Federal Communications Commission chair Jessica Rosenworcel sits for an interview at the Paley Museum in New York April 16 at 12:30 p.m. ET. Moderated by Nick Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic, the two will discuss net neutrality and spectrum policy, media regulation, technological innovation, and the FCC’s efforts to promote greater opportunity, accessibility, and affordability in communications services.

Rosenworcel was nominated to the FCC by former President Barack Obama in late 2011 and was sworn in in 2012. President Biden named her as chairwoman, first as an interim, then the official chair in October 2021. 

Rosenworcel’s appearance is part of the PaleyDialogues series, which features media and business leaders discussing trends and challenges. Accenture sponsors PaleyDialogues, along with The Paley International Council Summit, which happens in November.  

The next installment of the PaleyDialogues series features Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase & Co. chairman and CEO; and Frank A. Bennack, Jr., former CEO of Hearst, assessing the economy and offering their financial outlook. That happens at the Paley Museum May 28. 

The Federal Communications Commission will vote on whether to restore net neutrality during its open meeting April 25, which it said would bring back a national standard for broadband reliability, security and consumer protection. The proposal, from chair Jessica Rosenworcel, would ensure that broadband services are treated as an essential resource deserving of FCC oversight under Title II authority. Three commissioners (a majority) have already indicated their support for the measure.

The FCC said the proposal would see the commission play a key role in preventing broadband providers from blocking or slowing down internet service or creating pay-to-play fast lanes; would provide oversight of broadband outages; would boost security of broadband networks; would increase consumer protections; and would restore a national standard to keep access “fast, open and fair.”

Also Read: FCC Ups Benchmark For Broadband Speed

“The pandemic proved once and for all that broadband is essential,” Rosenworcel said. “After the prior administration abdicated authority over broadband services, the FCC has been handcuffed from acting to fully secure broadband networks, protect consumer data, and ensure the internet remains fast, open, and fair. A return to the FCC’s overwhelmingly popular and court-approved standard of net neutrality will allow the agency to serve once again as a strong consumer advocate of an open internet.”

Also Read: Cable ISPs Look to Shape Expected Return of FCC's Net Neutrality Rules 

NCTA–The Internet & Television Association, the cable trade association, wasn't pleased. “In the absence of any harm, the FCC is barreling ahead with a backward-looking, unnecessary proposal. Its repeated legal flip-flopping has become a tiresome political ritual unmoored from congressional direction that radically upends what should be a stable regulatory environment,” it said in a statement by president and CEO Michael Powell. “But this time, reimposing heavy-handed regulation will not just hobble network investment and innovation, it will also seriously jeopardize our nation’s collective efforts to build and sustain reliable broadband in rural and unserved communities. We urge the FCC to reverse course to avoid years of litigation and uncertainty.”

Independent communications consortium ACA Connects, for one, called the proposal unwarranted. “The FCC should be celebrating and empowering smaller and independent broadband providers, not seeking to tie their hands with century-old common carrier regulations,” ACA Connects president and CEO Grant Spellmeyer said. “Today, these providers ARE upholding the principles of an open internet and delivering unfettered, affordable, and faster services to their customers. This is in large part thanks to America’s competitive marketplace and its time-tested, balanced regulatory approach.”

ACA also pointed to statements by Republican commissioner Brendan Carr at an ACA event on March 6, when Carr said this to Spellmeyer about reapplying Title II regulations to broadband providers: “It’s a reaction to a market power dynamic that hasn’t existed in decades. It doesn’t make sense that the debate has crystalized to protect edge providers like Apple, Amazon and Meta from small broadband providers. ... Relitigating Title II is looking at a rearview mirror, while ignoring real other threats.” 

The commission, meanwhile, posted a video on X (formerly Twitter) to help make the case for net neutrality.

Rosenworcel will circulate her proposal to her fellow commissioners for their review. A draft will be made public on FCC.gov. The April 25 meeting will be open to the public and streamed live at www.fcc.gov/live.  

In a blow to broadcasters and a victory for cable, the Federal Communications Commission has reaffirmed and toughened its network and TV station ownership limits, saying that despite a proliferation of alternative video options, including streaming video, limits on network and local station ownership remain necessary to promote the public interest goals of competition, localism and viewpoint diversity “given the unique obligations broadcast licensees have as trustees of the public’s airwaves to serve their local communities.”

In wrapping up its 2018 review of whether network and local TV station ownership limits and regulations are in the public interest, a Democratic majority of commissioners said they were. 

The 2018 quadrennial review was on hold after a legal challenge by broadcasters, which was generally resolved by a Supreme Court decision two years ago supporting the stations.

One of the legal holdups was a court finding that the FCC had not sufficiently explained how its approach to broadcast regulation impacted minority and female ownership. The FCC this week, in upholding the Local Television Ownership Rule and the Dual Network Rule as well as the Local Radio Ownership Rule, dismissed that with the explanation that “the record in the current proceeding does not establish concrete, affirmative steps the Commission can or should take with respect to our structural ownership rules to address concerns regarding minority and female ownership.”

Also Read: FCC Says FCC Should Wrap Up Overdue Quadrennial

The FCC did not restore the rules preventing newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership and radio/TV crossownership, which a Republican FCC had eliminated and an appeals court restored before the Supreme Court weighed in on the side of elimination.

“To be clear, at this point only three core rules remain,” FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel said. “No entity can own all the television stations in a single market, with a case-specific request necessary to own more than one of the top four stations. No entity can own all the radio stations in a single market. There is also a restriction on the national combination of two of the four big television networks — ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC.” 

But the FCC is also expanding its definition of audience share that determines what qualifies as a top-four station to include the station's streamed multicast channels and low-power TV stations.

The FCC said it would retain its current numerical limit on station ownership because, despite streaming sites aplenty, traditional cable and satellite video programmers, “no other source of video programming provides a substitute for broadcast television.”

Broadcasters have long argued that the FCC should look at all those players as competitors to broadcasters, most recently the unregulated streaming sites that have taken a bite out of their audience that’s big — and getting. Although FCC said that it was retaining the limits because over-the-air TV stations were uniquely licensed to serve the public with valuable news and diverse viewpoints, broadcasters say that the limits make it harder for them to afford to deliver that must-see TV in competition to unregulated video providers.

The FCC retains the prohibition on owning more than one of the top four-rated stations in a market.

The FCC is also tightening that Top Four rule to prevent affiliation purchases that it says have been a loophole used to circumvent the ownership limits. “[A]n entity will not be permitted to acquire a network affiliation and place it on a station or broadcast signal that is otherwise not counted as a station for purposes of the Local Television Ownership Rule,” it said.

The Dual Network Rule prohibits the merger of any of the top four broadcast networks — ABC, CBS, Fox or NBC. The FCC justifies that by saying broadcasters have a “unique” ability to “regularly” amass a large audience.

“We find that loosening the rule to allow a combination between Big Four broadcast networks would lessen competition for advertising revenue and likely subsequently result in the remaining networks paying less attention to viewer demand for innovative, high-quality programming,” the FCC said. 

And as regards the issue of localism, it said the rule “increases the bargaining power of local broadcast affiliates and enables them to influence Big Four broadcast network programming decisions in ways that better serve the interests of their local communities.”

Cable operators were fine with the FCC keeping the Local ownership limits.

“We commend the Commission for affirming and extending the Top Four rule, which will protect consumers from higher retransmission consent fees and the increased risk of station blackouts,” NCTA-The Internet & Television Association said. “The Commission and the Department of Justice have repeatedly found that the common ownership of two top-four stations in a market gives the owner increased leverage in retransmission consent negotiations that harms competition and leads to increases in retransmission consent costs, higher consumer prices, and an increased risk that multiple top stations go dark simultaneously. That consumer and competitive harm is the same whether the commonly owned top-rated stations are full-power or low-power, or if an owner controls multiple top-four signals using multicast streams. Closing the LPTV/multicast loophole is therefore essential to reining in broadcasters' unreasonable carriage demands.”

Dissenting from the decision were Republican Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington.

To make his point that the rules the FCC retained and even strengthened should have been loosened or eliminated, Carr ticked off a laundry list of streaming services: “Hulu, Netflix, Disney Plus, ESPN Plus, Amazon Prime Video, Sling TV, Apple TV, YouTube, YouTubeTV, Tubi, Vudu, Freevee, Crackle, Pluto TV, NBC News Now, CBS News Streaming Network, CBS Sports HQ, Peacock, The Roku Channel, Paramount Plus, Max (nee HBO Max), BritBox, DirecTV Stream, AT&T Now, FuboTV, Pandora, Spotify, SiriusXM, Apple Music, Amazon Music and other online audio and video streaming services too numerous to quantify or recount.”

Instead of recognizing that, he said the FCC majority has ”taken an ostrich-like approach" to what he said was Congress’ direction in the quadrennial to eliminate rules if they become unnecessary due to competition.”

