The wireless industry said the FCC should reject some proposed changes sought by other commenters (see 1805210044), in replies on a cell-booster Further NPRM. In March, commissioners approved an order 5-0 lifting the personal use restriction on consumer cell-signal boosters and approved an FNPRM proposing to eliminate the personal use restriction on wideband boosters and to authorize nonsubscribers to operate boosters, plus other potential changes (see 1803220037). Booster companies urged the FCC to further liberalize the rules.
AT&T and Verizon opposed and others supported a CenturyLink petition asking the FCC to allow local carriers and VoIP partners to collect higher end-office switching charges in certain cases even if the VoIP providers don't control last-mile facilities. Separately responding to an NPRM, rural telcos backed giving certain RLECs an option to shift their business data service offerings from rate-of-return regulation to incentive-based price caps, while AT&T and Sprint urged the FCC to ensure such price caps are set appropriately. Comments were due Monday on the CenturyLink petition in docket 01-92, and on the NPRM in docket 17-144.
The Senate-passed defense authorization bill includes an amendment to retain ZTE's seven-year export ban (see 1806070040), though the Commerce Department keeps discretion to let the company continue importing semiconductors from U.S. sources, leading to some skepticism. Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, is to meet Wednesday with administration officials and other lawmakers on Capitol Hill's battle with the White House over Commerce's decision to lift its ban on U.S. companies selling telecom software and equipment to ZTE. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., will attend, Capitol Hill officials told us.
The U.S. District Court decision last week greenlighting AT&T buying Time Warner (see 1806120060) was center stage at a Technology Policy Institute event Tuesday, with some experts saying it paves the path for more vertical deals, and others questioning its antitrust significance. If the government had prevailed, regulatory approval of deals like Comcast/Fox or Disney/Fox would have been more a question mark, but the decision's emphasis on empirical analyses helps such cases, said Christopher Yoo, University of Pennsylvania Law School Center for Technology, Innovation and Competition director.
The Senate Commerce Committee's Wednesday hearing for FCC nominee Geoffrey Starks will likely provide further insights on the nominee but don't expect major surprises, lawmakers and communications industry officials said in interviews. He would succeed former Commissioner Mignon Clyburn (see 1806010072 and 1806040067). Senate Commerce has been working to fast-track its consideration of Starks, who remains largely unknown to many (see 1806120047 and 1806150031).
T-Mobile buying Sprint is important to overall wireless industry competition and good for consumers, said their 678-page public interest statement posted by the FCC Tuesday, as expected (see 1806180044). The transaction is now formally before the FCC. The two promise the new T-Mobile will spend $40 billion to combine their networks into a “robust, nationwide world-class 5G network.” CEO John Legere blogged the new company is poised to take on cable and Dish Network, not just other wireless carriers. Early indications are the deal will face some of the same opposition at the FCC that greeted AT&T’s failed buy of T-Mobile.
Replies on an FCC midband public notice, like initial comments, indicate a fight to come on the 3.7-4.2 GHz C-band (see 1805310058). Those using the C band to beam programming to satellites and back to programmers and cable and broadcast interests continue urging caution. Carriers want to be opportunistic.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission was right to exclude cybersecurity and privacy concerns when it undertook its review of the potential safety issues and hazards for IoT consumer devices (see 1803290032 and 1806150044), said the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM) and U.S. Chamber of Commerce in comments posted Friday in docket CPSC-2018-0007. Internet and privacy groups and think tanks disagreed, arguing security and privacy concerns aren’t part of CPSC’s historical purview but can’t be divorced from the physical harms that IoT devices risk inflicting on consumers.
Apple is rolling out technology so 911 operators can more precisely locate callers, which investors in its vendor RapidSOS including ex-FCC chairmen and some others told us is a major boost for next-generation 911 deployment (see 1806150042).
The FCC should relax radio subcap rules, entirely removing limits on owning AM stations and relaxing limits on FM stations, said NAB in a letter to Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey Friday. The proposal would allow licensees in the top 75 markets to own up to eight FM stations instead of the current five, and do away with FM subcaps in other markets. AM subcaps would be eliminated nationwide, and licensees in the top 75 markets could increase their limit to 10 FM stations by acting as incubators for new entrant broadcasters. Though some broadcast officials called this a compromise, National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters President Jim Winston said it would be “a drastic relaxation” of ownership rules that would hurt diversity and kill the AM band. The FCC is expected to address subcaps when it tackles the 2018 quadrennial review later this year.