More than 50 federal and state officials and 200 rural telcos have sent letters in recent weeks to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai urging action by year-end on additional USF broadband subsidies for RLECs using the Alternative Connect America Model support mechanism, said an ITTA release Thursday. The group said if the commission increases funding up to $200 per month per eligible location in ACAM support, carriers could bring high-speed internet access to more than 70,000 currently unserved and underserved rural residences and businesses.
Get set for a flurry of net neutrality bills in 2018 state legislative sessions, Democratic state lawmakers said in interviews. Responding to the FCC vote last week to rescind Title II regulation, some state lawmakers seek to avoid FCC pre-emption by regulating state procurement processes, restricting bidding to companies that certify as net neutral. Meanwhile, Democratic state attorneys general are preparing to sue the FCC and some state governments are considering ways to use their influence to protect net neutrality (see 1712150042 and 1712140044). “Part of what we’re doing is sending a message,” said New York Assemblymember Patricia Fahy, who introduced a bill Wednesday.
Some don’t see New Hampshire’s no to FirstNet as final, even though Gov. Chris Sununu (R) announced two weeks ago it would choose Rivada's alternative. FirstNet isn’t saying New Hampshire officially opted out and the New Hampshire Executive Council has final say on that alternate contract. Councilor Joseph Kenney (R) supports opt-in, more so after Tuesday's letter from FirstNet CEO Mike Poth to Attorney General Gordon MacDonald (R) about potentially missed benefits of AT&T's plan. New Hampshire businesses and union workers urged opt-in in.
Widening divisions among Capitol Hill Republicans on whether to include limits or an outright ban on paid prioritization in a final net neutrality bill could factor into the prospects for the renewed push for a bipartisan legislative compromise, lawmakers and lobbyists said in interviews. House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., filed Tuesday her Open Internet Preservation Act (HR-4682), which doesn't include language on paid prioritization (see 1712190062). There's interest from House Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., in holding a hearing on paid prioritization issues facing the traditional internet community, the "medical world" and autonomous vehicles stakeholders, given the FCC's recent vote to rescind its 2015 net neutrality rules (see 1712120037 and 1712140039).
Maine commissioners should decisively upend the status quo on pole attachments to spur broadband, government officials commented this week in Public Utilities Commission docket 2017-00247. The PUC is weighing changes as directed by a 2017 state law (see 1712060035). Pole riders including cable companies, CLECs and municipal broadband operators said pole-owner practices impede broadband deployment in the largely rural state. But pole owner FairPoint, recently acquired by Consolidated Communications, resisted changes.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals cleared the practice of fractional licensing -- payment of royalties only on the portion of a song's ownership under a performance rights organization's repertoire -- over DOJ objections. A three-judge panel ruled Tuesday against DOJ's appeal of BMI's challenge of a portion of the department's 2016 concluding statement on its review of the BMI and ASCAP consent decrees (see 1705190051). Justice filed the appeal after Judge Louis Stanton ruled last year in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York the Antitrust Division erred in continuing to believe existing decrees mandate 100 percent licensing (see 1611140065 and 1609190062). Stanton is the rate court judge for the BMI consent decree.
Global cyberthreat information sharing is crucial to disrupting attacks like WannaCry (see 1705180032), which White House officials said Tuesday was orchestrated by North Korea but neutralized through close cooperation among governments and stakeholders. “These were careless and reckless attacks that put lives at risk,” said Tom Bossert, assistant to the president for homeland security, to reporters. “We do not make this allegation lightly but we do so with evidence and partners” including the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Japan, Bossert said. Commercial partners including Microsoft and Facebook independently traced the attacks to cyber affiliates of North Korea, he said.
The FCC identified almost 1 million locations eligible for a Connect America Fund auction of up to $2 billion in aggregate broadband-oriented subsidies over 10 years. The residential and small-business locations are in census blocks traditionally served by major telcos. Participants can bid on those locations in the reverse (low bids favored) CAF Phase II auction of support for fixed broadband and voice services with data speeds of at least 10/1 Mbps. The commission also listed census block groups (and their reserve prices) on which bids can be placed, and made available a map showing the eligible blocks within those groups, said a news release and public notice Tuesday. Industry parties welcomed the developments, some noting continuing issues.
House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., introduced the Open Internet Preservation Act in a bid for a permanent solution for net neutrality rules, as expected, getting ISP and Republican kudos and some tech concern. The FCC's vote last week to rescind 2015 net neutrality rules and related reclassification of broadband as a Communications Act Title II service (see 1712140039) means “we can do this” with a legal basis in Communications Act Title I, Blackburn said in a Twitter video. Earlier Tuesday, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., continued opposing the rules, as expected (see 1712130053).
Lack of positive train control was potentially a contributing cause of an Amtrak derailment Monday that killed three passengers and injured more than 100, as the train careened off a bridge outside Tacoma, Washington. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating and said Tuesday the train was traveling at 80 mph on a 30-mph stretch. PTC is designed in part to slow speeding trains through automatic breaking.