Agencies can change their minds about regulation due to leadership shifts, a dynamic that applies to broadband reclassifications, said FCC senior litigation officials at an FCBA event Tuesday evening. It's settled law that changes in administration bring changes in policy, said Jacob Lewis, associate general counsel, suggesting Chevron judicial deference applies. That agencies can change course after administration changes is nothing new, as 1984's Chevron was about a Reagan administration EPA change from the Carter administration policy, said Richard Welch, deputy associate general counsel. He noted they spoke only for themselves.
A California state senator said an Assembly committee may have violated rules when it voted for substantive changes to his net neutrality bill (SB-822). At a testy Wednesday hearing, the Assembly Communications and Conveyance Committee voted 8-0 to adopt a committee amendment made public less than 24 hours earlier, with the vote occurring before any testimony. “What the committee just did was outrageous,” state Sen. Scott Wiener (D) told the Assembly committee's chairman, Miguel Santiago (D). Wiener later asked to withdraw the “mutilated” bill from the committee’s consideration, but the committee held a vote to move the amended bill forward anyway.
The Trump administration is sending the clearest signals yet that sharing is winning versus exclusive-use spectrum licenses. More will be known as decisions are made about various bands, but wireless industry lawyers said carriers may be disappointed by the administration's overall approach. NTIA held a symposium last week on the strategy (see 1806120056), including DOD and FAA officials. NTIA Administrator David Redl said for some bands, sharing may be the only option (see 1806130080). NTIA declined further comment.
The FCC July 12 agenda will tackle C-band spectrum for 5G, an NPRM on children’s TV rules as expected (see 1806180055), and false emergency alerts, but not the national TV ownership cap, said industry attorneys and Chairman Ajit Pai's blog. Though the FCC was seen last week as aiming to take on the cap in July (see 1806140055), the agency is now seen as shooting for the August commissioners’ meeting. “It’s imperative that we remain at the front of the pack,” for 5G, Pai said. The July meeting also will include proceedings on nationwide number portability, 800 MHz spectrum and handling of formal complaints, he wrote.
A Wednesday Senate Commerce Committee confirmation hearing for FCC nominee Geoffrey Starks delivered few surprises but did confirm committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., intends to fast-track a vote to advance the nominee to the full Senate, as expected (see 1804060049, 1806120047 and 1806190045). President Donald Trump nominated Starks this month to succeed former Commissioner Mignon Clyburn (see 1806010072 and 1806040067). Thune and several Democrats used the hearing to deliver partisan shots at the FCC's conduct under Chairman Ajit Pai and previous Chairman Tom Wheeler. Starks attempted to thread the needle between bipartisan outreach and partisan overtures during the hearing, which Thune told reporters he viewed as relatively "smooth." The hearing also examined Consumer Product Safety Commission nominee Peter Feldman.
Senate Consumer Protection Subcommittee ranking member Richard Blumenthal, Conn., and other subcommittee Democrats used a Tuesday hearing on privacy implications of the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica breach to expand what they perceive to be Facebook's violations of its 2011 consent decree with the FTC to include other recently-disclosed actions. Former FTC Chief Technologist Ashkan Soltani confirmed the Democrats' view, saying he believed Facebook violated the agreement. Blumenthal, Senate Consumer Protection Chairman Jerry Moran, R-Kan., and others drilled down on potential legislative solutions to address Facebook-Cambridge Analytica's privacy implications.
The wireless industry said the FCC should reject some proposed changes sought by other commenters (see 1805210044), in replies on a cell-booster Further NPRM. In March, commissioners approved an order 5-0 lifting the personal use restriction on consumer cell-signal boosters and approved an FNPRM proposing to eliminate the personal use restriction on wideband boosters and to authorize nonsubscribers to operate boosters, plus other potential changes (see 1803220037). Booster companies urged the FCC to further liberalize the rules.
AT&T and Verizon opposed and others supported a CenturyLink petition asking the FCC to allow local carriers and VoIP partners to collect higher end-office switching charges in certain cases even if the VoIP providers don't control last-mile facilities. Separately responding to an NPRM, rural telcos backed giving certain RLECs an option to shift their business data service offerings from rate-of-return regulation to incentive-based price caps, while AT&T and Sprint urged the FCC to ensure such price caps are set appropriately. Comments were due Monday on the CenturyLink petition in docket 01-92, and on the NPRM in docket 17-144.
The Senate-passed defense authorization bill includes an amendment to retain ZTE's seven-year export ban (see 1806070040), though the Commerce Department keeps discretion to let the company continue importing semiconductors from U.S. sources, leading to some skepticism. Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, is to meet Wednesday with administration officials and other lawmakers on Capitol Hill's battle with the White House over Commerce's decision to lift its ban on U.S. companies selling telecom software and equipment to ZTE. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., will attend, Capitol Hill officials told us.
The U.S. District Court decision last week greenlighting AT&T buying Time Warner (see 1806120060) was center stage at a Technology Policy Institute event Tuesday, with some experts saying it paves the path for more vertical deals, and others questioning its antitrust significance. If the government had prevailed, regulatory approval of deals like Comcast/Fox or Disney/Fox would have been more a question mark, but the decision's emphasis on empirical analyses helps such cases, said Christopher Yoo, University of Pennsylvania Law School Center for Technology, Innovation and Competition director.