NARUC is forming a task force to find answers to close the broadband gap between rural and urban areas, said NARUC President Brandon Presley in an interview this week. Broadband's “one of the biggest challenges in rural America today” and will be a major focus of NARUC's “Bridging the Divide” theme over the next year, said Presley, elected president this month (see 1911210039). The Democratic chairman of the Mississippi Public Service Commission also seeks to tighten the working relationship between state and FCC officials, he said.
Refocus FCC efforts on shoring up Lifeline affordability and reaching out to all eligible consumers instead of setting up new barriers, stakeholders recommended in interviews this week and last. The FCC last week 3-2 denied a pause on a $2 monthly decrease in support for voice-only, while raising by 50 percent a monthly minimum for broadband to 3 GB (see 1911200015). The previous week, the agency issued a 3-2 order that would curb fraud and abuse, and a Further NPRM asks whether to ban free handsets with new signups (see 1911140064).
State attorneys general sparred with T-Mobile and Sprint ahead of the Dec. 9 trial on the carrier’s proposed combination that would also establish Dish Network as a national wireless carrier. Plaintiffs and defendants filed pretrial memos Tuesday at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. “We are proceeding as planned and will be going to trial in less than two weeks,” a spokesperson for New York AG Letitia James (D) emailed Wednesday.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., is “OK” with permanently reauthorizing USA Patriot Act Section 215, except one provision: the call detail records program (see 1911120042), he told us. President Donald Trump signed a short-term funding bill through Dec. 20 on Nov. 21, extending the law through March 15, three months after the original December expiration.
Led by Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Maria Cantwell, Wash., Senate Democrats Tuesday unveiled federal privacy legislation. It has a provision Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., regards as a nonstarter (see 1911250058).
Long the home of only one satellite operator, non-voice non-geostationary (NVNG) bands are getting increased commercial interest due to evolving small-satellite technology, satellite lawyers told us. The FCC completed an NVNG UHF band processing round last month and is expected to undertake a VHF one in response to a Myriota petition (see 1911190002), we were told.
FCC Media Bureau approval of Apollo Global Management-related Terrier Media’s buy of Cox Media Group and Northwest’s stations (see 1911220069) is another indication the FCC isn’t likely to approve deals with complications testing the limits of existing broadcast rules, attorneys, broadcasters and brokers said in interviews this week. “If it pushes the envelope, they’ll slow your deal up,” one broadcaster said.
House Commerce Committee ranking member Greg Walden of Oregon is the most recent in a string of six Communications Subcommittee Republican members who say they won't seek re-election in 2020 (see 1910280020). At the least, just less than half of the subcommittee's GOP roster is leaving at the end of this Congress. That turnover could present opportunities for remaining Republican veterans like House Communications ranking member Bob Latta of Ohio to have even more influence over telecom policymaking beginning in 2021. Some officials and experts we interviewed question how that will change the process.
Report ISPs are deploying broadband to all Americans "in a reasonable and timely fashion," industry told the FCC in comments posted through Monday in docket 19-285 on a notice of inquiry for the 15th annual Communications Act Section 706 report (see 1910230065). Critics said the last report overstated broadband deployment (see 1905290017).
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker doesn’t think Democrats will insist on including a private right of action in bipartisan privacy legislation, he told reporters last week. The Mississippi Republican noted California’s privacy law limits private right of action. “I don’t think Democrats will insist on that in a final bill,” he said. “I don’t expect this Congress to move to the left of the California initiative.”