The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau maintains the status quo and extends, for an additional year, the waiver pausing both the phase-out of Lifeline support for voice-only services and the increase in Lifeline minimum service standards for mobile broadband data capacity. Without this decision, support for services that meet only the voice minimum service standard, which currently stands at $5.25 per month, would be eliminated in most areas on December 1, 2022. Additionally, the minimum service standard for mobile broadband data capacity would rise from 4.5 GB to 6.5 GB per month beginning December 1, 2022. The bureau finds good cause to extend this pause for one more year to consider additional implications related to the newly established Affordable Connectivity Program and the FCC’s forthcoming Report on the Future of the Universal Service Fund. This pause will extend to December 1, 2023, giving the FCC time to consider how the longer-term Affordable Connectivity Program and any findings in the forthcoming Report on the Future of the Universal Service Fund should bear on the future of the Lifeline Program.

The FCC proposes a forfeiture of $220,210 against Kyle Traxler and Cleo Communications for apparently willfully and repeatedly engaging in conduct that violated the federal wire fraud statute and the FCC’s rules between on or about May 14, 2021 and on or about August 11, 2021. Cleo made apparent misrepresentations to gain FCC authorization to be a participating provider in the Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) Program and then apparently used that authorization to defraud consumers using interstate wires. While Cleo never filed for or received disbursements from the EBB Program, Cleo promised consumers that they would receive EBB Program-discounted broadband services and devices in exchange for online electronic payments to Cleo, but the company never delivered the broadband services or devices. Cleo’s schemes to defraud consumers under the pretense of participating in the EBB Program caused severe harm not only in monetary terms to the low-income consumers it preyed upon, but also to the trust and goodwill this or any program needs to achieve its purposes effectively. We find that the proposed $220,210 forfeiture penalty, the statutory maximum we can impose, reflects the scope, duration, seriousness, and egregiousness of Cleo’s apparent violations. We also find that Kyle Traxler and Cleo Communications are, for legal purposes, one and the same entity, and are therefore jointly and severally liable for the proposed penalty.

For most people, the Supreme Court’s decision in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency was about environmental policy and what the Environmental Protection Agency can still do to cut carbon emissions. For a smaller subset, mostly lawyers, W. VA v. EPA was an important (but confusing) administrative law case what we will spend a bunch of time arguing about how to apply to agencies generally. And for the tiniest of all possible subsets, meaning me and a handful of other telecommunications lawyers, it was about . . . net neutrality. Because just about everything in telecom still revolves around net neutrality. The other basic truism about these events is that they are rather like [ink blots], where what you see depends a lot on what you already think. So those who hate Title II are convinced that this spells doom for any Federal Communications Commission reclassification efforts, whereas those on the pro-Title II side think this doesn’t really change anything. I’m as much a human being subject to this bias as anyone else. So I can only explain why I think W.VA. v. EPA hasn’t changed anything and let y’all decide if I’m right. It all depends on what the Supreme Court means by a “major question” that requires “clear proof” that Congress intended to vest the agency with the power to do the thing.

Broadband internet satellites are set to sweep the skies over the next decade at a scale never before seen. Just don’t ask policymakers today how exactly we’re going to manage the fallout. The story is a familiar one to longtime watchers of technology. Companies hooked up homes with electricity, with phone lines, TV signals and the internet — miracles of modern connectivity — but not without communities inheriting a cityscape loaded with hanging wires and accompanying fire hazards. Now that connectivity journey is reaching miles above the Earth, with side effects as grand as the broadband vision itself. Tech billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are planning big investments in ambitious satellite broadband networks set to spin in low-earth orbit around the globe beaming internet signals back to those of us on the ground. That could be particularly valuable in hard-to-reach rural parts of the planet. But many rules for how these systems will operate are still yet to be written, posing practical and geopolitical challenges for aspiring market players like SpaceX, Amazon and OneWeb (a troubled rival now owned by the British government). That includes how these satellites can navigate around a fractured globe without creating a cascade of orbiting debris — all while not spoiling the night sky for stargazers. Adding thousands of orbiting satellites is poised to make the sky both chock-full of visual obstruction and brighter thanks to streaks of reflected light, which could scramble astronomy and even the migratory patterns of birds.

States must ease regulations surrounding local building permits and zoning that may prevent internet service providers from building broadband infrastructure, according to experts in community and stakeholder engagement at a June 28 Rural Broadband Conference. “If you want to attract private industry or want to bring fiber to your community, you have to take a serious look at red tape,” said Bob Knight, CEO of marketing firm Harrison Edwards Strategic Communications. The Upstate New York Town Association, a group dedicated to serving the needs of upstate New York communities, indicated that it would continue to lobby for an easing of state regulations to support broadband connectivity in its region. Knight encouraged states to engage with stakeholders and local community members to make the process easier and build networks in a timely fashion. Communities in Upstate New York worked with local engineers to develop broadband models that work for their topography. Understanding the local geography proved beneficial in building out networks that connect to all community members, said Carolyn Price, executive director of the Upstate Association.