Opposition poured in to an FCC proposal to cap the overall budget for the various USF programs and to combine the budget cap for two mechanisms to fund anchor institutions, in comments posted through Tuesday to docket 06-122. Stakeholders said such a plan would be difficult to implement and contradicts both the USF mission and the current FCC chairman's top priority to close the digital divide (see 1906030059).
An NPRM on the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), proposed by Chairman Ajit Pai for a vote Thursday, could face some questions by FCC Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks. They're concerned because it’s a large program and the FCC has struggled to develop the right data for making more accurate assessments of which areas are unserved or underserved, industry and agency officials said Tuesday. The program would distribute up to $20.4 billion over 10 years.
The cable franchise authority draft order on Thursday's FCC agenda (see 1907110071) is likely to result in a 3-2 commissioner vote, reflecting the political split in Congress over the issue, FCC officials told us. The split was expected, as is litigation (see 1907160035).
Visiting the FCC eighth floor doesn’t have as much of a “dramatic impact” for the targets of enforcement proceedings as it can have in rulemakings, said Enforcement Bureau Chief Rosemary Harold in an FCBA brown-bag session Monday. Harold said she has regular meetings with commissioners and occasionally informs them of bureau proceedings to keep them from being surprised. Targets of enforcement actions only sometimes inform the Enforcement Bureau about eighth-floor visits, she said. “It doesn’t always happen,” Harold said.
The FTC's antitrust probe of Facebook is “a significant step,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told us last week. Ranking member Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., lauded the probe, questioning whether Facebook is willing to make changes. For months, lawmakers from both parties have asked whether Silicon Valley competition needs greater scrutiny. Concrete action came last week with DOJ announcing a broad review of the tech industry and the FTC confirming its Facebook investigation (see 1907250049).
With DOJ's justification for approving T-Mobile/Sprint largely hinging on Dish Network's ability to become a national wireless player (see 1907260071), wireless industry watchers tell us that whether Dish can pull that off is a big question mark. "Wireless is a very tough business to get right -- many companies have tried and failed," said wireless analyst Jeff Kagan.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s proposal to ban malicious caller ID spoofing of text messages and international calls is expected to be approved Thursday with bipartisan support. CTIA last week raised the lone questions in the record. FCC officials said Monday the order could be tweaked to address the CTIA concerns.
In the days before the sunshine period for August's FCC meeting, the eighth floor had a parade of parties urging tweaks or changes to the broadband mapping draft order on this coming Thursday's agenda. That's according to docket 19-195 postings.
The FCC boosting some standards for what type of broadband is eligible for Lifeline government subsidies caused some stakeholder confusion in the hours after Thursday's release at 3:13 p.m. EDT. Some state telecom and industry representatives were puzzled why the otherwise routine-looking staff action came as a CTIA et alia petition is pending (see 1906280012). The agency replied that the action was previously mandated. The Wireline Bureau public notice came a day after NARUC members approved a resolution asking the FCC to not make such changes (see 1907230040). The PN noted it's delivering on what a 2016 order envisioned.
The 2019 nationwide test of the emergency alert system planned for Aug. 7 (see 1907010041) is expected to be largely routine. It will involve aspects of the system that haven’t been tested since the first nationwide test in 2011, said emergency alerting officials and broadcasters in interviews. Since the 2011 test experienced some complications, they are seen as possible this time around as well, EAS and broadcast officials told us.