House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., holds out hope that Congress can still advance the Senate’s Mobile Now spectrum bill (S-2555) into law despite Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., throwing up hurdles to the bill’s floor passage in the upper chamber, Walden told us Wednesday. The legislation cleared the Senate Commerce Committee in March but now faces Democratic holds on the Senate floor (see 1606070063) and lacks a House companion bill.
DALLAS -- The FCC approach under Chairman Tom Wheeler to competition was attacked as a Telecommunications Industry Association conference was drawing to a close Wednesday. In what TIA CEO Scott Belcher billed as the only time the policy chiefs of the big three ISPs gathered on one stage simultaneously, two of those executives, from AT&T and Comcast, had harsh words for a variety of competition-related rules. And the third ISP policy chief, from Verizon, said Washington gets it wrong on some broadband customer take-up issues.
DALLAS -- The FCC approach under Chairman Tom Wheeler to competition was attacked as a Telecommunications Industry Association conference was drawing to a close Wednesday. In what TIA CEO Scott Belcher billed as the only time the policy chiefs of the big three ISPs gathered on one stage simultaneously, two of those executives, from AT&T and Comcast, had harsh words for a variety of competition-related rules. And the third ISP policy chief, from Verizon, said Washington gets it wrong on some broadband customer take-up issues.
Homework gap concerns led Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, to secure language on the topic in last year’s Elementary and Secondary Education Act reauthorization law, he said Monday. He cited work with Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., on this front and, speaking in the Hart building at a briefing hosted by the National Coalition for Technology in Education and Training, said the provision allows an education tech grant program to fund internet access and compels a Department of Education study on the homework gap.
Homework gap concerns led Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, to secure language on the topic in last year’s Elementary and Secondary Education Act reauthorization law, he said Monday. He cited work with Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., on this front and, speaking in the Hart building at a briefing hosted by the National Coalition for Technology in Education and Training, said the provision allows an education tech grant program to fund internet access and compels a Department of Education study on the homework gap.
Top 911 associations are seeking to raise awareness about state 911 fee diversion, in which some states use 911 fees on consumer bills to pay for things not directly related. The FCC estimated diversion led to $223.4 million of 911 fee revenue going to other purposes in 2014. In Part I of this report, we found that the three states said to do the most diversion seemed unlikely to quit the practice soon (see 1605270020). In interviews last week, emergency response leaders said achieving 100 percent usage of 911 fees for 911 service is critical to maintaining emergency response service quality, adequately staffing 911 centers, and funding upgrades to Next-Generation 911 so people can send multimedia to emergency responders.
The FCC approved a Connect America Fund Phase II subsidy auction plan to provide $215 million in annual broadband-oriented support to unsubsidized rural areas traditionally served by larger telcos. At their Wednesday meeting, commissioners voted almost unanimously to adopt an order setting the CAF II auction framework and a Further NPRM to flesh out certain auction specifics, including "weights" for bidders offering different broadband service levels. Commissioner Mike O'Rielly partially dissented on the FNPRM, but even he credited his colleagues with making a fiber-oriented draft item more balanced among technologies: "We are still a long way from home, but at least we're back on course for now."
The FCC approved a Connect America Fund Phase II subsidy auction plan to provide $215 million in annual broadband-oriented support to unsubsidized rural areas traditionally served by larger telcos. At their Wednesday meeting, commissioners voted almost unanimously to adopt an order setting the CAF II auction framework and a Further NPRM to flesh out certain auction specifics, including "weights" for bidders offering different broadband service levels. Commissioner Mike O'Rielly partially dissented on the FNPRM, but even he credited his colleagues with making a fiber-oriented draft item more balanced among technologies: "We are still a long way from home, but at least we're back on course for now."
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler could face an uphill battle trying to reestablish the joint sales agreement attribution rule vacated by the 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a majority opinion by Judge Thomas Ambro, broadcast attorneys told us. Along with vacating the JSA rule as expected (see 1604190041) in Wednesday’s Prometheus III decision, the 3rd Circuit took the commission to task for delaying the 2010 and 2014 quadrennial reviews and not abiding by the court’s decision in the previous two Prometheus cases (see 1605250016). That was the subject of a Communications Daily Bulletin.
BOSTON -- Any number of next steps, from a report or rulemaking to "some other option," are possible after the FCC's independent and diverse programming notice of inquiry and related workshops, said David Grossman, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn's chief of staff, on an INTX 2016 panel Tuesday. Jessica Almond, aide to Chairman Tom Wheeler, said Wheeler similarly is interested in some next step in the programming NOI, but gave no details on what. Wheeler is scheduled to talk Wednesday.