High-profile resignations of city officials from the FCC Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee was detrimental to its work last time, said BDAC Chair Elizabeth Bowles in an interview. “It was an unnecessary distraction,” she said: “It’s very political, in a way.” Bowles predicted the current work also will provoke some controversy. Bowles, chairman of the board of wireless ISP Aristotle, was named chair in September 2017 (see 1709010046), replacing Quintillion CEO Elizabeth Pierce. Later, Pierce was charged with participating in an alleged multimillion-dollar investment fraud scheme (see 1804130055).
Amending Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to hold tech companies more accountable for false and harmful content is worth “serious consideration,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., told reporters Thursday. “If social media companies can’t exercise a proper standard of care when it comes to a whole variety of fraudulent or illicit content, then we have to think about whether that immunity still makes sense.”
Defining disaster, aligning responders and consolidating standards are early challenges for the FCC rechartered Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee’s working group on disaster response and recovery, members said at their first meeting Thursday. BDAC’s “next mission,” which also includes increasing broadband in low-income communities and infrastructure job skills and training, is “absolutely vital,” even if those issues are “not on the front page every day,” Chairman Ajit Pai told the group.
The full FCC clarified expectations for market modification petitions. An order released Thursday overturns the Media Bureau’s reasons for granting four market modification petitions filed by “orphan county” La Plata, Colorado. But it affirmed the bureau’s final decision granting them. This issue had attracted media and congressional notice.
The 1996 Telecom Act set mandates for ILECs to open networks to competitors, but incumbents say enough competition exists for the FCC to grant USTelecom's petition for forbearance from a requirement to provide unbundled network elements (UNEs) to competitive LECs. At minimum, ILECs seek forbearance wherever there is evidence of facilities-based market competition, such as from a cable provider. CLECs said they still need UNE access (see 1905140012). All sides told us recently to expect the FCC to act soon.
Oral argument that appeared to go against the FCC Tuesday at the 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals is expected to result in media ownership rules being remanded or possibly vacated (see 1906110073). That's called unlikely to slow broadcast dealmaking or affect existing combinations. It could affect the agency’s plans for the 2018 quadrennial review, academics, broadcasters and their lawyers told us this week.
Wireless ISPs need more and better spectrum to succeed, WISP Association officials said in a briefing for Capitol Hill staffers Wednesday. WISPA officials are especially hopeful about the 2.5 GHz band, a likely target of the FCC at its July 10 meeting.
Big tech companies like Google might need to be broken up because Silicon Valley market power is threatening democracy, three Republican state attorneys general told the FTC Wednesday. During a competition policy hearing, Nebraska AG Doug Peterson (R) urged state enforcers to be fast, thorough and thoughtful in probing the industry: “Once we gather the information necessary, we have to consider whether or not to break things.”
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and other commissioners placed blame for recent hiccups in work to free up spectrum for commercial 5G use squarely on the Commerce Department and NOAA, during a Wednesday Senate Commerce Committee hearing. Pai used the panel to announce pending FCC action to improve the agency's broadband coverage data collection practices, which have come up repeatedly in Capitol Hill communications policy hearings (see 1905150061). Senators also used the panel to probe FCC actions on other communications policy items, including GOP commissioners' public support for T-Mobile's proposed buy of Sprint.
Trinity Broadcasting/LPN Spectrum's C-band clearing plan (see 1905170034) is another call for a broad array of stakeholders to get a piece of any spectrum rights sale proceeds. Some see that as a route to getting any plan to move forward, they said in interviews in recent weeks. Problem is, one major stakeholder isn't yet on board.