In 2018, the Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau, the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, and the Office of Engineering and Technology (collectively, the Bureaus) adopted performance requirements establishing a uniform framework for measuring speed and latency performance for recipients of high-cost support to serve fixed locations. Later, the Bureaus addressed certain issues regarding testing to be conducted by high-latency bidders in the Connect America Fund (CAF) Phase II auction. Now the Bureaus clarify that carriers have their entire support term to improve their networks and come into compliance with performance requirements. A carrier’s final performance testing milestone is at the end of its support term, and it is only then that a carrier may be subjected to final performance compliance withholdings. The Bureaus also clarify that carriers participating in multiple high-cost programs with required testing or subject to multiple speed obligations in a state will have compliance and non-compliance (as well as any potential withholding of support) determined specifically for each program, state, and speed tier. Thus, compliance and noncompliance percentages will be calculated for each program, state, and speed tier separately.

When the Federal Communications Commission announced $312 million in grants for one relatively small company to build broadband in Minnesota, it stirred controversy among those who worry the internet provider can’t deliver what it promised. Now that squabble over the company, LTD Broadband, has spilled over into Minnesota’s own grant program for development of high-speed internet. The Minnesota Rural Broadband Coalition — made up of internet developers, local governments, and other groups like Mayo Clinic — sent a letter to state officials asking them to award grant money to build broadband in areas expected to be served through the federal program, in part because they have so little confidence in LTD Broadband. Some internet companies said the state asked them to submit bids for cash outside of the federal program zones. Minnesota officials haven’t made a decision on how to proceed, but the state must navigate the fight over broadband money and territory while balancing the best way to get internet to rural residents — and to spend taxpayer dollars.

Facebook told lawmakers it blocked or removed 265,000 posts for violating the social network’s policies against voter interference and rejected 3.3 million ad submissions as part of its effort to protect the recent US elections against misinformation and foreign influence. The action was cited in a 22-page report summarizing the company’s election work that was distributed Dec 18 to a wide array of members of Congress as well as officials in the outgoing Trump administration and incoming team of President-elect Joe Biden. Facebook had previously publicized many of its actions cited in the report. The report also mentions Facebook’s voter registration efforts and removal of coordinated influence campaigns. It ends by repeating a familiar Facebook request that lawmakers in Washington write more rules and regulations for the internet so that job isn’t left up to companies like Facebook. Elections in the future “must include rules set by governing democracies, not private companies, on a range of critical issues,” Facebook said. “Next year, we hope progress can be made in Washington, DC, in updating the rules of the internet.”

The Federal Communications Commission's Media Bureau denied a permanent waiver request of the newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rule sought by Fox Corp regarding the continued common ownership of WWOR-TV, Secaucus, New Jersey, and the New York Post. Instead, the Bureau granted a temporary waiver to preserve the status quo while the fate of the newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rule is resolved. Absent a waiver, the current rule prohibits common ownership of a daily newspaper and a broadcast station serving the same geographic market, in this case, New York (NY). However, as a result of the long-running dispute over whether the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rule remains lawful and justified, the FCC previously granted or extended temporary waivers for the WWOR/New York Post combination in 2001, 2006, and 2014. Subsequently, the FCC eliminated the newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rule in 2017, and the combination of WWOR and the Post was authorized by operation of law for nearly two years with no need for a waiver. Following an appeal, a divided panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit by a 2-1 vote reversed and remanded the FCC’s decision, thus reinstating the rule. However, the US Supreme Court has agreed to review the Third Circuit’s decision and will hear oral arguments on January 19, 2021.

Fox may continue to own collectively WWOR and the Post—as well as WNYW(TV), New York (NY), for which Fox had received a permanent waiver in 1993—pending the outcome of the current litigation and, in the event that the newspaperbroadcast cross-ownership rule survives that litigation, until 180 days following the date that a Commission order making a determination reaffirming that the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rule remains in the public interest becomes final and unappealable.