Tech giants need to be more heavily regulated, said NCTA CEO Michael Powell. "Governments can no longer coddle and cater" to such large and heavily influential companies, he said Tuesday at Cable Congress 2018 in Dublin, according to prepared remarks. He touched on fake news, tech addiction, consumer concerns about privacy and other tech criticisms increasing coming to the fore in Washington (see 1803050040). Critics cast the comments as the cable ISP industry trying to shift regulatory focus away from itself.
The law is clearly on the side of Boeing and SOM1101 on transferring two pending Boeing non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) applications to SOM1101, that smaller entity's owner Greg Wyler said in an interview. He said Boeing and his SOM1101 wouldn't have sought the transfers (see 1712070055) if they weren't confident of the legal basis. An FCC staffer told us the International Bureau is still early in its evaluation of the Boeing/SOM1101 request, and of proposed NGSO application amendments by O3b and OneWeb.
Liberty Media, through its SiriusXM operations, bought a portion of iHeartRadio corporate debt large enough to fund most of any iHeart restructuring it might pursue, Liberty CEO Greg Maffei said Thursday in an earnings call. He said Liberty Media sees "potentially substantial synergies" with Sirius in the form of shared personalities and cross promotions. FBN Securities analyst Robert Routh wrote investors that Liberty and Sirius XM -- of which Liberty has majority control -- combined are apparently considering a total investment of $1.1 billion to $1.2 billion that would have them each owning about 20 percent.
Who runs OneWeb is increasingly being debated before the FCC. Corporate governance experts told us corporate law on the answer is vague, despite assertions by some non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) operators that Executive Chairman Greg Wyler controls the company. But satellite lawyers said corporate governance rules are irrelevant since FCC rules precisely spell out who's deemed to have control and Wyler fits that bill. Various satellite operators opposed Boeing's request to transfer two of its NGSO applications to Wyler and his new company, SOM1101, on the grounds FCC rules prohibit one entity from holding attributable interests in two pending NGSO systems (see 1802130019).
The FCC should waive for five years its Section 79.2(b) emergency information accessibility requirement that dynamic image crawls used during breaking news and emergencies be conveyed aurally since there’s no good technology for broadcasters doing so today, its Disability Advisory Committee (DAC) said Wednesday. Instead, voluntary best practices put together by broadcasters and advocacy groups "is the best and only way to pursue this," said NAB Associate General Counsel Larry Walke.
Comcast's bid for Sky likely won't raise the same types and levels of regulatory concern that initially met Fox's bid for Sky, experts told us. Unclear is whether the Fox bid -- now that it has pledged a firewall to protect Sky News operations (see 1802120031) -- still carries those regulatory concerns. Comcast announced the $31 billion proposal Tuesday. Fox said it "remains committed" to the cash offer it made in 2016, saying "no firm offer has been made" by Comcast.
Satellite, terrestrial and tech interests had numerous recommendations for Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) Canada, as the agency asked for input on releasing spectrum for commercial mobile services, license-exempt applications, satellite services and wireless backhaul services through 2022. The docket SLPB-006-17 comments were posted Friday. Intelsat said ISED should await outcomes of the 2019 World Radiocommunication Conference on a variety of WRC-19 agenda items -- such as non-geostationary fixed satellite service (FSS) use of the 37.5-39.5, 39,5-42.5, 47.2-50.2 and 50.4-51.4 GHz bands -- before making decisions that might not be compatible with WRC-19. SES said ISED's conclusion that the 3.7-4.2 GHz band should be considered for mobile use is "unfounded" and that such mobile use could negatively affect downlinks there. It said if any additional services are introduced in the 24.75-25.05 GHz or 25.05-25.25 GHz bands, FSS needs to retain access on a co-primary basis. It also pushed for making the entire V-band available for satellite FSS use and for removing the restriction on FSS in the 39.5-40 GHz band to government use only. Telesat Canada said the current FSS allocation at 24.75-25.25 should be retained if spectrum is released in the 24.25-27.5 GHz band for terrestrial use. It also said the satellite industry has interest in the E-band and higher spectrum. ISED should make spectrum above 24 GHz available for flexible use across platforms (HAPS), including high altitude platform stations and consider licensing schemes that would let HAPS be used in the band to support 5G, Facebook said. It also backed making the 64-71 GHz band available for license-exempt use and for identifying other mid-band frequency for license-exempt use, such as the 6 GHz band. The Wi-Fi Alliance said spectrum sharing is possible in the 6 GHz band, and other bands could potentially be made available for sharing in the future. It also backed making the 5350-5470 MHz band available for license exempt operations in Canada and said it was essential that ISED continue to allow license-exempt operations in the millimeter wave spectrum. It said the agency should consider making the 5.9256-7.125 GHz band available for license-exempt use. Allowing commercial mobile broadband in the 814-824 MHz band, paired with 859-869 MHz, would mutually benefit the U.S. and Canada by maximizing the spectrum available for commercial mobile broadband in this band along the shared border, Sprint said. Microsoft said there should be "significantly more" license-exempt spectrum released in the 5, 6, 60 and 70 GHz bands.
Based on public broadcasting's success with lthe FY 2018 federal approprirations process, America's Public TV Stations (APTS) CEO Patrick Butler said . While the White House's FY 2019 budget proposal zeroes out CPB (see 1802120037), "we enjoy incredible support from Congress," APTS Chairman Ronnie Agnew said.
Some process and structural changes at the FCC should help ensure the agency operates differently even under future administrations, the agency's Republican commissioners said Friday at the American Conservative Union's (ACU) 2018 Conservative Political Action Conference. There, Chairman Ajit Pai was a surprise recipient of the National Rifle Association's Charlton Heston Courage Under Fire Award for his role in and the fallout from the net neutrality Title II rollback. Pai "saved the Internet" and weathered numerous death threats and having his property "invaded by the George Soros crowd," said ACU Executive Director Dan Schneider. Citing the newly created Office of Economics and Analytics (see 1801300026), Commissioner Brendan Carr said institutionalizing the idea of considering economic impacts of regulations should ensure that decision has long-term effect. Pai said his successor "will face a big fight" in the name of government openness if there are efforts to roll back his process change of making agenda items publicly available before meetings. Commissioner Mike O'Rielly said the best way to help ensure that the free market path the FCC is on continues is to elect conservatives to the House and Senate and make sure President Donald Trump is re-elected. He also said "we could use everyone's help" in the looming fight in the Senate over Title II. Pai said his administration's focus on a Title II rollback was against the advice of some who urged him to take smaller, more incremental deregulatory steps, but "I don't play small ball." Carr and O'Rielly both highlighted the agency's efforts to foster 5G; Carr said the FCC should be able to complete this year the streamlining of federal permitting and processing procedures needed for 5G deployment. Asked about the vitriol he received on the net neutrality proceeding, Pai said it has "not been an easy time" and quoted a passage from Gandalf in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring: "All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” He also said he would continue to speak out about the "poisonous political culture." The NRA award pre-empted a speech Pai was to deliver. The FCC didn't make available a copy of the speech but said Pai was "honored" by the recognition. According to the NRA, recipients have included talk show host Rush Limbaugh and Vice President Mike Pence, and the award is a Kentucky handmade long gun to be stored at an NRA museum.
ISPs are likely to get more stringent on policing copyright infringement by subscribers in light of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision on Cox Communications earlier this month (see 1802010026), with one possible result increased termination of subscribers, experts told us. People involved in Digital Millennium Copyright Act compliance at ISPs are likely to engage in more terminations to show the operator is assiduously following its own policies, said internet lawyer Lawrence Walters.