Commenters largely showed support for NTIA's proposed guidance that would allow the use of alternative technologies for broadband, equity, access and deployment program projects in locations where fiber may not be the most suitable option (see 2408260048). Comments were due Tuesday. Additional comments will be made public after an initial review, an NTIA spokesperson told us.

After more than a year of meetings, the NAB-led, FCC-involved ATSC 3.0 task force, the Future of TV Initiative, hasn’t reached consensus on controversial topics, we're told. Its members include broadcasters, cable interests, and consumer and public interest groups. Its first meeting was in June 2023, and it was expected to issue a final report in the fall, yet members told us that it's likely merely to reiterate many of the positions stakeholders held going into the effort. It's also unlikely to provide a firm timeline for the sunset of ATSC 1.0. Just before the initiative's launch, ATSC President Madeleine Noland said the goal was for the diverse group to “chart a path forward together,” and NAB told us the goal was to make concrete recommendations to the FCC by June 2024.

Air5 company focused on aligning wired and wireless networks, names Jeff Brown, ex-AutoPylot Technologies and former Verizon, as CEO … Eric Kolte, ex-Blue Origin, joins Titans Space as founding chief development officer ... Samsara cloud company announces Lacework’s Meagen Eisenberg as chief marketing officer … FreeWheel, global tech platform for the TV industry, taps Kris Magel, ex-Samba TV, as head of global agency partnerships … ACA Connects elects board, including new members Jonathan Bullock, Hotwire; Katherine Gessner, MCTV; and John Walburn, Cable One; also appoints Cogeco’s Paul Cowling to replace Leslie Brown of Cogeco’s Breezeline … Walt Disney Co. board names board member James Gorman to chair its succession planning committee.

ISP and banking groups urged that the FCC update letter of credit (LOC) rules for its high-cost universal service programs. In reply comments posted Tuesday in docket 24-144, the groups said the record reflected overwhelming support for changes to the rules. Weiss Ratings founder Martin Weiss defended the "independence, objectivity, and accuracy" of the company's ratings in a letter to the FCC.

FuboTV will likely succeed in proving that the planned ESPN/Warner Bros. Discovery/Fox Sports streaming joint venture will violate federal antitrust law, a federal judge ruled Friday as she granted plaintiff Fubo a preliminary injunction to block it. The sports streaming JV, Venu, has raised anticompetitive concerns on the part of some federal lawmakers (see 2404170067).

The FCC’s Communications, Equity and Diversity Council may lobby for affordable connectivity program funding, according to comments at Tuesday’s CEDC meeting, the second under a new charter that lasts until 2025. The CEDC has 10 months to prepare recommendations for the FCC on implementing digital discrimination rules and getting the most for underserved communities out of federal broadband infrastructure funding, Chair Heather Gate said. “We must make recommendations to the FCC directly, but we should not be afraid to make recommendations that the FCC can communicate with other agencies,” Gate said. “We may also ask the FCC to communicate our recommendations with the White House or Congress."

Seeking to invalidate New York’s Affordable Broadband Act, ISP groups asked that the U.S. Supreme Court review a 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals 2-1 ruling that federal statute doesn't preempt the state law. However, SCOTUS should wait until lower courts finish reviewing the FCC’s net neutrality order, CTIA, NTCA, USTelecom, ACA Connects, the Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association and the New York State Telecommunications Association said in a petition for a writ of certiorari Monday.

The FCC "must point to clear congressional authorization" before claiming it can reclassify broadband as a Title II telecom service under the Communications Act, a coalition of industry groups told the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in its challenge of the commission's net neutrality rules. The court granted a temporary stay of the rules earlier this month (see 2408010066). The petitioners -- ACA Connects, CTIA, NCTA, USTelecom, the Wireless ISP Association and several state telecom associations -- said in their opening brief filed late Monday (docket 24-7000) that the "best reading of the federal communications laws forecloses the commission’s reclassification."

New York state will halt enforcing its affordable broadband law while the U.S. Supreme Court considers a petition from ISP groups for a writ of certiorari, the industry groups wrote to the court Thursday. CTIA, NTCA, USTelecom, ACA Connects, the Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association and the New York State Telecommunications Association said they plan to file that petition Monday in case 24A138. Last week, the ISP groups filed an application for emergency stay of the state law at SCOTUS. In Thursday’s letter, the groups said they no longer need a ruling on that application by Aug. 15, but they can’t withdraw the request entirely because New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) hasn’t agreed to stay enforcement if the court grants cert, “absent a ruling from the Court compelling it not to enforce that law.” ISPs waited for the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to stay the FCC’s order reclassifying broadband as Title II before appealing the 2nd Circuit’s ruling that upheld New York’s law based on a Title I regime (see 2408010065 and 2406170042). The 2nd Circuit ruled in April that federal law doesn’t preempt the 2021 New York law requiring $15 monthly plans with 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds for qualifying low-income households (see 2404260051). In the Aug. 2 application for stay, the ISP groups said their forthcoming cert petition “will seek review of a divided panel decision that presents fundamental questions about whether the Communications Act of 1934 preempts States from regulating rates for broadband internet access service and other interstate information services.”

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr is maintaining a constant drumbeat about what he calls the slow tempo of the broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program rollout. On July 29, he posted on X that it's 987 days since BEAD was enacted and "0 Americans have been connected, 0 Shovels worth of dirt turned." On Aug. 4, it was 993 days. "While there’s time to course correct, the trend line is not good," he posted Aug. 6. In his posts, he frequently lays the blame at the feet of Vice President Kamala Harris. His tweets repeatedly say that in 2021 Harris "agreed to lead a $42 billion plan to expand Internet service," and "no one has been connected."