Of the decision to include multicast streams and LPTVs, Simington said: “The fully novel application of this item's approach to extending the Local Television Ownership Rule to multicast streams and low power stations (which will impact principally smaller DMAs where it is not even arguable that broadcasters are ‘winning’ in the video marketplace) is without factual foundation and flies in the face of the essentially deregulatory precedent of the Quadrennial Review. This decision is anti-localism and hastens the death of local news in small markets, and it does so on the thinnest of gruels supplied in the factual record.”

The National Association of Broadcasters, which had pushed for eliminating the rules, declined comment.

Federal Communications Commission chair Jessica Rosenworcel said Thursday (November 30) that those looking for the agency to start regulating video streamers should look to Congress instead.

Rosenworcel has said before that she does not think the FCC has the authority under either the Communications Act or Cable Act to regulate virtual multichannel video programming distributors (MVPD) and she doubled down on that opinion at an FCC oversight hearing.

She was pressed on that point by House Energy & Commerce Committee chair Kathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), who wrote Rosenworcel earlier in the year signaling she did not want the FCC to reopen the issue.

Asked by Rodgers if she would commit to not taking any action, Rosenworcel said that while the FCC was combing over the law and considering “adjacent” copyright issues, shr “fundamentally” believes vMVPD regulation is an issue “where those who want us to act will have to go to Congress.”

Democrats on Capitol Hill have pushed the FCC to reopen its 2014 proposal to define some video-streaming services as MVPDs subject to agency regulation.

By contrast, Republicans, including Rodgers and Communications Subcommitte chairman Bob Latta (R-Ohio), have told the FCC to keep its regulatory hands off streamers.

Also Read: Rodgers Warns FCC to Stay in Regulatory Lane

With the backing of broadcasters, who have been trying to get more money for their online content, including by pushing for an antitrust exemption from Congress to negotiate for aggregated news content, Senate Commerce Committee chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) wrote Rosenworcel asking her to revive the 2014 inquiry with a focus on good-faith negotiation rules related to edge provider aggregation of news content from print and broadcast sources.

While the inquiry was revived, its prospects, given the chairwoman’s view, are not bright.

“Chairwoman Rosenworcel was extremely clear again today on the FCC’s ability to regulate streaming services," Bryce Harlow, spokesperson for the Preserve Viewer Choice Coalition, said. “[C]ongress is the only one that can regulate streaming video in the manner that large station groups seek. Her thoughtful remarks reaffirm her prior sentiments and are a win for streaming viewers across the country whose ability to access high-quality and affordable content we’re fighting hard to protect.”

Preserve Viewer Choice Coalition members include streaming power players Hulu, Fubo, YouTube TV, Paramount, Fox and NBC.

Federal Communications Commission chair Jessica Rosenworcel is proposing prohibiting cable and satellite TV operators from imposing early termination fees on their video subscribers, calling them junk fees that discourage competition.

The notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM), which Rosenworcel has teed up for a vote at the commission's December public meeting, would also require multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) to provide rebates to customers who cancel service before the end of a month for which they have already paid.

In making the proposal, Rosenworcel cited President Joe Biden’s executive order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy, which “encouraged” the FCC to prohibit “unjust or unreasonable early termination fees for end-user communication contracts,” signaling that Rosenworcel also considers them to be either unjust or unreasonable.

“No one wants to pay junk fees for something they don’t want or can’t use,” Rosenworcel said. “When companies charge customers early termination fees, it limits their freedom to choose the service they want.”

Because the item has been scheduled for a vote, Rosenworcel is almost certain to have the Democratic majority she needs for its approval.

The notice begins a cycle of comments and reply comments from interested stakeholders before a vote on a final order.

“Because these fees may have the effect of limiting consumer choice after a contract is enacted, it may negatively impact competition for services in the marketplace,” Rosenworcel's office said in announcing the upcoming vote. “Additionally, billing cycle fees require TV video service subscribers to pay for a complete billing cycle even if the subscriber terminates service prior to the end of that billing cycle. These fees penalize consumers for terminating service by requiring them to pay for services they choose not to receive.”

NCTA–The Internet & Television Association had no comment on Rosenworcel’s proposal.

FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel is clearly focused on building both a legal case and public support for the regulator’s reclassification of broadband as a Title II common-carrier service, an effort she is teeing up at this week’s public meeting.

With the Federal Communications Commission’s Democratic majority on the record in support of that Title II designation, the notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) will almost certainly pass 3-2, with Republicans holding to form and opposing the effort.

The NPRM will then launch a comment period where, if past is prologue, the FCC will receive lots of input in its public docket before proceeding to a vote on final rules.

As with other FCC efforts to clarify its regulatory authority over internet access, this one will almost certainly be aslo challenged in court and the FCC will need to dot its i’s and cross its t’s beforehand.

The FCC has issued a couple of fact sheets over the past two weeks to help make its case in advance.

One, the “National Security and Public Safety Impacts of Restoring Broadband Oversight,” argues that the COVID-19 pandemic, among other things, has created a new reality in which the FCC “has a responsibility to restore its broadband oversight authority and reimposing net neutrality rules that prevent blocking, throttling and so-called paid prioritization ‘fast lanes.’”

The FCC invoked foreign threats in the sheet, which was sent to reporters and others. It noted that although the agency has taken steps to protect communications networks from hostile governments, the lack of specific authority that Title II would give it over access has left a “national security loophole.”

Restoring Title II would allow the FCC to deny foreign governments access to U.S. networks, the fact sheet said.

Another loophole is emergency information, the FCC suggested. “Reclassifying internet access as a Title II service would allow the FCC to require broadband providers to report and address internet outages, like the FCC does for voice service today, and ensure that response personnel know when service is impacted, especially during emergencies,” the fact sheet said. 

A federal appeals court, in upholding most of a previous order removing the net neutrality rules and classifying internet access, did cite the FCC’s failure to talk about how its rollback of the rules would affect public safety.

Also Read: Supreme Court To Hear Case That Would Weaken FCC

Rosenworcel says that restoring the rules would just be a way to “kick-start” the process of “rectify[ing] this abdication of national security and public safety oversight.”

In a second “fact sheet,” the FCC pitched the proposal as protecting consumers, more than 80% of whom it said support “open internet protections.”

The FCC said restoring the rules means protecting consumer privacy, ensuring “fair” treatment by ISPs, including preventing them from blocking or throttling internet service or creating paid “fast lanes,” as well as combating VoIP robocalls.

Fair treatment raises another new net neutrality issue since the last battle over the rules — equity, an issue that could bring cost into the equation and raises the specter of some form of rate regulation.

But two parties can play the fact-sheet card.

Republican commissioner Brendan Carr has countered with his own release branding Rosenworcel’s facts as myths.

As to Title II being necessary for national security, for example, Carr said the FCC has been applying the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) to internet service providers without Title II.

And when it comes to consumer protection, Carr said Title II would strip the Federal Trade Commission of its authority over broadband.

Carr did not mince words about the chairwoman's fact sheet efforts.

“As with past iterations of this debate, the plan’s backers are trotting out a series of farcical claims to justify this power grab — claims that are as credible as their assertion in 2017 that ending Title II regulation would slow down and end the Internet,” he wrote in presenting his sheet, adding: “Reminder: mobile speeds are up over 6X since then! So here are just some of today’s top Title II myths followed by facts that set the record straight.”

Net neutrality has been a political battle, but legislators on both sides of the aisle have also tried for years — or at least have made noises like they were trying — to come up with a legislative fix by clarifying what authority they meant to give the FCC when it comes to regulating broadband.

Republicans and industry players have backed legislation that would authorize net neutrality rules against blocking, throttling and anticompetitive paid prioritization so long as it is not under Title II. But many Democrats have argued that such regulations need to be Title II-based, so a congressional solution has been a nonstarter.

Given the bitterly divided — probably dysfunctional — state of the current Congress, a legislative solution appears no closer. That’s despite all sides saying legislation is the best way to prevent the pendulum swings from Title II to Title I with changes in the political makeup of the FCC, giving industry some vaunted regulatory certainty over its billions of dollars in investments.

Federal Communications Commission chair Jessica Rosenworcel is proposing to put the onus on cable and satellite operators to inform the agency if a broadcast channel they carry has gone dark for an extended period due to a retransmission-consent impasse and to refund subscribers for those extended blackouts.

Rosenworcel has circulated notices of proposed rulemakings (NPRMs) to that effect to her fellow commissioners.

If approved, the notices would seek comment on rules requiring multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) notifications of any blackouts exceeding 24 hours, and mandating rebates to customers for those disruptions. 

Cable operators are under no obligation to carry over-the-air TV stations unless those broadcasters elect to forego any compensation in exchange for carriage under the FCC's must-carry rules.

