Democrats bowed two broadband bills Tuesday as the chamber headed toward an expected Wednesday vote on Senate-passed changes to the American Rescue Plan Act COVID-19 budget reconciliation package. HR-1319 includes emergency broadband and CPB funding (see 2103080057). The House received the amended bill Tuesday and was readying a procedural vote that afternoon. Rep. Anna Eshoo of California and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey led refiling of the Community Broadband Act, which would guarantee municipalities and other local governments retain the right to build their own broadband networks in competition with ISPs. Eshoo originally filed the bill in 2016 after the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down FCC pre-emption of state laws restricting municipal broadband networks (see 1609130059). The measure “will bridge the digital divide and help local governments enable connectivity, increase economic growth and create jobs,” Eshoo said. Rep. Jared Golden of Maine is a co-sponsor of the House version. Reps. Marc Veasey of Texas and Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware, meanwhile, filed the Enhanced Emergency Broadband Act, which would provide additional emergency broadband benefit money (see 2103040049).

"Figure out how to fund a long term, permanent broadband subsidy" to assist low-income consumers, because the emergency broadband benefit program is a "temporary solution," the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council asked acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, a filing said Tuesday in docket 20-445. MMTC supports allowing school districts to temporarily use E-rate funds for remote learning. It wants to ensure that "diverse suppliers have an opportunity to compete for downstream opportunities from auctions and appropriate transactions within the FCC's jurisdiction."

SpaceX's Starlink is offering users speeds twice of what's required by the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund and latency at a small fraction of the threshold for a low-latency service, CEO Elon Musk told FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, per an RM-11768 post Tuesday. SpaceX said repeated extensive analyses over the past 11 months show that allowing a lower orbit for more than 2,800 proposed satellites (see 2004200003) won't create significant interference issues for other satellite or terrestrial licensees. SpaceX said some opponents, such as Amazon's Kuiper, "have apparently abandoned their own systems" and are focusing on lobbying efforts in opposition to that lower altitude to forestall SpaceX. Amazon emailed that SpaceX "would love to stifle competition and be the only [low earth orbit] system out there. That’s not only unrealistic -- it’s bad for the billions of people on Earth without reliable broadband. The Kuiper team is over 500 people and growing. Amazon is fully committed to Project Kuiper and its mission to deliver fast, affordable broadband to unserved and underserved communities around the world.” SpaceX said multichannel video and data distribution service licensees against the license modification haven't explained how it would affect them, as other non-geostationary orbit systems are already licensed with wider beams and at lower elevation angles in the 12 GHz band.

SpaceX, which has a blanket authorization for up to 1 million end-user earth stations to communicate with its non-geostationary orbit broadband constellation, asked the FCC International Bureau for OK for those earth stations to deploy as vehicle-mounted earth stations, earth stations on vessels and earth stations aboard aircraft. An application Friday said those earth stations in motion would have the same transmit power, gain and effective isotropic radiated power as the authorized user terminals. Pending before the bureau is SpaceX's request for its blanket earth station license to expanded from 1 million to 5 million (see 2008030004).

More than 12 million U.S. households have canceled home broadband, using only mobile, reported Parks Associates Tuesday. More than 3 million additional households never had a home internet subscription. Cost is the leading reason for cutting this cord, but consumers also reported slow speeds and poor customer service, said analyst Kristen Hanich. Smart Wi-Fi or mesh networking products can stem churn: 75% of households likely to switch providers would stay if offered such a solution, Hanich said. Some 94% of U.S. broadband households use Wi-Fi at home; more than half report problems with their experience, she said. As of September, 41% of households were engaged in remote work or schooling, renewing customers’ focus on their broadband speeds, she said. The COVID-19 pandemic drove 9% of households to upgrade broadband service.

Even considering the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund proceeds SpaceX will receive, the business case for its terminals is iffy, and the company likely will need to rely "on really high-end, bandwidth-hungry subscribers" with particularly low churn rates to amortize those costs, Northern Sky Research analyst Lluc Palerm blogged Monday. Lowering end-user terminal costs is the linchpin of SpaceX and all low earth orbit constellations getting into the consumer broadband market, he said. SpaceX didn't comment Tuesday.

Mediacom ended 2020 with 1.44 million broadband customers, up 110,000; 643,000 video customers, a 67,000 drop; and 586,000 phone customers, down 27,000, said Q4's announcement Thursday. Revenue for the year rose 4.9% to $2.13 billion.

Wi-Fi advocates defended the FCC’s April decision to allow unlicensed use of the 6 GHz band, in an amicus brief posted Tuesday at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (in Pacer) in docket 20-1190. “The FCC has more than 30 years of experience managing unlicensed spectrum access, using rules and procedures similar to those" here, said Public Knowledge, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society and New America Open Technology Institute. “The FCC has consistently and successfully nurtured the unlicensed ecosystem while protecting licensed services from harmful interference.”

Comcast again delayed implementing its data cap plan for numerous Eastern states, now until 2022. "While only a very small percentage of customers need additional data, we are providing them with more time to become familiar with the new plan," it blogged Thursday. The cable ISP said this month it was pausing overage fees until August on the 1.2 TB limit in Eastern and Northeastern states (see 2102030017). That delay didn't end concerns from state and local officials. See our report here.

Stakeholders are seeking simple enrollment in the FCC's $3.2 billion emergency broadband benefit program, they said in replies due Tuesday in docket 20-445. Adopt a broad definition of “household," Public Knowledge asked. The National Council of Urban Indian Health raised concerns about eligibility requirements, asking the commission to let tribal citizens not residing on tribal lands participate “to the same extent that American Indians and Alaska Natives residing on tribal lands are able.” Encourage broadest adoption so the hardest-hit communities can participate, said the LGBT Technology Partnership & Institute. That includes allowing noneligible telecom carriers to take part, it and others said. The group sided with AT&T in asking the commission to provide a 90-day notice that the funds are projected to be exhausted. Starry said non-ETCs should be automatically approved if they can “objectively show that they currently offer a discounted service to low-income consumers or individuals adversely affected” by the COVID-19 pandemic. ETCs should get the opportunity to participate “even outside their designated ETC service area,” said CTIA. Others disagreed. The California Public Utility Commission said non-ETCs should “submit election notices and compliance plans that will be reviewed and approved." Others asked that the program include support for equipment like Wi-Fi routers and hot spots. The Competitive Carriers Association asked to include smartphones as a “connected device” and focus on “whether a device meets minimum requirements to support the kinds of functions needed for online learning and other similar applications.” Tracfone, which is being bought by Verizon, said the definition of “tablet” should include “4G/LTE-capable devices with a touchscreen that support video conferencing.” The Illinois Office of Broadband supported leveraging resources of state authorities to promote awareness and suggested providing financial support. The FCC should confirm that it, not states and localities, has enforcement authority because that would otherwise “disincentivize provider participation,” said Altice.