about a private right of action (see 1902280050). Consumer and minority groups called the bill weak, arguing against allowing overly permissive policies for facial recognition technology. House members, who will next meet Tuesday, are amending bill language.
The U.S. should make concerns about China less of a central factor in developing 5G deployment plans, said Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., during an appearance on C-SPAN's The Communicators online and set to have been televised over the weekend. House Commerce Committee ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore., meanwhile, continued during a separate interview also set to be shown then to push lawmakers to consider whether edge providers should be considered common carriers given their importance as online gatekeepers (see 1903080032). The lawmakers differed on whether the Save the Internet Act net neutrality bill (HR-1644/S-682) will get significant bipartisan support.
An FCC order on the upper 37 GHz band, teed up for the April 12 commissioners' meeting, shows the length the agency will go to clear spectrum for 5G, as an ongoing auction tops $1 billion. The FCC proposes rules for coordinating with DOD on future use of the upper 37 GHz band beyond current DOD sites located there. The plan “strikes a reasonable balance,” said the draft order posted Friday. Chairman Ajit Pai unveiled the agenda Thursday (see 1903210062).
No “project” is underway at ATSC to “specifically add” 8K resolution or the next-generation Versatile Video Coding (VVC) codec (see 1903140012) to A/341, the video standards document for ATSC 3.0, Madeleine Noland, LG Electronics senior adviser-technology and standards, told a SMPTE webinar Thursday. A/341 specifies 3.0 resolutions up to 4K using the High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) codec.
Microsoft is picking up some backing from NAB for white spaces changes after the association was at loggerheads with the tech company. Frontier Communications also is coming on board with some changes. A day earlier, the FCC approved other tweaks to TV white spaces device rules (see 1903200059).