When TV stations and MVPDs fail to come to terms on retransmission fees, those broadcasters can withhold their signals until a deal is struck. Sometimes those blackouts can last days or weeks. That often leads to viewer complaints, particularly when they impact things like coverage of the pro or college sports teams.

Such blackouts are a form of leverage in what is a marketplace negotiation, but Rosenworcel clearly sees blackouts as unfair to consumers.

“Enough with the blackouts,” Rosenworcel said in announcing the NPRMs. “When consumers with traditional cable and satellite service turn on the screen, they should get what they pay for. It’s not right when big companies battle it out and leave viewers without the ability to watch the local news, their favorite show, or the big game.  If the screen stays dark, they deserve a refund.”

The NPRMs seek input on whether and how cable and satellite operators would provide the rebates and whether to require those MVPDs to notify the FCC via an online public portal after a blackout has lasted more than 24 hours. 

“Every blackout — every single one — is caused by the same thing: broadcasters want consumers to pay higher prices,” the American Television Alliance (ATVA), whose members include cable and satellite operators, said. 

“We appreciate the commission’s acknowledgment that blackouts are a problem,” ATVA spokesperson Cora Mandy said.“However, we’d like to see the focus on the broadcasters — who increased retransmission consent fees from $200 million in 2006 to $11.7 billion in 2019, an unbelievable 5,359% — rather than just on the companies that are negotiating to keep prices down for their customers. We look forward to working with the commission to advance proposals that ensure broadcasters carry out their public-interest obligations so that blackouts can be avoided altogether.“

Consumer Reports senior policy counsel Jonathan Schwantes said: “CR applauds Chairwoman Rosenworcel for announcing these pro-consumer initiatives today. One of the biggest harms facing consumers in the video marketplace is the prevalence of blackouts. When two major companies fail to reach a deal, consumers are left without being able to access the content they paid for. 

“On one side is a broadcaster or media conglomerate, and on the other side is a video distributor, which in most cases is a cable or satellite television provider,“ he added. “We are pleased to see that the FCC is working to hold cable and satellite providers accountable to ensure that consumers get what they pay for."

FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel is wasting no time trying to leverage her new Democratic majority by teeing up a big-ticket item — net neutrality.

Rosenworcel plans to announce an effort to reinstate network neutrality rules at a speech at the National Press Club on Tuesday (September 26). The Federal Communications Commission was promoting the speech Monday to the press and planned to stream it on YouTube and its website to make sure remote audiences could tune in.

The planned speech comes just a day after Anna Gomez was sworn in as the fifth FCC commissioner and the third Democrat on the panel, giving Rosenworcel the Democratic majority she has been waiting for for most of three years.

According to FCC officials, the chairwoman will propose at the FCC's Oct. 19 public meeting a draft rulemaking reestablishing the FCC's authority under Title II and creating strong uniform net neutrality standards.

The item is being tied , in part, to closing what they say is a loophole that hampers the ability of the FCC to prevent foreign actors from attacking U.S. broadband networks and data because the FCC lacks broadband regulatory authority.

The rules will mirror the former net neutrality rules, including forbearing from rate regulation and unbundling.

Rosenworcel’s announcement came only days after two former top Obama administration legal veterans said the FCC should not try to restore the rules because they would just be struck down by the Supreme Court.

The FCC, under Trump-era Republican chair Ajit Pai, voted to eliminate the net neutrality rules that prevented blocking, throttling or paid prioritization of internet access by internet service providers. It also included an internet conduct standard by which the FCC could review conduct not prohibited by those rules — like zero-rating plans — but that might adversely affect internet openness and access to content. Rosenworcel said Tuesday that that 2017 repeal of the rules was on the wrong side of history, the law and the American public.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit generally upheld the elimination of the rules and the FCC's reclassification of internet access as a Title I information service not subject to the common-carrier regulations of a Title II telecommunications service.

Then-commissioner Rosenworcel had opposed the rules’ elimination and had signaled after she became chair that she wanted to reinstate them.

But without a Democratic majority since she took over — due to Congress’s inability to confirm a nominee until just recently — Rosenworcel has been unable to muster the political majority to tackle non-bipartisan items.

Gomez has signaled she supports “robust” Title II-based net neutrality rules. Fellow Democratic commissioner Geoffrey Starks is also on the record supporting the rules, so Rosenworcel would appear to have the votes she needs.

In advance of the speech, and citing the speculation about its contents, Republican commissioner Brendan Carr associated himself with the views of those former Obama-era legal veterans. 

“As a former general counsel of the FCC myself, I would encourage my commission colleagues to heed the judicious guidance offered by these top lawyers from the Obama Administration and focus the FCC’s work on the numerous, important subjects that Congress has authorized the Commission to address — from rural broadband and public safety to spectrum and national security — rather than pursuing the Biden administration’s unnecessary and unlawful plan for exerting government control over the Internet,” Carr said in a statement. 

FCC officials said they were confident the item would pass legal muster if challenged in the courts, which it almost certainly will be. 

“The proposed rules may complicate, if not deeply upset, our collective efforts to bring internet to rural and unserved communities," said Michael Powell, president of NCTA-the Internet & Television Association and former FCC chairman. "These rules set out very heavy regulations that complicate the calculus of deploying networks in expensive, risky, and hard-to-serve markets. The FCC’s actions only add to that burden, and we fear net neutrality will lead to net fatality.

"For two decades, there has been only one two-year period in which the FCC applied Title II to the internet, yet the internet has been open throughout because it makes business sense to offer it that way," he said.

In contrast to Carr and Powell, news of the planned rule restoration was music to the ears for Senate Commerce Committee chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), a big network neutrality proponent.

Commerce Committee ranking member Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), saw it rather differently.

"FCC Democrats are laughably plowing ahead even though their histrionic predictions of doom and gloom after the repeal of Obama-era rules in 2017 turned out to be completely bogus," Cruz said. "Rather than give legitimate reasons for another policy reversal, it’s clear FCC Democrats simply want control. They desperately want to micromanage providers’ pricing and terms of service, and collect billions in new USF taxes at the expense of investment, economic growth, and consumer choice."

Cruz was among the majority of Republicans in the Senate who voted against putting Gomez in as the third Democrat, including based on concerns she would provide the needed third vote for Title II-based rules.

“With the swearing in of Anna Gomez, the FCC finally has the power to take action on the priorities important to the American people, from delivering on net neutrality and expanding affordable broadband access to strengthening local news,” Cantwell said. 

USTelecom saw doom and gloom in the announcement.

"Powering up an outdated regulatory time machine to impose rules designed for a long-forgotten era runs directly counter to, and will likely derail, the critical achievement we are so close to reaching – universal connectivity," said CEO Jonathan Spalter. "Treating broadband as a Title II utility is a dangerous and costly solution in search of a problem. Congress must step in on this major question and end this game of regulatory ping-pong. The future of the open, vibrant internet we now enjoy hangs in the balance.”

“It is foolhardy for the FCC to embark on yet another attempt to impose public utility-like regulations on Internet service providers," said Free State Foundation President Randolph May. "As a matter of policy, it’s wrong to go down this road again when there's no evidence of a problem justifying new burdensome regulations." 

Edge providers and competitive carriers represented by the Computer & Communications Industry Association were celebrating the news.

“Ensuring the nondiscriminatory provisioning of broadband internet access service has already been deemed to be within the FCC’s statutory authority. Reinstating those protections will ensure that America’s digital economy is inclusive, open, and stable," said CCIA SVP and chief of staff Stephanie Joyce.

WISPA – Broadband Without Boundaries, which represents fixed wireless providers, said that while Title II would grant broadband providers access to poles, conduits and rights-of-way not currently guaranteed, the cost of regulation outweighs the benefit. 

"ACA Connects and its hundreds of members are troubled by the announcement that the FCC is considering subjecting smaller broadband service providers to onerous regulations that were crafted for the copper-line telephone business," said association president Grant Spellmeyer. "Such utility-style regulations will inhibit our Members’ investment to the detriment of their subscribers. These regulations will also give Big Tech platforms even greater ability to leverage smaller broadband providers and their subscribers."

FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel wants to add 100% affordability and a bunch of other benchmarks to the regulator’s definition of what constitutes the deployment of advanced telecommunications services by internet service providers to “all Americans” in a reasonable and timely manner.

She also wants to raise the minimum definition of access to high-speed broadband to 100 Megabits per second downstream and 20 Mbps upstream. The current standard is 25 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps upstream, set in 2015.

Rosenworcel proposed the new metrics in sharing an updated Notice of Inquiry launching the agency’s latest report — the so-called Section 706 report to Congress. In addition to access and affordability, the Federal Communications Commission chair said equitable access — no redlining, for example — and adoption should also figure into "whether broadband is being deployed in a reasonable and timely fashion” to “all Americans.”

The FCC is required to report to Congress periodically on progress toward that benchmark, with the agency empowered to regulate access to advanced telecommunications services if it concludes such services are not being rolled out on a reasonable and timely basis.

