Facebook and Comcast were the tech and telecom sectors’ top lobbying spenders for Q2, while other entities in those industries reported a mix of increases and decreases. NCTA, Charter and Microsoft earlier reported increases; the Internet Association, NAB and IBM reported decreases (see 2007200062). Facebook said it spent $4.83 million, up more than 17% from the same period in 2019. Comcast had $3.65 million, up more than 14%. Google fell 42% to $1.69 million. Huawei rose 142% to $170,000. Amazon spent $4.38 million, up 9%. AT&T shelled out $3.46 million, a more than 4% increase. Verizon reported $2.53 million, up almost 4%. CTIA was $2.48 million, down almost 5%. Qualcomm spent $1.97 million, up more than 1%. Apple fell 18% to $1.48 million. Dell was little changed at $910,000. CenturyLink spent $570,000, down 40%. USTelecom spent $560,000, up 12%. Twitter laid out $390,000, down 11%. The Competitive Carriers Association was flat at $180,000. The Telecommunications Industry Association fell by half to $50,000.
The FCC, Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) and National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers (NCSHPO) agreed to a second amendment to the nationwide programmatic agreement (NPA) for the collocation of wireless antennas, the Wireless Bureau said Monday. They "agreed to amend the Collocation NPA to eliminate … inconsistency between the Wireless Facilities NPA and the Collocation NPA,” the bureau said. Collocation is excluded from review under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act if it doesn’t “expand the boundaries of the current tower site by more than 30 feet in any direction or involve excavation outside these expanded boundaries” provided “the collocation complies with other criteria for exclusion specified in the Collocation NPA,” the bureau said. “Previously, a collocation project that involved any excavation outside of the current tower site would not qualify for the streamlined review process,” said Commissioner Brendan Carr. “That conflicted with the streamlined review process that applies when providers are taking down and replacing a wireless structure -- a process that allows for deployment and excavation up to 30 feet outside of the existing site,” Carr said: “Providers increasingly are adding mobile edge computing capability and backup power to tower sites, which often require small site expansions.” The Wireless Infrastructure Association always said the same rules should apply to collocations, but getting the change took years of work, said WIA President Jonathan Adelstein in an interview. “If you want to add 5G equipment, you want to put a backup generator in, you want to put in a mobile edge computing center, you ought to be able to do that under the same 30-feet exemption that you have for drop and swaps,” he said. WIA hopes for quick action on the wireless infrastructure NPRM, approved 3-2 in June (see 2006090060), which seeks comment on amended rules saying a modification doesn’t cause a “substantial change” if it entails excavation or deployments at up to 30 feet outside macro tower compound boundaries, he said. “We’d be able to expand any tower complex in the country … making it immediately ready for quick deployment of 5G,” he said: “It’s not a major, complicated NPRM. It’s pretty straightforward.” The rule changes “all fit together,” he said. The agreement also bodes well for progress on twilight towers, Adelstein said. The FCC sought comment in 2017 on ways 5,000 towers could be made available for collocation of wireless facilities without additional historic review (see 1712140049). Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said in June he’s working with Carr on twilight towers (see 2006090060). “The agreement accounts for the realities of next-generation site activities and encourages facilitating collocation on existing structures,” said Todd Schlekeway, president of the National Association of Tower Erectors: “It is essential that we as a nation commit to facilitating tower modification without excessive regulatory mandates as a critical means of closing the digital divide and enhancing communications capabilities throughout the country.” The action "will enable industry to optimize deployments and make way for advancements that can enhance the consumer experience and benefit our new 5G economy,” said CTIA Senior Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Scott Bergmann. “Streamlined infrastructure policies are critical for competitive carriers to be able to enhance and build out their networks,” said Steve Berry, president of the Competitive Carriers Association: “Consumers stand to benefit most from clear, efficient policies, and today’s announcement certainly is a step in the right direction toward achieving this important goal.”
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai urged NARUC and state regulators to help lower inmate calling services rates for calls within states, in a letter Monday (see 2007200050). The federal commission is to vote Aug. 6 on whether to cap interstate and international ICS rates (see 2007160072). "Given the alarming evidence of egregiously high intrastate inmate calling rates and the FCC’s lack of jurisdiction here, I am calling on states to exercise their authority and, at long last, address this pressing problem," Pai wrote. He seeks "action on intrastate inmate calling services rates to enable more affordable communications for the incarcerated and their families. Prompt and meaningful state action on intrastate rates will provide much-needed relief to inmates and their loved ones during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond." Pai noted NARUC opposed FCC action on intrastate rates. “Action to curb the sky-high rates that the families of the incarcerated pay for phone calls to their loved ones is long, long overdue,” Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel emailed. Other FCC commissioners didn't comment. An FCC spokesperson declined further comment. NARUC, which is holding a conference this week (see 2007200054), didn't comment. The Florida Public Service Commission doesn't have authority to set telecom industry rates, a spokesperson emailed. The Oregon PUC doesn't have any dockets scheduled on ICS rates, its spokesperson emailed. Other states' commissioners didn't comment. CenturyLink and an attorney representing Pay Tel Communications declined to comment, and other lawyers for ICS providers didn't comment. Consumer advocates suggested last week legislation might be necessary on high intrastate ICS rates (see 2007150066). Some tweeted Monday that Pai didn't do enough in the past to safeguard the agency's authority over intrastate ICS rates (see 1701310061).
