FCC staffers give the agency and their jobs generally high marks, according to the Office of Personnel Management's 2023 federal employee viewpoint survey data released Wednesday by the FCC. Among employees surveyed, 92% said people in their work unit contribute positively to the agency's performance, 75% said they recommend the agency as a good place to work, and 68% said senior leaders maintain high standards of honesty and integrity. Areas where results were more lukewarm include questions about whether information is openly shared in the organization (56% of respondents agreed), the approval process in the organization allows timely delivery of my work (54%), and senior leaders generate high levels of motivation and commitment in the workforce (55%). The OPM data came from anonymous surveying of 519 agency employees for a month in 2023.

FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez hasn’t expressed an opinion on edge providers contributing to the Universal Service Fund (see 2408190056). She has expressed interest in the work of the bicameral, bipartisan USF working group, which includes the concept of assessing digital advertising services and enterprise-oriented data services, such as cloud services.

Any incoming presidential administration must “be ready to implement a reindustrialization plan" and change financial rules to resurrect American manufacturing and compete with China, FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington wrote in China is Winning, Now What?, an essay in the fall issue of the journal American Affairs. The essay doesn’t mention the FCC, and it only touches on tech policy. Instead, it focuses on China’s superior manufacturing capacity and on the global dependency on Chinese products. “It would have been unthinkable for Cold War America to source key components in logistics and telecommunications from the Warsaw Pact,” Simington wrote. “And yet, our long history of peaceful relations with the PRC [People’s Republic of China] has led us to sleepwalk into exactly this unacceptable state of dependency.” Simington noted that the rise of electric vehicles has positioned China as a global competitor to the U.S. auto industry and said a collapse of American carmakers would deeply injure America. Should China become the dominant international automaker, it could “normalize the presence of hundreds of millions of vehicles packed with sensors, radios, and firmware on every road in the world,” Simington added. “The intelligence benefits alone are incalculable, but control of such markets will in addition weaken countries that the PRC routinely calls its geopolitical adversaries.” To address the matter, the U.S. should “use tariffs and waivers as precision tools for strategic products and industries” but it must also “address larger questions of tax, accounting, and finance rules that have contributed to an anti-industry investment environment,” Simington wrote. Federal spending should be reallocated “to promote world peace through American strength.” He added, “The social costs of failure, here and abroad, will blight the lives of generations yet unborn.”

There's "an intentional and coordinated effort to silence" some political speech by "many in power -- whether in government or media," FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr wrote in a post on X on Sunday. He said these people "view free speech as a threat" and label views they don't like as "misinformation." He wrote: “The censors are not worried in these cases that people will be misled by the words they’ve chosen to read -- they’re worried that those words will be effective ... They want to impose their world view on others. Their goal is to lobotomize free thinking and pour in the cement of official orthodoxy.” Carr reposted a supporting comment by X and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who wrote, “Free speech is the bedrock of democracy.” Musk recently closed X’s offices in Brazil due to an investigation over charges of X sharing disinformation. Officials in the U.K. have blamed Musk for inciting anti-immigrant rioting there.

Jared Carlson is leaving his role as a deputy chief of the FCC Office of International Affairs to work for the National Security Council, replacing Matthew Pearl as director-emerging technologies, industry officials said. Pearl recently left the White House post (see 2408140044). Carlson is an industry veteran who spent more than 15 years at Ericsson and previously worked at Sprint Nextel. He joined the FCC last year. The FCC declined comment and the NSC didn’t comment Monday.

