Putting the question of broadcast ownership diversity in the hands of the Supreme Court could have consequences for minorities, said Diane Holland, aide to FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, and National Association of Black-Owned Broadcasters President Jim Winston during a NABOB conference (see 2010020059) panel Friday. The matter going before “the very conservative” court could “do some damage,” Holland said. Court rulings that eliminate the FCC obligation to consider diversity or make efforts to examine the effects of the agency's decisions on diversity unconstitutional could make efforts to address ownership inequality more difficult, she said.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Google CEO Sundar Pichai are to testify remotely at an Oct. 28 Senate Commerce Committee hearing on Section 230, the committee announced Friday. A day earlier, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said the agency will begin a rulemaking on Communications Decency Act Section 230 (see 2010150057). The agency will soon release a blog post about FCC authority to interpret the statute, General Counsel Tom Johnson tweeted Friday. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., welcomed the FCC decision, saying the committee will get more information directly from the CEOs at the Oct. 28 hearing, set for 10 a.m. in G50 Dirksen.
NTIA, working with DOD, is pushing ahead on a spectrum sharing system going beyond what's possible in the nascent citizens broadband radio service, said Charles Cooper, associate administrator of the NTIA Office of Spectrum Management, at the Americas Spectrum Management Conference Friday. NTIA is tentatively calling it “incumbent informing capability,” or ICC, and it’s being developed in coordination with the Defense Information Systems Agency, he said.
Texas state legislators, small telcos and rural educators sounded the alarm about the possibility of the Texas USF (TUSF) becoming insolvent by year-end. The Public Utility Commission over the summer declined to double the surcharge on consumer phone bills, with Chair DeAnn Walker instead asking legislators to stabilize the fund when it reconvenes in January (see 2008110047). With TUSF expected to become insolvent in about 60 days, "some of our companies are in a full-on panic,” said Texas Telephone Association (TTA) Executive Director Mark Seale in an interview. State Rep. Brooks Landgraf (R) told us Friday he sees opportunity to revamp TUSF to support broadband.
The lawyer for the Tri-County Telephone Association challenging the FCC’s nearly $1 billion USF telecom rebuild program for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands faced questions Thursday as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit heard oral argument in TCT's case (docket 20-1003 in Pacer). Judges challenged the group’s argument that the FCC doesn't have authority to use high-cost USF support dollars for disaster relief.
A nationalized 5G network is a nonstarter and would be illegal, CTIA General Counsel Tom Power said at the Americas Spectrum Management Conference Thursday. Power welcomed comments by a DOD official Tuesday that the department doesn’t plan to compete with the wireless industry (see 2010130033). A White House official said Thursday the administration’s work on the 3.45-3.55 GHz band was an important new way of looking at spectrum.
An expected 3-2 approval of the net neutrality remand order on Oct. 27's FCC agenda (see 2010060056) will likely be met by a reconsideration petition and/or legal challenge, interested parties told us. Which route petitioners go will depend somewhat on whether the FCC stays in Republican control in 2021 or changes hands, said lawyers and industry and public interest representatives. The agency declined comment Thursday.
The FCC intends to move forward with a rulemaking to clarify the meaning of Communications Decency Act Section 230, Chairman Ajit Pai said Thursday (see 2010150067). He said the FCC’s general counsel told him the agency has the “legal authority to interpret Section 230.” The announcement drew backlash from Democratic commissioners and praise from NTIA and Commissioner Brendan Carr. Republicans on Capitol Hill welcomed a potential rulemaking.
The FCC Disability Advisory Committee approved recommendations for best practices for creating high-quality audio description and real-time broadcast news captions Wednesday, at the group’s final meeting -- conducted virtually -- of its current term. An announcement of the roster for the DAC’s next term is expected in a few weeks, said Consumer and Governmental Affairs Attorney Adviser and DAC Deputy Designated Federal Officer Debra Patkin. The DAC’s recommendations for best practices aren’t intended to be the basis for regulations or have any bearing on pending FCC proceedings on captioning, said the resolutions approved Wednesday.
As T-Mobile follows through on regulatory commitments to build out 5G to cover most of the U.S., population density often isn’t as big a challenge as topography, said Chris Wieczorek, senior director-spectrum policy, at the Americas Spectrum Management Conference. In mountainous areas, “you get a lot more coverage holes,” he said. Wednesday's conference focus was on rural and hard-to-serve areas.