Press Release

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai circulated for a vote by his fellow commissioners an Order to extend by 90 days the window to file challenges to the eligibility map for the upcoming Mobility Fund Phase II broadband auction. Mobility Fund Phase II will award, via a reverse auction, up to $4.53 billion to support deployment of 4G LTE mobile service where it is now lacking. The challenge process is one part of the Commission’s efforts to ensure that these limited funds are targeted to areas that lack unsubsidized 4G LTE service.

The Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division has opened a review of the Paramount Consent Decrees, which for over seventy years have regulated how certain movie studios distribute films to movie theatres.  The purpose of the review is to determine whether or not the decrees should be terminated or modified. In particular, the Paramount Decrees have regulated how certain movie studios distribute films to movie theatres since the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Paramount, 334 U.S. 131 (1948).

The Federal Communications Commission is exploring the creation of an experimental “Connected Care Pilot Program” to support the delivery of advanced telehealth services to low-income Americans. In a Notice of Inquiry (NOI), the FCC seeks comment on creating a Universal Service Fund pilot program to promote the use of broadband-enabled telehealth services among low-income families and veterans, with a focus on services delivered directly to patients beyond the doors of brick-and-mortar health care facilities. The NOI seeks comment on:

The Federal Communications Commission proposed rules to implement a recent Congressional directive to reimburse certain Low Power TV (LPTV), TV translator, and FM stations for costs incurred as a result of the FCC’s incentive auction.

The Federal Communications Commission adopted requirements that will govern an incubator program to assist new, small, or struggling voices, including women and minorities, in overcoming the key barriers to entry into the broadcast sector. Under the program, an established broadcaster will provide financial and operational support, including training and mentoring, to a new or small broadcaster.

The Federal Communications Commission is speeding the process and reducing the costs of attaching new network facilities to utility poles. The FCC fundamentally reformed the federal framework governing pole attachments by adopting a process in which the new attacher moves existing attachments and performs all other work required to make the pole ready for a new attachment.

Auction procedures to speed the deployment of 5G services in the 28 GHz (27.5-28.35 GHz) and 24 GHz (24.25-24.45, 24.75-25.25 GHz) bands. The FCC will offer the 28 GHz and 24 GHz band licenses through two auctions with separate application and bidding processes for each auction. The application windows will run concurrently. The bidding for the 28 GHz UMFUS licenses (Auction 101) will commence on November 14, 2018, and the bidding for the 24 GHz licenses (Auction 102) will commence after the bidding concludes in Auction 101.

The Federal Communications Commission proposed next steps to prepare the upper 37 GHz, 39 GHz, and 47 GHz bands for auction. In particular, auctioning the 39 GHz and upper 37 GHz bands together presents a critical opportunity for 5G deployment as it represents the largest amount of contiguous spectrum available in the millimeter-wave bands.

The Department of Agriculture (USDA) is investing $97 million in 12 projects to provide or improve rural broadband service in 11 states (Arizona, Iowa, Idaho, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Wyoming)

President Donald Trump will nominate Kelvin Droegemeier of Oklahoma, to be Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. Dr. Droegemeier currently serves as Vice President for Research and Regents’ Professor of Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma and as Oklahoma Cabinet Secretary of Science and Technology. He co-founded and directed the National Science Foundation’s Science and Technology Center for Analysis and Prediction of Storms and the NSF Engineering Research Center for Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere.  Dr.