Multichannel News

Huawei, perhaps buoyed by Trump Administration reported easing-up on potential sanctions on the Chinese telecommunication company, has "supplemented the record" in its fight against a Federal Communications Commission proposal banning telecoms with "suspect" tech from broadband deployment subsidies in the Universal Service Fund (USF) program.

A Washington State judge ruled that Comcast violated consumer protection laws more than 445,000 times, bogusly charging thousands of state cable consumers for a $5.99 plan they didn’t even know they were getting. Judge Timothy Bradshaw ordered Comcast to pay $9.1 million in penalties and ordered Comcast to pay back all the customers it has been ruled to have misled, with 12% interest. That figure could exceed another $3 million.

The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit has declined to hold edge providers liable for false third-party content posted on their sites, even if they know the information being posted is false. Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! are not responsible for flooding the online search market with info on "scam" locksmiths, if the market has been so flooded, because such liability is barred by the Communications Decency Act, whose much-in-the-news Sec. 230 holds that the edge can't be treated as a publisher of third party content on their platforms.

The Department of Justice reportedly talked to representatives from Comcast and Charter recently about filling the void of the fourth major US wireless carrier that would be created if T-Mobile and Sprint are allowed to merge. Apparently, as a condition for approving T-Mobile’s $26.5 billion acquisition bid for Sprint, the DOJ wants the Number 3 & 4 wireless companies to divest wireless spectrum and enable a fourth US major wireless carrier. For their part, Comcast and Charter both have nascent mobile services through mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) agreements with Verizon.

Kristine Fargotstein has been named VP, policy and advocacy, for USTelecom-The Broadband Association. Fargotstein comes from the Federal Communications Commission, where most recently she had been detailed to the House Communications Subcommittee to work on broadband infrastructure, network neutrality, and spectrum issues. While at the FCC, Fargotstein's posts included acting wireline advisor to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, special counsel in the Office of General Counsel, legal advisor to the Wireline bureau chief, and attorney advisor in the Wireline Competition Bureau.