The International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE) told the FCC that T-Mobile’s proposed buy of “substantially all” of UScellular’s wireless operations, including some of its spectrum (see 2405280047), should have little effect on wireless competition. “UScellular is a struggling regional carrier with significant structural disadvantages compared to national carriers like AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 24-286: “T-Mobile sets its plan prices nationally and does not adjust them based on localized competition, including UScellular’s presence, pricing, or service offerings and quality.” ICLE said given UScellular’s size, “limited footprint, and uncompetitive pricing,” it “plays no role as a ‘maverick’ disrupting the market and is unlikely to do so into the foreseeable future.”
A New York state bill would prevent junk fees for consumers by requiring "clear and conspicuous pricing practices" (see 2407310031). Five Democratic state senators prefiled the bill, SB-363, this week for the next legislative session. The measure would consider ISPs in compliance if they provide proof of compliance with the FCC's broadband consumer label rules.
Consumer groups representing the blind support NAB’s request for FCC clarification of its audible crawl rule, according to comments filed in docket 12-107 by last week’s deadline. The FCC has continuously waived the rule for nearly a decade because compliance isn’t technologically feasible, according to broadcasters. Last week, the FCC granted its latest, a six-month retroactive waiver (see 2412200055). “To the extent that information provided in an accessible text crawl is the same as the information provided by a nontextual graphic, we are tentatively supportive of a minor modification of the rule,” the American Foundation for the Blind and the American Council of the Blind said in a joint filing. In addition, any FCC effort to enforce the audible crawl waiver would be “legally suspect’ in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling overturning Chevron deference, Gray Local Media commented.
Incompas and its members “generally support” Verizon’s proposed acquisition of Frontier, but with conditions, the group said in a reply comment posted Thursday in docket 24-445. Verizon and Frontier this week urged approval without conditions (see 2412240028). Incompas members are concerned about ensuring that business data services (BDS) the applicants offered “are provided to competitors at just, reasonable and not unreasonably discriminatory rates, terms, and conditions,” the filing said. Incompas also supports a request by the Coalition for IP Network Transition, which said the FCC should approve the deal only if the companies agree that they will “interconnect with all other carriers” on an IP basis (see 2412100021). Incompas is “unwilling to concede to the Applicants’ assertions that the transaction will not result in competitive harms, particularly with respect to the impact pricing decisions associated with business data services and more traditional time division multiplexing services, such as DS1s and DS3s, will have on competitive providers,” the filing said: “According to our members, Frontier currently charges significantly more for its high-capacity BDS connections, including DS1, DS3, and 10-mile circuits.” A competitive LEC, Teliax stressed the importance of an IP connection requirement. “Pre-merger, the Applicants have extended IP interconnection to some but not all interconnecting carriers,” Teliax said: “Should the FCC approve the proposed combination, the FCC should expect that the combined company will continue to use its newfound scale to delay the full transition to IP interconnection, thereby extending intercarrier compensation revenues tied to TDM networks.”
NTIA has received useful feedback on improving its planned Local Estimates of Internet Adoption (LEIA) project that it's working on with the Census Bureau (see 2409110021), acting Deputy Associate Administrator Rafi Goldberg blogged Friday. For example, Goldberg noted a Heritage Foundation Center for Data Analysis suggestion about adding inputs into the LEIA experimental model, such as the share of households with seniors. He also mentioned feedback from the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights that racial, ethnic and other demographic lines be tested as model inputs. Multiple commenters said NTIA should employ metrics that include satellite and/or fixed wireless service, suggesting that LEIA should provide internet adoption metrics suitable for different purposes. LEIA was announced in September.
Securus Technologies received a waiver until Sept. 1 of the incarcerated people's communications service per-minute pricing rules, according to an order in Friday's Daily Digest. The FCC Wireline Bureau said in the order it's waiving the rules while Securus completes development of a video IPCS platform that can bill on a per-minute basis.
Small and mid-sized cable operators are largely bullish about President-elect Donald Trump's incoming administration and his choice of FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr to head the agency, expecting aggressive deregulation, ACA Connects President Grant Spellmeyer said during an interview with Communications Daily. Spellmeyer discussed the industry group's 2025 priorities, growing questions surrounding BEAD, and what one does during the lame-duck weeks before inauguration and a new administration. The following transcript was edited for length and clarity.
The FCC Wireline Bureau and the Office of Economics and Analytics Friday announced the 2025 reasonable comparability benchmarks for fixed voice service for eligible telecommunications carriers. The numbers are based on the FCC’s most recent urban rate survey. The 2025 urban average monthly rate for voice is $30.67, the notice said. “The reasonable comparability benchmark for voice services, two standard deviations above the urban average, is $55.55.” That’s up from $55.13 for 2024 (see 2312260049). ETCs “must certify … no later than July 1, 2025, that the pricing of its basic residential voice services is no more than $55.55,” the notice said. The FCC also released the benchmark table for broadband. It runs from a U.S. monthly low of $89.51, $147.65 in Alaska, for 4 Mbps service, to a high of $145.80, $209.03 in Alaska, for 2 Gbps service. “Recipients of high-cost and/or Connect America Fund support that are subject to broadband performance obligations are required to offer broadband service at rates that are at or below the relevant reasonable comparability benchmark.”
Global streaming subscriber numbers are set to reach 2 billion by 2029, Ampere Analysis wrote Thursday. Paid streaming subscriptions total 1.8 billion today, it said. It forecast a notable slowing of subscriber growth compared with the previous five years, when global subscriptions doubled from 2019 to 2024. It said streamers must invest in marketing and locally relevant content to reengage growth in less-saturated markets, with the Asia-Pacific region a big driver of that growth over the next five years. Ampere said by 2029, streamers will generate $170 billion annually from subscriptions and another $22 billion annually in ad sales.
The FCC’s 2024 foreign-sponsored content rules violate the First Amendment and the Administrative Procedure Act and are outside the FCC’s authority over sponsorship ID, NAB said in an initial brief filed Tuesday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (see 2409160043). NAB successfully challenged the 2021 version of those rules, leading to the additional requirement in 2024 that broadcasters and entities leasing programming time from them certify that foreign governments aren't sponsoring lessees. The newer rules “dramatically expanded” the requirement by redefining a lease of airtime to include non-candidate political advertising and public service announcements, NAB said. The order violates the First Amendment by imposing content-based restrictions on protected speech, it said. The 2024 rules “radically increase the burdens on lessees, advertisers, and broadcasters by sweeping in hundreds of thousands of new transactions, including advertising spots, under the foreign-sponsor identification regime,” NAB said. That expansion isn’t a logical outgrowth of the FCC’s rulemaking process, which had sought comment only upon a request from broadcasters for a clarification on the length of ads excluded from the 2021 rules, NAB said. “The APA is not satisfied by a rumor mill,” said the brief. The FCC “still has no evidence of any foreign governmental sponsorship of any form of advertising, including political advertising,” NAB said. That is why the 2021 rules excluded “traditional, short-form advertising” from the requirements, “and the Commission never explained why its analysis changed.”