With advocates pushing different N11 options for a nationwide, three-digit number for suicide prevention and mental health crises calls (see 1812110033), there may not be consensus or compromise. Some told us that the FCC may ultimately have to choose. Some may lobby Congress, where legislators are monitoring the situation.
As wireless providers plan to roll out their 5G networks, cable ISPs are aiming to do similarly with 10-gigabit networks or 10G. Monday at CES, the cable industry said the first deployments could come as soon as late 2021. Participants include Charter Communications, Comcast and Cox Communications.
Don't expect any AT&T/Time Warner-scale mergers and acquisitions in entertainment and media this year, experts told us. The federal government partial shutdown isn't having a chilling effect on deals, but that could change the longer it lasts, they said. "Two weeks may not be the end of the world for a lot of transactions; two months could be," said wireline and wireless lawyer Laura Phillips of Drinker Biddle.
The FCC electronic comment filing system, electronic document management system, Daily Digest, universal licensing system and network outage reporting system will remain up during the partial government and agency shutdown, said a public notice Wednesday. Shot clocks on deals will be paused, though some incentive auction activities will continue, the PN said. Comment deadlines also will be paused.
The NAB/NCTA carriage election notification process proposal (see 1812100051) likely faces mixed feedback, as industry officials and others we spoke to aren't of one mind about it. Comments are due Jan. 7, replies Jan. 17, said an FCC public notice Thursday. The proposal seems reasonable, said broadcast lawyer Jack Goodman. He said one difficulty broadcasters can have with elections is figuring out where to send notices, and it's common to have registered letters bounce back undelivered and the correct address tough to find. American Cable Association believes in two-way communications electronically between cable operators and broadcasters for required notices, but plans to file comments offering recommendations for minimizing burdens on smaller cable systems, said Senior Vice President-Government Affairs Ross Lieberman. The agency is likely giving the joint proposal serious consideration, since it would fit into Chairman Ajit Pai's overall rubric of deregulation, said cable lawyer Craig Gilley of Mintz Levin. A direct broadcast satellite expert said questions remain why stations are pursuing changes in the election notification process since the status quo of certified letters is a small obligation. He said certified mail is a less questionable route for delivery than an electronic one. The proposal could run into some problems for going beyond what the FCC proposed, a cable industry executive said. The FCC had asked about switching notice delivery mechanisms, and it's questionable whether doing away with notices altogether fits that or is a proposal that would require its own NPRM, the executive said. The agency said it will look at the joint proposal, comments on it, and previous comments received in response to the NPRM.
One of the chief challenges for the U.S. at the 2019 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-19) will be balancing the spectrum needs of satellite and international mobile telecommunications, especially as those use cases are increasingly "crammed together" in the spectrum bands, NTIA head David Redl said at a U.S. ITU Association meeting Friday. While that also was a fight at WRC-15, the world is now further along in development and deployment, meaning there's more relevant data guiding the discussions, he said. Also a big challenge is agenda item 1.13, regarding spectrum between 24.25 GHz and 86 GHz for mobile broadband, he said. Some issues that might have been particularly contentious at the 2012 World Conference on International Telecommunications have died down. "Six years, in internet time, is an eternity," he said. Other topics, like cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, will continue to be ITU hot buttons for the foreseeable future, he said. He said a big reason the U.S. wanted American Doreen Bogdan-Martin elected head of the ITU Telecom Development Bureau (see 1811010052) is its perception a leadership change was needed to help push along connectivity globally. He said the U.S. wants to see the ITU's focus not just on connectivity "but connecting them in a way that makes them equals … connects them to the global economy.” Redl said he didn’t know when the U.S. would appoint its WRC-19 delegation leadership, as that's in the purview of the State Department and he was not privy to those discussions. But NTIA, FCC and State Department staffs will have a lot of preliminary work done when the delegation leadership is decided, he said.
Gray and Raycom -- in the process of selling TV stations in nine designated market areas as part of their $3.6 billion deal announced in June (see 1808270038) -- now also have DOJ requiring the same as terms for OK. In a complaint filed Friday with U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Justice said the deal minus the divestitures would leave New Gray with increased power to charge MVPDs higher fees for its programming and advertisers more to reach audiences in those markets.
Given the high bar for reversing a facts-based district court ruling and the seemingly skeptical reception the agency received last week from a U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit panel (see 1812060015), antitrust experts told us it's likely AT&T will prevail in DOJ's appeal of the lower court allowing it to acquire Time Warner. Whether DOJ appeals again, either seeking a D.C. Circuit rehearing or petitioning the Supreme Court, is tougher to ascertain, they said.
Fault lines emerged on allowing point-to-multipoint (P2MP) operations in the 3.7-4.2 GHz band and auctions vs. the C-Band Alliance (CBA) plan, in the growing fight over opening the swath to terrestrial wireless. AT&T and small satellite operators made their own proposal. Docket 18-122 replies were due Tuesday, with early ones showing divisions (see 1812110054).
A potential fight is brewing over whether 211, 611, 911 or an all-new three-digit number should be designated for a National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Each has backers and detractors, in docket 18-336 comments posted Tuesday. Comments were due as the FCC looks at implementation of August's National Suicide Hotline Improvement Act (see 1808140037).