Makan Delrahim, the Justice Department’s top antitrust enforcer, warned tech giants that amassing vast quantities of consumers’ data could create competition concerns in the eyes of federal regulators, marking the US government’s latest shot across the bow at Silicon Valley.
Sens Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV) announced the introduction of their Broadband Parity Act, bipartisan legislation that would bring all federal broadband programs to the current definition of what the Federal Communications Commission defines as high-speed internet (currently 25/3 Mbps). Their bill would ensure that all communities and entities receiving federal broadband support have access to internet service that is actually at broadband speeds. Currently, there are over twenty federal broadband programs promoting access to fixed broadband service.
On Aug 8, 2019, House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee Chairman Mike Quigley (D-IL) wrote to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to express concern about the FCC failing to act to stop abusive and unwarranted equipment rental fees for broadband service. "These unreasonable fees defy common sense and undermine the FCC's stated 'number one priority' of closing the digital divide." Chairman Quigley described a consumer in Texas who was charged a $10 "rental" fee by Frontier Communications for a router that they neither asked for nor ever received.
The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau issued an order granting two petitions seeking waiver of obligations to provide service to a specific number of locations as part of the rural broadband experiments program, filed by Allamakee-Clayton Electric Cooperative and Consolidated Communications Networks. The bureau said petitioners demonstrated the required number of locations exceeds the actual number the petitioners have been able to identify within their respective study areas.
The Department of Justice announced that it has filed an amended complaint that adds Arkansas as a plaintiff in the suit and proposed settlement relating to the proposed merger of T-Mobile and Sprint.Arkansas joins Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma and South Dakota in the settlement, which is designed to launch Dish Network as a fourth nationwide provider of retail mobile wireless services. In addition to protecting competition, the proposed settlement will expedite the availability of high-quality 5G networks for American consumers and entrepreneurs.
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