Commissioners will act at their June 9 meeting on CTIA and Wireless Infrastructure Association proposals for more changes to wireless infrastructure rules designed to accelerate siting of towers and other 5G facilities, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said Monday. The move was expected, as is a fight from local and state governments (see 2005110029). Pai will also ask commissioners to approve auction procedures for Phase I of the FCC's 10-year, $20.4 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund and proposed an NPRM on the use of very high-band spectrum. ATSC 3.0 also is on the agenda (see 2005180066).
Top House Democrats said Thursday they see broadband affordability and access as a priority in the next COVID-19 stimulus bill, despite questions about the prospects for addressing such issues in future legislation. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone of New Jersey and other Democrats unveiled a revised broadband legislative proposal that draws largely from a January plan (see 2001290052) and other existing legislation. Senate Democrats plan to file a modified companion to the Emergency Educational Connections Act (HR-6563) in a bid for emergency E-rate funding. House Commerce ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore., told us it may be possible to include some form of broadband funding in the next pandemic aid measure.
There's no consensus whether mobile and fixed communications services are complementary or substitutes in docket 20-60 comments this week for the FCC's communications market competitiveness report to Congress. The agency got requests for further smoothing access to poles and rights of way for wireline broadband access.
Industry, policymakers and consumer advocates are seeking new ways to expand Lifeline enrollment and benefits in response to the public health and economic crisis, we're told. Some advocates are pursuing emergency funding to provide a more robust residential broadband Lifeline benefit to meet the demands of working and learning at home. Stay-at-home orders put restraints on Lifeline promotion and enrollment.
Industry, policymakers and consumer advocates are seeking new ways to expand Lifeline enrollment and benefits in response to the public health and economic crisis, we're told. Some advocates are pursuing emergency funding to provide a more robust residential broadband Lifeline benefit to meet the demands of working and learning at home. Stay-at-home orders put restraints on Lifeline promotion and enrollment.
States are directing broadband funds to COVID-19 response, but many others lack that ability, said state commissioners, legislators and broadband officials in recent interviews. The pandemic increased states’ urgency to close broadband gaps and could lead to policy changes, they said.
House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, N.J., is circulating discussion language to provide $2 billion in “emergency broadband benefit” funding in the next COVID-19 stimulus bill. Some lobbyists we spoke with see the draft as Democrats’ bid to resurrect plans for emergency broadband funding without providing new ammunition to Lifeline critics. Several Democratic lawmakers want future COVID-19 legislation to fund broadband and other infrastructure (see 2003260063). Some groups are urging Congress to use the coming measure to address other communications policy priorities, including media funding (see 2004090066).
Before the first largely online U.S. census began, nonprofits, telecom providers and media companies were heightening efforts to safeguard its integrity and increase participation. Many groups historically vulnerable to undercounting, including rural residents, low-income and homeless populations, and ethnic minorities, overlap with those underserved by broadband, said interviewees earlier this year.
State commissioners should keep watch on telecom to protect consumers during the COVID-19 outbreak, said NARUC President Brandon Presley in a Thursday interview. “Once this crisis is behind us, we’ve got to view broadband service as a national security issue, in the sense of economic security,” he said. “I won’t have much toleration for anybody that comes to tell me that internet is a luxury.”
The COVID-19 pandemic comes as Ajit Pai enters what is likely to be the homestretch of his time as FCC chairman. Pai has sketched out an ambitious agenda for the rest of 2020, but no one knows how long the pandemic will last. Industry officials agree it will likely slow work on at least some items due to refocusing on coronavirus-related orders. The crisis offers Pai a chance to write a new legacy, they said.