The California Public Utilities Commission should consider recent federal actions on incarcerated people's communications services (IPCS) before adopting a permanent intrastate rate cap, industry and consumer groups argued in comments posted Wednesday. However, The Utility Reform Network (TURN) and Center for Accessible Technology (CforAT) suggested lowering the cap again on an interim basis. The CPUC received comments Tuesday on a Sept. 30 staff proposal recommending a permanent intrastate rate cap of 4.5 cents per minute for IPCS voice calls.
The FTC should use its investigatory powers to study “cancel culture,” deplatforming and the denial of financial services, Commissioner Melissa Holyoak said Wednesday during a George Mason University Mercatus Center virtual discussion.
LinkedIn Ireland violated EU data protection law when it processed personal data for behavioral analysis and targeted advertising, the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) announced Thursday. The data under question involved member information they provided directly to LinkedIn and member data obtained via third-party partners. The decision followed a complaint that French digital rights advocacy group La Quadrature du Net filed in August 2018, the DPC said. LinkedIn will pay a fine of $335 million and bring its processing into compliance with the general data protection regulation.
Wording in the FCC's broadband data caps notice of inquiry (see 2410150069) makes it "pretty clear the agency is really itching to ban data caps and, in turn, to regulate usage-based pricing," International Center for Law & Economics Senior Scholar Eric Fruits blogged Wednesday. Rather than ban or significantly restrict data caps and usage-based pricing, the agency should prioritize a regulatory approach "that encourages innovation and investment, while safeguarding consumer interests," Fruits wrote. That approach would optimally use existing antitrust and consumer protection rules to foster pricing transparency, he argued.
The FTC violated the Constitution and exceeded its rulemaking authority when it issued a rule aimed at making it easier for consumers to cancel subscriptions, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, NCTA, the Interactive Advertising Bureau and other industry groups said in three different lawsuits filed Tuesday in three separate appeals courts.
The FCC Wireless Bureau and Office of Economics and Analysis have approved T-Mobile’s buy of 600MHz spectrum licenses from LB License, said an order in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. “After carefully evaluating the potential competitive effects of the proposed assignment, we find that the likelihood of competitive harm is low,” the order said. T-Mobile has leased the spectrum from LB since 2020, the order said. EchoStar filed a petition to deny the deal, arguing that it would harm competition, but the agency disagreed. “We find that, post-transaction, the likelihood of competitive harm remains low in the markets that are the subject of this transaction,” the order said.
DOJ will push to end Google’s distribution agreements with companies like Apple, but a structural breakup isn’t likely to gain traction in the department’s antitrust lawsuit against the search giant, former DOJ and FTC officials said Tuesday (see 2410090035, 2410100036 and 2410160035).
A staunch opponent of giving FirstNet access to the 4.9 GHz band says the FCC decision to do that will head to court. The approved order, released Tuesday, said its aim is "more robust use" of the band, with FirstNet able to use unassigned spectrum in the band. Coalition for Emergency Response and Critical Infrastructure (CERCI) Chairman Kenneth Corey called the FCC order "unlawful, unnecessary, and an affront to public safety communications professionals across the country." He added, "This decision will be challenged and will be litigated."
SpaceX's claims that EchoStar's Dish Network's proposed terrestrial fixed wireless service can't coexist with Starlink operations in the lower 12 GHz band (see 2409040035) are "a textbook example of how to manipulate a technical analysis to reach a predetermined conclusion," EchoStar said Friday in docket 20-443. A SpaceX study randomly places fixed 5G base stations, ignoring that their location is the key to sharing, and its analysis "was designed to fail," EchoStar said. The SpaceX analysis assumes fixed 5G systems must operate constantly at full power, when they actually can dynamically adjust their power output. EchoStar also submitted a study simulating a denser distribution of Starlink terminals than SpaceX's analysis, but with EchoStar fixed 5G base stations deliberately placed to minimize interference. It said the results show coexistence without interference is "widely feasible." Consultancy RKF Engineering conducted EchoStar's study.
A one-day GPS outage could cost the American economy $1.6 billion, NextNav said Monday, citing a Brattle Group economic analysis it commissioned. NextNav said its petition seeking to reconfigure the 902-928 MHz band to allow a terrestrial complement to GPS for positioning, navigation and timing services (see 2404160043) represents "the equivalent of offering the American economy a $10.8 billion insurance policy to protect against GPS outages," or 20 years of insurance premiums.