John Eggerton

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai has told Congress he does not plan to close the set-top box docket, but signaled that was because it could still have some deregulatory legs. That came in a letter released April 21 in the FCC's periodic batch of chairman responses to congressional inquiries. Republican members of the House Commerce Committee had asked Chairman Pai to close the docket after FCC chairman Tom Wheeler was unable to get three Democratic votes for his "unlock the box," then "unlock the app" proposals.

Chairman Pai did not support Wheeler's approach and reiterated that in the letter. "I share your goal of promoting a clear, consumer-focused, fair, and competitive regulatory path for video programming delivery," he wrote. "Because I do not believe that the set-top box Order circulated by my immediate predecessor furthered this goal, I have removed it from circulation. As such, it is no longer pending before the Commission, and I do not intend to resurrect it." He said he agreed with closing dockets no longer under active consideration, but that it would be premature to put the set-top item in that category because in the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, which never got voted, there were unrelated issues teed up, including and in particular, on whether the FCC should eliminate the CableCARD reporting requirement.

Sen Ed Markey (D-MA) said Massachusetts tech leaders, including Microsoft, were pledging to join his fight to protect network neutrality. Sen Markey's definition of that is to prevent Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai from reversing his predecessor's reclassification of Internet service providers as Title II common carriers under the Open Internet order.

Sen Markey's office said April 21 he had met with the following, who had joined his defense of net neutrality: Mark Kidd, senior VP of Iron Mountain; Jody Rose, executive director of New England Venture Capital Association; Colin Angle, CEO of iRobot; Mohamad Ali, CEO of Carbonite; Steve Kaufer, CEO of TripAdvisor; Enrique Colbert, general counsel of Wayfair; Cathy Wissink, director of technology and civic engagement, Microsoft New England.

All three commissioners were in attendance April 21 as the Federal Communications Commission hosted the first meeting of the newly constituted Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee, created by FCC chairman Ajit Pai. The BDAC is comprised of various stakeholders, and tasked with coming up with strategies for closing the digital divide and advancing Chairman Pai's Digital Empowerment Agenda. The committee will be expected to come up with two "model codes," one for cities and the other for states, those codes being guidelines for how to streamline broadband deployment while balancing the interests of government with the demands for better, faster and cheaper broadband.

The meeting came a day after the FCC took steps to streamline both wired and wireless broadband buildouts in terms of tower siting, pole attachments and access, and rights-of-way on federal land issues, as well as retiring legacy copper networks—and whether nets have to get FCC permission for the phase-outs—and promoting next-gen service like 5G. The committee will also consider whether the FCC should preempt state laws impeding broadband buildouts.

Add the European Union (EU) to those raising red flags over the Federal Communications Commission's planned April 20 vote on a broadband business data services deregulation order proposed by new FCC chairman Ajit Pai. In a letter to the FCC from EU Ambassador to the David O'Sullivan, who oversees the bilateral relationship between the EU and US, said that the FCC's 20-day window between publishing the order and voting on it did not allow for a "full consultation" with EU stakeholders, but said that from what they could glean from the draft, it was a troubling change that the FCC should reconsider. O'Sullivan stopped short of saying the FCC should delay the vote, but did say that if the FCC proceeded it should provide a transition period. But he offered plenty of reasons why the EU thought the FCC should rethink the BDS order. He cited the FCC's extensive data collection and the rulemaking proposal based on that and voted under Pai's predecessor, Tom Wheeler, and over Pai's dissent, that the incumbent providers (former Bells) did not face effective competition in most markets.

Commissioner Mignon Clyburn of the Federal Communications Commission signaled she was not heading for the exit in June. That came in a post-FCC meeting interview in which she sang her answer to the question of whether she would be leaving after June 30. "I've got work to do. I've got a job, baby," she warbled, attempting to channel the Isley Brothers. She was following the lead of protestors who broke into song during chairman Ajit Pai's meeting statement and the chairman's own crooning in response in a moment that alternated between light and somewhat surreal.

