The draft twilight towers public notice circulated by Chairman Ajit Pai for Thursday’s commissioners’ meeting is expected to change slightly, with tweaks to reflect industry concerns, FCC and industry officials said. A 5-0 vote is still expected (see 1712010021), though possibly with concurring statements from at least one of the Democrats. The changes aren't expected to make the item better or worse from the standpoint of the few groups, including the National Trust for Historic Preservation and National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers, that expressed concerns (see 1712080058), officials said. One of the changes is just the title. Officials Monday were waiting for a revised draft.
With the FCC poised to declare "internet freedom," there is much disagreement about whether deregulated broadband providers will have the incentive and ability to engage in paid prioritization of traffic that favors some content and applications, potentially harming rivals and consumers. Cable and telco ISPs said they generally don't want to discriminate among data streams, even if they can, and an order to remove "utility-style" net neutrality regulation, which commissioners plan to vote on Thursday, will promote broadband investment and innovation. They said adequate safeguards remain, including at the FTC and DOJ, to curb harms to consumers or competition, but net neutrality advocates disagree. (In related news Monday, see 1712110050 on congressional rollback efforts and 1712110049 on an draft FTC-FCC ISP monitoring plan.)
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai took jabs at objections to the pending net neutrality order in his delivery of the traditionally whimsical keynote at the FCBA Chairman’s Dinner Thursday. He spoke as net neutrality protesters waved signs outside the Washington Hilton where the event took place (see 1712080016). A few protested Sinclair's buying Tribune. Most of his jokes got big laughs from the crowded ballroom.
Until the markets in which broadcasters compete are accurately defined, FCC ownership rules won’t be able to accurately reflect them, said Brooke Ericson, aide to Commissioner Mike O’Rielly, on a panel at the Practising Law Institute conference Friday. Critics of the recent ownership rule changes aren’t denying the media landscape has changed, but they're concerned the recent relaxation of the rules could have consequences for diversity and localism, said Free Press Policy Director Matt Wood. The market isn't “filling the void” left by declining local news outlets, Wood said. PLI Friday also heard from congressional officials (see 1712080060).
Telecom policy aides for the House and Senate Commerce committees signaled optimism Friday that lawmakers can act in 2018 on legislation to encourage broadband deployment and free additional spectrum. But continued rancor means even enactment of a still-elusive compromise net neutrality bill won’t bring to an end that long-standing debate, the staffers said during a Practising Law Institute conference. Senate aides touted the August passage of several long-stalled telecom bills, including the Mobile Now Act (S-19) spectrum bill, as their top achievement of 2017. Their House colleagues noted progress on FCC reauthorization and strong oversight of telecom-related agencies (see 1708030060, 1710110070 and 1710250050). PLI also heard Friday about media policy (see 1712080062).
FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly told us he supports the candidacy of Doreen Bogdan-Martin for a top leadership role at ITU, but her election by itself will not satisfy his calls for structural changes at the body. Bogdan-Martin, from the U.S., is mounting a campaign to head Telecommunications Development (ITU-D) one of the three ITU sectors (see 1710230052).
Protests highlight growing resistance to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's plan to undo net neutrality regulation and Communications Act Title II broadband classification, said organizers of 700 demonstrations they say were held across the country Thursday. Attendees said much the same thing. But the protests won't change any votes at the FCC's decisive Thursday meeting, it's widely believed. Self-identified Republicans, independents and Democrats were among protesters, they said on the sidelines.
The World Telecommunication Development Conference in October in Bueno Aires "really laid in sharp relief" some challenges the U.S. faces in the ITU, with sizable pushes by several nations for a much bigger ITU role in managing the Internet, Steve Lang, acting director-multilateral affairs, State Department communication and information policy office, told International Telecommunication Advisory Committee (ITAC) members Thursday. Lang said the U.S. had some successes at WTDC-17 in areas such as broadband deployment, emergency deployment and connecting rural communities. There was a clear division about the ITU, with the U.S. and allies on one side and Russia, China and some developing nations on the other, he said.
National Religious Broadcasters urged Congress Thursday to hold hearings on tech companies such as Google and Twitter suppressing conservative viewpoints, and announced the Internet Freedom Watch Initiative to track incidents. NRB is alarmed “at the ever growing examples of censorship of Christian and conservative viewpoints online, largely at the behest of small yet dominant groups of cultural elites,” said CEO Jerry Johnson. NRB sent letters to Apple, Facebook, Google and Twitter asking they use the same standards for speech as the First Amendment, drawing the line only at speech that “threatens violence” or “spews obscenity” without “trampling on free speech liberties.”
The FCC Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee was a good idea, but its findings inevitably will reflect who's on the group, and state and local interests are underrepresented, NARUC General Counsel Brad Ramsay said Thursday at a Practising Law Institute conference. BDAC approved six sets of recommendations for speeding deployment of wireless and wireline infrastructure at its last meeting in November (see 1711090054). Other PLI news: 1712070063 and 1712070016.