Backers of the 5G Spectrum Authority Licensing Enforcement Act (HR-5677/S-2787) are seeking House floor consideration next week under suspension of the rules in hopes Capitol Hill can close out 2023 with a stopgap, temporary restoration of some elements of the FCC’s lapsed spectrum auction authority after almost nine months of stalled talks on a broader bill. Meanwhile, supporters of the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act (HR-3413/S-1669) drew attention Tuesday night to that bill when Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, tried and failed to pass it by unanimous consent in a coordinated standoff with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.
Future automated decision-making rules in California could have national impact on communications and internet companies, among many other industries, privacy experts said in interviews last week. The California Privacy Protection Agency board plans a Friday meeting to discuss an early proposal that the CPPA released last week. The proceeding is preliminary, with the agency saying it expects to formally begin the rulemaking next year.
While the FCC argues that its proposed MVPD early termination fee (ETF) and prorated refunds rules aren't rate regulation (see 2311220047), industry likely will oppose any draft order on rate regulation grounds, cable lawyers tell us. Whether the draft NPRM on this month's open meeting agenda gets Republican commissioner support is unclear, a 10th-floor aide tells us. The NPRM is the second refund-related video programming item before commissioners, with the chairwoman's office in October circulating a draft NRPM requiring MVPDs to refund subscribers affected by programming blackouts due to retransmission consent negotiations (see 2310110075). The aide said the chairwoman's office hasn't pressured the regular commissioners regarding the blackouts item, and the 2018 quadrennial review has overshadowed it.
An FCC draft order on the 2018 quadrennial review would extend the restriction on owning top-four duopolies to multicast channels and low-power TV stations but wouldn’t alter local radio ownership limits or rules barring major networks from purchasing each other, agency and industry officials said in interviews. The draft QR order, which officials told us runs some 90 pages, uses language that resembles the FCC’s arguments in an enforcement action and ongoing court case against Gray Television involving the company’s top-four combination in Anchorage, FCC and industry officials told us.
Creating a domestic warrant requirement for the FBI’s foreign intelligence surveillance authority would “paralyze” efforts to thwart “fast-moving threats” abroad, FBI Director Christopher Wray told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.
Arizona commissioners questioned state USF accountability as they unanimously declined Tuesday to raise contribution rates. During a livestreamed meeting, commissioners voted 5-0 against staff’s proposed decision to raise state USF charges for 2024 (docket RT-00000H-97-0137). In addition, members unanimously granted a Verizon application to discontinue MCIMetro basic local exchange services to residential and small business customers throughout its service territory on Dec. 31 (docket T-03574A-23-0243).
T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert and AT&T CEO John Stankey had a similar message at the UBS conference Tuesday. Wireless competition in the U.S. is thriving, but the big carriers' investments are rational as they target higher average revenue per user. Stankey also discussed AT&T's open radio access network strategy (see 2312050049).
The House Commerce Committee voted 46-0 Tuesday to advance its version of the 5G Spectrum Authority Licensing Enforcement Act (HR-5677), clearing the way for floor action on the measure as a stopgap aimed at temporarily restoring parts of the FCC’s lapsed spectrum auction authority. The Senate unanimously cleared original version S-2787 in September amid some lawmakers’ push to jump-start stalled talks on broad spectrum legislation (see 2309220057). The measure would give the FCC authority for 90 days to issue T-Mobile and other winning bidders the licenses they bought in the 2.5 GHz band auction last year (see 2309140051).
AT&T is accelerating its move to an open radio access network, agreeing to spend up to $14 billion on a five-year contract with Ericsson. The carrier expects limited cost savings as it adopts ORAN, AT&T CEO John Stankey said during a UBS conference Tuesday. In addition, AT&T announced it will work with other vendors, though the move was widely seen as a loss for Ericsson rival Nokia.
Industry and consumer groups disagreed on whether updating the FCC's broadband speed benchmarks is necessary (see 2311010062). Some cited ongoing federal broadband deployment programs and private investments and encouraged the FCC to focus its report to Congress regarding the state of broadband on policies that could further facilitate deployment. Comments were posted Friday and Monday in docket 22-270.