By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 3-13-20 Communications companies big and small have signed on to a "Keep Americans Connected Pledge" at the request of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai in the face of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Pai talked with broadband service providers and trade associations Thursday (March 12) and asked them, "in order to [...]

By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 3-10-20 Democratic FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks told Congress Tuesday (March 10) that the FCC and communications networks have an integral role in responding to the coronavirus and called for immediate action, calling for a “connectivity and economic stimulus” plan to address the virus. That came in testimony for [...]

By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 3-10-20 The Senate Financial Services Subcommittee held an FCC budget request hearing Tuesday (March 10) and a C-Band auction hearing broke out. Actually that was signaled at the outset by Subcommittee chairman John Kennedy (R-La.), who has been critical of the FCC's decision to award potentially billions of [...]

By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 3-10-20 Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen told a Free State Foundation audience Tuesday (March 10) that the Justice Department's investigation into Sec. 230 of the Communications Decency Act, part of a wider look into online platforms and antitrust, is focusing on four areas for potential "engagement" and said [...]

By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 3-5-20 Marking the halfway point in its Airband rural broadband initiative, Microsoft said it is now in 25 states and one territory and is on track to meet its goal of 3 million more rural Americans with broadband access. Airband is Microsoft's promotion of unlicensed wireless in the [...]

By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 2-5-20 The Federal Trade Commission has launched a lookback at some of the smaller past acquisitions by some of the largest tech companies. The FTC said Tuesday it has issued "special orders" to Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft, which require them to provide info on [...]

By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 2-5-20 A district court judge's decision upholding the Justice Department and FCC approval of the Sprint-T-Mobile merger drew immediate reaction from Washington. Both the FCC and Justice had argued the deal would help speed the 5G rollout, with conditions that would ultimately create a new, facilities-based, competitor, helping [...]

By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 1-31-20 State broadcast associations this week added their weight to the National Association of Broadcasters petition for changes to the FCC's guidance on political ad disclosures. NAB joined with Hearst Television, Graham Media Group, Nexstar, Fox, Tegna, and Scripps to ask the FCC to narrow its definition of [...]

By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 1-30-20 Microsoft president Brad Smith is calling for more regulation of tech companies.  He said those businesses need to step up and provide more self regulation, but "we do think we need more regulation of technology." Smith, who has co-written a new book, Tools and Weapons, was appearing [...]

By Tony Romm, washingtonpost.com, 1-17-20 Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google took a public lashing at a congressional hearing in Boulder, Colo., on Friday, where some of their smaller rivals, including Sonos and Tile, pleaded with federal lawmakers to take swift action against Big Tech. Democrats and Republicans at times appeared stunned as they heard tales [...]