Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld and Clemson University professor Thomas Hazlett disagreed on whether the FCC’s public interest standard should continue to exist during a Technology Policy Institute podcast released Thursday.
The Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a right-of-center policy institute, urged the FCC to broaden its foreign-ownership reporting requirements “to cover all applicants for licenses, permits, and other authorizations.” That expansion would streamline efforts to block China and other foreign adversaries “from accessing the nation’s telecommunications network, while preventing states, entities, and individuals from circumventing reporting requirements,” said a filing submitted last month and posted Thursday in docket 25-166.
The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation urged the FCC this week to move forward on proposals making it easier for carriers to retire legacy copper lines (see 2510010031). Maintaining legacy networks is “becoming untenable, and consumers are best served when ISPs use resources to upgrade and deploy next-generation networks instead of sinking them into propping up a worse technology,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 25-208. The broadband market today is competitive, and “outdated” regulations put in place when incumbent local exchange carriers “dominated the market are no longer relevant and should be eliminated.”
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., confirmed Thursday that she won't seek reelection to the San Francisco-based seat she has held for 20 terms, potentially paving the way for California state Sen. Scott Wiener (D), who has focused on tech and telecom policy issues, to succeed her. Pelosi led the House for four terms, from 2007-11 and 2019-23, most recently when Democrats had a majority in the chamber. She relinquished her leadership role at the beginning of the last Congress to now-Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York.
Consumers’ Research and other parties challenging the legality of the USF contribution factor at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals urged the court not to allow various public interest groups to intervene. Motions to intervene were filed last month by the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition and jointly by the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance and the Center for Media Justice (see 2510300042). The 5th Circuit stayed the case Tuesday because of the federal shutdown (see 2511040071).
EchoStar will put the billions of dollars it gets in proceeds from its spectrum sales into a new division that will focus on merger and acquisition opportunities, as well as other investments in the company's future, it said Thursday as it reported quarterly results. Those sales include one announced Thursday that will transfer its unpaired AWS-3 wireless spectrum to SpaceX for $2.6 billion in stock.
The broadcast industry is ripe for consolidation and could eventually resolve into just two groups, each the size of the combined Nexstar/Tegna, suggested TV group CEOs from Nexstar and Sinclair on their respective Q3 earnings calls this week. “This level of consolidation would strengthen the industry's financial footing and position broadcasters as more capable competitors to big media and big tech” while preserving news coverage, said Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley Wednesday. “I think a good, strong industry needs to have good, strong companies comprising it,” said Nexstar CEO Perry Sook Thursday. “We can't do it all by ourselves.”
The FCC signed an agreement Thursday to continue to work with regulators from traditional U.S. allies to strengthen cooperation “in response to evolving threats and challenges in the telecommunications sector." Regulators from the U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand also signed the agreement. Industry experts told us that the pact shows that despite tariff fights and other disagreements with the nations under President Donald Trump, cooperation on security continues.
The FCC should abolish its news distortion rules, said Competitive Enterprise Institute fellow Brian Rankin in an online essay Wednesday. “Like the fairness doctrine before it, this regulation chokes crucial news and information. In this time of political polarization, it is being used as a weapon to inhibit speech that is critical of those in power or expresses contrary views.” The Communications Act expressly states that it doesn’t give the FCC the power to censor or interfere with free speech, he noted. “Regulating the content of a few voices because they have licenses tilts the regulatory playing field and fails to recognize today’s wide array of sources for news and information.”
The FCC on Wednesday gave Hong Kong Telecom (International) until Dec. 1 to respond to the agency's request to show why its international and domestic telecom authorizations shouldn’t be revoked (see 2510150067). The Chinese company had asked for an extra 30 days, until Dec. 15 (see 2511040004).