By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 10-8-21 The Federal Communications Commission has authorized more than $163 million to 42 providers in the second round of phase one of Rural Digital Opportunity Fund broadband buildouts. The second round will cover approximately 65,000 locations in 21 states. “More help is on the way to households without broadband,” [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 10-5-21 The FCC has launched its latest auction (110) of midband spectrum, generally considered the sweet spot for 5G due to its propagation characteristics. The FCC is auctioning flexible licenses for 100 MHz of contiguous spectrum in the 3.45 GHz band. Acting FCC Chairman Jessica Rosenworcel had argued during [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 10-5-21 Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, whose last job at the social media company was working on the counterespionage team, may have opened up a new front in Congress’s war on the social platform. That came during a hearing in the Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Data [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 10-5-21 Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen got an angry and attentive bipartisan audience at a Tuesday (Oct. 5) hearing of the Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Data Security, led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who called it a Big Tobacco moment for Big Tech. A former Facebook [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 10-1-21 Computer companies have fired another legal volley in their fight against state efforts to undercut their Sec. 230 immunity from civil liability for most third-party content on social media sites. The latest volley was a motion for preliminary injunction filed Sep. 30 against Texas for a new law [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-30-21 The FCC has approved a notice of inquiry into the future spectrum needs of the Internet of Things. The move was mandated by the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act. That came in a vote in advance of the FCC's public meeting Thursday (Sept. 30), so the item was [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-30-21 As part of the “social media as piñata” Big Tech bashing this week, which included Hill hearings on online privacy and Instagram’s impact on children, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) has introduced a bill that would make social media companies liable “for bodily or mental harm their products cause [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-22-21 Computer companies are suing Texas over a law that prevents social media censorship based on “viewpoint,” saying nothing is a clearer First Amendment violation than regulation based on viewpoint. The bill, which passed Sept. 9, “prohibits an interactive computer service from censoring a user, a user’s expression, or [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-22-21 Facebook took unfriendly fire from both sides of the aisle Tuesday (Sept. 21) in a Senate Judiciary Committee Antitrust Subcommittee hearing on Big Data. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) told Facebook witness Steve Satterfield, VP of privacy and public policy, that the company needed to supply a witness to [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-16-21 FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said that the best way to fund the FCC’s Universal Service Fund advanced communications subsidies is to make Big Tech pay the freight. Citing a new study from economist Hal Singer and Ted Tatos, Carr said that the current method of assessing dwindling traditional [...]