Jon Brodkin

The Federal Communications Commission voted to preempt part of a San Francisco ordinance that promotes broadband competition in apartment buildings and other multi-tenant structures. The FCC's decision "stop[s] efforts in California designed to encourage competition in multi-tenant environments," said FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. "Specifically, we say to the city of San Francisco—where more than half of the population rents their housing, often in multi-tenant units—that they cannot encourage broadband competition.

Amazon is seeking government permission to launch 3,236 broadband satellites that would cover nearly all of the US and much of the rest of the world.

Meteorologists and other experts are urging the Federal Communications Commission to drop a spectrum-sharing plan that they say could interfere with transmissions of weather-satellite imagery. The dispute is over the 1675-1680MHz frequencies and is separate from the other FCC/weather controversy, which involves the 24GHz band and has pitted the FCC against NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the US Navy. 

The Federal Communications Commission will vote on whether to preempt a San Francisco city ordinance that was designed to promote broadband competition in multi-unit buildings. San Francisco's Article 52, approved in December 2016, lets Internet service providers use the existing wiring inside multi-unit residential and commercial properties even if the wiri

Starry, a wireless home Internet provider, says it has acquired enough spectrum to offer service to 40 million households in more than 25 US states. The company sells 200Mbps Internet service for $50 a month, but it doesn't reveal how many subscribers it has.  To expand its network, Starry spent $48.5 million on spectrum licenses in the Federal Communications Commission's recent 24GHz auction. 

AT&T has informed employees of plans to cut another 1,800 jobs from its wireline division. AT&T declared more than 1,800 jobs nationwide as "surplus," meaning they are slated to be eliminated in Aug or Sept, said the Communications Workers of America (CWA). AT&T said that most affected union workers will be able to stay at the company in other positions. 

Verizon has avoided paying local taxes on telecommunication equipment in many New Jersey municipalities over the past decade, but a proposed state law would force the company to pay back taxes for all the payments it didn't make.

The Federal Communications Commission has preliminarily voted to cap spending on the FCC's Universal Service programs, which deploy broadband to poor people and to rural and other underserved areas. The recent approval of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking is a preliminary step—the FCC will take public comment on Chairman Ajit Pai's plan for three months before moving to a final vote. The FCC technically won't begin the public-comment period until after the NPRM is published in the Federal Register, but the FCC proceeding's docket is online.

After Hurricane Michael wreaked havoc on Florida in 2018, AT&T restored wireless service more quickly than Verizon because it relied on well-trained employees while Verizon instead used contractors that "did not have the proper credentials," according to the Communications Workers of America, a union that represents workers from both telecoms. The Federal Communications Commission recently found that carriers' mistakes prolonged outages caused by the hurricane. Many customers had to go without cellular service for more than a week.

AT&T has cut more than 23,000 jobs since receiving a big tax cut at the end of 2017, despite lobbying heavily for the tax cut by claiming that it would create thousands of jobs. AT&T in Nov 2017 pushed for the corporate tax cut by promising to invest an additional $1 billion in 2018, with CEO Randall Stephenson saying that "every billion dollars AT&T invests is 7,000 hard-hat jobs. These are not entry-level jobs.