Press Release

The Federal Communications Commission lifted outdated rules related to the payphone industry that are no longer justified as payphone revenues have plummeted due to a changing communications marketplace. The Commission eliminated costly payphone audit requirements as part of an FCC effort to cut unnecessary and wasteful rules so that industry resources can be put to more productive use. Technological and marketplace changes have made these expensive audits unnecessary to ensure that the few remaining providers are compensated fairly.

The Federal Communications Commission proposed to eliminate a broadcast filing requirement and instead rely on publicly available information in its periodic reviews of broadcaster employment practices.

The Federal Communications Commission resolved the remaining petitions for reconsideration of Commission decisions in the February 2017 Mobility Fund Phase II Report and Order. In that Order, the Commission adopted rules to move forward with the MF-II auction, which will provide up to $4.53 billion in high-cost support over 10 years to extend high-speed mobile voice and broadband coverage to unserved and underserved areas across the United States. The Commission received seven petitions for reconsideration of the MF-II Report & Order.

The Federal Communications Commission initiated a proceeding to expand access to spectrum above 95 GHz. This spectrum has long been considered the outermost horizon of the usable spectrum range. Currently, the Commission has no rules to permit licensed or unlicensed communications use above 95 GHz, other than by amateur operators or on an experimental basis.

The Federal Communications Commission adopted a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to ensure that innovative new technologies and services that would serve the public interest are encouraged and made available to the public on a timely basis. Specifically, the NPRM proposes rules and procedures to implement Section 7 of the Communications Act, which was passed by Congress in 1983 to require timely action by the Commission to encourage provision of new technologies and services to the public. Clear rules and guidelines on implementing section 7 are long overdue. While the

As it works to close the digital divide, the Federal Communications Commission has updated and modernized its National Broadband Map so the map can once again be a key source of broadband deployment information for consumers, policymakers, researchers, and others. The new, cloud-based map will support more frequent data updates and display improvements at a far lower cost than the original mapping platform, which had not been updated in years. Improvements and features in the successor National Broadband Map include:

Today it is official: the FCC majority has taken the next step in handing the keys to the internet over to billion-dollar broadband providers by publishing the Destroying Internet Freedom Order in the Federal Register. I am both disappointed and hopeful. Disappointed that this is one more anti-consumer notch on this FCC’s belt, but hopeful that the arc of history is bent in favor of net neutrality protections. Whether it is litigation, state action, or some other mechanism that brings it about, I am sure that robust net neutrality protections will prevail with the American public!

The FCC’s net neutrality decision is a study in just what’s wrong with Washington. This agency failed the American public. It failed to listen to their concerns and gave short shrift to their deeply held belief that internet openness should remain the law of the land. It turned a blind eye to all kinds of corruption in our public record—from Russian intervention to fake comments to stolen identities in our files. As a result of the mess the agency created, broadband providers will now have the power to block websites, throttle services, and censor online content. This is not right.

In recent weeks, former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler has pontificated about the current Commission’s lack of action on the issue of Internet network security. At the risk of engaging, I find it necessary to call out the gibberish in his recent writings.

[Press release] Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai will visit Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands from March 7–10 to meet with local leaders and communications service providers and review the status of communications restoration efforts after the 2017 hurricane season. He will be accompanied by members of the Commission’s Hurricane Recovery Task Force. This serves as a follow-up to his trip to Puerto Rico last November.