Democratic National Convention delegates were expected to vote Monday night on the Democratic National Committee’s 2024 platform, which includes a pledge that promises the party will “keep fighting to reinstate” the FCC’s lapsed affordable connectivity program. The draft program repeatedly references President Joe Biden and his now-ended reelection bid because the DNC Platform Committee adopted it July 16, before the incumbent stepped aside in favor of new nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, the committee said when it released the document Sunday night. “23 million households received free or monthly discounts” via ACP, “saving $30 to $75 per month on high-speed broadband through the largest internet affordability program in history,” the Democrats’ proposed platform said: The program lapsed “because Republicans refused to act.” ACP's supporters are tempering their expectations that Congress will act to restore the subsidy this year despite the Senate Commerce Committee successfully advancing a surprise amendment July 31 to the Proper Leadership to Align Networks for Broadband Act (S-2238) that would allocate $7 billion to the program for FY 2024 (see 2408090041). The DNC platform references the Biden administration’s implementation of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which included $65 billion for connectivity. “We’re bringing affordable, reliable, high-speed internet to every American household,” the platform said. “But a full 45 million of us still live in areas where there is no high-speed internet. Democrats are closing that divide.” Democrats are also “determined to strengthen data privacy,” through passage of a revamped “Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights” and an update of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act “to protect personal electronic information and safeguard location information.” The document notes Democrats' continued push to “fundamentally reform” Communications Decency Act Section 230 and “ensure that platforms take responsibility for the content they share.” It also mentions Democrats’ interest in “promoting interoperability between tech services and platforms, allowing users to control and transfer their data, and preventing large platforms from giving their own products and services an unfair advantage in the marketplace.”

Tropical Storm Ernesto left 7.1% of Puerto Rican and U.S. Virgin Island cellsites out of service, an improvement from Thursday’s 12.9%, the FCC said in Friday's disaster information reporting system report (see 2408130047). Cable and wireline companies reported 226,861 subscribers without service, down from 290,424 Thursday. No TV or radio stations were reported down. Ernesto has become a category 2 hurricane and is headed to Bermuda.

Comments are due to the FCC Sept. 5, replies Sept. 16, on satellite operations' possible expanded use of the 18 GHz band. According to a Space and Wireless bureaus, Office of International Affairs, and Office of Engineering and Technology public notice Friday (docket 24-248), the comments are meant to inform a report that the national spectrum strategy mandated and is due in May. The PN said expanded satellite use of the band would be consistent with the U.S.' position at the 2023 World Radiocommunication Conference, which backed added inter-satellite link allocations to the band. It said fixed satellite service downlinks are authorized now in the band, while nonfederal fixed service is authorized in the 18.1-18.3 GHz segment.

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel visited Union Avenue Elementary School in Los Angeles “to celebrate and promote the FCC’s recent vote and adoption of mobile hotspot connectivity for students across the country,” a Thursday news release said. Accompanying Rosenworcel were Alberto Carvalho, superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District; Rep. Tony Cardenas, D-Calif.; Deputy Mayor Matt Hale; and other supporters of the order, approved 3-2 in July (see 2407180024). The visit came ahead of the Aug. 27 deadline for opposition to a petition for reconsideration of the order. Petitioners Maurine and Matthew Molak previously sued the FCC over its decision authorizing funding for Wi-Fi on school buses (see 2406260006). “Hotspot connectivity is the next step towards modernizing the E-Rate program to ensure students and library patrons have access to the connectivity needed for a 21st century quality education,” the FCC said.

Broadband service prices have largely escaped the ravages of inflation since 2015, hovering at around a nominal price of $90 a month, according to BroadbandNow. For example, since 2015, the average price of a cable connection has fallen 31% when adjusted for inflation, while the average cost of DSL has dropped 28% and the average cost of fiber-delivered service is down 39%. While nominal prices have remained largely steady, "there is still plenty of room for improvement when it comes to the ability to afford a robust broadband connection in America today," BroadbandNow said, noting the large percentage of low-income households without a home broadband subscription. The particularly rapid decline in fiber prices "is a promising sign of what might be to come, provided current broadband affordability initiatives are continued or expanded upon at the federal level." That includes new funding of or an alternate version of the affordable connectivity program, it said. The price of internet service rose 3.9% between July 2023 and last month, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics' consumer price index unadjusted data out Wednesday. Smartphone prices were down 8.2% year over year, while television set prices dropped 5.4%, it said. Computers, peripherals and smart home assistant prices fell 2.4%, while the cost of wireless phone service was down 0.8%, it said. The cost of residential phone service rose 4.4%, while cable, satellite and livestreaming TV service costs rose 1.6%. The cost of video purchase/subscription/rental increased 8.2%. Also rising were recorded music and music subscriptions, up 2.8%. BLS said July prices for all items rose 2.9% year over year before seasonal adjustment.