AT&T and Verizon's Cellco Partnership were by far top recipients of C-band flexible use overlay licenses in Auction 107. Per our breakdown of an FCC Wireless Bureau public notice Friday, Verizon received 3,518 licenses and AT&T 1,620. Others included U.S. Cellular with 253 licenses, T-Mobile (141) and Canopy Spectrum (83). Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel called the licenses "the sweet spot for 5G deployment [due to] the right mix of capacity and propagation that will help us reach more people in more places faster. With these licenses in hand, more carriers can deploy mid-band 5G." The C-band auction was approved under former Chairman Ajit Pai and was “no walk in the park,” Commissioner Brendan Carr said Monday. “We must do more than implement the tough spectrum decisions the FCC made over the last few years if we are going to extend U.S. leadership in 5G,” he said: “We must move forward with a number of new spectrum proceedings too.”
Items adjacent to net neutrality in President Joe Biden's executive order issued earlier this month (see 2107090006) could get packaged together with net neutrality or at least all be on deck for FCC meetings late this year or early 2022, experts and interested parties told us. Some think the agency may try to move some less controversial items, such as broadband “nutrition labeling,” while it still has a 2-2 party split and acting chairwoman. Many think work is underway on net neutrality (see 2107200036).
Items adjacent to net neutrality in President Joe Biden's executive order issued earlier this month (see 2107090006) could get packaged together with net neutrality or at least all be on deck for FCC meetings late this year or early 2022, experts and interested parties told us. Some think the agency may try to move some less controversial items, such as broadband “nutrition labeling,” while it still has a 2-2 party split and acting chairwoman. Many think work is underway on net neutrality (see 2107200036).
TV stations increasingly are available via a mushrooming number of streaming options such as aggregators. Discussions between networks and affiliates have been rising as cable subscribers decline, putting retransmission consent dollars in jeopardy, experts said in recent interviews. Networks wanted big increases on what affiliates pay based on the notion affiliates get more retrans revenue, but there's MVPD resistance to rising retrans fees, said broadcast lawyer Jack Goodman.
TV stations increasingly are available via a mushrooming number of streaming options such as aggregators. Discussions between networks and affiliates have been rising as cable subscribers decline, putting retransmission consent dollars in jeopardy, experts said in recent interviews. Networks wanted big increases on what affiliates pay based on the notion affiliates get more retrans revenue, but there's MVPD resistance to rising retrans fees, said broadcast lawyer Jack Goodman.
The legions of geostationary orbit gateway earth stations in the upper microwave flexible use band Viasat applied for in recent days are evidence the FCC's lengthier buildout period for GSO earth station deployments adopted last year is allowing stockpiling of earth station sites, SpaceX said in a docket 18-314 filing posted Tuesday. Since July 1, per our search of International Bureau filings, Viasat has submitted 382 earth station applications in the 27.5-28.35 MHz band to connect with its Viasat-3 network. SpaceX said Hughes' critiques of arguments against the extended buildout period now "essentially concedes" that Viasat is engaged in stockpiling earth station sites. Hughes said earlier this month the Viasat applications "prove nothing about the likelihood of warehousing" and that SpaceX hasn't shown evidence the sites are unnecessary. SpaceX is among parties that sought reconsideration of Part 25 satellite rules (see 2105070044). Neither Viasat nor Hughes commented Wednesday.
States and localities are loosening pandemic-related restrictions, but federal and state courts are a more mixed bag, our informal survey found. State courts likely will be fully open by Labor Day and generally done with COVID-19 precautions, said Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht, who's president of the Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ). Federal courts are more scattered in their moves.
The FCC approval Friday of AT&T's spinoff of its North American video distribution business came with no conditions. See also our news bulletin here. The International and Wireless bureaus order approving transfer of some satellite, earth station and private land mobile radio licenses said that since TPG Capital, which is buying a 30% stake in the spinoff, has no significant video programming or distribution assets, New DirecTV poses "no adverse effect on market concentration or likely competitive or public interest harms." Staff said no one had challenged AT&T and TPG assertions that the $7.8 billion deal announced in February (see 2102240046) would make New DirecTV more competitive through dedicated management, an ability to focus solely on the video business and the addition of capital and resources. Network affiliates had sought a condition requiring provide local-into-local service into all designated market areas (see 2105040055). The bureaus' order said nothing in the record points to New DirecTV having any less incentive to carry local broadcast channels and the affiliates didn't put forward evidence or a good theory showing New DirecTV would have different competitive pressures in those markets post transaction. Indie programmer RMG had urged that New DirecTV be required to allocate at least 1% of its channel lineup for rural-focused programming and be barred from removing rural content from its post-spinoff programming lineup. The order said the spinoff doesn't raise vertical integration concerns that New DirecTV would discriminate against unaffiliated programmers or change the incentives behind DirecTV program carriage decisions. AT&T said it "appreciate[s] the FCC’s prompt review and approval."
Three Democratic senators criticized CTIA for lobbying efforts on states' implementation of the 988 suicide prevention hotline. "Telecom lobbyists appear to be pressing state legislatures to reduce the size of the fees assessed and the scope of the services to which the fees could apply, well beyond -- and in some cases contrary to -- the guardrails already written into law," Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Chris Murphy of Connecticut wrote CEO Meredith Baker Thursday.
There's no big change between the draft order amending FCC International Bureau Filing System rules and the order adopted by FCC commissioners Tuesday, we found. The order requires electronic, instead of paper, filing of applications for international high frequency broadcast stations and dominant carrier quarterly reports and ends a duplicate paper filing requirement for satellite cost-recovery declarations. The FCC said that ends any remaining IB applications and reports being filed on paper.