Competition/Antitrust

USTelecom recently sent a letter to practically every politician who might have a hand in deciding how broadband grants are awarded – the White House and key Cabinet officials, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the Federal Communications Commission, members of Congress, Governors, Mayors, other local officials, Tribal leaders, and state broadband offices.

The Federal Communications Commission seeks public input to inform the FCC’s required assessment of the state of competition in the communications marketplace in its upcoming Communications Marketplace Report (2022 Communications Marketplace Report) to Congress. Specifically, the FCC seeks data, information, and comment on a wide range of issues relevant to the state of competition in the communications marketplace as a whole.

Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan has a chance to work her way down her Big Tech to-do list, nearly a year into her tenure, now that she has a Democratic majority in hand. The Senate voted 51-50 — with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking a tie — to confirm privacy expert Alvaro Bedoya to the FTC. The Democrats' majority at the five-person agency now opens the door for Khan's agenda, expected to include:

Market share, not households new to broadband, is the focus of “intense competition” between four types of service providers, according to Kagan, the media research unit of S&P Global Market Intelligence. Here is how Kagan positions the four types of providers:

The Senate on May 11 voted to confirm law professor Alvaro Bedoya to serve on the Federal Trade Commission, solidifying a Democratic majority at the agency that will enable FTC Chair Lina Khan to move on her ambitious agenda to rein in Big Tech’s power. Fifty senators voted in favor while 50 voted against. Vice President Harris cast the tiebreaking vote in her role as president of the Senate.

Cable One saw an uptick in customer growth and revenue in first quarter 2022, driven by business acquisitions, and is seeking rapid fiber expansion with its Clearwave Fiber investment. CEO Julie Laulis thinks the latter especially puts the operator in a vital position against competitors.

Because the cost of producing information technology (IT) products is lower overseas, applying Buy America provisions to IT components of projects underwritten by the infrastructure bill will raise costs, reduce infrastructure build, and delay project completion—all without creating any net new jobs. Congress included in the recent infrastructure bill stronger applications of Buy America provisions, which govern the extent to which federal government purchases must be of products substantially made in the United States.

Frontier Communications reported its first quarter 2022 financial results. The company added 54,000 fiber broadband customers in the quarter, resulting in growth of 10.4 percent from the first quarter of 2021. Frontier also built fiber to 211,000 locations. Ultimately, the company saw total revenue of $1.45 billion, down 10.7 percent from first quarter 2021. According to the company, its fiber broadband growth in 2022 has been offset by declines in subsidy, video, voice, and wholesale.

Tucows CEO Elliott Noss revealed its Ting Internet business expects to begin construction of a new fiber network in Alexandria (VA) sometime in the current quarter, after winning a bid to cover tens of thousands of locations there. The deployment will tee it up to challenge incumbent cable provider Comcast as well as Verizon Fios, which is in the process of upgrading its copper lines in the area to fiber. Noss said Alexandria already includes 90,000 serviceable addresses and is expected to grow considerably with the construction of Amazon’s new HQ2 offices in nearby Arlington (VA).

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is reviewing Elon Musk’s $44 billion Twitter takeover, a person familiar with the deal said, setting up a deadline in the next month for the agency to decide whether to conduct an in-depth review of the transaction. Under US merger law, Musk is required to notify the FTC and the Justice Department of the transaction and wait at least 30 days before closing to allow an investigation into potential antitrust concerns.