Eve Konstan, ex-WarnerMedia Entertainment, joins Spotify as general counsel ... Facebook hires Alex Burgos, ex-TechNet, as director-policy communications ... Charles River Associates names Justin Lenzo vice president-antitrust and competition economics ... Rachelle Chong resigns from Anterix board; becomes senior adviser.

Eve Konstan, ex-WarnerMedia Entertainment, joins Spotify as general counsel ... Facebook hires Alex Burgos, ex-TechNet, as director-policy communications ... Charles River Associates names Justin Lenzo vice president-antitrust and competition economics ... Rachelle Chong resigns from Anterix board; becomes senior adviser.

Lawmakers and private sector entities pressed Capitol Hill leaders Wednesday to include broadband funding and local media aid language in a coming COVID-19 package. Both issues have been identified as potential priorities (see 2004210060). More than 120 House members signed on to a letter led by House Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline, D-R.I., and ranking member Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., urging House leaders to support a bid by NAB and other news media groups to make broadcasters and local newspapers eligible for Paycheck Protection Program funding (see 2004200001). Free Press, Incompas, NTCA, Public Knowledge, the Rural Wireless Association and Twitter were among more than 200 entities that urged Hill leaders to use the next COVID-19 bill to “support access to affordable” broadband. “Hundreds of individual broadcasters and news publishers were not eligible for loan relief because they were affiliated with larger groups whose total employee count was more than 500 spread across various stations or newspapers,” Cicilline and the other lawmakers said. Signers included House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., and ranking member Doug Collins, R-Ga.

Some industry groups said mobile and fixed broadband are considered complementary, not substitute services, in docket 20-60 comments this week for the FCC's communications market competitiveness report to Congress. Measuring available broadband access must be done by looking at both fixed and mobile service availability, Incompas said, criticizing using form 477 data for measurement and saying broadband services should be counted only if physically available. It also urged a separate assessment of business data services. NTCA said universal support in rural areas should target both fixed and mobile networks. Policies often protect incumbents from new competition, an example being Communications Act Section 224 -- granting nondiscriminatory access to investor-owned utility poles -- not covering providers that aren't carriers or cable ISPs, said Google Fiber. It said state laws barring or limiting municipal broadband mean new entrants can't negotiate public-private partnerships or use those muni open access networks. New entrants that aren't telecom carriers or video programming providers with a state or local franchise also have difficulty getting access to public rights of way, it said. Rural Digital Opportunity Fund rules need to be technology neutral and satellite broadband shouldn't be blocked from competing for high-cost customers, Hughes said.

The FCC is opening Lifeline enrollment to those newly unemployed during the pandemic. Instead of requiring three consecutive months of income documentation, new enrollees can submit an unemployment benefits statement or other official evidence of current income status, it ordered Wednesday. The order extends, also through June 30, previous waiver of recertification, reverification, general de-enrollment and usage requirements. Many advocacy groups and companies wrote Congress backing more spending on broadband for the underserved (see 2004240014) as part of COVID-19 stimulus. Signers include NTCA, the Fiber Broadband Association, Incompas, Mozilla, Twitter, NATOA, Public Knowledge, NAACP and the R Street Institute.

The FCC is opening Lifeline enrollment to those newly unemployed during the pandemic. Instead of requiring three consecutive months of income documentation, new enrollees can submit an unemployment benefits statement or other official evidence of current income status, it ordered Wednesday. The order extends, also through June 30, previous waiver of recertification, reverification, general de-enrollment and usage requirements. Many advocacy groups and companies wrote Congress backing more spending on broadband for the underserved (see 2004240014) as part of COVID-19 stimulus. Signers include NTCA, the Fiber Broadband Association, Incompas, Mozilla, Twitter, NATOA, Public Knowledge, NAACP and the R Street Institute.

Lawmakers and private sector entities pressed Capitol Hill leaders Wednesday to include broadband funding and local media aid language in a coming COVID-19 package. Both issues have been identified as potential priorities (see 2004210060). More than 120 House members signed on to a letter led by House Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline, D-R.I., and ranking member Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., urging House leaders to support a bid by NAB and other news media groups to make broadcasters and local newspapers eligible for Paycheck Protection Program funding (see 2004200001). Free Press, Incompas, NTCA, Public Knowledge, the Rural Wireless Association and Twitter were among more than 200 entities that urged Hill leaders to use the next COVID-19 bill to “support access to affordable” broadband. “Hundreds of individual broadcasters and news publishers were not eligible for loan relief because they were affiliated with larger groups whose total employee count was more than 500 spread across various stations or newspapers,” Cicilline and the other lawmakers said. Signers included House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., and ranking member Doug Collins, R-Ga.

There's no consensus whether mobile and fixed communications services are complementary or substitutes in docket 20-60 comments this week for the FCC's communications market competitiveness report to Congress. The agency got requests for further smoothing access to poles and rights of way for wireline broadband access.

Some want more clarity about the FCC's role regulating broadband, said comments posted through Tuesday. The agency asked to refresh dockets including 17-287, on how broadband service's reclassification as an information, not telecom, service affects authority over Lifeline, pole attachment agreements and public safety. Commenters disagreed whether the FCC should reconsider based on the public safety considerations.

U.S. communications networks are holding up under increased demand during a pandemic, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said Thursday, after a conference call with industry groups and companies. He said providers report network usage up 20-35% for fixed networks and 10-20% for cellular networks in recent weeks, with increased demand in suburban, exurban and residential areas and during daytime. He said no providers expressed concern about their networks' capacity. Pai said the resilience is "in part to networks being designed to handle ever-higher peak traffic loads and in part to a market-based regulatory framework that has promoted infrastructure investment and deployment." He said the agency will "continue to closely monitor the situation." The FCC said the call was with ACA Connects, the Cloud Communications Alliance, Competitive Carriers Association, CTIA, Incompas, NCTA, NTCA, Rural Wireless Association, Satellite Industry Association, Wireless ISP Association, Western Telecommunications Alliance, Altice, AT&T, CenturyLink, Charter, Cincinnati Bell, Consolidated Communications, Comcast, Cox, Dish Network, Frontier, Hughes, Mediacom, Northwest Fiber, Sprint, T-Mobile, TDS, TracFone, U.S. Cellular, Verizon, ViaSat and Windstream. President Donald Trump spoke similarly this week with major ISPs (see 2003310070).