From lowered barriers to cross-border data flows to opposition of extraterritorial application of other nations' privacy laws, NTIA saw a slew of recommendations in response to its notice of inquiry on what should be its international internet priorities. Comments due Tuesday were posted Friday. Many saw no need to unwind the moving of IANA functions from NTIA to global stakeholders. The unwinding would signal that governments alone should govern the internet -- "a dangerous proposition that incentivizes those who fear the internet's transformative power" and could lead to countries building closed networks operating independently of ICANN, Google said.
Though Fox had raised concerns about the regulatory heavy lifting that a deal for its nonbroadcast assets with Comcast might represent (see 1806260038), antitrust issues and the DOJ's AT&T/Time Warner appeal likely didn't play a notable role in Comcast taking itself out of the Fox running, some experts told us. But others see the AT&T/TW appeal raising notable regulatory concerns for the MVPD. Comcast didn't comment.
The FCC's referring a deal to its administrative law judge traditionally has been the kiss of death to a transaction, but some see Chairman Ajit Pai's announcement that he has circulated a draft hearing designation order (HDO) on Sinclair's $3.9 billion buy of Tribune (see 1807160023) as possibly aimed more at stopping the deal as it's currently crafted. It also could put the deal on the back burner for now.
With some seeing a DOJ signal about aggressive antitrust enforcement and others scratching their heads, experts were all over the map about DOJ's planned appeal of the AT&T/Time Warner decision (see 1807120068). Some questioned whether the decision to appeal was politically motivated. Given President Donald Trump's animus toward TW's CNN, repeated as recently as this week, "you've got to think he's happy" about an appeal, said antitrust lawyer Seth Bloom. Similar political questions were raised about DOJ challenging the merger, which closed last month (see 1806150002). There was no clear consensus as to whether DOJ would appeal (see 1806130036). Justice didn't comment Friday.
The draft FCC hearing designation order for an administrative law judge hearing on issues involving some proposed divestitures in Sinclair's planned buy of Tribune is getting majority support from commissioners, we're told. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said she voted to OK the HDO, shortly after Chairman Ajit Pai announced he had circulated it. Commissioner Brendan Carr also is voting yes, an official said.
NTCA and WTA back the American Cable Association petition that some smaller MVPDs be waived from compliance with FCC Dec. 20 talking guide requirements (see 1806180050). In a docket 12-108 posting Tuesday, NTCA said the FCC assumed demand from big MVPDs would create supply of compliant devices, but "such has not proven to be the case" and full compliance would require some smaller MVPDs to largely re-engineer video distribution networks at great cost. WTA said the one commercially available option that covers all the accessibility features required is TiVo's Quattro system, but the cost of upgrades for small providers to deploy that is at least $100,000. WTA said more affordable options that use CableCARD don't cover all accessibility features, and analog systems can't use such plug-in devices. Rural Alabama MVPD Pine Belt Communications -- also backing the ACA petition -- said it looked into possible compliance offerings and didn't find one that doesn't involve a systemwide upgrade, which is "neither practical nor affordable."
The FCC went on a full-court press on social media Wednesday defending a formal complaint rules proposed order on Thursday's commissioners' meeting agenda. "Fake news travels fast!," tweeted Chief of Staff Matthew Berry about a report painting the rule change as harming consumers. "Nothing is changing" with regard to how informal complaints are handled, he said. He called other coverage "fake news" and tweeted kudos to The Washington Post for a fact-check. The FCC's official Twitter account also lauded the Post story. The order has come under fire from some House Democrats (see 1807100069). Insinuations that filing any complaint will require a $225 filing look "false ... but I'm going to report on it and characterize it as probably true because I dislike" Chairman Ajit Pai, Nebraska College of Law assistant professor Gus Hurwitz tweeted, characterizing some coverage. R Street Institute technology policy fellow Joe Kane tweeted similarly about media coverage. An FCC spokesman emailed that the House Democrats' letter "is completely inaccurate" and that the draft order "would simply align the text of a rule with longstanding FCC practices [regarding formal complaints] that have been in place for years." He said the $225 fee for handling formal complaints "has been the norm" and there's no fee-less venue for formal complaints. Free Press Policy Director Matt Wood had criticisms of the proposed rule change's revised language on setting a carrier response deadline and elimination of text indicating no obligation to respond to a complainant when both sides are satisfied (see here and here). He tweeted (see here and here) that the FCC claim the proposed order contains no substantive changes is "the Chairman's office spin machine is in full gear" since it removes the agency's ability to decide on informal complaints.
Some aviation interests and allies remain largely unswayed Ligado's proposed power limits on use of the 1526-1536 MHz band (see 1805310069) for a terrestrial broadband service will effectively protect GPS receivers. That 9.8 dBW power level "is a first step" toward certified aviation GPS device protection, but helicopter interference issues remain unaddressed, Garmin said in a docket 11-109 filing posted Tuesday. No, Ligado said, "The substantial analysis and testing in the docket" makes clear its proposed ancillary terrestrial component (ATC) operations wouldn't cause harmful interference.
The FCC's proposed streamlining of authorizations for small satellite operators is raising issues of how best to define who falls in that smallsat category, with satellite interests not coming to a universal consensus. There also was disagreement on inter-satellite link bands. commissioners adopted the streamlining NPRM in April (see 1804170038), with docket 18-86 comments due Monday, replies Aug. 8.
Satellite and terrestrial interests are lining up on opposite sides over whether increasing interference Globalstar says it's seeing in the 5.1 GHz band is attributable to sharing that band with outdoor Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure operations. That the FCC will act on Globalstar's call for a notice of inquiry on mobile satellite service sharing with U-NII (see 1805220006) has doubters. Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America, told us the FCC isn't likely to reopen the 2014 sharing rules governing the band without more direct evidence of harmful interference.