Past Democratic FCCs have interpreted that to mean that as long as there is still one U.S. citizen without broadband access, that reasonable and timely benchmark hasn't been met. Adding the new affordability and other metrics could give the FCC more opportunity to regulate broadband to make it more affordable, raising the specter of some form of rate regulation or at least regulation that impacts rates.

Those new benchmarks dovetail with the Biden administration's framework for handing out tens of billions of dollars in subsidies to help get to the goal of universal broadband, which President Joe Biden has said should be achievable by the end of the decade. The 110/20 high-speed metric would also square with the Administration's definition of high speed for its subsidy program administered by the National Telecommunications & Information Administration. 

FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel has told Congress she would welcome the chance to work with it to better protect consumers during retransmission-consent disputes, a point she has made before in discussing retrans-related blackouts.

She expressed her view in a letter to Rhode Island’s congressional delegation, whose members had pushed the Federal Communications Commission to do everything it could to help resolve a retrans dispute — since resolved — between Nexstar Media Group and Verizon Communications affecting WPRI Providence.

The lawmakers encouraged the FCC to “do everything in its power to help bring the parties together so that negotiations can continue in good faith.”

In her response, Rosenworcel pointed out that the parties had resolved the dispute on their own.

She pointed out that neither Nexstar nor Verizon had filed a complaint alleging any violation of the law or rules on good-faith negotiations. Further, she said, the FCC's power over retrans is limited because under the law, “we cannot order or otherwise require carriage of a broadcast station during a dispute.”

But she suggested that was something she might like to see change, with Congress’s help. “I would welcome the opportunity to work with you and others in Congress on these matters so that consumers can be better protected in the future when disputes like these arise,” Rosenworcel wrote. ▪️

Cable broadband operators, local governments and others who want to challenge data the FCC has collected on the locations of fixed broadband service as part of its Broadband Data Collection (BDC) effort can do so starting September 12, the agency said.

That “location fabric” data provides the basis of the congressionally mandated improved broadband maps. Federal Communications Commission chair Jessica Rosenworcel said last week the agency planned to have a first draft of the maps ready for public consumption by November.

Also: The FCC Broadband Map Will Be Wrong

The maps are meant to more accurately target the tens of billions of dollars in broadband subsidies that are being given out to achieve the Biden administration’s pledge of universal broadband access by decade's end.

The fabric is made up of “all locations in the United States where fixed broadband Internet access service is or can be installed” and could help reduce overbuilding or identify overlaps in different subsidies.

Fixed broadband providers that report they are providing high-speed internet service to a specific location must base that determination on the data in the fabric.

Providers who take issue with where the fabric says broadband is and isn’t can file corrections and bulk challenges, which the FCC said will help it refine the data for the next version of the fabric, which it expects to release in December.

To help with that challenge process, the FCC will host a September 7 webinar. ■

The broadband subsidy bucks continue to flow out of Washington.

The Federal Communications Commission has authorized almost $800 million dollars more in rural subsidies from its Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) to six broadband providers reaching some 350,000 locations in 19 states, with the most money going to Illinois ($212 million), Arizona ($140 million) and Iowa ($113 million), the regulator said.

In its 2020 RDOF auction, the FCC allocated $20 billion for 1) rural broadband buildouts ($16 billion) and 2) unserved areas ($4 billion) over the next 10 years, money that can go to cable broadband providers as well as telecoms.

Also: FCC Proposes Millions in RDOF Default Fines

So far, the RDOF program has handed out more than $6 billion in funds to 47 states.

“This funding will connect more households throughout the country with high-speed broadband as part of our ongoing work to close the digital divide,” said FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel, who has made closing the digital divide a signature issue since she was a commissioner. “We are confident these projects can bring quality service to currently unserved areas.” ▪️

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said Friday (August 5) that she is not worried about the impact on the ongoing 2.5 GHz auction if Congress fails to extend the FCC's auction authority by the end of September, when it expires.

There is bipartisan support in Congress to extend that authority, but the bill has not made it out of Congress yet and legislators are on their August break, after which they will be primarily focused on getting themselves re-elected, though there is certainly time to extend the authority before the Sept. 30 deadline.

The House has already voted to extend the FCC's spectrum auction authority. The legislation, H.R. 7624, the “Spectrum Innovation Act of 2022,” now must pass the Senate and be signed by the President or the FCC's spectrum auction authority will expire.

At her post-public meeting press conference, Rosenworcel was asked what impact the sunset of FCC auction authority might have on an ongoing auction, given that some have suggested it could cause problems.

Rosenworcel did not sound worried. "I am not concerned at all."

"I am confident the auction can proceed under statute. The only limitation is on the ultimate issuance of the license," which she said could take some time given that the auctions can and do go on for weeks or even months and then the FCC has to review the winning bidders. "That activity typically takes several months."

But she did urge Congress to extend the authority for a long period of time, and to use the proceeds from future auctions under re-authorized FCC authority towards an upgrade to next gen 911, something she has long pushed for. "Using the auction of public airwaves to support public safety makes a lot of sense," she said.

Legislation reauthorizing the FCC would do just that, as well as provide more money for the FCC's rip-and-replace program targeting unsecure network equipment from suppliers considered a risk to national security.

After round 10 of the 2.5 GHz auction, the bidders have ponied up $146,551,500 for almost 8,000 flexible use midband spectrum licenses (165 licenses currently have no bidders). ■

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel says she is all for the Net Neutrality and Broadband Justice Act, which would reclassify internet access as a Title II telecommunications service and return the FCC's authority to impose net neutrality rules.

That authority went away in 2017 when the FCC under then Republican Chairman Ajit Pai reclassified ISPs as Title I information services not subject to mandatory access or potentially rate regulation rules.

"The pandemic made clear internet access is no longer a luxury, but a necessity—and that consumers don’t just need broadband, they need to be able to hold their providers to account," said Rosenworcel, who opposed the Pai reclassification when she was a commissioner in the minority.

"After all, everyone should be able to go where they want and do what they want online without their broadband provider making choices for them. I support Net Neutrality because it fosters this openness and accountability. While I trust the FCC has the authority it needs to adopt Net Neutrality rules, legislation that helps ensure it is the law of the land is welcome."

The other Democratic commissioner, Geoffrey Starks, also weighed in with his support of the bill, essentially echoing Rosenworcel.

"I have previously stated that the FCC’s 2015 Net Neutrality rules were the right approach. That approach is undergirded by a voluminous record and overwhelming public support, and it has been tested in court," said Starks. "The Net Neutrality and Broadband Justice Act would codify just that. COVID and the last few years have proven that broadband is essential for the 21st century. This legislation is an important step that will provide certainty to consumers and broadband providers, and allow everyone to move forward. It has my strong support."

Congressional Democrats are trying to step in given that whether or not the FCC could reinstate the Title II-based rules, that is not happening with the current 2-2 politically tied FCC and no near-term prospects for a third (majority) Democratic commissioner given the stalled nomination of Gigi Sohn. ■

The Federal Communications Commission’s Enforcement Bureau has launched an investigation into June 10 broadband and telecom outages in Arizona in areas serviced by Frontier Communications.

That came in a letter from FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel to Rep. Tom O’Halleran (D-Ariz.), who had called for the investigation, saying the outage was “part of a persistent pattern of what can only be described as negligent behavior by Frontier toward communities in northern and eastern Arizona.”

In his letter to Rosenworcel, O’Halleran asked Rosenworcel to “consider initiating audits, a review of all outage filings and other disciplinary actions against Frontier.”

Rosenworcel told O'Halleran that she would conduct a “full and thorough” investigation. She would not comment on just how that would be conducted or what the result might be, but did add, “If our Enforcement Bureau determines that there was a violation of agency rules and law, I intend to take swift action.”

Frontier had not yet returned a request for comment. ▪️

Federal Communications Commission chair Jessica Rosenworcel has launched a probe of the top mobile broadband providers, including Comcast and Charter Communications, about their data collection practices.

In letters to more than a dozen top carriers, Rosenworcel noted that the nation’s largest carriers had pledged back in 2020 to end the sale of real-time location data to aggregation services, after the FCC fined them more than $200 million for not taking appropriate steps to protect that data. But a subsequent (2021) Federal Trade Commission report found that ISPs continued to collect more data than was necessary “to provide services” and more than consumers expected them to, she noted.

In 2020, geolocation information had reportedly made its way to bounty hunters and others. The fined ISPs’ subscribers were unable to opt out of the collection of that data because it is used to provide the underlying service. Rosenworcel had pressed the FCC, then headed by Republican Ajit Pai, to investigate the matter, and had pushed carriers on whether they had ended the practice as promised.
 
Rosenworcel said that given that finding, she wanted the ISPs to get back to her on their specific data retention and third-party sharing policies for geolocation information.

