Sprint fell short of consensus estimates on profits and earnings Monday, and for the second quarter in a row management didn’t do a call with analysts. Sprint CEO Michel Combes said in a statement the company's optimistic its deal with T-Mobile will be completed early next year. Sprint said it took a hit because of the FCC's Lifeline probe. Meanwhile, T-Mobile missed a deadline Friday to renew its agreement with Sprint.
Emails between the Office of the DOD Chief Information Officer and the Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) office within the Department of Transportation raise new questions about the government’s stance on what some consider an overly conservative emissions standard to protect GPS -- 1 dB. In emails from 2015 we obtained, DOD officials discussed whether that standard is necessary.
Fitbit agreed to be bought by Google in a cash deal valued at $2.1 billion, as expected (see 1910290049). Fitbit will remain platform-agnostic and “strong privacy and security guidelines” won’t change, it said Friday. “The company never sells personal information, and Fitbit health and wellness data will not be used for Google ads.” Fitbit always had strong privacy and security guidelines “and this will not change,” it said: Users will continue to be in control of their data.
Tech-minded Senate Democrats praised Twitter’s decision to ban all political ads Thursday (see 1910300060) and criticized Facebook for hosting false material. Some key Republicans followed the Trump campaign’s lead in condemning Twitter, claiming evidence of liberal Silicon Valley censorship.
Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel wants the FCC to "reckon with how rolling back regulations and not requiring back up power have made it harder" to communicate in natural disasters such as the recent California wildfires. She tweeted Friday that "phones are not working. It's time for the FCC to start investigating."
Letters Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., sent Friday to executives from major broadcasters ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC added further fuel to ongoing chatter about the direction of Congress' debate on Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., is continuing to eye circulating a draft renewal measure in the coming weeks (see 1910300055), but lobbyists are becoming doubtful it will be ready for an early November markup, as originally anticipated. The law will expire Dec. 31 absent recertification.
A letter from President Donald Trump to ITU helped rather than complicated U.S. outreach at the 2019 World Radicommunication Conference, Grace Koh, U.S. ambassador to WRC-19, told reporters Friday. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said he was at WRC with a broad focus to advocate for U.S. positions. Also on the call was Douglas Kinkoph, acting NTIA deputy administrator. Friday was day five of the conference in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.
A fight over states seeking to regulate interconnected VoIP could return to the Supreme Court if it reviews the 2017 FCC net neutrality repeal, some experts told us. The court last month denied certiori to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, which appealed an 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision that VoIP is an information service exempt from state regulation (see 1910210059). Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch’s concurrence said their court should address in an “appropriate” case an underlying question about if federal nonregulation can pre-empt state regulation. That's seen opening a new path of attack for states.
Data breaches made privacy a mainstream issue and industry's willing to go pretty far in terms of regulatory obligations, giving Congress unprecedented opportunity to pass legislation Brookings Institution's Cameron Kerry told the Multimedia Telecom and Internet Council. FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks thinks the Expanding Broadcast Opportunities Act (HR-3957) sponsored by Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., could get bipartisan support, and a similar approach might make sense for other industries such as tech. Butterfield talked up the bill Thursday.
The Senate Commerce Committee will consider multiple privacy proposals at a hearing expected after Thanksgiving, Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., told reporters this week. Wicker continues to negotiate with ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., on one: “I think we’re close. We’re working hard.” Divulging the exact proposals to be considered at the hearing would be “a bridge too far,” he said.