The final version of the FCC’s secure network ruling, approved 5-0 Thursday (see 2007160051), is largely the same as the draft but addresses in more detail Huawei objections. In another change reflected in the final order, after the draft was circulated, the FCC barred Huawei and ZTE from participating in the USF (see 2006300078). “Huawei contends that the 2019 Supply Chain Order ‘cannot fulfill any obligation imposed by the Secure Networks Act’ because the FCC lacked authority to adopt it and the Order was otherwise arbitrary and capricious and violated the Administrative Procedure Act and Constitutional due process protections,” said a new footnote: “As the Commission has explained, the FCC was created in part to protect the national defense, and the 2019 Supply Chain Order is consistent with that objective and a reasonable exercise of the Commission’s authority under section 254 of the Communications Act to ensure ‘quality service’ and protect the ‘public interest’ by safeguarding the integrity of the telecommunications supply chain and communications networks.” The order now noted that “nothing in the Secure Networks Act restricts the Commission from using its other available statutory authority to prohibit the use of USF funds for a wider range of equipment or services than is required by section 3(a)” of the act.
NCTA asked the FCC for an expedited declaratory ruling clarifying pole owners must bear "proportionate and equitable" replacement costs, posted Friday in docket 17-84. NCTA asked for expedited pole access dispute resolution in unserved areas. Lack of an equitable utility pole replacement cost process holds broadband providers back when demands from COVID-19 compel them to move forward, NCTA blogged Friday. The American Public Power Association "stance remains that one-size-fits-all, model pole attachment regulations are unworkable for public power utilities," a spokesperson emailed. The group opposes "any effort to weaken or gut the exemption for public power utilities from federal pole attachment regulations." Cable operators face regulatory challenges that could increase costs and delay rural broadband deployment, Charter blogged Tuesday. Cable wants the FCC to eliminate eligible telecom carrier requirements (see 2006300010). "If we are successful in the auction, the result could be an expedited, multi-billion-dollar build-out" of its broadband network to millions of people, Charter said. The cabler could add an estimated $9.3 billion to the value of its footprint if it places winning Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I bids for some 2.2 million locations at the edge of its network, New Street's Jonathan Chaplin wrote investors Friday. "They would likely rather double down on the pace of footprint expansion than cede it to a competitor." Analysis of eligible census blocks "suggests the expansion opportunity may be even bigger" for other cable companies, the analyst added. The FCC plans to award up to $16 billion from Phase I (see 2001300001).
The FCC’s broadband mapping order, approved Thursday, increases allowable distance between facilities for fiber and cable, per final text posted Friday. The FCC proposed in the draft a maximum distance of 6,600 route feet between the node to the end point for everything. It sticks with that buffer for DSL but increases it to 12,000 feet for cable connections and 196,000 feet for fiber to the premises technologies. The change was expected (see 2007140060) after industry objected. As indicated Thursday, a proposed wireless infrastructure reporting requirement was moved to a Further NPRM. “We seek to refresh the record and seek further comment on collecting infrastructure information as part of the Digital Opportunity Data Collection,” the final FNPRM said: “Such information could help Commission staff independently verify the accuracy of provider coverage propagation models and maps submitted by mobile wireless service providers.” A staff report on problems in since-scuttled Mobility Fund Phase II “concluded that collecting such infrastructure data could help accurately verify mobile broadband coverage,” the FCC said: “Infrastructure data could advance the Broadband DATA Act’s requirement that we verify the accuracy and reliability of submitted coverage data.”
The Senate Commerce Committee plans a vote Wednesday on FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly’s renomination to a new term and a July 23 hearing on the FCC and NTIA roles in spectrum policymaking (see 2007150070). President Donald Trump nominated O’Rielly in March to a new term ending in 2024 (see 2003180070). A Senate Commerce vote on O’Rielly had been expected before the end of July (see 2007130054). O’Rielly’s confirmation hearing was last month (see 2006160062). Commerce will also vote on confirming Commerce Department acting General Counsel Michael Walsh, the Fundamentally Understanding the Usability and Realistic Evolution of Artificial Intelligence (Future of AI) Act (S-3771) and Advancing AI Research Act (S-3891). S-3771, first filed in 2017 (see 1712120051), would direct the Commerce Department to establish a Federal Advisory Committee on the Development and Implementation of Artificial Intelligence to “provide advice” on AI. S-3891 would establish a National Institute of Standards and Technology AI research program and other research institutes focused on AI. The executive session begins at 10 a.m. in G50 Dirksen, the committee said. New America’s Open Technology Institute Wireless Future Project Director Michael Calabrese and CTIA General Counsel Tom Power are among those to testify at the Communications Subcommittee’s July 23 spectrum hearing, the committee said. Also to appear are CommScope Director-Business Development Mark Gibson and Aalborg University Visiting Researcher Roslyn Layton, an American Enterprise Institute visiting scholar. That hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in 253 Russell.
The agency will act on an order changing the allocation of the 5.9 GHz band “certainly by the end of the year,” Chairman Ajit Pai answered our query in speaking with the media. Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said he’s not sure why an order isn’t on the Aug. 6 agenda. “I don’t think we’re that far away,” he said in response to our question: “A month or two here or there doesn’t cause me that much concern.” The FCC is expected to reallocate the band in coming months, with 45 MHz set aside for unlicensed use (see 2004300032). “I’m very excited about the potential for the 5.9 GHz band,” though he hasn’t reached a decision yet, Commissioner Brendan Carr said. “We kind of let 5.9 sit out there for a long time,” he said: “I’m glad that it’s on the table and that we’re working on it.”
The 988 suicide hotline draft order to be voted on at Thursday's commissioners' meeting doesn't change the two-year implementation deadline or make notable changes to the waiver process for wireline operators that struggle to meet it, an FCC official told us. The FCC didn't comment. Telecom interests argued two years isn't possible (see 2006230022). Verizon said the draft order's expected approval "will enhance mental health care in our country by helping people easily access potentially life-saving resources."
The FCC plans to renew its Disability Advisory Committee and sought applications for membership by Aug. 13, said a Tuesday notice.