Among the data she wants access to are: 1) the reason geolocation data is retained; 2) how long it is retained; 3) how that data is safeguarded; 4) data deletion policies; 5) if subs can opt out of data retention policies and, if not, why not; 6) policies for sharing data with law enforcement; 7) and whether subs are notified when their geolocation data is shared.

She wants responses by Aug. 3. 

Rosenworcel's letters drew the attention of the White House, which issued the following press release Wednesday evening: "Today, the FCC Chairwoman wrote to the top 15 mobile providers requesting information about their data retention and data privacy policies and general practices, consistent with the President’s commitment to protecting Americans’ privacy." ■

Taking a couple of pages from the Biden administration’s parameters for some $65 billion in broadband deployment subsidies, Federal Communications Commission chair Jessica Rosenworcel has proposed upping the agency’s minimum definition of high-speed broadband availability and making "affordability, adoption, availability, and equitable access" part of that definition.

Rosenworcel put that high-speed stake in the ground Friday, circulating a notice of inquiry launching its annual state of broadband review.

Also: FCC Seeks Input on Coordination of Broadband Subsidy Bucks

Rosenworcel is proposing to increase the minimum definition of high-speed broadband availability from 25 Megabits per second for downloads and 3 Mbps for uploads to 100 Mbps/20 Mbps and setting its sights on speeds of 10 times that number.

“The needs of internet users long ago surpassed the FCC’s 25/3 speed metric, especially during a global health pandemic that moved so much of life online,” Rosenworcel said. “The 25/3 metric isn’t just behind the times, it’s a harmful one because it masks the extent to which low-income neighborhoods and rural communities are being left behind and left offline.”

The NOI proposes to increase the national broadband standard the FCC uses to determine broadband availability to 100/20, which is the baseline for new buildouts being funded by the Biden Administration's infrastructure subsidies.

Rosenworcel pointed out that the FCC set the previous baseline way back in 2015, which to put into perspective predates the creation of TikTok and Snapchat's IPO.

The NOI also proposes setting a goal of 1 Gbps/500 Mbps “for the future.”

It is no surprise that Rosenworcel, now that she is chair, is moving to up the baseline.

Back in 2018, when she was a minority commissioner under Republican chair Ajit Pai, she said 25 Mbps was “insufficiently audacious.” That, too, came as the FCC was launching its annual broadband deployment report. “It is time to be bold and move the national broadband standard from 25 Megabits to 100 Megabits per second,” she said at the time. It didn't happen.

The lower the speed that qualifies as broadband availability, the higher the percentage of Americans considered served by broadband.

Now, rather than audacious, Rosenworcel is suggesting that 100 Mbps is table stakes, and 1 Gigabit per second is the prize the FCC’s eyes should be on. 

NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association CEO Shirley Bloomfield applauded the proposed speed change.

 “NTCA has long advocated that, as a nation, we need to aim higher and do better when it comes to setting broadband objectives," she said. "From proposing higher speed targets for universal service policy, to advocating for better broadband in the development of infrastructure funding grant programs, NTCA has consistently urged longer-term perspectives rather than short-term incremental views of what represent efficient investments and the ever-evolving level of services that consumers will need over time. We applaud Chairwoman Rosenworcel’s announcement today that she is proposing to increase the national standard for minimum broadband speeds and to set a long-term objective as well.”

Bloomfield did not specifically address the proposal to add "affordability, adoption, availability, and equitable access" to the definition of available broadband. 

“We are pleased to see Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel taking this important first step toward increasing internet speed benchmarks, and we encourage the entire FCC to think bigger and bolder by setting gigabit goals today that unleash a faster, better future for all American families and businesses," said Chip Pickering, CEO of INCOMPAS, which represents competitive carriers and some edge providers.▪️ 

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel is proposing to allow federal funds to be used to provide Wi-Fi on school buses going forward.

Government money can currently be used for that purpose, but only under the Emergency Connectivity Fund, a pandemic-related temporary program. (The FCC has already spent $35 million on Wi-Fi service for buses).

Currently, the FCC's E-rate program subsidizes school and library connectivity, but not buses, despite calls from some E-rate stakeholders that such a move would help close the "homework gap."

Rosenworcel unveiled the plan at a meeting of the National Coalition for Technology in Education & Training. The FCC would simply issue a declaratory ruling -- which does not require notice and comment -- "clarifying that use of Wi-Fi, or similar access point technologies, on school buses serves an educational purpose," so that E-rate funding could be used.

"This commonsense change could help kids who have no broadband at home," she said.

Rosenworcel was among those in a Rose Garden crowd Monday (May 9) as President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris announced that the Administration had gotten commitments from almost two dozen private sector ISPs to lower service costs for high speed broadband (at least 100 mbps). Biden and Harris also announced the launch of a GetInternet.gov website on how to sign up for the American Connectivity Program (ACP).

The draft ruling would make buses eligible in the upcoming funding E-rate year, according to the FCC. \

Rosenworcel drew some praise from groups ready to get on the bus, as it were.

Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) and Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) were quick to throw their support behind the proposal. Not a surprise since they have introduced legislation to allow Wi-Fi on school buses.

"I am delighted that Chairwoman Rosenworcel and the FCC are working to expand access to Wi-Fi on school buses," said Welch. 

"I’m glad Chairwoman Rosenworcel continues to take decisive action to expand internet connection and I look forward to continuing our partnership to ensure New Mexico’s communities are 100% connected," said Luján.

"Benton applauds Chairwoman Rosenworcel and this critical effort to support a continuum of connectivity for America's schoolchildren," said Benton Institute for Broadband & Society Executive Editor Kevin Taglang. "As far back as 2016, approximately 3% of the schools had begun to offer Wi-Fi on school buses, and nearly 4 percent were planning to do so in the near future. The reasoning is clear: school buses can be an extension of the school and facilitate online study. The FCC should seize this opportunity to turn school buses into rolling study halls."■

LAS VEGAS — In her first NAB Show appearance since her designation as Federal Communications Commission chair, Jessica Rosenworcel conceded that the introduction of a fifth commissioner would solve the agency’s current 2-to-2 political gridlock, but she’s not losing any sleep over it. 

“We’ve got to figure out how to work together, or we don’t get anything done,” she told NAB president and CEO Curtis LeGeyt during a Monday morning (April 25) keynote discussion. 

Whereas previous FCC administrations added to the cacophony of divisive political noise emanating from the Beltway, Rosenworcel said that five months into her administration as the FCC’s first permanent female chair in its 87-year history, the group has simply been given too much to do by Congress to fight amongst itself. 

“We’ve turned down the volume and ramped up the activity,” Rosenworcel said, citing initiatives ranging from the CARES Act to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. 

“But yes,” she conceded, “I’m looking forward to the day when we have five commissioners."

It was a cordial discussion between a new FCC chair and an also-new NAB chief, who assumed his role in January. The pair grew up just 20 minutes down the road from one another in Connecticut. LeGeyt, a former prep basketball player, noted that his high school was 4-0 against Rosenworcel’s alma mater.

Sharing her connection to and affinity for local media Rosenworcel recalled her teenage fondness for the local radio station WTIC-FM and its “Prize Patrol” promotion, which called for aspiring winners to place a bumper sticker on their cars — an act her parents wouldn’t concede to. 

“I was so resentful, which is probably why I’m up here telling you about it today,” said Rosenworcel 

“We all have so many choices for content,” she said. “But when I get in my car, I want to hear someone from the town I live in.”

Steering the discussion to policy specifics, LeGeyt mentioned the deployment of ATSC 3.0. Rosenworcel works to position the FCC as a facilitator and partner to station operators, she said. The agency wants to enable stations to use ATSC 1.0 and ATSC 3.0 simultaneously, so they can experiment with the latter. 

“The framework the FCC has for ATSC 3.0 is the right framework,” she said. “It gives broadcasters a chance to experience, develop use cases and find out what works at scale.

“We want stations to come to us and tell us what they’re seeing,” Rosenworcel added. “If there’s a hurdle in our rules, maybe we can fix that.”

Asked by LeGeyt in the broad-reaching discussion about the topic of diversity, Rosenworcel conceded that her own pioneering position makes the issue a priority with her. 

She said the FCC is aggressively gathering data on the broadcast industry and noted it will be helpful for the NAB in achieving its diversity goals. 

“What we see on our airwaves says so much about who we are,” Rosenworcel said.  ▪️

© 2022 NAB

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has named Narda Jones to be chief of staff, effective mid-April. She will succeed acting chief of staff Travis Litman. 

Jones is returning to the commission from the White House, where she had served as director of legislative affairs for the Office of Science and Technology Policy (ONDCP).

Jones was a senior official in the FCC's Wireline and International Bureaus before moving to the office of Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), the current chairwoman of the Senate Commerce Committee, in 2014.