Her term expires, but she could serve a couple more years because FCC commissioners don't have to leave until the end of the Congress after the one in which their term expires. There have been rumblings that she could decide to call it quits given the Republican-majority commission she was not anticipating and clearly has major issues with given her ringing dissents to a couple of votes at the FCC's April meeting. If she did leave, the FCC would lack a quorum and could not approve any more of the chairman's efforts to weed whack what he sees as unnecessary and counterproductive regulations and many Democrats see as necessary governor's on industry power. That would mean President Donald Trump would have to move more swiftly to fill the two empty FCC seats.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) joined with Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-NJ) to try and head off the reinstating of the UHF discount, saying its return by the Federal Communications Commission would be using a "blunt, illogical and anti-consumer instrument" to re-open a loophole to further consolidation.

Before the FCC eliminated it under former chairman Tom Wheeler in 2016 on a party line vote, the FCC had counted only half of a UHF TV station's audience reach toward the 39% cap on national reach by a TV station group owner. New FCC chairman Ajit Pai has scheduled a vote April 20 on bringing the discount back until the FCC looks more holistically at media ownership regulations, including whether that 39% cap should be raised if the discount is eliminated, something the Wheeler FCC did not do. The item is expected to pass with the support of fellow Republican Michael O'Rielly. The legislators, in a letter to the chairman, told him he would be restoring a loophole that would allow further concentration. The discount dates from when UHFs were the weaker signal vis a vis VHF, a situation that was reversed with the transition to DTV given UHF's better propagation characteristics in digital.

Telecommunication lawyers have petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to eliminate the rule that broadcasters have a main studio located in their community of license. The FCC initially adopted the in-market requirement to make sure viewers had easy access to their local station and its management. But the commission loosened the rule in 1987 during its Reagan-era broad deregulation of the industry, eliminating a related requirement that a station originated a minimum number of programming hours from such a studio, and further loosened it in 1998, allowing stations still more facilities flexibility.

Then at the first meeting of FCC chairman Ajit Pai, the FCC eliminated the requirement that public files be physically housed in a main office—they can now be made available online only—by dropping the "last vestige" of that rule in January, the requirement that commercial broadcast stations retain copies of letters and emails from the public in their public inspection file. Given those decisions and the changes in technology, said the Media, Telecom and Technology Group in a filing at the FCC, adopting their proposal to eliminate the so-called "main studio rule," would not affect the "bedrock obligation" to serve their communities but would be a recognition of the technological and economic reality "that stations can serve their communities while realizing substantial and necessary cost savings by maintaining fewer offices and smaller staff.

With the close of the Federal Communications Commission broadcast incentive auction the week of April 10, FCC Incentive Auction Task Force chairman Gary Epstein will be exiting at the end of April. Epstein, a prominent telecommunications attorney, joined the FCC in April 2012 as co-lead on the incentive auction. Epstein retired from private practice in 2009 as a partner in Latham & Watkins and head of its communications group before being wooed to the FCC by then-FCC chairman Julius Genachowski to tackle the incentive auction.

Former Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission Robert McDowell has joined Mobile Future as chief public policy advisor. McDowell, who left the commission in 2013, continues as partner and co-leader of the global communications practice at Cooley LLP. [NOTE: Original Multichannel News article indicated that McDowell was leaving Cooley.]

McDowell, a Republican, served as a commissioner from 2006 to 2013. Originally nominated by President George W. Bush, He was re-nominated in 2009 by President Barack Obama. He joined Wiley Rein in 2014 as a partner and Cooley in 2016.

“The organization has consistently encouraged investment and innovation in the ever-evolving wireless world," said McDowell. "I look forward to working hard to spur more competition, consumer choice and economic growth as we look to the 5G future.”

Add to the list of those calling for a delay in the Federal Communications Commission's April 20 vote on deregulating broadband business data services (BDS) Sen Ed Markey (D-MA) and House Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Mike Doyle (D-PA).

In a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, they urged him to postpone the vote saying the market was not competitive, citing the FCC data collection that informed the conclusion of Chairman Pai's predecessor, Tom Wheeler, that the marketplace lacked sufficient competition to justify such deregulation. They said that competition has driven up costs for schools, libraries businesses and anyone who relies on the BDS market. "We are concerned that the proposed BDS Report and Order does not adequately promote competition or apply appropriate pricing protections where competition does not exist," they wrote.