A judicial appeal and notice of review of the FCC's November decision denying SNR Wireless and Northstar Wireless $3.3 billion in designated entity bidding credits in the AWS-3 auction (see 2011230062) were consolidated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, in a clerk's order Wednesday (in Pacer).
Bids rose to $69.83 billion in the FCC’s C-band auction after two rounds Wednesday. Bidding starts again Jan. 4.
Nobody is forcing users to search on Google, the company said Monday. Google generally denied plaintiffs’ legal claims in an answer (in Pacer) to DOJ and states’ antitrust lawsuit at U.S. District Court in Washington (case 1:20-cv-03010-APM). “People use Google Search because they choose to, not because they are forced to or because they cannot easily find alternative ways to search for information on the Internet.” The court let California, Michigan and Wisconsin intervene last week and scheduled trial for Sept. 12, 2023 (see 2012210041).
The C-band auction soared to $66.4 billion Tuesday, up from $50.84 billion in provisionally winning bids the day before (see 2012210043) and surpassing the AWS-3 auction as the biggest in FCC history. The auction takes a holiday hiatus after two rounds Wednesday and restarts Monday.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s blog on the Jan. 13 commissioners’ meeting will be posted Wednesday, the day draft items are posted, rather than the usual practice of doing so the previous day, FCC officials said. Pai is expected to seek votes on several wireless and other items (see 2012210051).
It could be well into 2023 before the government faces Google in U.S. District Court in Washington. At a Friday telephonic hearing, Judge Amit Mehta set a Sept. 12, 2023, trial start date for DOJ and states’ antitrust lawsuit against Google. Mehta said he's “anxious” to get Thursday’s separate antitrust complaint against Google by 38 attorneys general (see 2012170063) on the same discovery schedule for efficiency. Google attorney John Schmidtlein agreed the new case should be assigned to Mehta and consolidated with the first case for discovery, but Google isn’t ready to take a position on whether trials should be combined. On states’ new case, Mehta asked Google to say by Jan. 8 if it will answer the complaint or file a motion to dismiss; the judge set a status hearing for Jan. 21 at 11 a.m. The parties proposed (in Pacer) a scheduling and case management order Dec. 11 and agreed (in Pacer) to a protective order last Monday. Google said (in Pacer) Thursday it doesn’t oppose California joining as a plaintiff in the DOJ case, which Michigan and Wisconsin on Thursday also asked to join. Texas and nine other states separately sued Google Wednesday at U.S. District Court in Sherman, Texas (see 2012160059).
There's ample evidence of enough spectrum to serve small satellite operators' (SSO) likely future customers, despite SSO complaints the C-band clearing order left them spectrum to serve only existing customers, said a U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit opinion (docket 20-1142) released Friday. The opinion explained the court decision earlier this month (see 2012080020) to reject challenges to the order brought by the SSOs and satellite truck operator PSSI Global. The FCC was reasonable in deciding C-band spectrum "would better serve the public interest if actively used by state-of-the-art 5G technology than if held in reserve by satellite operators unlikely to need it," said Judges Robert Wilkins, Gregory Katsas and Justin Walker in an opinion penned by Katsas. The court said there's also "substantial evidence" that mobile earth stations will be able to provide the same services to customers after the agency modifies their licenses. Counsel for the appellants didn't comment.
Expect to see more clashes between the FCC and DOD over spectrum for 5G, with the military the primary user of "beachfront" midband spectrum that's "an almost essential resource for nationwide 5G," attorney Joel Thayer of Phillips Lytle blogged Thursday. The National Defense Authorization Act passed last week (see 2012110055) adopts the FCC's harmful interference standard for DOD disputes with Ligado. Thayer complained it lets the secretary of defense refuse to contract or renew a contract with entities operating commercial terrestrial communication networks in frequencies near Ligado’s due to harmful interference with GPS devices.
With the 28th round of the C-band auction complete Thursday, gross auction proceeds stand at $21.5 billion, per the FCC Auction 107 public reporting system. The demand for C band relative to supply is larger than it was for the citizens broadband radio service, and this could be a protracted auction, Citi analyst Michael Rollins wrote investors Thursday. He said the three national wireless operators likely are active bidders, seeking 60 to 160 MHz each.
The FCC scheduled a virtual event Jan. 15 to provide resources and information on getting a job in tech to diverse high school and college students, parents and guidance counselors, said a public notice Wednesday. A Road Map to Tech Jobs will be hosted by the Diversity in the Tech Sector Working Group of the FCC Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment. Including speakers from large tech sector companies such as AT&T and Charter, the event will focus on the sorts of careers available, the experience needed, resume building, networking and education advice. Communications Daily released its Special Report on diversity in the communications industry Wednesday (see 2012160045).