A fight between the Federal Communications Commission and dozens of cities over the placement of 5G infrastructure will continue to play out in federal court in 2020, with oral arguments scheduled for February. At issue is whether the Federal Communications Commission can restrict how much municipalities can charge wireless carriers like AT&T Inc. to attach pizza box-sized wireless antennas, or small cells, to light poles and other city-owned infrastructure. The FCC’s ruling, adopted in September 2018, also imposes shot clocks for local and state governments to approve or deny carriers’ small cell applications. The ruling—aimed at speeding carriers’ 5G deployment—will go before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Feb. 10.

The FCC is the “slight favorite” going into the argument because it “wins most lawsuits and has a strong record against cities,” but the case is a close call, Bloomberg Intelligence Analyst Matthew Schettenhelm said. “The agency starts with an edge, yet it’s pushing the limits of the law before a potentially skeptical court,” Schettenhelm said.

Months after Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai reiterated his support for plans to allocate more than 1,200 megahertz of unlicensed spectrum on the 6GHz band for Wi-Fi usage, the Wi-Fi industry is moving to hit the ground running with the additional real estate in 2020. To start, the Wi-Fi Alliance, fresh off of rebranding the newest generation of Wi-Fi technology as "Wi-Fi 6," is now introducing new "Wi-Fi 6E" terminology to help identify products capable of taking advantage of the additional spectrum. The Wi-Fi Alliance says that 6GHz is well suited to facilitate Wi-Fi's continued growth due to its adjacency to the 5GHz band, where Wi-Fi already operates. The 6GHz band also offers accessibility to clear spectrum with less interference from legacy Wi-Fi 4 or Wi-Fi 5 devices on the 2.4GHz band, as well as a greater availability of wider channel sizes -- enough to accommodate 14 additional 80MHz channels and seven additional 160MHz channels. With a total frequency range of 1,200MHz -- up from 70MHz on the 2.4GHz band and 500MHz on the 5GHz band -- the 6GHz band could play a key role in the development of high-bandwidth applications that require faster data throughput, like 4K video streams and virtual reality.

Over the past few decades, the notion of a world without the newspaper industry has gone from grimly conceivable to a foregone conclusion. Once the cornerstone of localism and community, over the past two decades, the local newspaper has become nearly extinct. History is set to repeat itself in the broadcast television space. From 2014 to 2019, the total percentage of local advertising dollars spent on broadcast television fell from 14.3% to 11.2%. By 2023, BIA Kelsey forecasts, that percentage will drop to 9.7%. These precipitous drops have already caused a significant reduction in local news and other programming. For the broadcast television industry -- and in turn the local news business – to survive, the Federal Communications Commission’s broadcast ownership restrictions must adapt or be eliminated altogether. A few strong and robust national broadcasters unfettered from today’s antiquated regulations could be bulwarks against this total market domination by wireless and tech companies, and help broadcasters avoid the newspaper death sentence. Furthermore, a larger voice for broadcasters can enhance viewpoint diversity in the modern age. If a broadcaster were able to own more than one station in a market, it could expand program offerings across its stations to serve specific communities and demographics. A broadcaster with two or three stations in a market would be able to keep up with the modern consumption demands in a world driven by consumer choice.

[Armstrong Williams is manager and sole owner of Howard Stirk Holdings I & II Broadcast Television Stations]