The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Qualcomm Tuesday in an FTC antitrust lawsuit against the company. In the minutes after the ruling, Qualcomm's stock rose, closing 2.3% higher at $108.83. The FTC is reviewing its options.
The satellite industry expects at least some changes to the FCC International Bureau earth station siting guidance that's the subject of a reconsideration petition, given the seeming unintended consequences of it, we're told. Since it's about staff guidance and not an order, the outcome isn't exactly clear. The Satellite Industry Association had petitioned for changes.
Responding to a spate of reported 911 dispatching issues, a Washington, D.C., auditor might conduct a long-awaited probe of the Office of Unified Communications next year. Alleged OUC incidents -- including sending first responders to the wrong address or multiple responders to the same place -- could show a systemic problem, said a neighborhood commissioner and firefighter union president in interviews last week.
Policing political content curation by platforms like Facebook and Twitter isn’t within FTC jurisdiction, Chairman Joe Simons said Wednesday at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing. Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., asked the commission about President Donald Trump’s social media executive order (see 2008040059).
The California Assembly Communications Committee voted 9-3 for increasing the state broadband standard to 25 Mbps up and down. The committee voted 9-2 to clear SB-431 requiring 72 hours backup power like the California Public Utilities Commission required last month (see 2007160065). At a Monday hearing livestreamed from Sacramento, Vice Chair Jay Obernolte raised concerns that SB-1130 would require a “massive additional source of revenue.” The Republican also opposed “putting our thumb on the scale” in favor of fiber and questioned the need for symmetrical speeds because he claimed most consumers need fast downloads only. Sponsor Sen. Lena Gonzalez (D) said the bill would also support hybrid-technology networks, so cable companies could meet the standards. Cable providers claimed no existing provider in California could meet 25/25. Charter offers 940/35 Mbps speeds but its “entire service territory would be considered unserved because we do not offer a service tier package of 25/25,” said Senior Director-Government Affairs West Kara Bush. Gonzalez aide George Soares told us later that statement was false because the bill doesn’t require speeds to be symmetrical, just that each the download and upload components are higher than 25 Mbps. Charter doesn't "believe the language is clear," a spokesperson responded. The CPUC has 52 pending California Advanced Services Fund applications, meaning there won’t be any money left to fund SB-1130, said California Cable and Telecommunication Association President Carolyn McIntyre. She and Bush warned that open-access rules would violate federal law. There was confusion over what speeds the bill actually required when sponsor Gonzalez misstated that her bill defines a served area as having 25/3 Mbps. She later corrected that the bill was changed last week to 25 symmetrical (see 2007280043). Wireless providers are addressing resiliency without rules proposed by SB-431 on backup power and have valid concerns that rules will get in the way, said Assemblymember Jim Patterson (R). Sen. Mike McGuire (D) said the sponsors accommodated industry in several ways, including by making a network-wide requirement rather than applying rules to all cell sites. Industry didn’t get everything it wants but saw “significant movement toward them,” said Chair Miguel Santiago (D). The bills go next to the Appropriations Committee.
California’s net neutrality law could remain unenforced for months despite litigation resuming this week. A federal court set a schedule Thursday that would delay the state law at least until Q4, and it could be much longer if DOJ and industry win preliminary injunction against the state (see 2007300041). Timing remains hazy for enforcing Vermont’s frozen law. Net neutrality advocates say the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Mozilla v. FCC allowed state laws; others disagreed.
FCC hires Tom Struble from R Street Institute as legal adviser, Office of Engineering and Technology ... With Trustworthy Accountability Group and Joint Industry Committee for Web Standards combining, Internet Advertising Bureau chief Mike Zaneis will be CEO for the combined organization, to be called TAG, while Jicwebs' Jules Kendrick is managing director-U.K. and Europe; deal to be completed in September ... David Lieber from Google says he joins TikTok public policy team to work on privacy; company doesn't comment further.
A draft order circulated to eighth-floor offices Thursday would reduce a Dec. 1 increase of the Lifeline program’s minimum service standard for mobile broadband. Currently, the MSS is to go from 3 GB monthly to 11.75 GB monthly on that date. The draft would instead shift it to 4.5 GB per month. It will “permanently clean up the mess” from the 2016 order that instituted the formula leading to the larger increase, Chairman Ajit Pai said. The agency waived a similar increase, from 3 GB to 8.75, in 2019. The metric has to rise to keep up with consumer data use, but increases that are too large prevent providers from keeping Lifeline affordable, Pai said.
Amid talk of federal regulation of social media platforms' editorial privileges, FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly called it "First Amendment gibberish" to argue such regulation is pro-free speech. He spoke to the Media Institute Wednesday, also seeking less regulation of other industries and to get localities out of cable franchising. The social media regulatory step would curtail free speech through government action, he said in prepared and actual remarks.
DOJ Antitrust Division chief Makan Delrahim promotes Taylor Owings to division acting chief of staff and senior counsel, succeeding outgoing COS William Rinner, who's senior counsel until planned departure from the department "in the coming months" ... Verizon Public Sector names Jennifer Chronis, ex-Amazon Web Services, to lead Federal business; Michael Maiorana, Verizon Federal lead, leaving the business effective Dec. 31 ... Corning taps Chief Legal and Administrative Officer Lewis Steverson to lead new Office of Racial Equality and Social Unity, tasked with building diversity “within the walls of Corning” and in its “communities.”