Charter Communications should launch its "video store" in the first half of 2025, CEO Chris Winfrey said Tuesday at UBS' Media and Communications Conference. Subscribers will be able to manage their video services, including direct-to-consumer streaming services they access via Charter, at the video store. He didn't provide an estimate of Q4 residential broadband results but said Charter will likely see more than 100,000 disconnects due to the end of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), as well as larger-than-expected impacts from the fall's hurricanes. The hurricanes will likely cost Charter 30,000 subscribers, though most will return. Winfrey said cable internet service providers have done a subpar job of telling subscribers that "cellphone internet" fixed wireless is lower quality and costs more. He said Charter is retaining most of its 5+ million ACP subscribers, with fewer than 10% leaving. But those subscribers are more likely to bounce between having connectivity and being unconnected, he said.
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FCC Communications Equity and Diversity Council members are concerned the advisory committee won’t be allowed to continue its work once Commissioner Brendan Carr takes over the agency, and the group used its final 2024 in-person meeting Friday to present arguments for its continued operation.
Much of FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr's agenda as the agency's incoming chair doesn't require an FCC majority to move forward, New Street Research's Blair Levin noted Monday. Part of that is because Carr can get Congress to act, and some is due to the delegated authority FCC bureaus have, Levin said. Carr's efforts to investigate tech companies and amplify the voice of conservatives on social media platforms don't require a formal FCC proceeding, he said. For example, Carr can tie up Skydance's proposed Paramount purchase, which would signal other networks that unfavorable news coverage could affect M&A approvals. In addition, Carr could have the FCC general counsel issue a policy statement about Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act that eliminates the expansive immunities courts have read into the statute, Levin said. And Carr doesn't need a majority to stop work on items with which he disagrees, such as bulk billing rules, Levin said. Outgoing Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel "never effectively used her bully pulpit [and thus] had the least consequential term as Chair in modern FCC history," he argued. She failed on such issues as losing spectrum auction authority and not getting an extension of the affordable connectivity program, Levin said. Mentioning Levin's note during a Practising Law Institute event Tuesday, Carr said Levin would need “a food taster” at that night's FCBA annual dinner. Levin's note is a reminder that “it's all downhill from here" for his upcoming stint as chairman, Carr said. “They like you on the way in, they definitely do not on the way out, and I don't expect that pattern to be broken any time soon,” he said. Rosenworcel Chief of Staff Narda Jones said during a different PLI panel that she hadn't read Levin's essay but that her boss was proud of the FCC’s work “to reach communities and stakeholders who haven't necessarily been the focus of the commission's work before.” She pointed to the ACP, formation of the Space Bureau, maternal health mapping, and the Missing and Endangered Persons alarm code as important achievements of the Rosenworcel FCC.
FCC Commissioner and incoming Chairman Brendan Carr on Tuesday discussed empowering local broadcasters, moving "aggressively” on USF revisions and opening up the space economy and jumpstarting spectrum policy. Speaking at the Practising Law Institute's 42nd Annual Institute on Telecommunications Policy & Regulation, Carr said he's “really looking forward” to taking the commission's top seat.
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, could shift the direction Congress’ USF revamp takes when he becomes the panel’s chairman in January, lawmakers and lobbyists told us. Observers believe his impact on what Congress decides will partially depend on how the U.S. Supreme Court rules when it reviews the FCC appeal of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling in favor of Consumers' Research's challenge of the USF contribution methodology (see 2411220050). A high court ruling upholding the 5th Circuit could shift momentum in favor of Cruz’s proposal that Congress make USF funding part of the appropriations process, officials said.
A possible shakeup of the federal Universal Service Fund (USF) will be top of mind for state telecom regulators in the year ahead, NARUC Telecom Committee Chair Tim Schram said in an interview earlier this month at the association’s Anaheim meeting. USF is one of several areas of uncertainty in 2025, said three state consumer advocates in a separate interview at the collocated National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA) conference.
Industry and public interest groups disagreed last week about whether the California Public Utilities Commission should temporarily freeze the state LifeLine specific support amount (SSA) for wireline and wireless providers. The CPUC is considering freezing the SSA at $19 beginning Jan. 1 until a new methodology is calculated (see 2406040032).
A plan for cutting regulations and federal institutions such as the FCC could target broadband access programs and media regulations, but it's likely that a wave of litigation will stymie it, administrative law professors and attorneys told us. Future Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) heads Vivek Ramasawamy and Space X CEO Elon Musk laid out their plans in a Wall Street Journal opinion column. “It's not to say that maybe some of these changes shouldn't be happening, but, you know, they're taking a wrecking ball to fix something that requires a little bit more finesse than that,” said University of Idaho law professor Linda Jellum. Asked about possible DOGE cuts at the FCC, incoming FCC Chairman Brendan Carr last week told reporters, “There's no question, there's tons of room for driving more efficiency at the FCC." He didn't elaborate.
Federal permitting problems could become notable impediments to BEAD deployment projects, Lukas Piertzak, NTIA senior broadband policy adviser, acknowledged Wednesday. Yet Piertzak also said a clawback of BEAD funding next year seems unlikely. BEAD, as well as NTIA's tribal connectivity and middle-mile programs, are perhaps insulated because of their bipartisan support not just from federal lawmakers but also governors and local officials, he added. Piertzak spoke during a panel discussion in T-Mobile's Washington office organized by ALLvanza, Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council, LGBT Tech, and OCA – Asian Pacific American Advocates.
Congressional GOP leaders are doubtful about lawmakers' chances of reaching a year-end deal on an additional $3.08 billion for the FCC's Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program even as some Democrats are softening their insistence that the funding move in tandem with stopgap money for the FCC's lapsed affordable connectivity program. Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, Rep. August Pfluger of Texas and nine other Republicans wrote congressional leaders Monday to press for rip-and-replace funding in a bid to highlight the issue amid the lame-duck frenzy.