LTD Broadband still hasn’t shown it can serve rural Minnesota, said state Attorney General Keith Ellison (D), industry and public interest groups in comments at the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. They urged the PUC to lift a stay on a proceeding to consider revoking the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) winner’s expanded eligible telecom carrier (ETC) designation -- and to suspend the certificate while docket 22-221 remains open. Inaction could stop areas from receiving support from NTIA’s broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program, said the commenters.
House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Adrian Smith, R-Neb., said he intends to co-sponsor a renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act, and said he believes the appetite in Congress is "strong" to act before the summer of 2025. AGOA expires Sept. 30, 2025.
China will rescind its antidumping and countervailing duties on imports of Australian barley, China’s Ministry of Commerce announced Aug. 4, according to an unofficial translation. The duties had “effectively blocked” Australian shipments of barley since the measures were first announced in 2020, Australia’s Trade Minister Don Farrell said in a statement welcoming the news. “The removal of duties is the result of work by government and industry to resolve this matter,” Farrell said. China said the duties were officially removed Aug. 5.
CEO Imran Ahmed of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) spared few punches Tuesday in attacking Elon Musk, owner of the X platform, formerly Twitter, a day after the platform sued his group for allegedly running a "scare campaign" to drive away advertisers. Musk’s "latest legal threat is straight out of the authoritarian playbook," emailed Ahmed.
The minimum service standard for Lifeline fixed broadband data usage allowance will be 1,280 GB per month, beginning Dec. 1, said an FCC Wireline Bureau public notice Friday in docket 11-42. The bureau extended its waiver pausing the increase in minimum service standards for mobile broadband data capacity until Dec. 1, 2024 (see 2307070056). It also announced the indexed budget for calendar year 2024 will be $2.78 million.
The FCC contacted the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality and the EPA about their plans about health and environmental risks from lead-sheathed cables used by AT&T and Verizon, which report earnings this week. USTelecom said Friday the telecom industry is working to better understand the extent of the problem (see 2307210056). The cables received lawmaker, industry and public attention after The Wall Street Journal reported this month about telcos, including AT&T and Verizon, having left lead cables underground, underwater and on poles nationwide.
Despite having no prior relationship with Pennsylvania resident Zachary Fridline, Integrity Vehicle Group, through its telemarketing agent, made prerecorded telemarketing calls to him without his consent in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), said a Tuesday class action (docket 4:23-cv-01194) in U.S. District Court for Middle Pennsylvania in Williamsport.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a Friday order, denied the FTC’s emergency motion for a “temporary pause” in the consummation of Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard buy. Its denial permitted the district court’s temporary restraining order that had enjoined the merger from being consummated to expire at 11:59 p.m. PDT Friday night.
Action is needed by 11:59 p.m. PDT Friday night on the FTC’s emergency motion before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for an injunction pending appeal blocking Microsoft from consummating its Activision Blizzard buy, said the agency’s motion late Thursday evening (docket 23-15992). Without 9th Circuit action on the emergency motion, Microsoft/Activision may close their deal anytime after 11:59 p.m. PDT Friday when the district court’s modified temporary restraining order expires, said the FTC.
The Commerce Department’s Office of Inspector General plans to publish a “management alert” about NTIA’s “reliance on tribes’ self-certifications of their broadband status to determine their eligibility for grants under the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program,” Assistant IG-Audit and Evaluation Arthur Scott said in a Monday memo to NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson we obtained Tuesday night. OIG plans to release the alert Wednesday, officials said. TBCP is one of several federal broadband programs congressional Republicans have focused on since December as part of ramped-up scrutiny of the government’s connectivity spending.