Telecommunication

Here are the 2023 reasonable comparability benchmarks for fixed voice and broadband services for eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs) that are subject to broadband public interest obligations. 

The Federal Communications Commission is the lead U.S.

The Federal Communications Commission's recent restrictions on five Chinese telecoms’ technologies — adopted on Nov. 25, 2022 — could impact state and local governments in ways previous bans haven’t. “Up until now … the federal agencies have been prohibited from buying this kind of technology, but it's still been widely available to state and local governments, to private companies, individuals,” said Jack Corrigan, research analyst at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET).

The inaugural Telco Giants Scorecard reveals that telecommunications companies, despite being gatekeepers of the internet for most of the world, are less transparent overall and more susceptible to government demands than their Big Tech peers. It’s time to renew our scrutiny of these companies and hold them accountable for respecting our rights online. None of the 12 telecommunications companies evaluated earned a passing grade.

Ofcom has today launched an industry-wide enforcement programme into whether in-contract price rises were set out clearly enough by phone and broadband companies before customers signed up.

The Federal Communications Commission announced the agenda for its December 2022 open commission meeting. The FCC will consider:

The Federal Communications Commission adopted new rules prohibiting communications equipment deemed to pose an unacceptable risk to national security from being authorized for importation or sale in the United States. This is the latest step by the FCC to protect our nation’s communications networks.

The Federal Communications Commission denied a petition for reconsideration filed by Duke Energy Progress and an application for review filed by AT&T in a dispute over rates for attaching to utility poles. Section 224 of the Communications Act of 1934 grants the FCC broad authority to regulate rates for attachments to utility-owned poles and ensure nondiscriminatory access to their poles to telecommunications carriers and cable television systems.

The Telework Metrics and Cost Savings Act (H.R. 7951) would expand telework training for managers, require agencies to develop goals for telework participation, and collect data on productivity and cost savings from teleworking. The bill would require the Office of Personnel Management to publish guidance to assist agencies in performing those activities and to improve the reliability of telework data collected by the agency. CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 7951 would have an insignificant effect on direct spending and no effect on revenues over the 2023-2032 period.

British communications regulator Ofcom said it had started the process to scrap legislation compelling BT, the former state-owned monopoly, to provide dedicated landlines for the devices at affordable prices.