John Eggerton

Broadband Associations Collectively Call For Rural Broadband Fund Change

The major broadband associations have gotten to together to add heft to the bone they have to pick with the Federal Communications Commission over the way it has structured its new Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) subsidy process, one they warn could discourage participation and drain $1 billion from broadband buildouts to banks and other lending institutions. The FCC plans to vote on final rules for the $20.4 billion fund Jan. 30.

Senate Commerce Committee Hearing on 'Industries of the Future' Talks C-Band, 5G

The Senate Commerce Committee's first hearing of 2020, "Industries of the Future" dealt with the federal government's role in advancing new technologies. Federal Communications Commissioners Jessica Rosenwrocel and Michael O'Rielly testified and spoke about 5G. On the issue of speeding the 5G rollout, Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) pointed out that there is "a company on TV" already advertising that they are already leading the industry in 5G. Commissioner Rosenworcel said there have been some deployments, which was exciting, but that they were chiefly in urban areas.

ITTA—The Voice of America's Broadband Providers Will Shut Down Jan 31

ITTA-The Voice of America's Broadband Providers "will be shutting its doors effective January 31, 2020 after over a one-quarter century representing wireline communications service providers in Washington." ITTA cited "financial constraints in the wireline service provider sector" for shutting its doors, saying those financial challenges had been "insurmountable." Broadband providers still have a voice via ACA Connects, which represents smaller and midsized providers, NCTA-The Internet & Television Association, NTCCA-The Rural Broadband Association, USTelecom, CTIA and others. 

House Communications Subcommittee Somewhat Divided on Promoting Media Marketplace Diversity

The House Communications Subcommittee was in agreement that more needed to be done to boost minority media ownership, but Republican members focused more on what they said broadcasters and cable operators were already doing to address the issue. The hearing, "Lifting Voices: Legislation to Promote Media Marketplace Diversity", looked at various bipartisan bills to promote more diversity data collection and analysis at the Federal Communications Commission and provide more access to capital. 

5G Bills Pass House

The House has passed three bipartisan 5G bills, which passed out of the House Commerce Committee in Nov. The bills are primarily about considering and strategizing and encouraging, rather than commanding, which helped them get that bipartisan support. It is likely the bills will get Senate approval and President Donald Trump's signature. 

House Consumer Protection Subcommittee Hearing On Deep Fakes and Online Manipulation

The House Consumer Protection Subcommittee held a hearing "Americans at Risk: Manipulation and Deception in the Digital Age" to look at deep fakes and online manipulation. Subcommittee Chairman Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) used the informational hearing to hammer Big Tech and Facebook in particular. She said that Big Tech had failed to respond to the "grave threat" of deep fakes, dark patterns, bots, and other technologies that are hurting the public in direct and indirect ways.

CES 2020: FTC Chairman Simons Says Facebook, Other Tech Investigations Are Ongoing

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Joseph Simons said that the FTC was still investigating Facebook for antitrust violations, and that the FTC's $5 billion settlement with the company is the thing he is most proud of over the past year. The other was the $170 million settlement with Google/YouTube over kids privacy. Chairman Simons renewed his call for Congress to pass comprehensive privacy legislation, but does not favor a Democrat-backed proposal to create a new, separate, privacy enforcement agency.

CES 2020: FCC Chairman Pai Says 5G Can Help Close Rural Divide

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said he thought 5G wireless technology could indeed help close the rural digital divide but conceded there were challenges to building out the next-generation technology to wherever it needed to go. In terms of smartphones, Chairman Pai said, 5G might be more a "big city use case," but he saw opportunities beyond urban with fixed wireless, which was why he was bullish on the trial window for the spectrum in the 2.5-gigahertz band. He also pointed to precision agriculture and telemedicine.

Microsoft Pushes FCC to Act on White Spaces Petition

Microsoft is pushing the Federal Communications Commission to respond to its May 2019 petition for rulemaking on expanding access to the so-called white spaces between TV channels. The company wants the FCC to allow more sharing in the broadcast band for unlicensed wireless. In meetings with FCC Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Brendan Carr, Microsoft and its representatives came armed with a report outlining how wireless internet providers have been able to boost their throughput tenfold using TV white spaces.

STELAR to Sunset Dec. 31

The Senate passed the Television Viewer Protection Act (TVPA) and the Satellite Television Community Protection and Promotion Act of 2019, two bills that orginated in the House.

