Commissioner Rohit Chopra’s last day at FTC was Friday; Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says his first day at CFPB was Monday ... Womble Bond adds to Communications, Technology and Media team with hiring of Jeff Lanning from Lumen as of counsel ... Software & Information Industry Association adds to Policy team Divya Sridhar, ex-ExcelinEd, as senior director-data policy ... CTIA hires Trevor Jones from USTelecom as assistant vice president-government affairs ... Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission elects Commissioner John Coleman as vice chairman through 2022, succeeding ex-Vice Chairman David Sweet, whose term as commissioner ended Sept. 30.
Municipal interests are on one side, telecom interests largely on the other, over a Mediacom petition seeking FCC preemption of a deal between Google Fiber and West Des Moines, Iowa, on constructing a conduit network to provide broadband in unserved parts of town, per comments last week in docket 21-217.
Few consumers' phone service will likely be affected if their provider hasn't filed in the FCC robocall mitigation database, experts said in recent interviews. Some had raised concerns that consumers may be unable to make calls if their provider failed to file in the database by the June 30 deadline (see 2104200042).
An FCC draft Further NPRM tightening rules for gateway providers to curb illegal robocalls originating abroad is expected to be unanimously approved during the agency’s open meeting Thursday. That's despite some industry concerns about the proposal to pause enforcement of the foreign provider prohibition until a final decision on addressing illegal robocalls originating abroad. The item is expected to be approved without any major revisions to the draft, an FCC official said Friday.
The FCC has the authority to include broadband services revenue in the USF contribution base but would need to establish a comment period before making any changes, industry groups said in recent interviews. A new report suggests adding broadband providers could drop the contribution factor to as low as 4% and avoid facing direct congressional appropriations (see 2109130053).
USForward asks the FCC to address the rising USF factor by spreading costs among consumers, assessing the fee based on broadband access service revenue. Monday's report said that's a better option than basing fees on numbers or connections. On a call with reporters, officials from NTCA, Incompas, Public Knowledge and the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition disagreed whether action may have to await a permanent chair and full commission.
NTCA, Incompas, Public Knowledge and the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition will release a "USForward" report Monday that "highlights the need for USF contribution reform, analyzes options for doing so, and provides recommendations on how best to reform this essential support mechanism," said a news release Friday. Consultant Carol Mattey, who wrote the report, will join the groups for a news briefing at 11 a.m. EDT.
The FCC revived its proceeding on broadband access in multiple tenant environment buildings Tuesday, announcing it will seek comments on revenue sharing and exclusivity agreements. President Joe Biden signed an executive order in July encouraging the FCC to prevent ISPs from signing exclusivity agreements with landlords and promote competition (see 2107090006).
More than 5 million households have enrolled to date in the FCC emergency broadband benefit program, the agency said Friday. Experts welcomed the more granular data about enrollment figures that accompanied the announcement and said the program may last 18 months.
Democratic senators are actively eyeing how to use a planned $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package to further boost broadband spending beyond the $65 billion in connectivity money included in the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (HR-3684) the chamber passed Tuesday. Republicans told us they’re concerned about such an attempt to double-dip on broadband spending given the amount of money they already agreed to allocate via HR-3684 and a set of COVID-19 aid bills. HR-3684 itself still must clear the majority-Democratic House before it goes to President Joe Biden’s desk.