FirstNet is on 40 percent of AT&T's network and the telco likely will complete the network ahead of a five-year deadline, AT&T executives said on an analyst call Wednesday. The company reported adding fewer wireless subscribers in Q4 and losing more video subscribers than expected. The stock closed down 4.3 percent at $29.37.
Amazon will recruit New York City public-housing tenants for at least 30 customer-service jobs and invest millions in a “pathway to employment” cloud-computing “certificate program" with LaGuardia Community College of the City University of New York, testified Vice President-Public Policy Brian Huseman Wednesday. It was the second in a series of City Council oversight hearings on impact of the planned HQ2 in Long Island City, Queens (see 1901280001).
NTIA posted comments Wednesday on the national spectrum strategy, many of them released by those who wrote them during the prolonged federal shutdown (see 1901230028 and 1901250040). Apple and Facebook were among additional companies offering advice. Comments are here.
Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., is defending a letter she and other lawmakers wrote the FCC and DOJ Antitrust Division to support T-Mobile's proposed buy of Sprint amid criticism from groups opposed to the deal. House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., said he's not concerned opinion among subcommittee Democrats may be divided on the transaction. House Communications and the House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee are to examine T-Mobile/Sprint during a Feb. 13 hearing (see 1901280051). Two other House Communications members joined Eshoo in signing the letter -- Reps. Billy Long, R-Mo., and Kurt Schrader, D-Ore.
Nexstar proposed divesting stations in 11 overlap markets for its anticipated buy of Tribune. It's seeks one top four showing for an existing combination, in the application posted Tuesday.
Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel criticized the shutdown’s effect on FCC staff at an agenda-less January commissioners’ meeting -- the first for new Commissioner Geoffrey Starks (see 1901030042). “This past month has been trying for everyone at the FCC,” said Pai. Staff lived under “a cloud of uncertainty” during the government-funding impasse, he said.
Federal IT systems were at higher risk of cyber breach during the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history, House lawmakers told us. Senate Democrats prodded federal agencies for answers Tuesday on what might have been compromised. Experts told us agencies such as the FCC and the FTC likely fell behind on security patch schedules. Risk of security breaches such as phishing scams also likely was heightened for the short-staffed agencies, they said.
Net neutrality advocates voiced confidence in their case against the FCC's order reversing broadband common-carrier regulation, with some optimistic it will be overturned. They said Wednesday the net neutrality rollback under a reclassified Communications Act Title I broadband regime was unjustified legally and bad policy that would unleash ISP "gatekeepers" to throttle and discriminate, harming consumers and competition. Petitioners and intervenors challenging the order held two media calls ahead of Friday's oral argument before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Mozilla v. FCC (see 1901230060). It's case 18-1051.
Some on the FCC eighth floor remained active during the partial federal shutdown, according to commissioners and judging by ex parte filings and social media. Some worry about what any resumption of the partial federal shutdown next month could mean for progress on issues before the agency. The commissioners had a handful of ex parte conversations during the shutdown, and most were active on Twitter throughout.
The Twittersphere’s response to news of an Apple FaceTime glitch that went viral Tuesday ranged from outrage to grins as iPhone users processed the possibilities that could have ensued before Apple turned off the feature that experienced the bug. Fingertip Solutions tweeted: “A major privacy flaw in #Apple’s FaceTime lets others listen in on you before you answer the call," broadening the message to say the bug “allows someone to dial one of their contacts and listen in to the recipient’s microphone before they actually answer the call.”