By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 1-28-22 Most of a dozen Republican members of Congress are not happy with the way the Treasury Department has structured the final rule for handing out hundreds of billions of dollars in State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) in the American Rescue Plan, money that they can use [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 1-28-22 A federal appeals court has refused to block enforcement of California’s network neutrality rules, which Internet service providers are challenging. Cable ISPs – including those represented by ACA Connects and NCTA-The Internet & Television Association – had asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 1-27-22 The Senate Antitrust Subcommittee has scheduled a hearing next week titled “Breaking the News – Journalism, Competition, and the Effects of Market Power on a Free Press.” The Feb. 2 hearing is likely to include some focus on a proposed Senate bill, the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 1-27-22 Advertisers, edge providers, and legislators are giving the Federal Trade Commission an earful over a petition by Accountable Tech to ban so-called surveillance online advertising as anti-competitive “unfair competition.” That includes claims by advertisers that granting the petition would imperil trillions of dollars in U.S. gross domestic product. [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 1-27-22 The Federal Communications Commission has voted unanimously on a proposed regime for implementing Congress’s mandate that Internet service providers tell their customers up front about the service those customers are buying via point-of-sale labels, and one commissioner used the agency’s January public meeting to call for Big Tech [...]
Participated in an amicus brief (with the Reporters Committee and other amici) filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in Egbert v. Boule. The case hinges on the question of whether federal officials can be held personally liable for damages when they retaliate against individuals engaged in First Amendment activities. This is an issue with important consequences for members of [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 1-26-22 The Federal Communications Commission has voted to deny a petition by broadcasters to reconsider its authorization of one of the former database administrators for the TV white spaces, Nominet UK (which has since sold its database management tech to RED Technologies). White spaces are spectrum in the TV [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 1-25-22 The FCC has voted to expand the online activities that define a candidate, and to square its political file rules with the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA). FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel had teed up the item for a vote at the Jan. 27 public meeting, but it [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 1-25-22 Transportation stakeholders, including all 50 state transportation departments (DOTs) told a D.C. federal appeals court Jan. 25 that the FCC erred in the way it opened up 5.9 GHz spectrum, which had been reserved for intelligent transport systems (ITS) for unlicensed wireless. But the action appeared to be [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 1-24-22 The U.S. Commerce Department is looking for input on how to incentivize investment in domestic semiconductor manufacturing. Commerce points out that semiconductors are must-have tech for everything from securing the communications (5G) supply chain, to AI, to autonomous systems of all types, to quantum computing. Commerce pointed out [...]