The FCC’s C-band auction opened Tuesday with $1.9 billion in bids after the initial two bidding rounds. The auction continues Wednesday with three rounds. Most observers are focused on Verizon and how much it bids as the major carrier with the least mid-band spectrum. The auction opened despite a late challenge from aviation interests raising interference concerns. Earlier in the day, a court ruled it won't intervene in related FCC activities (see 2012080020).
Five states diverted more than $200 million of 911 fee revenue -- about 6.6% of all such money -- for unrelated purposes in 2019, the FCC reported Tuesday. That’s about $2 million more than the same states were reported to divert in 2018 (see 1912190077). Outgoing Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said he did what he could.
The final version of the draft order on ATSC 3.0 datacasting is expected to be changed from the draft version to be more palatable to the agency’s Democrats, FCC and broadcast industry officials told us. One other media item added recently to the Dec. 10 agenda -- on a noncommercial educational station’s petition for reconsideration -- has already been voted on, and another on electronic Media Bureau fees isn’t considered controversial, an FCC official said.
The Supreme Court heard Facebook v. Duguid Tuesday (19-511), a case expected to provide long-awaited clarity on the definition of what's an automatic telephone dialing system under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (see 2011100052). Consumer groups hope the court will do nothing to narrow the ATDS definition. In September, the administration supported Facebook. Lawyers for companies facing TCPA lawsuits hope the court will resolve a split in the federal circuits.
Nathan Simington was confirmed to the FCC Tuesday after a largely muted Senate floor debate. Senate Democrats and groups opposed to Simington in the lead-up to the vote continued to raise concerns about the 2-2 commission deadlock that will result from his confirmation, once Chairman Ajit Pai leaves Jan. 20 (see 2011300032). Many also cited the FCC’s proposed proceeding on its Communications Decency Act Section 230 interpretation, a matter critics believe Simington should recuse himself from because he worked on NTIA’s petition for the rulemaking (see 2011100070).
The arrival of the Biden administration will change fortunes for interest groups and think tanks. Political science experts and interest group insiders told us that groups that had the ear of the White House and President Donald Trump's officials likely will focus now on working on members of Congress with whom they're more ideologically aligned, plus states.
Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, are trying to get a bill to increase antitrust enforcer funding added to the Senate Appropriations Committee’s funding bill for FY 2021, Klobuchar told us. The Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act would update those fees for the first time since 2001. When Grassley and Klobuchar introduced the bill in June 2019, they said the fee for a “$900 million deal should not be the same as the fee for a $60 billion deal.”
Sidewalk, Amazon's low-bandwidth network enabler, isn't yet live even as Echo smart speaker users saw the feature activated by default on the Alexa app beginning in late November. “We started notifying existing Echo customers with eligible Echo devices that their devices will be a part of Sidewalk and how they can change their preferences before the feature turns on,” an Amazon spokesperson emailed. Customers can update their Sidewalk preferences, including turning off the feature, during device setup or anytime in the Alexa app settings, the spokesperson said.
If Communications Decency Act Section 230 is revised with more regulatory burden, it will entrench incumbents and result in more government involvement in communication channels, Parler Chief Policy Officer Amy Peikoff told C-SPAN's The Communicators, scheduled to have been telecast over the weekend. She dismissed concerns about hate speech and hate groups proliferating on Parler, saying the tech industry’s liability shield is working as intended. Her comments followed a Simon Wiesenthal Center report claiming the platform is attracting online extremists and harmful content.
Commissioner Mike O’Rielly’s departure from the FCC “looks to be on track for some point next week,” he said Friday in a goodbye email with an accompanying video message sent out to all FCC staff. In the video, O’Rielly said his “FCC end date is soon approaching in the days or weeks ahead.” His office said O’Rielly intends to serve the rest of his term, which could include Thursday’s commissioners’ meeting, depending on the confirmation status of his projected replacement, Nathan Simington. In the video, O’Rielly hinted at a future endeavor involving communications policy or lobbying the agency, and profusely thanked FCC staff. “Commissioners are temporary employees, merely visitors occupying a seat at the institution, until the next person arrives,” he said.