There may be some turnover in leadership of the House and Senate Commerce committees and subpanels important to tech and telecom policymaking next Congress, and some leaders are almost certain to remain no matter who wins Tuesday’s elections, lawmakers and lobbyists told us. House Commerce’s GOP leader will be different due to the retirement of ranking member Greg Walden of Oregon (see 1911260048).
The draft order circulated by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai on increasing the Lifeline minimum service standard to 4.5 GB a month has been removed from circulation, said a spokesperson Monday and per the Friday-updated list of circulates. The order was stalled with only two votes to approve (see 2010220056). An industry official said now that the order was withdrawn because Commissioner Mike O’Rielly was prepared to vote no. In combination with expected dissents from Commissioner Geoffrey Starks and Jessica Rosenworcel, that would have meant its defeat.
FCC nominee Nathan Simington’s Senate confirmation hinges on Tuesday's elections, lawmakers and other officials told us. Many of the hurdles for his confirmation would likely clear if President Donald Trump is reelected, but his prospects will likely be greatly diminished if Democratic nominee Joe Biden wins, lobbyists said.
Call competition problems are diminishing but haven’t gone away, NTCA told the FCC in comments posted Friday. Others said the rules are working, with some limited complaints. The Wireline Bureau said in September the 2018 rules were effective but asked for comment (see 2009140056). They were due Thursday in docket 13-39. Other commenters had a more positive take.
The GAO said Friday it’s recommending the FCC “revise” its performance goals and measures for its high-cost USF program to ensure they're “measurable and quantifiable” to better align “with leading practices.” Doing so will allow the commission to “improve the performance information it uses in its decision-making processes about how to allocate the program’s finite resources,” the GAO said. It found in interviews with stakeholders that the high-cost program’s goals “generally reflect important and appropriate strategic objectives” but don’t meet the standards outlined in the Government Performance and Results Act that they be “objective, quantifiable, and measurable.”
The FCC should end more than a decade of indecision about giving states access to the network outage reporting system (NORS), said current and former state commissioners in interviews last week. NARUC will vote at its annual meeting Thursday-Friday and Nov. 9-11 on proposed resolutions asking the FCC to grant a 2009 California Public Utilities Commission petition to share NORS information and urging state legislatures to authorize commissions to reduce intrastate inmate calling service (ICS) rates to cost-based prices. NARUC will consider the resolutions just days after a presidential election that might change control of the FCC in 2021.
A Trump administration executive order creating a new classification of “policy-making” employees could mean many in the federal workforce lose civil service protection, while those with political ties are given their jobs, experts told us. The order would make it easier to get rid of staffers without the usual process and protections but could also allow the administration to burrow political appointees into the civil service quickly, and on an unusually large scale, the experts said. The implications for the FCC, NTIA and FTC, and whether it will mean widespread disruptions after the election, remain to be seen.
Spotify shares fell after the streaming service reported a $46.8 million Q3 operating loss vs. a $63 million operating profit in the 2019 quarter. Revenue grew to $2.3 billion vs. $1.9 billion in Q3 2019, said Thursday's shareholder letter. Monthly average users (MAUs) advanced 29% to 320 million. Premium subscribership grew 27%, or 5% sequentially, to 144 million. Ad-supported users increased 31%, 9% sequentially, to 185 million. Shares closed 3.4% lower Thursday at $266.87.
The biggest change between the draft TV white spaces order and the item approved 5-0 by commissioners Tuesday (see 2010270034) was the addition of a Further NPRM on how the agency can modify its rules to permit use of terrain-based models, such as the Longley-Rice Irregular Terrain Model, to determine available TV channels for white space devices. “By accounting for terrain features, such models could make additional spectrum available for unlicensed broadband services,” the order said.
The FCC Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee delayed until December a final report on adoption after members raised questions Thursday. BDAC had what turned into an all-day meeting, tackling reports by its three working groups. The report by the Increasing Broadband Investment in Low-Income Communities Working Group generated the most heat.