Huawei is winning the battle on 5G worldwide, Rivada Networks CEO Declan Ganley said at a Hudson Institute lunch Thursday. Ganley said cheap financing backed by the Chinese government has led to Huawei success. China’s goal is “dominating the cyber domain by 2025,” he said. Rivada backed a push for a national, wholesale 5G network, which got early support from the White House (see 1904120065).
The FCC isn't expected to provide clarity over authority to include or require broadband services as part of its Lifeline program anytime soon, said speakers at an FCBA workshop Thursday on what last month's Mozilla v. FCC net neutrality ruling means.
Federal legislation on privacy and net neutrality could be the common ground that helps break the balkanization and incivility endemic in politics, Comcast Chief Diversity Officer David Cohen told a Media Institute event Thursday. The rapid pace of technological and societal change needs to be met with a return of civility in political discourse and universal connectivity to facilitate training people to hold down post-artificial intelligence jobs and an embracing of diversity, he said. He argued public spending on broadband connectivity for underserved areas is likely being wasted.
Lobbying continues for and against proposed rules requiring carriers to identify the vertical location of indoor wireless calls to 911. APCO questions whether the requirement will help first responders locate callers (see 1911130030). Officials in the office of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai say the preponderance of public safety groups support the order, set for a commissioner vote at the Nov. 22 meeting.
Jobs remain an issue in T-Mobile's buying Sprint, stakeholders agreed. They differ on whether the deal would lead to more employment or hurt unionization. At the Capitol Forum Thursday and in Q&A with us, those for and against the deal expanded on existing policy positions. Topics included rollout of attorneys general backing the transaction after reaching pacts for the combined company to locate jobs in their states.
The House Communications Subcommittee advanced the Television Viewer Protection Act (HR-5035) and eight other bills on voice votes Thursday, as expected (see 1911130001). The subcommittee's debate over HR-5035, which would renew parts of the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act, signals that measure faces a rockier path at a House Commerce Committee markup. The vote happened a day after the Senate Commerce Committee postponed a markup (see 1911130055) of the similar Satellite Television Access Reauthorization Act (S-2789) amid a committee members' revolt led by ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. STELA is set to expire Dec. 31.
AT&T had a Q3 net loss of about 1.4 million subscribers across its three pay-TV services -- DirecTV, AT&T U-verse and AT&T Now -- vs. a net loss of about 295,000 subscribers in the year-ago quarter, reported Leichtman Research Group Wednesday. AT&T’s subscriber losses, 79 percent of industry Q3 net losses vs. 30 percent in 3Q 2018, resulted from the company’s decision “to increasingly focus on retaining and acquiring more profitable subscribers,” said LRG principal Bruce Leichtman.
Full-power broadcasters and ATSC 3.0 boosters clamored for the FCC to relax rules governing distributed transmission systems (see 1910110040), in comments posted through Wednesday in docket 16-142. Microsoft and low-power broadcast entities have interference concerns. NAB and America's Public Television Stations' petition is “premature,” said the National Translator Association. “3.0 is incompatible with the present system, and the public’s paramount interest must be to preserve interference-free TV for present reception.”
It’s worth Congress considering a merger moratorium, House Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline, D-R.I., told reporters after raising concerns about Google buying Fitbit at a hearing Wednesday (see 1911080062). Cicilline said FTC Chairman Joe Simons and DOJ Antitrust Division Chief Makan Delrahim were more supportive of the idea during testimony than he anticipated. A lot can be done short of a moratorium, Delrahim said, but it’s possible to explore burdens of proof for companies that control large market shares.
Beyond whatever steps the FCC takes to open up the C band to other uses, spectrum issues will become more complicated and challenging, and incentive mechanisms are needed for incumbents, said Office of Economics and Analytics acting Chief Giulia McHenry at an FCBA CLE Tuesday evening. For auctions, take the prohibited communications rule very seriously, said Jonathan Cohen of Wilkinson Barker, who when at the FCC co-wrote rules for the agency's first spectrum auctions. "It would be a death sentence" for a lawyer to be a conduit for prohibited information, he said.