Rosenworcel has also tapped her former adviser and current Big Tech exec to join her office. Priscilla Delgado Algeris is coming from Meta (formerly Facebook) Platforms, where she was dealing with spectrum policy issues.

Algeris was then-commissioner Rosenworcel's legal adviser and senior legal advisor from 2012 to 2015 and before that worked for communications law firm Wiley. ■

The Federal Communications Commission said it has upgraded its electronic comment filing system (ECFS), which is how the public and stakeholders weigh in on agency issues and proposed inquiries and regulations.

According to FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, the regulator has transitioned to a cloud-based architecture that will allow it to upgrade and expand features and functions and allow it to scale up as needed.

The system now also employs a reCAPTCHA engine to protect against fraud and abuse.

During the comment cycle on the FCC’s 2017 network neutrality proceeding in particular, the agency took heat over the number of bogus or bot-generated comments.

For example, New York State conducted an investigation into comments in the FCC's net neutrality rule proceeding, concluding millions of fraudulent comments were submitted by lead generators employed by broadband companies, thought it found no evidence those companies had direct knowledge that the lead generators were engaging in fraud.

A Pew Research report also found that many of the 21.7 million comments in the net neutrality docket “seemed to include false or misleading personal information.”

“Our comment filing system is a critical avenue for public input that we need to keep up-to-date,” Rosenworcel said. “Today’s effort is a start to do just that and I want to thank the FCC staff and contractors who have made this possible.” ■

FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel promised Congress that the FCC would produce better broadband availability maps by the fall.

Rep. Bob Latta (R-Ohio), ranking member of the House Communications Subcommittee, which was holding its first FCC oversight hearing Thursday (March 31) for well over a year, pointed out in his questioning that Rosenworcel had told the Senate in 2020 that the FCC would come up with better maps within six months but that the FCC was still working on them, with a deadline of September 1 for the latest input.

Better broadband maps is a key issue for both Democrats and Republicans. For Republicans in particular, the focus has been on preventing waste, fraud and abuse and overbuilding of existing service given the over $40 billion  

Latta asked whether she could commit to better maps by the year's end and Rosenworcel said yes.

She pointed out that she had been referring back in 2020 to the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) subsidy and issues with those maps, which had led, in the previous administration, to including the Pentagon parking lot among areas needing service (Rosenworcel had opposed handing out RDOF funds before correcting those problems, ow what she called "money before maps").

She said the FCC had to do better and was doing better as it worked to implement the Broadband Data Act "to a T" and that, while the best time for better maps would have been five years ago, the second best time was now. She said FCC would get those new maps out by the fall.

Another delay, she pointed out, was federal contracting rules had forced them to "put down their pencils" for 100 days on the legislatively mandated broadband location fabric before the FCC got the go-ahead earlier this month. ■

FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel has told Congress that the FCC has begun an "internal assessment" of Russian ownership of U.S. telecommunications interests.

That came in written testimony for Thursday's FCC oversight hearing in the House Energy & Commerce Committee.

She said that was just one of the actions the FCC had taken in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

She also noted that the FCC is requiring new on-air disclosures of foreign-backed broadcasts, though ramping up that effort pre-dates the invasion by quite a bit and was tied to concerns about state-sponsored disinformation campaigns like those that could have impacted U.S. elections.

She also pointed out that the FCC had joined the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Shields Up program to heighten cybersecurity awareness and response in the increased threat of malicious cyber activity stemming from the Russian sanctions. ■

Top Republicans on the Senate Commerce Committee are pressing FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel to provide information on future spectrum auction opportunities, as well policy reforms that could be needed to ensure auction rules maximize spectrum use and further next-generation technologies.

In asking for the information, ranking member Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune (R-S.D.) pointed out that under her leadership, and that of her Republican predecessor, the Federal Communications Commission had auctioned hundreds of MHz of valuable spectrum for 5G — that includes C-band and 3.45-GHz spectrum.

They pointed out that the FCC‘s authority to conduct those and any future auctions expires September 30 and wanted to know what would happen if that authority were not extended.

The senators sought answers to the following questions:

“Please respond to the following questions to help inform our deliberations:

1.) “Congress has granted frequency-specific, extended statutory authority for auctions to the FCC in some instances. Please detail the specific auction authority the FCC will retain after the expiration of the general auction authority.

2.) “What spectrum auctions are pending or in the rulemaking process? When will those auctions be completed?

3.) “What statutory tools, beyond auction authority, do you believe would improve the FCC’s ability to make additional spectrum available for auction in the future?“

4.) “What specific frequencies, if any, do you believe are good candidates for auction that the FCC does not currently have the authority to conduct following the September 2022 expiration date?

5.) “What policy reforms can be made to spectrum auction rules to promote international competitiveness, maximize spectrum use efficiency, and foster the rapid deployment of next-generation technologies?” ■

The White House trumpeted its broadband subsidy bonanza Monday (February 14) in an event featuring Federal Communications Commission chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel; Vice President Kamala Harris, who President Joe Biden put in charge of closing the digital divide; and senior adviser Mitch Landrieu, the broadband buildout czar.

The milepost being marked was 10 million households enrolling in the American Connectivity Program (ACP). That was the $14.2 billion subsidy that replaced the Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) COVID-19 broadband aid program.

“Thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, millions of families who previously could not get online or struggled to pay for this modern-day necessity are now connected,” the White House said, adding, “affordable broadband remains out of reach for too many.”

“No family should have to choose between paying for gas or groceries and their monthly internet bill, especially when a connection is essential for work, school, health care and more," said Rosenworcel. "But for far too many, the cost of internet service makes the connections we need for everyday life, out of reach,” said Rosenworcel. “Now with more than 10 million households enrolled, we’ve proven the need for this program, and we are continuing our efforts to ensure no community, no household, no one is left offline.”

Also: FCC Asked to Improve ACP Info Translations

Under the ACP, low-income residents can apply for up to a $30-per-month subsidy — down from $50 per month in the EBB — with residents of tribal lands getting up to $75. There is also a one-time $100 equipment subsidy to apply to laptops or desktops or tablets, but not phones.

The White House Monday also encouraged the public to “spread the word about the program, including by printing out flyers and fact sheets and handing them out at community events or sharing digital versions on social media.“ ■

Federal Communications Commission chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has installed some new bureau chiefs as she puts her stamp on the agency, but she signaled the now-former chiefs are sticking around, at least for now.

Rosenworcel was named chairwoman late last year after being acting chair for most of last year.

Alejandro Roark, who had been executive director of HTTP, a CEO roundtable of Latino groups promoting tech and telecom for Latino communities, has been named chief of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, replacing Patrick Webre.

Debra Jordan, who had been deputy chief of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, will be chief of the bureau, succeeding Lisa Fowlkes. Her resume also includes managing critical information systems for the Department of Defense.

Holly Saurer, who has been a legal adviser to Rosenworcel, will head the Media Bureau, succeeding Michelle Carey. It will be a bureau homecoming since Sauer has been deputy chief and associate chief of the Media Bureau. Before that, she was an acting media adviser to Rosenworcel and former acting chairwoman Mignon Clyburn, as well as a legal adviser to former chair Tom Wheeler.

Loyaan Egal, who has been deputy chief of the Foreign Investment Review Section at the Department of Justice and chairman of so-called “team telecom,” will serve as acting chief of the Enforcement Bureau. Rosemary Harold had been chief. It will be a homecoming for Egal, who formerly led the FCC Enforcement Bureau's Universal Service Fund Strike Force.

Rosenworcel also named Michele Ellison, currently acting general counsel, to permanent (in the sense of non-acting) general counsel.

“I’d like to thank Michelle Carey, Lisa Fowlkes, Rosemary Harold and Patrick Webre for their public service as they transition to new roles across the agency,” Rosenworcel said.

The Radio Television Digital News Foundation has announced its latest First Amendment award winners, including the Leonard H. Zeidenberg First Amendment Award, named after the former Broadcasting+Cable senior Washington correspondent.

There will be a March 9 dinner in Washington where the 2021 recipients — as well as 2021 recipients who did not get an in-person gala — will be recognized.

The 2022 Zeidenberg Award winner is Mary Louise Kelly, host of NPR's All Things Considered and a former national security correspondent for the noncommercial news outlet. The award is for a "major contribution to the protection of First Amendment freedoms."

FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has been tapped for the First Amendment Leadership award for "champions" of "First Amendment and press freedoms." Rosenworcel was tapped for promoting "greater opportunity, accessibility, and affordability in our communications services." 

The 2022 First Amendment Service Award, for “professionals in local or network news who work in an off-air, management, largely behind-the-scenes capacity,” is going to ABC News president Kim Godwin.

The First Amendment Award is going to CBS’s Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan. The award is for “a business, government or other leader who has made a significant contribution to the protection of the First Amendment and freedom of the press.” The show is being hailed as the most-watched Sunday public affairs show and the second-longest-running TV show of any kind.

