The House Commerce Committee's telecom subcommittee will soon move to mark up legislation to improve the government’s mapping of broadband data, which lawmakers have long complained is riddled with errors. And the panel will likely use the Broadband DATA Act, H.R. 4229, from Rep. Dave Loebsack (D-Iowa), as the base. “I think the Loebsack bill will be the vehicle it runs through,” Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle (D-PA) said. “But I think we’re going to be taking bits and pieces of the other bills, too.”

“We can’t have a system at the [Federal Communications Commission] when it comes to mapping where it’s garbage in and garbage out, because that’s what it is,” Rep Loebsack said. Rep. Bob Latta (R-OH), the top Republican on Doyle’s panel and a backer of the Broadband DATA Act, said, “This is something we can get done.”

Comcast offered customers in Utah a "lifetime" price guarantee in order to compete against Google Fiber, then later violated the lifetime promise by raising those customers' prices, according to a lawsuit pending in a federal court. "In 2016, Comcast was under intense competitive pressure from Google's high speed fiber-optic data service," the lawsuit says. In Salt Lake City, "Comcast engaged extra sales staff to try to effectively beat the Google Fiber sales staff as they made their way up and down the streets of each neighborhood. To compete, Comcast sales staff began to offer 'lifetime' contracts to some of its customers and sold Comcast's broadband services by using door to door salespeople, especially in cities and neighborhoods where Google was aggressively offering its fiber-optic service." The lawsuit claims that "as many as 20% of Comcast's over 200,000 contracts in Utah may be 'lifetime' contracts." But some customers have had their bill unilaterally increased as much as $50 per month over the specified 'lifetime' rate. 

The Secure 5G and Beyond Act of 2019 (S. 893) would require the President, acting through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and other federal agencies, to develop and submit to the Congress a strategy to ensure the security of 5G and future generations wireless communications systems and infrastructure owned by the US and its allies. Among various other requirements, the NTIA would have to assess potential security threats to American 5G systems and infrastructure and analyze how competitive American 5G manufacturers and suppliers are globally.

Using information from the NTIA, CBO estimates that implementing S 893 would cost $1 million for the interagency group to formulate the strategy. Such spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds. CBO expects that NTIA would coordinate the interagency group and complete the strategy in 2020. The Federal Communications Commission would incur insignificant costs to help formulate the strategy. However, because the FCC is authorized under current law to collect fees sufficient to offset the appropriated costs of its regulatory activities each year, CBO estimates that the net cost to the FCC would be negligible, assuming appropriation actions consistent with that authority. If the FCC increases annual fee collections to offset the costs of implementing provisions in the bill, S. 893 would increase the cost of an existing private-sector mandate on entities required to pay those fees. Using information from the FCC, CBO estimates that the incremental cost of the mandate would be small and would fall well below the annual threshold established in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) for private-sector mandates ($164 million in 2019, adjusted annually for inflation).