John Eggerton

The head-scratching inside the Beltway continues as the wait for a fifth Beatle... um, er... Federal Communications Commissioner — and for whoever is to be named the agency’s permanent chair — continues.

Acting Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel would not comment on the degree to which the president's failure to name a third Democratic commissioner has prevented it from taking action on some big issues — like restoring network neutrality rules — but she suggested the agency has been hard at work on other things and was still supportive of making net neutrality rules the law of the land.

The Administrative Conference of the US (ACUS) has recommended federal agencies take a number of steps to address the issues of mass computer generated and falsely attributed comments. In this case, it is recommending that agencies like the Federal Communications Commission, who must give members of the public the opportunity to weigh in on proposed rules for the agency's consideration, find better ways to manage what can be a flood of comments in the digital age. Among the recommendations are calls for agencies to "welcome" the filing of mass, "identical or substantively identical" comment

Cable broadband operators are telling the Federal Communications Commission that if it opens up the 12 GHz band for sharing between direct broadcast satellite (DBS) and terrestrial 5G, it should not be influenced by incumbent users.

Cable broadband operators represented by NCTA - the Internet & Television Association are no fans of the Biden Administration's new "Indicators of Broadband Need" mapping tool recently unveiled by the National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA). NCTA reiterated its longstanding support of federal efforts to create broadband mapping tools, but said that the NTIA's new map takes from unreliable and inaccurate data sources.

The National Association of Broadcasters said a recent appeals court decision has established the precedent for commission authority to levy regulatory fees on Big Tech.

The state of South Carolina has teamed up with educational broadcasters, 5G tech suppliers, and others to launch a residential wireless broadband pilot project using COVID-19 aid funding.

The National Association of Broadcasters took the gloves off in a recent meeting with Federal Communications Commission engineering staffers over TV white spaces (TVWS) -- the use of small slices of spectrum set aside for broadcasting for unlicensed uses like wireless broadband -- calling it a failing experiment. Microsoft has been pushing the FCC to allow unlicensed devices operating in the TV band to do so closer to existing TV channels, but NAB told the engineering staffers that Microsoft's proposal on how to determine if a channel is available for unlicensed use is disingenuous and in s

The White House released state-by-state arguments (in the form of "fact sheets") for why the President's almost $2 trillion infrastructure plan (American Jobs Plan) is necessary including painting a glass-half-empty of broadband availability, including speed and competition and price in the definition of broadband issues that need $100 billion in subsidy money to address. For example, for New York, the White House talks about almost a third of New Yorkers who live where "there is only one broadband provider" offering at least "minimally acceptable speeds." And even where broadband is availa

As expected, the Federal Communications Commission has asked the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit to hold off on hearing a challenge to its response to the court's remand of its Restoring Internet Freedom net neutrality deregulation order, suggesting that challenge could ultimately be moot depending on how the new FCC deals with multiple petitions to reconsider that response. "Only one of the three Commissioners who voted for the Remand Order remains on the Commission, while two of the remaining Commissioners dissented, and one of those dissenters has since become the Acting Chairwoma