Letter

US Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) and Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) led their Senate colleagues in a bipartisan letter to the Secretaries of the Departments of Interior, Agriculture, and Commerce about the need to expand high-speed internet access in rural communities. Internet providers are required to obtain permits from the federal government when installing telecommunications infrastructure on federal lands or for projects using federal funding. Right now, they face extensive delays in the permitting process.

In a November 21 letter signed by Commerce Secretary Raimondo and Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Arati Prabhakar, Reps Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) and Frank Lucas (R-OK) warn the Federal Communications Commission about disruptions to climate data collection in the 1675-1680 MHz band due to spectrum use by wireless providers. "We write to urge you and the Commission to stop consideration of the proposal for sharing the 1675-1680 MHz band for commercial wireless carriers operating in the downlink mode," the lawmakers wrote.

Public Knowledge wrote to the Federal Communications Commission urging them to reconsider calls by the aviation community for rule changes related to C-band deployments. The November 22 letter states that as a consequence of systemic discrimination and historic patterns of red-lining, many of the neighborhoods closest to airports (and therefore within the “buffer zones” around the airports subject to potential mitigation measures) are low-income and/or majority non-white communities.

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein and the Attorneys General of Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Oregon led a bipartisan group of 33 attorneys general calling on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to consider stronger surveillance and data security protections to prevent misconduct and promote transparency and accountability around online data collection.

Unions representing millions of workers in telecommunications, tech, and media as well as most sectors of the US wrote the US Senate to strongly support Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society] for the role of Commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and urge swift action on her nomination. The FCC needs a fully seated commission in order to make critical decisions during a period of increased federal investment in broadband networks and digital equity initiatives.

On November 9, 2022, a group of organizations met with the Federal Communications Commission's Office of Native Affairs and Policy to discuss the need for policies for broadband-enabling infrastructure in Tribal regions.

On November 1, trade association INCOMPAS met with Federal Communications Commission officials to discuss the state of competition in the communications marketplace. INCOMPAS discussed how the FCC should continue to view fixed and mobile broadband internet access service (BIAS) as separate product markets and complementary services when reporting on the state of competition in the communications marketplace. Consumers prefer access to both fixed and mobile BIAS as each service plays a critical and distinct role.

We believe the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program provides the best possible chance to bring robust, reliable all-fiber broadband service to the many millions of unserved and underserved locations throughout the country. That said, we understand that National Telecommunications and Information Administration may be considering permitting States and Territories to award grants to applicants using other, less capable transmission technologies where the costs to deploy networks can be extremely high.

More than 30 consumer advocates, broadband-data experts, and digital-rights groups sent a letter calling on the Federal Communications Commission to help consumers avoid “junk fees” by creating a broadband consumer label that is clear and visible on monthly internet bills. The label, which Congress directed the FCC to create as part of the 2021 infrastructure law, has been pending before the FCC since January.

More than 40 civil-society groups called on Twitter’s top-20 advertisers to inform Elon Musk that they will suspend all advertising on the platform if he follows through on plans to undermine the social network’s community standards and content moderation.