The government's Alaska USF plan wouldn’t preserve universal service, Alaska Communications Systems (ACS) said in Tuesday comments at the Regulatory Commission of Alaska (RCA). The carrier lambasted the staff proposal to extend the AUSF sunset by two years to June 30, 2025, while reducing support (see 2210260076). The Alaska attorney general’s office sought a longer sunset, and CTIA urged the commission not to let up.
The American Data Privacy and Protection Act still has a chance -- albeit a slim one -- of passing during the lame-duck congressional session, privacy experts said Wednesday at a Broadband Breakfast panel. Without comprehensive federal legislation, expect an ongoing wave of states crafting their own privacy rules, said R Street Institute's Brandon Pugh.
House Communications Subcommittee leaders are monitoring from afar Senate Commerce Committee negotiations on a potential compromise spectrum measure with an eye on the legislative clock as they question if a viable alternative to the existing Spectrum Innovation Act (HR-7624) is achievable amid the jam-packed lame-duck session. Fraught talks are underway aimed at reaching a deal on an FY 2023 appropriations omnibus package seen as a potential vehicle for passing spectrum legislation and allocating new funding for two bipartisan telecom priorities: the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program and next-generation 911 tech upgrades. Hill leaders released a compromise version of the FY 2023 National Defense Authorization Act Tuesday without language authorizing funding for the telecom priorities (see 2212070056).
Karima Holmes won’t return as 911 director for the District of Columbia’s Office of Unified Communications (OUC). Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) withdrew the controversial nomination Monday after D.C. Council members signaled they would reject confirmation. Bowser, Holmes and others fought to save the nomination before a Tuesday D.C. Council vote. Withdrawal was “overdue," D.C. 4B01 Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Evan Yeats said in an interview: "We wasted a lot of time and energy on this fight that could have been invested in improving OUC."
Senate Antitrust Subcommittee Chair Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., struck back Tuesday against opponents of her Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (S-673) following a wave of outcry against a bid to attach the controversial bill to the FY 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (see 2212050067). Text of a pending compromise version of the annual measure, to be filed as an amendment to shell bill HR-7776, again failed to materialize by Tuesday afternoon, amid fractious negotiations.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce plans to challenge a federal court decision tossing businesses’ challenge to the Maryland digital ad tax’s pass-through ban, the Chamber said Monday. At oral argument last week, U.S. District Court for Northern Maryland Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby signaled she would dismiss without prejudice due to a state court striking down the tax as unconstitutional. In the Friday opinion, Griggsby also denied as moot Maryland’s motion to dismiss and plaintiff U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s motion for summary judgment.
The FCC should go after insurance companies that buy sales leads from robocallers and users of spoofed numbers, said communications attorney Arthur Belendiuk, of Smithwick and Belendiuk, in a complaint filed on his own behalf Monday in docket 20-195. “Starting as early as 8 a.m. and continuing into the evening hours, Complainant is barraged with a steady stream of unwanted telephone calls on both his mobile telephone and office telephone number, seven days a week,” said Belendiuk. The FCC “has the statutory authority to eliminate this scourge on American consumers,” said the complaint, comparing robocalls to “a plague of locusts” and calling for a forfeiture of $500 million for each company involved.
Facebook parent Meta threatened Monday to "consider removing news from our platform altogether" if Congress passes the FY 2023 National Defense Authorization with language from the controversial Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (S-673), part of an outcry from opponents of the measure amid reports that Senate leaders planned to attach JCPA in the annual measure. The Senate Judiciary Committee-cleared S-673 (see 2209220077) would create a limited antitrust exemption to allow news publishers to collectively bargain with tech platforms for the use of their content. The House Judiciary Committee hasn't voted on companion HR-1735. The House Rules Committee postponed plans to vote Monday on a rule setting up floor debate on the measure, to be filed as an amendment to shell bill HR-7776, because the bill wasn’t yet ready.
A bid to circumvent FCC barriers on broadcasters airing ads for cannabis products in states where they're legal faces uncertain prospects on Capitol Hill. Federal law bars broadcasters from carrying ads for marijuana and other schedule 1 controlled substances. The House passed its FY23 FCC appropriations bill (HR-8294) in July with a rider barring the FCC from using its funding to revoke or otherwise condition a broadcaster’s license because it airs ads for cannabis products (see 2206270061).
The FCC Precision Ag Task Force unanimously adopted its working groups’ reports and recommendations Friday at a virtual meeting that also heard updates from the Broadband Data Task Force on how agricultural lands are accounted for in the broadband serviceable location fabric.