Despite relatively low bids in the first U.S. high-band spectrum auction ended Thursday (see 1901240034), it was a success, regulators and industry officials said. The next step is the start of the 24 GHz auction, which the FCC will announce this week. It plans an auction of the 37, 39 and 47 GHz bands later in the year. “This will allow Americans to see even faster, more competitive, & next-gen broadband services,” Commissioner Brendan Carr tweeted Friday.
Over a dozen court cases on recent FCC actions to spur 5G wireless buildout have largely been consolidated in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and appear likely to be completely consolidated. The D.C. Circuit Friday asked parties to show cause why a final batch of wireless cases shouldn't be transferred to the 9th Circuit, and none objected. The 11th Circuit also is considering an FCC request to transfer to the 9th Circuit a challenge to an August pole attachment order, which the commission had combined with a declaratory ruling prohibiting local and state moratoriums on infrastructure deployment (see 1808090011).
Media deals making their way through federal court -- AT&T/Time Warner at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Disney/Fox at U.S. District Court in Manhattan -- shouldn't face a delay in judicial action due to the partial federal shutdown, antitrust and law experts told us. The month-long shutdown also isn’t seen having much effect on broadcast deals, analysts and attorneys told us.
Frontier Communications pushed back on a scathing service-quality assessment by the Minnesota Commerce Department that said the carrier possibly violated at least 35 laws and rules, based on about 1,000 customer comments. "It maybe is not as large a crisis as the department has portrayed it to be," said Frontier General Counsel Kevin Saville at the Public Utilities Commission's livestreamed Thursday meeting.
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., met Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and former FTC members Wednesday about online privacy, the lawmakers told us Thursday. “My goal is to listen and see what we can do to make sure companies have skin in the game,” Scott told us. The ex-FTC officials talked about preventing future privacy breaches, he said.
The House Commerce Committee will step into the messaging battle about the ongoing partial government shutdown next week via a planned Jan. 31 hearing aimed at examining the shuttering's effects on federal agencies under the committee's jurisdiction, which include the FCC and FTC, Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said during a Thursday committee meeting. House Commerce is working to schedule an expected net neutrality hearing for February. It’s also considering a joint hearing with the House Judiciary Committee to examine T-Mobile's proposed buy of Sprint, lobbyists said.
The FCC is continuing to prepare for the 24 GHz auction and future auctions, including pushing forward on the C band and other bands being looked at for 5G. The 28 GHz auction closed Thursday. Nevertheless, the agency remains constrained in how much staff can do as the longest shutdown in federal history continues. “Staff continues to work on future auctions,” a spokesperson emailed Thursday.
The shutdown is having immediate FCC consequences in the form of delayed filing deadlines and shuttered websites. It could also ripple out to delay expected rule changes for 2019, industry officials told us this week. Since staff isn’t available, expected early-2019 policy decisions on kidvid and rate regulation, court cases and progress of deals such as T-Mobile buying Sprint are considered likely to be delayed.
Winning the race to 5G will require “substantial additional terrestrial spectrum” and a “clearly defined schedule” for making that spectrum available, CTIA commented to NTIA on the national spectrum policy. Despite a government shutdown, which includes most of NTIA, CTIA and others released comments. Most appeared to follow past arguments. The filings are unlikely to be posted online until government reopens, industry officials said.
Lifeline subscribership has "shrunk" almost 30 percent under FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and is set to drop at least another 30 percent "on his watch," said Kelley Drye attorney John Heitmann on a New America Open Technology Institute panel Wednesday. Representing Lifeline providers, he said Pai commission actions and proposals undercut enrollment and providers.