John Eggerton

Cable operators and other broadband providers want to use the Farm Bill to remove a long-time thorn in their sides, broadband subsidies that allow for major overbuilding of existing providers.

Wireless carriers want the Federal Communications Commission to add a vote on opening up the 3.5 GHz (CBRS) band at its July meeting, and an auction of that spectrum by 2019, according to a letter from CTIA President Meredith Attwell Baker. "The wireless industry urges the Commission to move forward in July on key mid-band spectrum opportunities—the 3.5 GHz band and the 3.7-4.2 GHz band—to address the United States’ international deficit with respect to mid-band spectrum availability," She wrote to the FCC.

A cybersecurity report from the Commerce Department and Homeland Security has been delivered to the White House in response to a 2017 executive order. The report, on better protecting against botnets and other kinds of automated attacks, was produced in coordination with the Federal Communications Commission, Federal Trade Commission, Department of Justice, Department of Defense and others. It identifies six principal themes:

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai says he is currently setting the regulatory wheels in motion to secure a 90-day extension of the challenge window for the map the FCC will use to allocate over $4.5 billion in mobile broadband subsidies. In a May 30 letter to Sen Roger Wicker (R-MS), Chairman Pai signaled that was part of his commitment to ensure the map would be high quality, a map whose accuracy will be improved by the challenge process. The FCC put out the map of areas eligible for Mobility Fund Phase II money over the next decade as part of its move to redirect wireles

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai got some fan mail, once removed, and an assist from a small telecommunication company in responding to Hill queries about the impact of his broadband deregulatory policies. That is according to a letter from VTel chairman Michel Guite to Sen Patrick Leahy (D-VT).  At a recent Hill hearing on broadband, Guité said, Sen Leahy wanted Chairman Pai to quantify that impact. Chairman Pai had invoked VTel as an example of the fruits of FCC's pro-investment and deployment broadband approach.

Republican and Democratic senators are expressing concerns about the coverage map the Federal Communications Commission is planning to use to decide where to put more than $4.5 billion in rural broadband subsidies, and they want more time to challenge the agency's findings.

Some high-profile broadcast groups have been telling the Federal Communications Commission they would be OK with moving the 39% national ownership cap to 50% from 39%, rather than eliminating it altogether.  In filings at the FCC, Hearst Television, Scripps Media, Raycom Media, Gray Television, Graham Media, Quincy Media, Dispatch Broadcast Group and Morgan Murphy Media told the FCC they can support both a cap at 50% and eliminating the UHF discount for future broadcast groups, so long as current groups that would be over that 50% cap without the discount are grandfathered.  They say that "

Appearing on C-SPAN's The Communicators, Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr signaled he thought reports of the impending death of the internet were highly overrated. He said that on June 11, when the FCC's network neutrality regulation rollback takes effect, consumers "are not going to see the end of the internet" and "in fact, are going back to the same regime we had in 2015 and for 20 years before that."

The seemingly endless review of the proposed Sinclair Broadcast Group-Tribune Media merger doesn’t show signs of being wrapped up anytime soon. And that’s fine with the cable and satellite operators opposed to the deal, who are looking to block it, and maybe also get some help from a federal court in the effort.

The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) go into effect May 25, and privacy groups are pushing companies to commit to the same standard for their US operations. More than two dozen privacy groups sent letters to "edge providers" Amazon, Facebook and Google, and ad giants Walmart, Nestle and others asking them to use the EU regime as a baseline for their own US data protection policies.