Subscription-based companies should watch a growing field of state automatic renewal laws, said business lawyers in interviews this month. Colorado and Delaware laws take effect Jan. 1, joining states including California and New York. With a recent explosion of streaming and other online subscription services, consumer groups support rules and enforcement for more transparency on renewal policies.
Whenever the FCC gets a Democratic majority, broadcasters expect an uncertain environment for potential mergers and acquisitions, possible action on the UHF discount, and potentially two broadcast ownership quadrennial reviews, they said in interviews. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel declined to comment last week on whether the FCC would go after the UHF discount. She said the agency is reviewing some potential broadcast items for 2022 (see 2112140062).
Satellite, wireline, wireless and broadcast industry groups almost uniformly opposed FCC proposals for stricter network resiliency requirements, in comments posted in docket 21-346 through Friday. Providers work voluntarily to share information and preserve their networks, so the FCC should “avoid unnecessary and burdensome additional regulation” said NTCA, similar to NAB, USTelecom and others. The FCC “shouldn’t take an overly prescriptive approach to unpredictable and highly variable events,” said the Competitive Carriers Association.
Four companies will pay $6.3 million in penalties for 911 outages last year, the FCC announced Friday. Some said they had made procedural changes to avoid a repeat. Lumen will pay $3.8 million, Intrado $1.75 million, AT&T $460,000 and Verizon $274,000. Both Lumen and AT&T said their blackouts involved work by vendor Intrado. See our news bulletin here.
Legislation is needed to ensure domain name registries and registrars are cooperating with federal agencies combating illegal online activity, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., told us last week before introducing a bipartisan bill with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. Their Domain Reform for Unlawful Drug Sellers (DRUGS) Act (S.3399) would give the FDA the authority to “suspend websites run by criminal networks that traffic” illegal drugs.
An NTIA request for comment on implementing programs funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act could come “before Christmas holiday or shortly thereafter,” said Director-Communications Policy Initiatives Russell Hanser at a Fierce Technology virtual event Monday (see 2112140086). Experts debated during panels throughout the week how states and federal agencies should prioritize the new broadband funding, with several suggesting public-private partnerships.
California Public Utilities Commissioners voted 5-0 to deny LTD Broadband the application approval it needed to get about $187.5 million in Rural Digital Opportunities Fund (RDOF) support over 10 years. At a virtual meeting Thursday, commissioners also by unanimous consent cleared multiple California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) grants that LTD and others said partially overlapped areas where they won RDOF support (see 2112140019, 2112090011 and 2112080046). The CPUC got more comments Wednesday on a plan to shift to connections-based state USF contributions.
In a hearing delayed nearly three hours by last-minute negotiations between Intelsat and its creditors, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Keith Phillips of Richmond approved the company's plan for emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The unanimous backing of the plan by creditors, given the competing claims, is "a remarkable achievement," he said. Intelsat said the actual emergence will be early next year. Our news bulletin is here.
The six Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council working groups are getting started, and they updated the larger group Wednesday during a quarterly virtual meeting. Most reported they're organizing, with work to start in early 2022. The meeting was the second by the FCC group, reshaped by Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel (see 2104150056) with an emphasis on 5G security.
Google and Apple are using their app store monopolies to favor themselves, resulting in lower quality for consumers, Senate Antitrust Subcommittee Democrats and Republicans agreed during a hearing Wednesday.