Top regulatory officials from T-Mobile and Sprint spoke with FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks about the “public interest benefits” of their deal, the same day he voted to reject it (see 1910160058), said a filing posted Thursday in docket 18-197. The filing describes a flurry of activity in recent days. DLA Piper lawyer Nancy Victory said she spoke with aides to Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Brendan Carr Friday and FCC Chief of Staff Matthew Berry Tuesday “to inquire about the status of the merger order.” The order was approved 3-2 Wednesday, with dissents by Starks and Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel.
Minnesota commissioners debated the effectiveness of a proposed settlement between Frontier Communications and the state Commerce Department to fix reported problems and improve service. The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission voted 5-0 at its Thursday meeting, livestreamed from St. Paul, to approve a tweaked version of a proposed settlement to resolve a service-quality probe in docket 18-122 (see 1910070049). Meanwhile, Consolidated Communications at a recent Vermont Public Utility Commission hearing defended service and opposed automatic bill credits for problems.
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr wants more healthcare providers to contribute to a docket on a proposed Connected Care pilot program before it moves from NPRM to order. Carr touted the pilot Thursday at a Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition conference.
USF stakeholders should make more improvements to broadband mapping, especially before the FCC begins awarding some $20 billion over about 10 years in the next version of its USF high-cost fund. That's the consensus in Q&A with us at a Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition panel (see 9:45 a.m.) Thursday and from audience members. Stakeholders targeted telcos, which some said don't always know down to a small-geographic level what areas they serve with internet service, and the FCC. The commission has been improving its mapping, working with others in the federal government including the Rural Utilities Service, said RUS Assistant Administrator-Telecom Programs Chad Parker.
Broadcasters aren't expected to have to make sweeping changes to how they maintain political files after an FCC order made clearer what information needs to be in them. The clarification could make it easier to get compliance from advertising agencies that sometimes provide incomplete information. That order and a related one were ostensibly released Wednesday afternoon but not available online that night. The agency said at a little past noon Thursday that the links were working.
Lead supporters and opponents of Senate Appropriations Committee-backed pro-public 3.7-4.2 GHz C-band auction language (see 1909190079) in the chamber's version of the FY 2020 FCC-FTC budget bill (S-2524) say they're not budging and expect a long fight. The dispute, which began last month, continued Thursday as Senate Appropriations Financial Services Committee Chairman John Kennedy, R-La., and others grilled FCC Chairman Ajit Pai on whether he favors a private auction similar to what the C-Band Alliance proposes. Kennedy and some other lawmakers favor public auction (see 1908230049). Pai is expected to propose a private auction plan for a vote at commissioners' Dec. 12 meeting (see 1910100052).
Co-chairs of the Department of Homeland Security Information and Communications Technology Supply Chain Risk Management Task Force urged House Homeland Security Committee members to consider enacting new liability protections and incentives to encourage companies and foreign governments to share information on threats to the supply chain. Committee leaders appeared interested during a Wednesday hearing in further protections. They invoked perceived supply-chain threats posed by Kaspersky Lab and Chinese telecom equipment manufacturers Huawei and ZTE.
Pearl TV has an ATSC 3.0 “rollout plan for 2020” that includes launching services in 61 markets by the end of next year, and has “shared that” with TV makers LG, Samsung and Sony, Managing Director Anne Schelle told the TV2020 conference at NAB Show New York Wednesday. “We are meeting our mark in terms of enabling these services on a market-to-market basis."
House Consumer Protection Subcommittee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., “largely” agrees the tech industry should have to earn its content liability protection. After Wednesday’s hearing on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (see 1910150058), she told reporters it’s important Congress finds the best way to ensure content is “managed appropriately.”
Some see FCC consideration of a declaration of effective competition due to the AT&T TV Now's vMVPD service in the last few spots where there's local cable TV basic rate regulation as potentially resurrecting questions of agency regulation of over-the-top services that were central in the dormant OTT-as-MVPD proceeding. An official said it's not clear whether commissioner will be unanimous on the draft opinion and order on next week's meeting agenda since it raises questions about OTT as effective competition to MVPDs and how that might lead to regulation of OTT. Local governments lawyer Tim Lay of Spiegel & McDiarmid agreed being an MVPD creates obligations, and it's not clear if the draft order would mean AT&T TV Now is an MVPD service that must comply with MVPD rules.