By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 1-10-22 The FCC said it has committed another $361 million-plus in broadband subsidy dollars for schools and libraries, bringing its total to date to almost $4.2 billion since its June 2021 launch. That is part of the $7.17 billion Emergency Connectivity Fund, not to be confused with the FCC's [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 1-6-22 The FCC plans to vote this month to expand the online activities that define a candidate, and to square its political file rules with the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA). According to a draft of the proposed report and order (R&O), it would revise the definition of [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 1-4-22 President Joe Biden on Tuesday (Jan. 4) praised stakeholders – including FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel – for the agreement by AT&T and Verizon Communications to delay their rollout of 5G wireless service in the C-band spectrum from January 5 to January 19. But he also suggested there could [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 1-4-22 Three former chiefs of the Federal Communications Commission’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau – including two former top military officers – have expressed their strong endorsement of Gigi Sohn as the regulator’s fifth commissioner. Those ringing endorsements came in letters this week to the chair and ranking [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 12-23-21 Republican congressional leaders have reached out to key Biden Administration agencies to make sure the billions of dollars in various broadband subsidy programs created by Congress goes to areas unserved by broadband, particularly rural areas, rather than to “duplicative and wasteful subsidized overbuilding.” The definition of “access" is [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 12-17-21 The Federal Trade Commission has been almost exclusively an enforcement agency, but under new chair Lina Khan it is looking at coming up with new rules to address what Khan calls “lax security practices, data privacy abuses, and algorithmic decisionmaking that may result in unlawful discrimination.” That is [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 12-16-21 Federal Communications Chair Jessica Rosenworcel made it clear to Republican lawmakers before her successful confirmation vote (68 to 31) earlier this month to a new, five-year term that she did not support efforts by “some liberal organizations” to remove conservative cable channels from their lineups or for the [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 12-15-21 FCC Democratic nominee Gigi Sohn signaled to Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) that she would be no slam dunk vote for restoring the FCC’s vague “general conduct standard” if chairperson Jessica Rosenworcel tees up restoration of the FCC's open internet rules as expected. Under former FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 12-9-21 Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) has called on Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan to immediately launch an investigation of “recent revelations and public documentation” that it had misled advertisers and the public in making claims about the “brand safety” and reach of its ads, which she said would [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 12-8-21 President Biden is promoting broadband investment as one of the ways his administration is strengthening American democracy. The White House issued a fact sheet Wednesday outlining all the things his team has done to advance those values “against the backdrop of a rise in authoritarianism and increasing threats [...]