John Eggerton

Charter Communications is asking the Federal Communications Commission to terminate the interconnection condition of its deal to acquire Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks on May 18, 2021 —  two years early — in light of the ”dramatic“ changes in the online video marketplace. The 2016 conditions were to last seven years, but the FCC allowed for the possibility of an early termination. Currently, Charter must ”offer to interconnect its IP network to any qualifying entity free of charge and on st

The Senate Commerce Committee held a nomination hearing on June 16 that featured Federal Communications Commissioner Michael O'Rielly. Commissioner O'Rielly's term expired at the end of June 2019, but commissioners can continue to serve until the close of the next Congress. The new term would date from July 1, 2019. 

The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government held the hearing "Oversight of FCC Spectrum Auctions Program" in which Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai testified. Leading the hearing was Subcommittee Chairman John Kennedy (R-LA), one of the harshest critics of the FCC decision to give satellite companies close to $10 billion in incentive payments to exit the C-Band spectrum by 2021 and 2023 instead of the 2025 deadline the FCC set.

A Q&A with Steve Lacoff, general manager of communications at Avalara (which provides cloud-based software tax compliance), on the Permanent Internet Tax Fairness Act.  

Educators told the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pension (HELP) Committee on June 10 that access to technology is key to reopening schools in the new normal of COVID-19 and they could use some help in the form of government dollars. John King, former Education Secretary under President Barack Obama, said that before COVID-19, 79% of households had broadband versus only 66% of black households and 61% of Hispanic households.

The Federal Communications Commission told the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that Huawei is wrong on all counts in its challenge to the FCC's decision to exclude suspect tech in general from its Universal Service Fund subsidies and, tentatively, Huawei in particular. Even if the FCC had not moved to exclude technology deemed a national security threat from the Universal Service Fund dollars, Congress seconded that with legislation that required it.  The FCC filed in court with Huawei's appeal of the FCC decision, saying the court can make its decision based on those briefs but t

White House press secretary Kayleigh NcEnany used a May 28 press conference to give journalists "the facts" about Twitter and other social media platforms, which she said were "targetting their bias against President Trump and conservatives online." "There are various shields in place that essentially shield these social media companies and allow them to censor conservative users and we're are not able to see what happens behind those shields. That section was one of those.

Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr slammed social media and their Sec. 230 exemption from liability for how they handle third-party content--both taking it down and leaving it up. Tucker Carlson asked Commissioner Carr why the White House and Congress had not done anything about the exemption. Commissioner Carr cited the reports that the President's executive order would be "addressing some of these issues," then went off on social media himself.

The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) says the Federal Communications Commission should restore net neutrality rules and that ISPs are glossing over the issues the deregulatory ruling raises.  It was filing reply comments in the FCC's Restoring Internet Freedom order. AARP signaled it was not surprised the ISPs were "glossing over" specific issues in their comments, though it was surprised Comcast suggested that there had not been any problems with the FCC's Title I classification in the past, saying that was unsupported by the evidentiary record, a nice way of saying that was

USTelecom -- The Broadband Association told the Federal Communications Commission it supports a free and open Internet, just one defined as "unencumbered by unnecessary regulations." It was filing reply comments in a court remand of portions of the FCC's 2018 Restoring Internet Freedom order, most of which the court upheld. USTelecom said the RIF order benefitted public safety and did not undermine either the pole attachment regulatory framework or the Lifeline broadband subsidy.  As have other ISP commenters, USTelecom pointed to the increased investment prompted by the deregulation as ben