The First Amendment Clarity Award recognizes a journalist or journalists who put complex stories in context. The winner is NBC News and MSNBC national political correspondent Steve Kornacki for his political reporting.

The RTDNF Citation of Courage is being given posthumously to Kevin Nishita, who worked as an armed security guard and was killed while protecting a TV news crew from an armed robbery in Oakland, California. 

The RTDNF Lifetime Achievement Award will go to Jayne Miller, a reporter at WBAL Baltimore for more than 35 years. ■

The Federal Communications Commission has voted unanimously on a proposed regime for implementing Congress's mandate that internet-service providers tell their customers up front about the service those customers are buying via point-of-sale labels, and one commissioner used the agency’s January public meeting to call for Big Tech to be held to the same standard.

The FCC since 2016 has allowed ISPs voluntarily to use such so-called nutrition labels as proof that they are adhering to its transparency requirements. But chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel made clear that the difference now is the label is mandated.

The FCC is proposing to use that 2016 label format, which resembles a food nutrition label, as the mandated one, but asks whether there need to be any changes or additions.

Among the provisions in the Biden administration’s Infrastructure Act — which allocated billions of dollars for broadband, including subsidies for broadband service — was that the FCC mandate the broadband “nutrition label” so consumers can know the speed and quality of service they are getting at what price and with what fees attached.

According to the FCC Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the label has to include “accurate information about prices, introductory rates, data allowances and broadband speeds,” as well as “management practices.” Any ISP that does not hew to the letter of the label could be pursued by the Federal Trade Commission under its authority to prevent “false and deceptive” advertising.

The labels must be accessible to the disabled and must promote equity in the provision of service.

The item asks a number of questions, including on how to ensure the accuracy of the labels' content and the proper implementation timelines.

Also: FCC Tees Up Broadband Nutrition Labels

Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, a Democrat, said he was pleased to support the item and begin the process of expanding public access to better information on broadband offerings. He said the nutrition labels will help everyday households compare prices and find the best package and deal for them.

Rosenworcel said the labels would help stop unexpected costs and fees in the “fine print.”

And while the 2016 label was voluntary, Congress gave the FCC support for a mandate that would hold ISPs to their promises, which would mean better service and better prices.

Commissioner Brendan Carr, a Republican, supported the item, but wanted to make the point that the FCC already had transparency rules on the books. “The FCC has long worked to promote transparency, including through specific rules,” he said. “Right now, we have rules on the books, for instance, that require broadband providers to publicly disclose accurate information regarding their network management practices, performance characteristics, and commercial terms sufficient to enable consumers, businesses, and entrepreneurs to make informed choices.”

While Carr voted to launch the process mandated by Congress, he suggested that using the 2016 label “could artificially constrain the agency’s ability to make decisions that reflect today’s market for connectivity.”

He also put in a plug for requiring labels from edge providers, which he has been highly critical of.

“[W]hile I am open to ways we can improve the transparency and disclosure rules that apply to broadband providers, I continue to believe that the real black box is in a different portion of the Internet ecosystem — Big Tech,” he said. “Big Tech companies provide far less transparency than broadband providers regarding their practices and commercial terms. In fact, just this week, four state AGs sued Google for misleading consumers about when Google was tracking their location information. I have been clear that I favor — and consumers deserve — greater transparency from these companies. And I have previously called for the FCC and FTC to take action here. The transparency rule that currently applies to broadband providers or even the nutrition label approach we propose here would be a good place to start when it comes to bringing much-needed and long-overdue transparency to Big Tech. This would ensure that all Internet users, from entrepreneurs to small businesses, have the information they need to make informed choices.”

Advocates See a Transparency Tool

“A broadband label is a great tool to increase transparency and help consumers better understand what they are paying for with their internet plan,” said Jonathan Schwantes, senior policy counsel at Consumer Reports. “And for those lucky consumers who enjoy a choice of ISPs, a clear, uniform label will allow those consumers to comparison shop.

“For far too long ISPs have gotten away with confusing information about the internet service they provide, hidden data caps, and bills that vary by ISPs filled with a laundry list of mysterious fees buried in the fine print. The label is a critical step in shedding more light on these practices, and will help consumers better understand what has become the essential service of the early 21st century.”

“Today’s FCC vote is a welcome step forward and a win for consumers,” Joshua Stager, deputy director for broadband and competition policy for New America‘s Open Technology Institute, said. "OTI has long called for truth-in-billing for the broadband industry, which is notorious for keeping customers in the dark. Hidden fees, surprise bills, and dense contracts are familiar problems to anyone who deals with these companies.

“The broadband nutrition label cuts through this confusion by clearly disclosing the cost and terms of service in a simple, consumer-friendly format.” 

The Federal Communications Commission is proposing to close what it says are loopholes that have allowed broadband providers to evade rules that are supposed to allow tenants in Multi-Tenant Environments (MTEs) — such as apartments, condos or mobile homes — to have choice among internet services.

The agency in September asked for a new round of comments on its proceeding. FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel Friday (Jan. 21) circulated a Report and Order and Declaratory Ruling to the other commissioners that would take a number of steps in that direction.

Specifically, the Report and Order would:

1) Prohibit providers and dwelling owners (park owners in the case of mobile homes) from striking exclusive revenue-sharing agreements;

2) Requite providers to let tenants know “in plain language” if they have exclusive marketing arrangements with building owners — though importantly it does not prohibit such arrangements.

Also: FCC Seeks Input on Broadband and MTEs

The Declaratory Ruling would “clarify” that current rules prohibit sale or leaseback arrangements that have the effect of blocking alternate providers.

“With more than one-third of the U.S. population living in apartments, mobile home parks, condominiums and public housing, it’s time to crack down on practices that lock out broadband competition and consumer choice,” she said. “Consumers deserve access to a choice of providers in their buildings.  I look forward to having my colleagues join me in lifting the obstacles to competitive choice for broadband for the millions of tenants across the nation.”

It's not a lock, but the fact that she has circulated it and promoted that circulation suggests she has the votes, including at least one Republican vote, to pass it.

"The proposal by Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel to expand internet options for apartment dwellers is welcome news," said Jonathan Schwantes, senior policy counsel for Consumer Reports. "Despite exclusive arrangements between ISPs and landlords being banned for years, it's time to finally put an end to practices and close loopholes that stifle broadband competition and consumer choice, especially for those most in need. We know that when consumers have more choices for internet service, they enjoy lower prices." ■

No big surprise since it had a January 14 congressional deadline, but the FCC voted Friday to adopt rules for handing out the $14.2 billion in Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) broadband subsidies.

It gives low income households money toward monthly broadband service and a one time device subsidy.

“There are still too many households making the difficult choice between paying for gas and groceries or paying for a broadband bill so that their kids can keep up with schoolwork, so that a family member can attend a needed telehealth appointment, or so that they can work remotely," said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. "Now with these rules in place, the FCC has new tools to support these families and reach those most at risk of digital disconnection for years to come.”

Also: FCC Won't Set Minimum Service Standards for ACP

Among the rules, highlights include requiring ISPs to allow the subsidy to apply to a wide array of broadband plans--rather than simply the lowest tier of service; implementing prohibitions on credit checks or existing debt as a bar to enrollment; prohibiting upselling or downselling; disallowing restrictions on switching providers; and helping prevent bill shock--the Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) that the ACP supplants was a $50-per-month boost while the ACP is only $30 (except on tribal lands).

To help prevent that shock, the FCC is allowing EBB subsidy recipients to be automatically enrolled in ACP. ■

Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who was a player on numerous communications-related legislative issues, has died at 82 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

Reid pushed back on media consolidation, including prominently on the Charter-Time Warner Cable-Bright House Networks merger in 2016.

He also tried to block the Federal Communications Commission's 2008 decision to loosen the broadcast/newspaper cross-ownership rule.

Reid was a longtime proponent of beefing up cybersecurity.

He also famously backed the renomination of then-commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel in a fight with then Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who was blocking Rosenworcel's renomination. Reid took to the Senate floor in April 2016 to call for a vote on her nomination, which did not happen. Rosenworcel had to exit the commission before eventually being reinstated.

Reid and Rosenworcel — and cable operators — also shared concerns over then FCC chairman Tom Wheeler's proposal to "unlock" cable set-top boxes, which did not make it into the FCC rulebook because Rosenworcel ultimately did not vote for it.

Reid was also a leader in a Senate push to get the Washington Football Team (then called the Redskins), to change its name. That came at the same time that former FCC chairman Reed Hundt was encouraging agency officials to support the name change.

"During the two decades we served together in the United States Senate, and the eight years we worked together while I served as vice president, Harry met the marker for what I’ve always believed is the most important thing by which you can measure a person — their action and their word," said former Delaware Senator, VP, and now President Joe Biden. "If Harry said he would do something, he did it. If he gave you his word, you could bank on it. That’s how he got things done for the good of the country for decades."

