Plaintiffs made initial arguments at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which will hear challenges to the FCC’s wireless infrastructure changes that were aimed at speeding build out of small cells and 5G. Court watchers said what the 9th Circuit will do is difficult to predict, though it may prove unfriendly to President Donald Trump’s FCC.
PHILADELPHIA -- Judges for the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals hearing oral argument for Prometheus IV Tuesday aggressively questioned the FCC's lack of data on the impact on diversity of its ownership rules. They seemed skeptical of agency arguments that it wasn't required to gather additional information to justify rolling back ownership regulations. “Where the data ends, that's where the commission's judgment begins,” argued FCC Associate General Counsel Jacob Lewis Tuesday in support of the FCC's 2010 and 2014 quadrennial review orders and subsequent order on reconsideration. Since eliminating the rules served the public interest, the agency didn't need to know the impacts of those decisions on diversity, he said.
T-Mobile's buy of Sprint faces an antitrust lawsuit from New York, eight other states and the District of Columbia. Democratic attorneys general sued Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, ahead of decisions by the FCC, DOJ and California Public Utilities Commission. Because "the effect of T- Mobile’s merger with Sprint 'may be substantially to lessen competition,' the Court should permanently enjoin the merger," the lawsuit said. States contacted DOJ and carriers, and “negotiations are ongoing,” said New York AG Letitia James (D) at a livestreamed news conference.
FCC-proposed 2019 regulatory fee hikes aren't transparent and the agency didn't provide enough information about them to form a basis for substantive comments, said satellite carriers, 50 state broadcaster associations and Incompas in comments posted through Monday in docket 19-105 by Friday's comment deadline. Similar criticisms were raised by NAB and other broadcasters in earlier comments (see 1906070063).
Despite calls for carriers to provide robocall-blocking tools for free, it would be a bad outcome if every carrier opted for the same, cheap option instead of employing a variety of them, said Patrick Halley, USTelecom senior vice president-advocacy and regulatory affairs, at an FCBA robocalls CLE Monday. "Carriers face legitimate costs." He said noted secure handling of asserted information using tokens (Shaken) and secure telephone identity revisited (Stir) implementation will be expensive for some carriers. Call-blocking tools' costs came up repeatedly at last week's FCC commissioners' meeting (see 1906060056). And Commissioner Geoffrey Starks on Monday wrote 14 providers seeking details on their plans to offer free, default call blocking services to consumers (see 1906100025).
The Senate Banking Committee is looking for bipartisan consensus on data privacy issues, but and not yet considering its own bill (see 1905070066), ranking member Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, told us. Members will discuss data privacy during a hearing Tuesday with a GAO official and a privacy expert. The House Antitrust Subcommittee plans a hearing that day on big tech’s impact on journalism (see 1906060065).
With SpaceX and the American Astronomical Society (AAS) partnering to explore ways to reduce the reflectivity of the StarLink satellite constellation, some told us other low earth orbit operators also will have to take into account reflectivity, a concern among astronomers. It's considered unlikely agencies or Congress will get involved soon.
FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks sent letters to 14 providers seeking details on their plans to offer free, default call blocking services to consumers aimed at curbing “disruptive and dangerous robocalls.” For Starks and Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, cost has been a major issue. Starks voted for the declaratory order and Further NPRM last week (see 1906060056). Also Monday, USTelecom said there are calls for robocall tools to be provided free, but that could lead to every carrier opting for the same, cheapest solution instead of employing a variety of them (see 1906100038).
It's expected there needs to be significant changes to the text of the recently refiled Streamlining the Rapid Evolution and Modernization of Leading-edge Infrastructure Necessary to Enhance (Streamline) Small Cell Deployment Act before S-1699 goes further in either chamber, lawmakers and lobbyists said in interviews. The bill, first filed last Congress, aims to implement a “reasonable process and timeframe guidelines” for state and local small-cell consideration (see 1906030068).
Antitrust law shouldn’t be used to address political and policy concerns, NetChoice Vice President Carl Szabo and Public Knowledge President Gene Kimmelman agreed on C-SPAN’s The Communicators. Szabo and Kimmelman, however, disagreed through most of the discussion, to have been televised this weekend. The industry representative defended what he sees as “robust” tech industry competition, while Kimmelman welcomed increased antitrust scrutiny from enforcers and Congress (see 1906060032).