Debate over what constitutes 'high-speed broadband' heats up as the FCC collects comments for its next broadband availability report

The debate over what constitutes high-speed broadband has heated up as the Federal Communications Commission collects comments for its next report to Congress on the state of broadband availability. At stake is whether the FCC gets to regulate broadband to ensure it meets Congress’s goal of universal service.

Chairman Doyle: A President Biden Would Likely Back Return of Net Rules

House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle (D-PA) is confident that if Vice President Joe Biden were to be elected president, he would work with the Democrats to restore net neutrality rules. Net neutrality tends to be an important issue with a lot of people in the tech community and younger voters that want to see a level playing field and make sure ISPs don't block content, he said, but that while it is an important issue, he doesn't see it as a "primary" issue (no pun intended).

Sec. 230 Language Remains in USMCA

Social media platforms will continue to be held harmless for third-party content on their web sites according to the compromise on the US Mexico Canada Agreement trade deal announced by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). 

 

Senate Commerce Approves C-Band Auction Bill

In a straight party-line vote, the Republican-controlled Senate Commerce Committee has favorably reported out an amended bill that would require the Federal Communications Commission to auction, by the end of 2020, at least 280 MHz of C-Band spectrum for 5G, with at least half of the gross proceeds, and potentially more, going to the US Treasury and 10% to rural broadband buildouts. Democrats argued that allowing even 50% of the

Knock, Knock. Who's There? Ajit Pai

At the Federal Communications Bar Association's annual Chairman's Dinner, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai delivered a solid set of inside jokes. 

Broadcasters Fight Political Ad Disclosure Changes

With billions of political ad dollars on the line, broadcasters are working hard to make sure a new Federal Communications Commission ruling does not take even a little bite out of their share of that likely record political pie. Broadcasters want the FCC to loosen up when it comes to the reporting requirements for political ads — rules they say could lead to them having to turn down political ad dollars. The reporting obligation stems from the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, but the FCC has discretion in how it interprets the requirements in its rules implementing that law.

House FCC Oversight Hearing

Chairman Ajit Pai and the rest of the Federal Communications Commission took hits from both sides of the aisle in a House Communications Subcommittee oversight hearing Dec 5. Democratic Reps were particularly pointed in their criticisms of the FCC over broadband mapping, internet deregulation, merger approvals, and the funding cap on the Universal Service Fund, among other issues.

House Approves Comprehensive Robocall Bill TRACED Act

The US House of Representatives has voted overwhelmingly to approve the bipartisan Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (TRACED Act), a Senate bill (S. 151) that would crack down on unwanted robocalls. The vote was 417-3.  The bill has already passed the Senate so it now heads to the President's desk. Among other things, the bill would give the Federal Communications Commission civil fining authority of up to $20,000 per call for those who "intentionally flout" telemarketing restrictions.

Broadcast Ownership Deregulation Could Be Headed to Supreme Court

Don’t be surprised if the Federal Communications Commission and National Association of Broadcasters ask the US Supreme Court to weigh in on broadcast ownership deregulation. That comes after the full 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals refused to hear the FCC’s appeal, supported by NAB as an intervenor, of a lower court decision to throw out most of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's deregulation order. That order included eliminating the newspaper-broadcast and radio-TV cross-ownership rules.

Former CTO at FCC Tapped to be Assistant Directory for Telecom And Cybersecurity at OSTP

US Chief Technology Office Michael Kratsios has tapped Federal Communications Commission veteran Eric Burger to a top network security post.

House Commerce Committee Approves Handful of Broadband Bills

The House Commerce Committee approved a handful of bipartisan broadband and tech-related bills on a variety of topics, from broadband mapping and network security to freeing up spectrum. “Bills being favorably reported for a vote in the full House were: 

Big Tech Gets Small Business Committee Vetting

The House Small Business Committee took its turn at running Big Tech through another Hill gauntlet at a hearing titled "A Fair Playing Field? Investigating Big Tech’s Impact on Small Business." Committee Chairwoman Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) started the hearing by praising Amazon and Google for agreeing to send witnesses, and pointing to the two empty chairs for no-shows Facebook and Apple.

House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology Advances 9 Bills

The House Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Communications and Technology advanced nine bills in a markup session Nov 14. Eight of the bills moved with little controversey:

House Continues Deep Dive into Digital Antitrust and Big Tech

The House Antitrust Subcommittee heard from two major players in the government's review of Big Tech and whether the antitrust laws have kept up with their exponential growth, but not before the legislators had staked out their own positions. Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline (D-RI) pulled no punches, saying that the extreme concentration of online platforms may have some benefits, but they were clearly using their power to set market terms that enrich themselves and make it impossible to compete. He also commented on Google and Fitbit.