The FCC has yet to announce any blanket extension on the many comments and reply comments it gets--on a rolling basis throughout the year--on orders and proposed rulemakings upon which it is required to seek public comment. 

For example, on Monday (March 16), the FCC established comment dates for its cable truth-in-billing item of April 6 (initial) and April 13 (reply). 

But it had already signaled the initial comment date would be 30 days after the item published in the Federal Register, which it did March 16. So that was not necessarily a guide to the FCC's public comment policy going forward into new virus-circumscribed process territory.

Given that the FCC often, though it always says "not routinely," grants extensions for dates that fall close to holidays, and given that the coronavirus is arguably a once-in-a-century event that has caused logistical unrest the likes of which the current generation has never seen, look for it to provide some flexibility on public input in the time of COVID-19. 

A spokesperson for FCC chair Ajit Pai had no comment.  

The Protect Internet Freedom coalition said those with concerns about the FCC's proposal on broadband privacy have submitted more than 250,000 comments to the FCC as of Wednesday (July 6), which is the deadline.

A spokesperson for the group said that was the total that had been submitted from its online platform.

Given that the FCC's online docket showed 271,473 comments (218,198 in the last 30 days alone) at press time, the group was concluding that "despite all of the setbacks and glitches, opposition comments are still in the overwhelming majority of total comments filed."

The FCC has some problems with comment backlogs across all its dockets, including broadband privacy, due to an aging system that has recently been replaced. PIF complained to the FCC about the backlog.