Broadcasting&Cable

House Commerce Committee Ranking Member Greg Walden (R-OR) announced the subcommittee Ranking Members for the 116th Congress. As expected, Rep Bob Latta (R-OH) has been named Ranking Member of the Communications Subcommittee. “I’d like to thank Congressman Walden for the opportunity to serve as Republican Leader on the Communications and Technology Subcommittee,” said Rep Latta. “The way we communicate and use technology plays a significant role in our daily lives. In this capacity, I’ll be able to advocate for policies that will help consumers, grow our economy, and spur innovation.

The Competitive Enterprise Institute has filed the opening brief in its challenge to the Federal Communications Commission's conditions on the 2016 Charter-Time Warner Cable (Bright House) merger.

The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit said that oral arguments scheduled for January and now February will take place, partial government shutdown or not. That means the court will hear arguments in the Mozilla et al.

The Federal Communications Commission will move the 28 GHz auction to stage three beginning Jan 14. It will stay with the same number of six rounds per day, and the same half-horu duration, but instead of bidders having to bid on 95% of the licenses for which it is eligible, they must now bid on 100% of those licenses.

Former Federal Communications Commission Commissioner Mignon Clyburn has been tapped to join tech execs, academics, national security officials and others on a new National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence. Clyburn joins representatives from Amazon, Google, Oracle and Microsoft on the committee, which was created by the National Defense Authorization Act and charged with reviewing the impact on national security on advances in AI, artificial learning and related fields. The commission is tasked with producing a report to the White House by August 2019.

Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr praised a US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit decision not to stay the FCC's Sept 2018 5G order. That was the order, motormanned by Commissioner Carr, that took various steps to speed wireless infrastructure deployment. “Yesterday’s court decision is more good news for U.S. leadership on 5G," said Commissioner Carr, issuing his own press release since staffers have been furloughed during the shutdown.

Attorney General nominee William Barr, a former board member of Time Warner, has agreed to recuse himself from the Justice Department's challenge to the AT&T-Time Warner merger. Currently, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit is considering DOJ's appeal of a district court decision that the merger did not violate antitrust laws. Barr made the promise to Seante Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar (D-MN).