Multichannel News

The Federal Communications Commission held its mandatory monthly meeting via a brief, video-less, teleconference call March 31, with commissioners dialing in from home and the public able to access it over a never-more-important broadband connection. The commissioners had already voted to approve all the meeting agenda items, and their time — the meeting lasted less than 20 minutes — was spent mostly talking about the pandemic and how they and the industry were dealing with it. 

The Federal Communications Commission was looking for money from Congress for remote education in the COVID-19 aid bill that passed recently, but didn't get it. An FCC official signaled on background March 30 that it is not giving up. The FCC official said to look for the FCC to renew the funding pitch for the next round of COVID-19 aid that is almost surely coming. He also cited the efforts Internet service providers are taking on their own dime, including offering free service to low-income residents with school-age children currently lacking home broadband.

OneWeb, one of the companies looking to use constellations of satellites to provide competition to terrestrial and wireless broadband providers, has filed for bankruptcy and will try to sell the company.  OneWeb suggested it was on the verge of getting financing when the pandemic hit.

Telecommunication Internet service providers have provided the Federal Communications Commission with a laundry list of coronavirus-related temporary deregulation, including waiving deadlines, suspending rules, and providing more funding, all to address the teleworking and telemedicine and distance-learning load of a homebound workforce and student population. In its letter to the FCC, USTeecom conceded it could be costly and said they would press Congress to appropriate the money.