Multichannel News

Juggling five pieces of proposed legislation for improving the Federal Communications Commission's broadband mapping process, the House Communications Subcommittee grilled representatives of telecommunications and public interest organization - seeking their views about ways to increase the accuracy of the FCC's mapping reports.

Waiting. That’s the name of the game for those anticipating the DC Circuit’s decision on the Federal Communications Commission's Restoring Internet Freedom order repealing Title II rules for broadband. The case was argued on Feb 1, 2019, so the Court could hand down a ruling any day now. But regardless of whether the decision is uphold or overturn, Americans deserve action on network neutrality from Congress. Statutory permanence for internet openness is the only way to end the ongoing uncertainty shrouding the internet ecosystem due to ever-changing rules.

The top 16 US high-speed internet providers, covering 96% of the market, added 370,000 customers in the second quarter, off from the 480,000 added on a pro forma basis in the same period of 2018, according to new research from Leichtman Research Group. The dip is an anomaly for now—customers growth metrics were up for landline broadband suppliers in the first quarter. Cable operators added 532,211 high-speed internet users in Q2, LRG said, about 90% of what they added in the same period of 2018.

The Public Interest Spectrum Coalition (PISC) is lending some support to the proposal by ACA Connects and others to free up at least 370 MHz of C-band spectrum for fixed wireless while providing a pathway to migrating the program delivery, for which that spectrum is used, to fiber delivery. Currently, the C-band satellite is used by cable operators and broadcasters to receive network programming and get remote video back to the studio. In comments on the Federal Communications Commission's proposed freeing up of the C-band for 5G, and specifically, ACA Connects' et al.'s plan for how to do