1. Monthly archive
  2. September 2018

September 2018

CWA BDAC Representative Expresses Concern With FCC's Draft Wireless Order

As the Communications Workers of America’s representative on the Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee’s Model Code for Municipalities Working Group, I filed a letter on September 18, 2018, to express concern with the Federal Communications Commission’s draft order on streamlining wireless infrastructure deployment, which will be considered at the FCC's September 26, 2018 Open Meeting. The draft order is inconsistent with recommendations from the Model Code for Municipalities Working Group and is an overreach of federal authority.

Puerto Rican Advocates and Social-Justice Groups Call on FCC to Launch Independent Inquiry into Hurricane Maria Communications Failures

A coalition of Puerto Rican advocates, racial- and social-justice organizations, and media and telecommunications experts urged Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to appoint an independent commission to examine the causes for the communications failures in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria in 2017. In a letter delivered to Chairman Pai on the one-year anniversary of the storm making landfall in Puerto Rico, groups including the Center for Media Justice, Color Of Change, Collective Action for Puerto Rico, Defend Puerto Rico, Free Press, the National Hispanic Media Coalit

The Future of 5G: The Bitter Battle for Local Control

Across the country, telecommunication companies are beginning to lay the groundwork for 5G wireless networks. The buildout often pits states against cities. But a proposal that the Federal Communications Commission is set to vote on Sept 26 would not only upend future local agreements, but also preempt states. If approved, localities across the country would have drastically less authority over 5G infrastructure. 

Senate Commerce Subcommittee Leaders to Commerce Sec Ross: Include Us in Privacy Blueprint Plans

The White House's signal that it is working on a blueprint for a national privacy protection framework in the age of broadband and the Internet of Things has prompted some bipartisanship on Capitol Hill. A pair of Senate Commerce subcommittee leaders have written Commerce Sec Wilbur Ross to say that Congress should be included in any such effort. “To protect Americans from data misuse and establish certainty for businesses to create jobs, innovate, and compete domestically and abroad, a national privacy framework is essential,” the senators told Sec Ross.

Common Cause and Public Knowledge: Broadband Deployment is Neither Reasonable Nor Timely

Common Cause and Public Knowledge have told the Federal Communications Commission that its shift to a progress-based assessment of broadband deployment is wrong and needs correcting ASAP. The degree to which the FCC concludes it is not being deployed per a congressional mandate is the degree to which it can regulate Internet service providers to ensure that happens.

ACA to FCC: Hurricanes Should Not Do Number on Deployment Numbers

The America Cable Association has told the Federal Communications Commission that its Sec. 706 review of whether advanced telecommunications is being deployed in a reasonable and timely manner should exclude hurricanes and other natural disasters. That came in comments for the FCC's next Sec.

NCTA: FCC is Lowballing Broadband Deployment

The Federal Communications Commission is failing to, in a reasonable and timely manner, account for the extent to which unserved areas are getting broadband. That was a key takeaway from NCTA-The Internet & Television Association's comments to the FCC on whether advanced telecommunications is being provided in a reasonable and timely manner, as Congress has directed it to ensure. If the FCC concludes that advanced telecom is not being deployed in a reasonable and timely fashion, it allows the FCC to regulate to make that happen.

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