Aides to the other three commissioners have been working with the office of acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel Monday on possible changes to a public notice proposing rules for an October auction in the 3.45 GHz band, said FCC and industry officials. The order is expected to be approved 4-0. It could get a few tweaks from the draft, officials said. They expected discussions to continue Tuesday.
AT&T has no regrets about the $27.4 billion it bid in the C-band auction and will have the cash flow to pay for the spectrum, CEO John Stankey said on CNBC Friday. Executives had a similar message during an investor/analyst day presentation. Verizon defended its C-band spending Thursday (see 2103110034).
The FCC Precision Agriculture Connectivity Task Force unanimously approved an interim report Friday from the Accelerating Broadband Deployment on Unserved Agricultural Lands Working Group. The ag task force heard an update from the commission’s new Broadband Data Task Force (see 2103110050).
Federal appellate judges expressed some skepticism Friday with Wikimedia Foundation and government interpretations of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The Wikipedia operator sought to overturn a lower court's summary judgment in its litigation claiming warrantless U.S. surveillance of its online communications. We were told a decision is likely around early fall.
With FCC commissioners set to vote Wednesday on a proposing rules for the 3.45 GHz auction, analysts said the spectrum sale won't likely drive numbers anywhere near the $81.2 billion, plus roughly $13 billion in accelerated clearing payments, seen in the C-band auction. Verizon and AT&T are stretched thin after that auction. And 3.45 GHz is expected to offer carriers at most 40 MHz each, based on aggregation rules limiting bidding. The auction must raise at least $14.8 billion to pay for clearance of the band, which isn't expected to be a problem.
An NPRM on emergency alerting and an order on sharing outage report information with state and local agencies are expected to be approved with few changes at the FCC commissioners' meeting Wednesday, likely unanimously, according to industry officials.
It's an “easy” decision to support legislation for giving news outlets power to negotiate with Big Tech, House Antitrust Subcommittee ranking member Ken Buck, R-Colo., told us Friday, despite criticism from fellow Republicans. Legislators and two witnesses at Friday’s hearing said the legislation could enable a big media monopoly when the goal is to check Big Tech power.
Executives defended Verizon’s decision to go big in the C-band auction during an investor day presentation Wednesday. They pegged the total buy at $52.9 billion, including clearing costs. Verizon has been trying to add midband to counter T-Mobile, with its extensive 2.5 GHz holdings (see 2102250046). AT&T, the second-biggest bidder, has an analyst day Friday.
Congressional Democrats refiled a pair of multibillion-dollar broadband funding proposals Thursday -- the Accessible, Affordable Internet for All Act (HR-1783) and Leading Infrastructure for Tomorrow’s (Lift) America Act amid a rising push for infrastructure spending legislation, as expected (see 2103030063). The proposals' return came ahead of President Joe Biden’s Thursday night speech marking the one-year anniversary of widespread pandemic-related shutdowns, which some expect will include an unveiling of his plans for an infrastructure spending package. Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act package (HR-1319) earlier in the day, with emergency broadband money (see 2103110037).
ISPs advised Washington state senators to stick with narrow municipal broadband legislation and oppose a House-passed bill to fully allow retail and wholesale broadband by local governments. At a livestreamed hearing Thursday, industry witnesses told the Senate Technology Committee to lift state restrictions only in totally unserved areas, like in a Senate-passed measure. Sponsors disagreed on that limit in interviews.