Jon Reid

A fight between the Federal Communications Commission and dozens of cities over the placement of 5G infrastructure will continue to play out in federal court in 2020, with oral arguments scheduled for February. At issue is whether the Federal Communications Commission can restrict how much municipalities can charge wireless carriers like AT&T Inc. to attach pizza box-sized wireless antennas, or small cells, to light poles and other city-owned infrastructure.

Huawei's Fifth Circuit challenge to a Federal Communications Commission ban against carriers using federal subsidies to buy its equipment is unlikely to succeed, attorneys and academics watching the case say. The Communications Act gives the FCC near “plenary authority” over how it disperses more than $4 billion in subsidies aimed at furthering universal access to internet and telephone services, Philip Verveer, who served as senior counselor to former Democratic FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, said. The subsidies generally go to rural carriers to expand services in remote areas.

The Communications Workers of America is suing to block the Federal Communications Commission’s approval of T-Mobile's takeover of Sprint in a Washington (DC) federal appeals court. The FCC exceeded its statutory authority in approving the deal, the union alleged in its Dec 5 lawsuit in the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. The lawsuit is a new legal hurdle for the merger, which is already being challenged by a group of states. The FCC’s approval order violates the U.S. Constitution, the Administrative Procedure Act, and the Communications Act of 1934, CWA alleged.

Power companies, first responders and railroads are intensifying criticism of the Federal Communications Commission’s plan to allow Wi-Fi traffic on the 6 GHz band of airwaves they currently use.

The Federal Communications Commission remains intent on repurposing airwaves to handle surging Wi-Fi data traffic, despite opposition from power companies and first responders who say it could interfere with their communications systems. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai defended the agency’s plan to allocate more spectrum to meet exploding Wi-Fi demand at a recent Senate appropriations panel hearing. The agency may finalize its proposal later this year or early in 2020, commission watchers say. “I truly believe that American consumers can have the best of both worlds,” Chairman Pai told lawmakers.

Influential industry groups are vying to get the Federal Communications Commission to adopt competing proposals for how to map broadband coverage across the country. A consortium of groups and companies including USTelecom, whose members include AT&T, Verizon, and smaller broadband providers, is proposing that the FCC create a new nationwide map -- using satellite imagery, digital land parcel data, and other data sources -- to track all locations that could be served by broadband. USTelecom is running a pilot project in VA and MO that it plans to submit to the FCC later in 2019 to showc

The Federal Communications Commission will soon decide whether to side with foreign satellite companies, and allow them to sell their rights to a swath of public airwaves to speed the deployment of 5G technology.  Such a sale to the nation’s biggest wireless providers could bring in as much as $40 billion—and now Congress is threatening to step in and prevent the FCC from allowing the satellite companies to pocket the money.

The network neutrality fight will continue playing out in federal court and the states in 2019, against the backdrop of a divided Congress that’s unlikely to settle the debate. The DC Circuit is likely to rule in Mozilla Corp. v. Federal Communications Commission in late spring or summer. The court may decide the fate of the repeal of Obama-era rules, and whether states can enact net neutrality laws in defiance of the FCC. Four states have enacted laws reinstating net neutrality protections since the FCC’s repeal. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai says the state laws are illegal.

“We plan to put the consumer first by pushing policies that protect net neutrality, promote public safety, and provide meaningful privacy and data security protections that are seriously lacking today,” said Rep.

The Federal Communications Commission is planning to reduce its reimbursement for hearing-impaired phone services that display a call’s text. The FCC could adopt a change in its reimbursement formula within 12 months, it said in the Trump administration’s fall regulatory agenda. The FCC reimburses telecom service providers for hearing- and speech-impaired telephone services. Agency officials, though, are worried that providers are marketing captioned phone services to people who could use cheaper methods, such as amplifying phones, in order to receive larger reimbursements.