Employers and students gave high marks to FCBA’s new diversity pipeline program. The program offers first-year law students a tech, media and telecom (TMT) law and policy certificate and matches them with employers for internship programs. This summer, it placed 19 students into paid internships with eight law firms, five companies, four trade associations and one nonprofit advocacy group-law firm partnership. FCBA members Rudy Brioche and Celia Lewis initiated the project. Participants said they hope FCBA will place more interns in the future.
Consumers are overloaded with content, and it has become difficult to manage, said TiVo executives on a Thursday webcast for the company’s biannual video trends report, based on a Q2 survey of 4,500 respondents 18 and older in the U.S. and Canada.
Apollo’s purchase of Lumen’s ILEC assets is likely to close without any major conditions from the FCC, experts said in recent interviews (see 2108030077). Both companies said they expect the $7.5 billion deal to close in the second half of 2022.
The Alarm Industry Communications Committee and alarm companies asked the FCC to direct AT&T to pause a planned 3G data termination sunset, now planned for Feb. 22, until the end of next year. AICC and members said they won’t be ready for the change next year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the chip shortage and other issues. The FCC said initial comments are due Aug. 30.
The FCC “absolutely” still has a role in interpreting Communications Decency Act Section 230, Commissioner Brendan Carr told us last week on the sidelines at the Technology Policy Institute conference in Aspen. He believes ISP-like transparency rules can be used “as a foundation” for increasing social media content moderation transparency.
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington set a Sept. 30 deadline for Apple to complete production of some 1.5 million documents DOJ requested in its antitrust case against Google in docket 1:20-cv-03010 (in Pacer) (see 2107300035).
After repeated failure to “develop innovative mobile features,” Facebook “resorted to an illegal buy-or-bury scheme to maintain its dominance,” alleged the FTC Thursday in an amended complaint in its antitrust case against the company in docket 1:20-cv-03590. The commission 3-2 authorized filing of the complaint with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
California Public Utilities Commission members unanimously supported reducing inmate calling services rates, at a virtual Thursday meeting. Commissioners voted 5-0 to adopt a proposed interim ICS order capping intrastate rates at 7 cents per minute for debit, prepaid and collect calls, and prohibiting some fees. ICS providers will have 45 days to reduce rates. A day earlier, at the first meeting of the California Middle-Mile Advisory Committee, state legislators questioned the CPUC’s approach to locating nodes of an upcoming open-access network.
A recent FCC auction of construction permits for radio stations in which none of the four AM permits that are up for grabs sold isn’t a positive sign for AM but doesn’t mean there’s no interest in the band, radio brokers and broadcasters told us (see 2108130049). “We have some folks looking into buying us right now,” said Christine Wood, program director and part owner of WFLO(AM) Farmville, Virginia. “It’s a reflection on the overall challenges of AM,” said radio broker Mark Jorgenson.
ASPEN, Colorado -- Even before the Technology Policy Institute conference began, this week's event stood apart on coronavirus safety precautions from others we surveyed in the communications sector. A few weeks before the annual gathering, organizers emailed attendees a list of safety mandates, including wearing masks regardless of vaccination status, social distancing and some speeches held outdoors, exceeding government mandates. Also unlike other conferences, this one had all meals but one outside.