Amazon and Facebook are attempting to “bully” the FTC by seeking recusal of Chair Lina Khan (see 2107140036), Senate Democrats said in interviews. Republicans were more hesitant to dismiss the filings but credited Khan’s approach. A former FTC general counsel and a legal scholar told us it’s unlikely the companies will succeed.
Country of origin cases
Details revealed Thursday of what FCC members are to vote on Aug. 5 showed some impermissible telecom relay service-related fees would be OK, outlined how new innovation zones would work and showed how political advertising thresholds would change. Commissioners will consider modifying the compensation methodology for IP relay service providers to use “only projected costs and demand” to calculate base level compensation, said a fact sheet. The current compensation period, which follows a cost-based base level of per-minute compensation, ends June 30. The draft NPRM would rescind prohibition on outreach cost recovery because there's one IP relay provider, and would modify rules allowing recovery for indirect overhead.
Netflix is in for another quarter of “modest subscriber growth” when it reports Q2 results July 20, Canaccord Genuity wrote investors Wednesday. Net subscriber additions slowed due to the “strong pull-forward” of subscription VOD adoption during 2020's first half, when the company added 26 million new accounts, it said. “Investors likely will be focused on how much this metric can rebound during 2H21 as consumer behavior normalizes and the release schedule strengthens,” after months in which COVID-19 halted content production, the analyst firm said: “We expect the return of numerous popular original series and a slew of new titles across genres and formats to drive a notable uptick in subscriber acquisition.” Netflix's April 20 projection expected 1 million paid net adds for Q2, compared with 15.77 million in the 2020 quarter, when most of the world went into lockdown.
The House Agriculture Committee voted unanimously to advance the Broadband Internet Connections for Rural America Act (HR-4374) that committee leaders hope to attach to the coming infrastructure spending package. President Joe Biden rallied Senate Democrats Wednesday to back a $3.5 trillion package party leaders aim to pass via budget reconciliation along with a bipartisan infrastructure plan he supports with $65 billion for broadband (see 2106240070).
COVID-19-related timing provision adjustments are extended through Sept. 8, the Copyright Office said Friday. Originally to have expired May 12, 2020, adjustments have been extended multiple times (see 2103090021).
Intelsat is upping the estimated price tag for its part in the C-band clearing by more than $100 million, while SES and Eutelsat are dropping theirs, per updated transition plans posted Thursday in docket 18-122 (see 2106230038). The FCC didn't comment.
The FCC seeks nominations by Aug. 10 for its rechartered diversity committee, now called the Communications Equity and Diversity Council, said a public notice Tuesday. The agency is seeking applications from representatives of the communications industry, state and local regulators, and consumer and community organizations. The FCC is “particularly interested” in representatives from organizations that serve disadvantaged communities, tech entrepreneurship support organizations, and minority-serving institutions such as historically black colleges and universities, among others. Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel encouraged members of the previous iteration to apply for the latest one (see 2106240072). The PN contains a revamped mission statement for the new committee, with differing emphasis from the 2019 chartering of the then-Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment. The 2019 ACDDE’s mission was to provide recommendations on “how to empower disadvantaged communities and accelerate the entry of small businesses, including those owned by women and minorities.” The 2021 entity will make recommendations “on advancing equity in the provision of and access to digital communication services and products for all people of the United States, without discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, or disability.” The new committee will recommend “how to empower people of color and others who have been historically undeserved, including persons who live in rural areas, and persons otherwise adversely affected by persistent poverty or inequality,” to gain access to opportunities from networks and technology. The new charter ends June 29, 2023.
The largest voice service providers are now using secure telephone identity revisited and signature-based handling of asserted information using tokens (Stir/Shaken), FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced Wednesday. That was the deadline for the largest providers to implement the caller ID authentication framework. A Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau report Tuesday said 207 providers have certified complete implementation (see 2106290060). Smaller providers were granted an extension until June 30, 2023, and the commission is considering shortening that deadline by one year (see 2105200072). “While there is no silver bullet in the endless fight against scammers, STIR/SHAKEN will turbo-charge many of the tools we use in our fight against robocalls,” Rosenworcel said in a statement: “This is a good day for American consumers who -- like all of us -- are sick and tired of illegal spoofed robocalls.” T-Mobile said Wednesday it's filing a certification of completion at the FCC saying all calls on its network are now compliant with the requirement. “We were first to implement number verification in 2019 and today, all calls originating on the T-Mobile network are 100% STIR/SHAKEN compliant, giving our customers peace of mind that their calls are protected against scammers and spammers,” said Jon Freier, executive vice president-T-Mobile Consumer Group.
Blue Origin, Relativity Space, Sierra Space, Virgin Galactic and Virgin Orbit want a 30-day extension for the comments and replies deadlines in the Further NPRM on dedicated spectrum for commercial space launches, per a docket 13-115 joint request Wednesday. The FNPRM questions "have implications for the long term interests of the commercial space launch ecosystem" and need more time for "significant and thoughtful analysis," they said.
OneWeb received an additional $500 million investment from co-owner Bharti Global, and reached its $2.4 billion fundraising goal, said the company Tuesday. The new investment gives Bharti a 38.6% stake, with Eutelsat, SoftBank and the U.K. government each owning 19.3%. CEO Neil Masterson said completing funding "puts OneWeb in a powerful position." It has "significantly lower entry cost" than any low earth orbit satellite company, he said: "We benefit from $3.4bn of pre-Chapter 11 investment by the original shareholders, making new OneWeb a three-times lower cost Constellation." A scheduled July 1 launch will complete 40% of its planned satellite network, said Masterson.