Commissioners approved 4-0 an item that moves the agency closer to a 3.45-3.55 GHz 5G auction starting in early October. A notice proposes a standard FCC auction, similar to the C-band auction, rather than one based on sharing and rules similar to those in the citizens broadband radio service band. The draft public notice got several tweaks, as expected, including offering 10 MHz rather than 20 MHz blocks, but keeps larger partial economic area-sized licenses (see 2103150052). Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington concurred on parts of the order because of lingering concerns.
After the Feb. 17 monthly commissioners' meeting, acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel held her first news conference in over a year, the first by any FCC Democrat since February 2020. It was via conference call, unavailable to the public and cut off after half an hour, before multiple reporters were able to ask questions. That continues a trend, begun under former Chairman Ajit Pai, of sharply reduced and fewer public press briefings at the FCC during the pandemic and reflects a decadeslong and gradual reduction in availability of commission officials to reporters.
An NPRM on emergency alerting and an order on sharing outage report information with state and local agencies are expected to be approved with few changes at the FCC commissioners' meeting Wednesday, likely unanimously, according to industry officials.
President Joe Biden picks Clare Martorana for federal chief information officer and administrator, OMB Office of Electronic Government; she most recently was chief information officer, Office of Personnel Management ... Comcast Advertising hires Pooja Midha from true[X], also former ABC Television Network, as chief growth officer ... Univision appoints Beatriz Pedrosa-Guanche, ex-Apple, as senior vice president-corporate communications; Chief Communications Officer Rosemary Mercedes resigning.
"Reassert" leadership on accessibility issues, a coalition of deaf and hard of hearing advocates asked FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, per a filing posted Wednesday in docket 10-213. Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, National Association of the Deaf, Gallaudet University Technology Access Program, Hearing Loss Association of America, American Council of the Blind, American Federation for the Blind, Samuelson-Glushko Technology Law & Policy Clinic at Colorado Law, and Georgetown Communications & Technology Law Clinic participated in the meeting. Several pending rulemakings and petitions should be "revisited and restarted" where the commission can "engage in proactive monitoring, develop remedies that offer meaningful incentives, and overhaul its consumer complaint process to be more user-friendly," the groups said. Develop standards as the FCC considers shifting to automatic speech recognition from IP captioned telephone services, they said: "Although human-assisted captioning has its imperfections, the ability to switch between the two forms of caption generation mitigates some of these issues for consumers."
State and local officials backed Connecticut broadband regulations proposed by Gov. Ned Lamont (D) that would require universal buildout while updating infrastructure rules. But telecom industry officials opposed HB-6442 as regressive overreach, at the livestreamed Joint Energy and Technology Committee hearing Tuesday. Anticipating federal net neutrality action, some Connecticut lawmakers questioned the need for SB-4. Telecom lawyers disagreed in recent interviews on how other states will be affected by last month’s ruling by U.S. District Court in Sacramento allowing California’s law to take effect.
Venable hires Yardly Pollas-Kimble, who has been chief of staff to Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., as partner, Legislative and Government Affairs Practice ... Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, hires Lee Lonsberry of KSL NewsRadio as communications director, effective in early April ... Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) names Arthur D'Andrea as chair, Public Utility Commission; D’Andrea was appointed to the PUC in 2017 for a term ending Sept. 1, 2023; he replaces Chairman DeAnn Walker, who resigned after power outages during a massive winter storm (see here) ... Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R) appoints Keith Kurber, ex-Harvest Church pastor, to Regulatory Commission of Alaska for six-year term, a job needing legislative OK, replacing Commissioner Stephen McAlpine, term just ended.
The House appears poised to agree later this week to Senate-passed changes to the American Rescue Plan Act COVID-19 budget reconciliation package, which includes emergency broadband and CPB funding. The Senate passed its amended version of HR-1319 Saturday 50-49 after a protracted floor battle in which Republicans proposed but ultimately didn’t seek votes on almost two dozen telecom amendments, as expected (see 2103030063). Telecom-focused Capitol Hill Republicans, meanwhile, pressed the FCC to explain why it now believes improved broadband coverage data maps won’t be available until at least late 2022 (see 2102170052).
Meetings make states hopeful about closer FCC rapport under President Joe Biden, said officials from NARUC and the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates in recent interviews. Local officials seek a louder voice at the federal agency. “The relationship between state commissions and the FCC over the last four years” under then-President Donald Trump was “less than an example of cooperative federalism,” said NARUC President Paul Kjellander. FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel reacted favorably to states' hopes.
"Incredible" proceeds of the C-band auction "changed the game somewhat" in federal spectrum management, greasing the path for more federal agency participation in sharing or relocation, FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington said Thursday in a Lincoln Network talk. The $81.2 billion in auction proceeds (see 2102180041) show how valuable some spectrum is to commercial operators, making it clear there will be ample funds available for spectrum relocation fund (SRF) uses and "mitigating somewhat" the pain of federal relocation from those bands, he said.