After a prolonged negotiation, DOJ reached agreement with T-Mobile/Sprint and Dish Network (see 1907260021). Justice got five attorneys general onboard from states that hadn't tried to block the multibillion dollar transaction. Industry officials said getting some support from states was important to the department and delayed an announcement by a day, though opposing states are expected to continue their lawsuit in federal court in New York. The California Public Utilities Commission also hasn't approved the deal. DOJ’s consent decree with the companies did little to mollify most critics.
After a prolonged negotiation, DOJ reached agreement with T-Mobile/Sprint and Dish Network (see 1907260021). Justice got five attorneys general onboard from states that hadn't tried to block the multibillion dollar transaction. Industry officials said getting some support from states was important to the department and delayed an announcement by a day, though opposing states are expected to continue their lawsuit in federal court in New York. The California Public Utilities Commission also hasn't approved the deal. DOJ’s consent decree with the companies did little to mollify most critics.
The FCC moved a step closer to a three-year, $100 million telehealth pilot, with an NPRM issued Thursday, a day after unanimous approval, in docket 18-213. The OK was expected (see 1907090034). Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel hopes the pilot will include projects to study how broadband-enabled monitoring can help curb the growing incidence of maternal mortality by tracking blood pressure, weight and other metrics in women with preeclampsia. She would like to see patients studied in every state and territory. Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said the program could help remotely connect veterans, adolescents and others to mental health professionals outside their own states. Comments are due 30 days after Federal Register publication, replies 30 days later.
The FCC moved a step closer to a three-year, $100 million telehealth pilot, with an NPRM issued Thursday, a day after unanimous approval, in docket 18-213. The OK was expected (see 1907090034). Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel hopes the pilot will include projects to study how broadband-enabled monitoring can help curb the growing incidence of maternal mortality by tracking blood pressure, weight and other metrics in women with preeclampsia. She would like to see patients studied in every state and territory. Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said the program could help remotely connect veterans, adolescents and others to mental health professionals outside their own states. Comments are due 30 days after Federal Register publication, replies 30 days later.
The FCC voted along party lines Wednesday for partial pre-emption of San Francisco's Article 52 open-access rule, with dissenting Democratic commissioners complaining of regulatory overreach. Geoffrey Starks called the declaratory ruling “not sound law and not good policy." Jessica Rosenworcel said it's "an affront to our long history" of local control. The Republicans and Starks backed a related NPRM on other ways the FCC could boost broadband deployment in multi-tenant environments (MTE), though Mike O'Rielly said he did so with reservations. Chairman Ajit Pai said Article 52 is rife with ambiguity and chilled broadband investment. He said if the city's correct that Article 52 doesn't require sharing of in-use wiring (see 1907010023), there's no reason to object to the agency's narrow ruling banning such required sharing. Wireline Bureau Chief Kris Monteith told us pre-emption doesn't require FCC notification to San Francisco, and it becomes effective on the ruling's release. Mayor London Breed (D) didn't comment Thursday. With broadband deployment inherently interstate commerce, O'Rielly said after the meeting he anticipates the agency taking further pre-emptive steps on other state or local broadband deployment regulations. "I'm sorry they feel upset about that or their authority is being restricted -- it's our authority," he told us. "Sorry, not sorry." When we asked directly, none of the regular commissioners pointed to other state or local regimes that could be an agency target.
The FCC’s Aug. 1 commissioners’ meeting will be headlined by proposed rulemakings on robocalls and the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, per the tentative agenda and drafts released Thursday late afternoon. Members will vote on an NPRM on low-power FM technical rules, orders on 911 location and small satellites, plus items on a toll-free number auction and local franchising authority over cable.
The FCC voted along party lines Wednesday for partial pre-emption of San Francisco's Article 52 open-access rule, with dissenting Democratic commissioners complaining of regulatory overreach. Geoffrey Starks called the declaratory ruling “not sound law and not good policy." Jessica Rosenworcel said it's "an affront to our long history" of local control. The Republicans and Starks, meanwhile, backed the related NPRM asking about other ways the FCC could boost broadband deployment in multi-tenant environments (MTE), though Mike O'Rielly said he did so with reservations.
The FCC voted 3-2 along party lines Wednesday to approve a kidvid order that was little changed from the draft version released last month, as expected (see 1907090069). Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks condemned the order. “There is nothing in this item that would prevent a broadcaster from reducing the amount of regularly scheduled, 30-minute core programming aired on its primary stream to zero,” Starks said.
The FCC approved revised rules for the 2.5 GHz educational broadband service band over partial dissents at the commissioners' meeting Wednesday by Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks. The biggest change from the draft order was that instead of single 100 and 16 MHz licenses, the FCC will offer two 50 MHz licenses. The order also contains language (see 1907030043) sought by Commissioner Brendan Carr addressing licenses held by national nonprofits. Rosenworcel and Starks dissented to all of the order except provisions preserving a filing window for tribal entities seeking new EBS licenses.
FCC preliminary numbers show about 12 percent of Lifeline subscribers de-enrolled in states where the national verifier is reaching final steps in the reverification process. Lifeline providers saw many Lifeline de-enrollments in recent weeks in some of the first states where the NV launched, but carrier application program interface remains unavailable and Universal Service Administrative Co. still lacks access to many state databases or the national Medicaid database, said John Heitmann of Kelley Drye, counsel to the National Lifeline Association. At least 2 million could be de-enrolled due to difficulties verifying, he said.