“Consumers shouldn’t have to pay higher prices because companies break the law,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland told a news conference Thursday announcing the bipartisan antitrust suit (docket 2:24-cv-04055) against Apple brought by DOJ and the AGs of 15 states and the District of Columbia. DOJ alleges in USA v. Apple that the tech giant has consolidated its monopoly power “not by making its own products better but by making other products worse.”
Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told us Thursday she hopes to soon file legislation on a five-year renewal of the FCC’s lapsed spectrum auction authority without language authorizing sales of specific bands, despite Republican criticism during a Thursday hearing about omitting an airwaves pipeline. Senate Commerce ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., emphasized their 2024 Spectrum Pipeline Act (S-3909) as an antidote to concerns about the Biden spectrum strategy, as expected (see 2403200001). The hearing also revealed clear divisions among panel Republicans about continuing to explore 5G use of the 3.1-3.45 GHz band, which has drawn opposition from DOD and top Capitol Hill allies (see 2403200061).
Trade groups critical of the FCC’s digital discrimination order disagreed Wednesday with members of its Communications Equity and Diversity Council about the order’s breadth. The order “covers every aspect” of an ISP’s service and could lead to companies slowing the rollout of service in some communities to avoid the appearance of discrimination, said Diana Eisner, USTelecom vice president-policy and advocacy, at an FCBA CLE. “Given the scope of the problem,” it was appropriate for the FCC to create a rule that could tackle multiple forms of discrimination, said Leo Fitzpatrick, policy analyst at The Utility Reform Network and a former CEDC member.
Converged terrestrial and satellite connectivity is a given, but the path is strewn with unknowns and sizable technological and business stumbling blocks, according to satellite operator CEOs. For example, satellite operators must start thinking and acting like mobile network operators, creating an ecosystem that allows seamless roaming among them, Viasat CEO Mark Dankberg said during Access Intelligence’s Satellite 2024 conference in Washington Wednesday. Separately, space sustainability advocates urged a mission authorization regulatory framework and universal use of design features such as docking plates enabling on-orbit serving or towing. Meanwhile, conference organizers said event attendance reached 14,000.
A Thursday Senate Commerce Committee hearing is likely to highlight stark differences between panel leaders’ competing proposals for a spectrum legislative package, including whether it should mandate sales of specific bands before NTIA completes studies of those frequencies in keeping with the Biden administration’s national spectrum strategy (see 2403120006). Lawmakers’ apparent failure to reach a deal allocating additional money for the FCC’s affordable connectivity program and Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program (see 2403190062) as part of a FY 2024 still-unreleased “minibus” spending package also ratchets up the pressure for a spectrum bill to use future auction revenue to pay for multiple telecom priorities, officials and lobbyists told us.
A CTIA executive on Wednesday criticized DOD’s work so far on the potential clearing of parts of the lower 3 GHz band. “We need more spectrum to meet commercial demand” and the federal government holds the most spectrum, said CTIA Senior Vice President-Spectrum Umair Javed during an Information Technology and Innovation Foundation webinar on Wednesday. Other panelists praised the Biden administration for releasing a national spectrum strategy (see 2403120006). The strategy includes a co-led NTIA and DOD study of the lower 3 GHz band.
The House on Wednesday unanimously approved TikTok-related legislation that would ban data brokers from transferring “sensitive” U.S. information to “foreign adversaries” such as China. Meanwhile, the Senate Commerce Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee are planning a joint hearing about their legislative options.
Stopgap funding for the FCC’s affordable connectivity program is not included in an FY 2024 appropriations “minibus” package Congress is aiming to approve this week, several lobbyists told us Tuesday. The omission also makes it doubtful congressional leaders attached an additional $3.08 billion for the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program, lobbyists said. Advocates of both programs were pushing for their funding in the minibus (see 2403150063) as recently as last weekend. The White House and Capitol Hill reached a deal on FY24 funding for the FCC and most other agencies over the weekend; they reached a final agreement on the bill Monday night.
The FCC disagrees with the motion of 20 industry petitioners for expedited briefing and oral argument of their consolidated challenges to the commission’s Nov. 20 digital discrimination order, according to the agency’s opposition brief Tuesday (docket 24-1179) in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Faced with an increasingly antagonistic developing world, the commercial satellite industry must do a better job selling itself and its benefits, NTIA senior spectrum advisor Scott Blake Harris said Tuesday during Access Intelligence’s Satellite 2024 conference in Washington. Regions that feel left out by the low earth orbit satellite boom expressed hostility toward LEO issues during the 2023 World Radiocommunication Conference, he said. Throughout the day, multiple satellite operators and space industry experts mentioned the developing world as a large potential target market, particularly for satellite broadband. Harris said he’s concerned that the ITU and regulatory processes could delay existing satellite systems and development of new ones. Between now and WRC-27, the satellite industry must convince the developing world “it has something to offer."