Multichannel News

President Donald Trump held a call with top communications company CEOs to check in with those working to maintain and extend essential connections in a pandemic-driven world of sheltering- and quarantining-in-place. According to the White House, the President thanked them and their employees for their work to keep the country connected for work, education, shopping and bridging the physical distances with virtual socializing. The President talked about the strength of a free-market based network system that remained strong. The President called the system the envy of the world and thanked

The Federal Communications Commission held its mandatory monthly meeting via a brief, video-less, teleconference call March 31, with commissioners dialing in from home and the public able to access it over a never-more-important broadband connection. The commissioners had already voted to approve all the meeting agenda items, and their time — the meeting lasted less than 20 minutes — was spent mostly talking about the pandemic and how they and the industry were dealing with it. 

The Federal Communications Commission was looking for money from Congress for remote education in the COVID-19 aid bill that passed recently, but didn't get it. An FCC official signaled on background March 30 that it is not giving up. The FCC official said to look for the FCC to renew the funding pitch for the next round of COVID-19 aid that is almost surely coming. He also cited the efforts Internet service providers are taking on their own dime, including offering free service to low-income residents with school-age children currently lacking home broadband.