Multichannel News

Wireless Carriers Divided on Mobile Broadband Competitiveness

The mobile wireless broadband marketplace is either wildly competitive or definitely not so, depending on whom you ask.

Senate Commerce Hearing: Senate Looks to Speed Up Spectrum Availability

The Senate Commerce Committee took a deep dive into various government and industry efforts to make more spectrum available for 5G. Helping focus the hearing were two bills currently working their way through Congress, the SPECTRUM NOW and AIRWAVES Act. "Identifying spectrum resources not just for the next three years, but for the next 10 years and beyond is essential if we are to retain American leadership," said Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD). Craig Cowden, SVP of wireless technology for Charter, put in a plug for its Wi-Fi mobile broadband play.

Billion Dollar-Plus FCC CAF II Auction Begins

The Federal Communications Commission July 24 began auctioning billions in broadband buildout subsidies to cable operators and other competitors to the incumbent telecommunication companies. The FCC gave incumbent telecommunication companies the first shot at its Connect America Fund (CAF) subsidies to deliver fixed broadband to rural communities. Now it is giving competitors a shot at those funds in round two (CAF II), though incumbents can jump back in as well. Round one of the Connect America Fund Phase II Auction (auction 903) began at 10 a.m.

Sinclair Fires Back

Sinclair Broadcasting released a lengthy statement in response to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai's move to designate the Tribune deal for hearing before the FCC's administrative law judge. Sinclair said it had misled no one, had complied with FCC rules, been transparent about what it was trying to do, and was willing to adjust the merger yet again -- it has submitted five versions so far --  to avoid the hearing and close the deal.

House Commerce Committee to Mark Up Broadband Bills

The full House Commerce Committee has scheduled a markup for more than a dozen bills July 12, including two broadband-related bills -- H.R. 3994, the Advancing Critical Connectivity Expands Service, Small Businesses Resources, Opportunities, Access, and Data Based on Assessed Need and Demand (ACCESS BROADBAND) Act, and H.R. 4881, the Precision Agriculture Connectivity Act of 2018.

Fulfilling a Vision of Small-Town Broadband

When they set out on their own in 2012 after more than two decades working for one of the most revered names in the cable industry — the late Bill Bresnan, founder of Bresnan Communications — Jeff DeMond and Andrew Kober had a clear vision of where their respective futures lay. Broadband was the key. But not just any broadband. DeMond, CEO of Vyve Broadband, one of 2018’s Independent Operators of the Year, said he and Kober, Vyve’s chief financial officer, specifically looked for rural markets, territories that were essentially being shunned by larger, more established operators.

App Association: NTIA More Likely Than FCC to Produce Unbiased Broadband Report

ACT: The App Association, which represents more than 5,000 app developers and device makers, said the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA) should be the one collecting and compiling data on broadband availability, not the Federal Communications Commission. "[T]he technology administration [NTIA] is more at home working across government agencies to put together an unbiased report," said ACT senior policy director Graham Dufault.

Senate Farm Bill Sets New RUS Broadband Finance Standards

The Senate has passed a Farm Bill whose broadband section reins in potential overbuilding of commercial broadband operators with government broadband subsidies.

Groups Petition FCC to Delay Sinclair-Tribune Decision

Critics of the Sinclair-Tribune merger continue to try to get Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to delay a decision on the deal until a federal appeals court rules on the UHF discount that made the combo possible. Common Cause and Public Knowledge officially petitioned the FCC to "hold the proceeding in abeyance," which is just legalese for "hold off," pointing out that "the Court’s consideration of the UHF Reinstatement Order has direct bearing on whether the proposed acquisition of Tribune Media Company (“Tribune”) by Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.

NTIA Reauthorization Legislation Morphs Into Broadband Bill (updated)

The House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, chaired by Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), held a hearing to consider draft legislation to reauthorize the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). But the bill was billed as a rural broadband solution, including coordinating funding efforts and getting mroe accurate and granular maps of broadband coverage.

ACLU Backs Small Cable Operator Opposition to Sinclair-Tribune

Smaller cable operators are getting an assist from the American Civil Liberties Union in their effort to block the Sinclair-Tribune deal.  In a filing with the Federal Communications Commission, the ACLU pulled out all the stops, invoking viewpoint diversity and the legal underpinnings of media ownership regulation to argue the deal should be rejected. It also spent some some time defending cable operators from what it said were the threats from the deal.