Approving T-Mobile buying Sprint is “one of the most critical steps the FCC can take” to promote mid-band 5G, Chairman Ajit Pai said Friday at the New York State Wireless Association conference. Earlier, wireless officials complained here in New York City that some cities continue to resist 5G despite FCC and state pre-emptions.
The USTelecom-led pilot broadband mapping effort in Missouri and Virginia should be done next month and then scale up to some other states this fall, with a national georeferenced broadband serviceable location fabric complete sometime next year, said CostQuest CEO Jim Stegeman in a webinar update Thursday. The BSLF effort, which involves trying to map all the various homes and other locations where broadband service at least could go and separating them from other locations, started three months ago. The national effort, if started today, would take about 12 months, he said.
An interoperable video calling (IVC) advisory committee to the North American Numbering Council couldn't reach consensus between a plan to implement a telephone number database or to use a technology platform-based approach, said working group co-chair Matthew Gerst, vice president-regulatory affairs at CTIA. "We're asking for an extension of our charter." The group issued preliminary recommendations to the FCC in a report and a roundtable discussion at the agency's headquarters Thursday. The group was tasked with determining how to best facilitate point-to-point video calls using 10-digit phone numbers across video service boundaries.
Kentucky Lifeline subscribers may be decreasing partly due to the FCC and Universal Service Administrative Co.’s Lifeline national verifier rollout, said a group of RLECs and CLECs. They commented Wednesday in docket 2016-00059 at the Kentucky Public Service Commission about possible changes to state Lifeline support. Kentucky should expand state Lifeline support to include mobile service, revisiting a 2017 decision to limit it to landline carriers with declining enrollments, wireless companies said.
Government should verify whether platforms are moderating content fairly, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said Thursday in defense of a bill that would dramatically alter the tech industry’s Section 230 immunity (see 1906190047). “Government’s not policing speech [under the new bill],” he told reporters in response to comments from Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. “These companies themselves aren’t speaking. They are moderating others’ content, so they are moderating others’ speech.”
The current FCC is unlikely to consider the national TV ownership cap or further relax broadcast ownership rules, said Gray Television Chief Legal and Development Officer Kevin Latek on a panel of broadcasting executives Thursday at S&P Global's Kagan Media Summit. The agency will “accomplish essentially nothing” between now and 2020, Latek said. Things could be different “next time” if the Republicans retain the White House, Latek said in New York, though “we'd probably need a new chairman.” The FCC didn't comment.
The Supreme Court handed down what's essentially a middle of the road decision in a junk fax case, PDR Network v. Carlton & Harris Chiropractic, but its decision has implications for the FCC and the communications bar, lawyers following the case said Thursday. The opinion was expected to answered the question of whether the FCC has the long-assumed power to exclusively implement the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (see 1904250006) but stopped well short of that. The issues raised appear far from settled for the FCC, since four of the justices would have gone further, lawyers said.
States are still deciding if they should join New York and nine other AGs suing to stop T-Mobile from buying Sprint, AG offices told us this week. Completing the deal could depend on the state case, unless a global settlement satisfies everyone involved, said Pennsylvania State University law professor Susan Beth Farmer. A pre-trial status conference scheduled Friday in New York is expected to be for scheduling purposes, and the court probably won't decide then on a preliminary injunction, said a spokesperson for New York AG Letitia James (D). The lawsuit was filed at U.S. District Court for the Southern District (see 1906140041).
AT&T supports a 3-meter standard vertical location (z-axis) accuracy metric for indoor wireless calls to 911 but technological challenges remain. The FCC got varying advice in initial comments (see 1905210061) and replies show little movement toward consensus. Replies were due FCC Tuesday in docket 07-114 and most posted Wednesday.
The Maine Public Utilities Commission should prescribe new rates for pole attachments effective Jan. 1, based on the FCC cable rate formula, said a CLEC lawyer at a PUC rulemaking hearing in docket 2019-00028 livestreamed Wednesday. Consolidated Communications said Maine should keep its current Chapter 880 formula. Unknown RF danger is one reason to treat wireless attachments differently from pole attachments, the ILEC said.