By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 8-10-20 Broadband operators are asking the FCC to clarify that they don’t have to pay the entire cost of a replacement pole when they are seeking attachments to build out broadband to unserved communities, something the agency itself is pushing for in trying to close the digital divide. [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 7-29-20 The main takeaways from the prepared testimony of the four tech giants testifying before Congress Wednesday (July 29) is that their companies are quintessentially American success stories, companies that took risks and failed as well as succeeded and in the process innovated and built businesses that provided [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 7-23-20 The FCC is holding its first ever auction of mid-band spectrum for 5G. It is the auction of 70 MHz worth of county-based Priority Access Licenses (PALs) (a whopping 22,631 of them) in the 3550-3650 MHz 93.5 GHz band. It is the most-ever flexible-use licenses available in [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 7-23-20 The MIC Coalition is telling the Justice Department not to pull the plug on longstanding music licensing consent decrees, saying that particularly in the time of pandemic that could add chaos to catastrophe. That came in comments in advance of next week's DOJ public workshop on the decrees and [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 7-22-20 The News Media for Open Government Coalition is renewing its call for passage of a bill to protect journalists. The Journalist Protection Act, which was introduced in a previous Congress, would "make it a federal crime to intentionally cause bodily injury or threaten a journalist in a manner designed to intimidate [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 7-21-20 U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) CEO Michael Pack's rip-and-replace approach to the agency's Open Technology Fund last month has run into a big legal problem – a court has concluded he likely does not have the authority to do so. OTF is an independent nonprofit funded [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 7-17-20 The Federal Trade Commission has released a report on the use of social media bots – algorithmically driven computer software – in online advertising and finds them to be thriving, out in the open, and easy, cheap and effective to sell, buy and use. The report came at the [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 7-15-20 A bill that would fund the FCC and Federal Trade Commission includes language that would limit the President's effort to regulate social media, as well as provide billions to help better identify and close the digital divide, and use secure technology to do so. A report on the [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 7-15-20 The House Energy & Commerce Committee has approved a number of bipartisan communication-related bills by voice vote, including a stand-alone bill to cancel the T-band auction, which almost nobody wants the FCC to have to go through with, and a bill that would require the FCC to [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 7-13-20 Broadcasters are telling the FCC that Microsoft and Microsoft-funded groups have no leg to stand on when they oppose those broadcasters' request to use distributed transmission systems (DTS) to improve viewers' reception of their licensed service. The National Association of Broadcasters joined by America's Public Television Stations [...]