press release

The United States Department of Justice filed a civil antitrust lawsuit to block AT&T/DirecTV’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner. The $108 billion acquisition would substantially lessen competition, resulting in higher prices and less innovation for millions of Americans. The combination of AT&T/DirecTV’s vast video distribution infrastructure and Time Warner’s popular television programming would be one of the largest mergers in American history.

On November 16, 2017, the Federal Communications Commission adopted a Report & Order to change its definition of “rurality” for Tribal lands eligible for the enhanced Tribal subsidy of the Lifeline Program. Despite a thorough record of Tribal filings in this proceeding—including previous reform and modernization proceedings beginning initiated in 2011—the FCC has decided to eliminate the enhanced Tribal Lifeline support that was previously designated for all Tribal lands.

The Federal Communications Commission adopted new rules to let television broadcasters use the Next Generation broadcast television transmission standard, also called ATSC 3.0, on a voluntary, market-driven basis. The action adopts rules that will allow broadcasters the flexibility to deploy Next Generation TV service while minimizing the impact on consumers and industry stakeholders.

The Federal Communications Commission issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that seeks comment on whether to eliminate Form 325, which collects information about cable system operations, or, in the alternative, on ways to modernize and streamline the form to reflect technological and industry changes since the form was last updated in 1999. Form 325 must be filed annually by all cable systems with 20,000 or more subscribers and by a sample of small cable systems with fewer than 20,000 subscribers.

The Federal Communications Commission voted to modernize its broadcast ownership rules and to help promote ownership diversity in the broadcast industry. The Order on Reconsideration:

The Federal Communications Commission took steps to transform its Lifeline program. A Fourth Report and Order, Order on Reconsideration, and Memorandum Opinion and Order changes FCC rules to:

The Federal Communications Commission enacted reforms that will better enable providers to invest in next-generation networks. The FCC is also seeking comment on additional reforms, including how the FCC can expedite rebuilding and repairing broadband infrastructure after natural disasters.

One set of changes approved govern access to utility poles and conduits, which can be a costly and time-consuming barrier to broadband deployment. Changes include rules that:

The Federal Communications Commission acted to remove barriers to wireless infrastructure deployment by determining that replacement utility poles that have no potential effect on historic properties do not need to complete historic preservation review. Specifically, the Order eliminates historic preservation review when a pole is replaced with a substantially identical pole.

The Federal Communications Commission took additional steps today to make available spectrum above 24 GHz to help ensure American leadership in wireless broadband, which represents a critical component of economic growth, job creation, public safety, and global competitiveness. 

Specifically, the FCC now:

The Federal Communications Commission approved new rules to protect consumers from unwanted robocalls, allowing phone companies to proactively block calls that are likely to be fraudulent because they come from certain types of phone numbers. The new rules expressly authorize voice service providers to block robocalls that appear to be from telephone numbers that do not or cannot make outgoing calls, without running afoul of the FCC’s call completion rules.