1. Monthly archive
  2. September 2017

September 2017

Deletion of Agenda Items From September 26, 2017 Open Meeting

The following Agenda items have been adopted by the Commission, and deleted from the list of items scheduled for consideration at the Tuesday, September 26, 2017, Open Meeting and previously listed in the Commission’s Notice of Tuesday, September 19, 2017:

  1. Cable Television Technical and Operational Standards (MB Docket No. 12-217): The Commission will consider a Report and Order that modernizes its cable television technical rules to reflect the cable industry’s use of digital transmission systems.
  2. Revitalization of the AM Radio Service (MB Docket No. 13-249): The Commission will consider a Third Report and Order that will relax or eliminate certain rules pertaining to AM broadcasters employing and maintaining directional antenna arrays.

FCC Seeks Comment on E-rate Category Two Budgets

With this Public Notice the Wireline Competition Bureau seeks comment on the sufficiency of budgets for category two services under the E-rate program (more formally known as the schools and libraries universal service support program). In the E-rate Modernization Orders, the Commission adopted five-year, pre-discount budgets for schools and libraries. When the Commission adopted these rules in 2014, it established a five-year test period to allow the Commission to determine whether the applicant budgets were effective in ensuring greater access to E-rate funding for internal connections. The Commission directed the Bureau to report on the sufficiency of these applicant budgets before the filing window for funding year 2019 opens. In particular, the Commission directed the Bureau to use FCC Form 471 data from funding years 2015 through 2018 to analyze trends across different types of applicants or regions in the nation, particularly schools that serve students with special education services.

In preparation for this report, we seek comment on the sufficiency of the category two budgets. Specifically, we seek comment from applicants, service providers, and other interested parties about how applicants have used their budgets and the percentage of category two services purchased by applicants that were or will be covered by the budget. Interested parties may file comments on or before October 23, 2017 and reply comments on or before November 7, 2017. Comments and reply comments should reference WC Docket No. 13-184.

T-Mobile, Sprint close to agreeing on deal terms, apparently

Apparently, T-Mobile US is close to agreeing tentative terms on a deal to merge with Sprint, a major breakthrough in efforts to merge the third and fourth largest US wireless carriers. The transaction would significantly consolidate the US telecommunications market and represent the first transformative merger with significant antitrust risk to be agreed since the inauguration of President Donald Trump in January.

The progress toward a deal also indicates that T-Mobile and Sprint believe that the US antitrust enforcement environment has become more favorable since the companies abandoned their previous effort to combine in 2014 amid regulatory concerns. The latest development in the talks between T-Mobile and Sprint comes as the telecommunications sector seeks ways to tackle investments in 5G technology that will greatly enhance wireless data transfer speeds. Once terms are finalized, due diligence by the two companies will follow and a deal is expected by the end of October, though talks may still fall through, apparently.

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