Politico

Senate Broadband Compromise Met With House Qualms

As the House debates taking up the Senate’s bipartisan infrastructure deal in tandem with Democrats’ partisan spending plan, lawmakers who work on telecommunications and technology issues used Aug 23's House Rules Committee hearing to outline their specific grievances with how Senate negotiators structured the $65 billion in broadband funding —complaints that are likely to pop up in other forms later this Congress. House Commerce Committee Chair Frank Pallone (D-NJ) told the Rules Co

Broadband budgeting pits FCC against NTIA

As the Senate chips away at final passage of the $550 billion infrastructure package, the compromise’s top detractors are fretting about where negotiators placed the agreed-upon $42.5 billion in broadband deployment grants for states.

It's August. Where's Biden's FCC Chair?

Jessica Rosenworcel just gaveled her seventh monthly meeting as Acting Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman and left-leaning telecom industry observers are growing increasingly anxious about the White House’s lack of a permanent choice. Speculation has run rampant about potential contenders, from former Obama-era FCC staffer Gigi Sohn to Free Press co-CEO Jessica González to sitting Commissioners Geoffrey Starks. The normally five-member FCC has been short a commissioner since January, and the resulting 2-2 deadlock has stalled Democratic agenda items like restoring net neutrality.

FTC's lead economics expert in Facebook antitrust suit leaves the agency

Carl Shapiro, the lead economics expert in the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust suit against Facebook, has parted ways with the agency—adding yet another impediment to the regulator’s largest court fight. The University of California-Berkeley economist has criticized new FTC Chair Lina Khan’s aggressive approach to antitrust enforcement, and she in turn has faulted the agency’s traditional reliance on economists’ analyses in its fights against alleged monopolists.

House Agriculture Committee Leadership: Give us a floor vote on broadband

House Agriculture Committee Chairman David Scott (D-GA) and Minority Leader G.T. Thompson (R-PA) pressed House leadership for a floor vote on the panel’s $43.2 billion rural broadband bill, H.R. 4374, which was unanimously approved by the committee earlier in July.

Gayle Manchin Eyes Convening Appalachia's Governors on Broadband

Gayle Manchin, the wife of Sen Joe Manchin (D-WV) and federal co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission, is planning to make broadband connectivity a central pillar of her remit and is already talking to many of the region’s governors about working as a bloc. “I would like to see the 13 governors that are a part of this region actually come together and work on this as a unit,” said Manchin. “There’s power in numbers.” She suggested these 13 governors would have leverage if they went right to cable providers to ask for better connectivity.

Broadband Details Spill Out Ahead of Infrastructure Vote

A glimpse into how Senate negotiators may structure the $65 billion in broadband investments the infrastructure package would provide. The draft is likely to fuel renewed advocacy from consumer groups and anyone else hoping for ultra-fast fiber optic buildout, as it instead opts for lower minimum broadband speed thresholds (100 Megabits per second download over 20 Mbps upload would count as "underserved" for the $40 billion tentatively slated to go to the Commerce Department’s state grants, less than the fiber-focused minimums some Democrats wanted).

Internet Speeds Wireless Can Live With

Wireless Infrastructure Association CEO Jonathan Adelstein is feeling “very encouraged” by recent Capitol Hill machinations over how to structure the $65 billion chunk of the bipartisan infrastructure deal intended to close the digital divide. He cited recent rumblings that lawmakers may ultimately opt for lower minimum internet speed requirements than what Democrats had previously hoped for.

So FCC, About that Competition Order

Federal Communications Commission Acting Chair Jessica Rosenworcel expressed general support for the items in President Biden’s big competition executive order, but as the commission still lacks a Democratic majority, she declined to say when the agency might act on it. Biden’s requests for the FCC include reinstating net neutrality rules, helping ensure apartment dwellers have a choice of internet providers and imposing broadband pricing transparency — all ideas she endorsed.

Wu Weighs in on Executive Order on Competition

Tim Wu, President Joe Biden’s competition adviser on the National Economic Council, said “There is a growing sense that the forms of market power we see today are often different from the ones that the merger guidelines had in mind.

CTRL-ALT-Delete? The internet industry’s DC powerhouse vanishes

The Internet Association (IA) has been shedding staff, losing influence on Capitol Hill and shrinking to near-obscurity in media coverage of tech policy debates in Washington, even as the industry faces controversies ranging from alleged monopolization to privacy to how it treats its legions of workers. The declining prominence of IA, a nine-year-old group that used to call itself “the unified voice of the internet economy,” comes as a larger fragmentation is splitting the tech industry’s lobbying efforts into factions. In its place, other tech-focused advocacy groups—including a new startu

House Commerce Committee to Tackle Slate of Tech and Telecom Bills

The House Commerce Committee will delve into a slate of nine bills aimed at securing wireless networks. The bills focus on changes to the Federal Communications Commission and National Telecommunications and Information Administration related to both tech and cybersecurity policy, with an eye toward Chinese dominance in telecoms.

Electric Utility Warns FCC of Airwaves Disruption

Georgia-based electric utility Southern Company told the Federal Communications Commission  that, based on its testing, the unlicensed Wi-Fi use the agency has voted to allow in the 6 GHz band will disrupt incumbent services that utilities offer.

Infrastructure Deal Pins Funding Hopes on 5G Airwaves

The Federal Communications Commission is emerging as a key part of the still-murky framework that President Joe Biden and a bipartisan crew of centrist senators rallied around.

Democrats Consider Moving Broadband Bills Before August Break

Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill’s commerce panels can’t wait to mark up the broadband portions of the Biden administration’s proposed infrastructure legislation — though the timing still hinges on whether President Joe Biden nails down bipartisan consensus with Republicans or Democrats decide to go it alone. House Commerce Committee Democrats want to mark up their LIFT America Act, H.R.

Areas with internet ‘black holes’ renew fight for broadband

For decades, policymakers in Washington and state capitals have fretted about the patchwork of broadband access in the United States, which has held back economic development in underserved areas and became a major problem during the pandemic. Now, after years of federal subsidies that have improved but not solved the problem, the Biden administration is proposing to spend $100 billion over the next eight years to finally connect every American household to high-speed internet. But solving the problem isn’t just a matter of cutting a big check to fund the installation of fiber pipelines.

Lawmakers, White House Reckon with Broadband Sticking Points

A day after Vice President Harris held a discussion about broadband with members of Congress, key lawmakers came away heartened — despite worsening odds that the parties will be able to bridge their differences about the administration’s infrastructure ambitions.