“Harry Reid was a dear friend and colleague that I was privileged to serve with in the U.S. Senate," said National Association of Broadcasters president Gordon Smith, himself a former senator (from Oregon). "He was a committed patriot and public servant who fought hard not only for the residents of Nevada, but all Americans. He leaves behind a lasting legacy of service to his country. Sharon and I extend our deepest condolences to his family.”

"Our country has lost an honorable public servant," said Vice President Kamala Harris, also a former senator. "Harry Reid rose through the ranks in Washington, becoming Senate Majority Leader, but he never forgot his humble beginnings in Searchlight, Nevada — and he always fought for working families and the poor. Leader Reid also got things done: from expanding access to healthcare through the Affordable Care Act, to getting economic relief to families and businesses through the Recovery Act, and much more, he made a meaningful difference in people’s lives."

“America’s Public Television Stations are saddened by the passing of former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid — a talented public servant with an extraordinary life story," said Patrick Butler, president of America's Public Television Stations. “Senator Reid personified the American dream of rising from the most modest of beginnings to the heights of government power. His early experience as a boxer proved good training for the political battles he waged, and usually won, on behalf of the people of Nevada. We in public broadcasting knew him as a steadfast advocate of our work in America’s communities, and I was honored to present the Majority Leader with our Champion of Public Broadcasting award in 2011.

"Among the most consequential actions in Harry Reid's career was his decision as Majority Leader in 2013 to change Senate rules and confirm circuit and district court judicial nominees, as well as other presidential appointees, with a bare majority vote instead of 60 votes," said Fix the Courts Executive Director Gabe Roth. "Some called it a 'nuclear' option, but given Republicans' record intransigence on confirmations, it was the rational way to keep the business of the federal courts and executive branch moving, and I'm glad Reid had the courage to do it. Without it, President Biden wouldn't have been able to tie the record for judicial confirmations in a president's first year." ■

Sens. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) are introducing a bill that would give some low-power television (LPTV) stations the opportunity to apply for Class A television service status and its additional interference protections. 

LPTVs haven’t been able to apply to the Federal Communications Commission for such status since 1999.

(Editor's Note: The story initially said it would also provide limited must-carry rights, but those are confined to a small subset of rural LPTV stations and would only apply to those).

Blunt signaled in written questions to FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel after her nomination hearing that he was looking to give low-power stations a new window on Class A status, saying: “Years ago, Congress enacted a law which allowed certain low power television stations to apply for and receive enhanced rights to their spectrum licenses, giving them certainty to invest in their stations and grow their audiences in mainly small and rural markets. I’m working on legislation to open another, similar window to allow for additional low power stations to once again apply for these ‘Class A’ rights. Can I have your commitment that you will work with me and this Committee in enacting that law so that we can help expand and protect television stations in small markets and the viewers that they serve?”

Rosenworcel’s answer was a succinct “yes.”

“The primary benefits of Class A are to protect broadcast coverage area, encourage investment and secure small business financing which is not available to most LPTV facilities,” said the LPTV Broadcasters Association, which enthusiastically endorsed the bill.

"Simply stated, this bill allows LPTV stations to grow to the next level in serving the public interest with both protection of broadcast coverage area and the ability to secure crucial small business financing, the LPTV Broadcasters Association executive director Michael Lee said.

“NAB applauds the introduction of the Low Power Protection Act, which would offer some community-oriented low power television stations a long-overdue opportunity to gain important interference protections,” the National Association of Broadcasters said. “Millions of viewers across the country rely on LPTVs for local news, weather, community affairs and emergency information, particularly in rural areas and smaller markets. This legislation would ensure Americans’ access to these vital stations and provide assurance that their signals can remain on the air.” ■

The FCC is considering putting new restrictions on wireless use of C-Band spectrum, including a nationwide power reduction, as the Biden Administration works on how best to free up that spectrum for 5G without risking interference to critical aviation communications.

Wireless deployments in the band were delayed from fall given concerns by the Federal Aviation Administration, but are now scheduled to launch January 5, 2022.

That is according to FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel in written answers to questions posed by Senate Commerce chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) in advance of her confirmation to a new, five-year, term.

Also: Aviation Groups Warn of Serious Impacts From C-Band 5G Rollouts

According to a copy of those answers, Rosenworcel said that information it received* after adopting the framework for C-Band spectrum sharing suggested that the presence of C-Band operations could cause some erroneous altimeter readings.

Given that new info, she told Cantwell, the FCC is taking the report "very seriously," serious enough to open a proceeding to review the findings and whether any changes need to be made to the C-Band rules.

But she also said that, "out of an abundance of caution," the FCC, as part of ongoing discussions with the FAA, is considering a number of potential new interference mitigation strategies, including creating exclusion zones around airports and helipads, reducing power nationwide, and limiting "skyward" transmissions.

Last month, AT&T and Verizon, the biggest winners in the C-Band auction, said they would delay until January their use of the spectrum for which they paid billions of dollars at auction. That decision came after the FAA expressed its continuing interference concerns about C-Band to The Wall Street Journal and put out a bulletin advising pilots, aircraft owners, manufacturers and others on the potential impact of 5G flexible use operations in the C-Band on radio altimeters (RAs), which gauge how close a plane is to terrain.

But while the companies agreed to reduce 5G power levels, the coalition said those mitigation efforts were "inadequate and far too narrow." The coalition pitched the FCC on its own counter-proposal that "provides additional safeguards in, around, and on the approach to airports and heliports," one of those mitigation strategies the FCC is considering.

The FCC voted in 2020 to free up 300 MHz of C-Band (3.7-4.2 GHz) satellite spectrum for terrestrial 5G broadband, 280 of that to be auctioned and 20 MHz to be used as a guard band between wireless users and the incumbent satellite operators that are being relocated to the remaining upper 200 MHz to continue to deliver network programming to broadcasters and cable operators (and other) clients, and to relay video from the field to the studio.

*A report submitted by Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics (RTCA) titled "Assessment of C-Band Mobile Telecommunications Interference Impact on Low Range Radar Altimeter Operations." ■

Federal Communications Commission chair Jessica Rosenworcel made it clear to Republican lawmakers before her successful confirmation vote (68 to 31) earlier this month to a new, five-year term that she did not support efforts by “some liberal organizations” to remove conservative cable channels from their lineups or for the agency to use its license revocation power on broadcasters.

That assertion came in written answers to questions submitted after her confirmation hearing last month.

Rosenworcel was asked by at least three different Republicans about the issue of viewpoint diversity and alleged censorship of cable and broadcast.

This was how the question was posted by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.): “There have been efforts by some of our colleagues in the House of Representatives to pressure MVPDs into removing Fox News, Newsmax and other conservative channels from their lineups. There have also been calls by some liberal organizations to have the FCC revoke the licenses of broadcasters like Sinclair. Are you in favor of these calls to use the FCC to remove certain viewpoints from the airwaves?”

In an answer that would have made the late Rep. John Dingell proud, her answer was a succinct: "No."

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) asked the question this way: “Will you commit to ensuring the FCC does not factor political content or viewpoints when issuing licenses, making regulatory decisions, or approving mergers and acquisitions?”

This time, the answer was a simple “yes.”

Sen Rick Scott (R-Fla.) got right to the “C” word (censorship): “The FCC has authority over broadcast licenses. As a nominee for this bipartisan commission, do you believe the government has the authority to censor opinions?”

“No,” said Rosenworcel, adding: “FCC authority is limited by the First Amendment and Section 326 of the Communications Act.” That section says the FCC has no authority to censor speech. ■

Washington was quick to weigh in after the Senate voted 68 to 31 to confirm FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel to a new five-year term on the commission.

We congratulate chairwoman Rosenworcel on her swift confirmation by the Senate," said Michael Powell, president of NCTA-the Internet & Television Association and himself a former FCC chair. "The Commission plays an important role in expanding access to broadband, America’s opportunity infrastructure, to more U.S. citizens. We look forward to working with chairwoman Rosenworcel and her colleagues on this important mission and building on the successful policies that incent private sector investment, innovation and competition in America’s telecommunications marketplace.”

National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) president and CEO Gordon Smith:

“NAB congratulates FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel on her [Senate] confirmation to another five-year term at the Commission and her historic appointment as chair," said association president Gordon Smith, himself a former senator. "She is a dedicated public servant who has demonstrated effective leadership and expertise on telecommunications issues during her tenure at the FCC. We look forward to continuing to work with her and her fellow commissioners on ensuring a vibrant future for free and local broadcasting.”

“Great news," said USTelecom president Jonathan Spalter. "[T]he Senate has confirmed chair Rosenworcel for another term on a strong bipartisan vote. The agency needs full time and permanent leadership from someone with expertise and a major commitment to bringing technology and connectivity to all in America. It got that today....Broadband infrastructure… a new affordability program… modernized broadband maps… stopping robocall scams… universal service reform… The FCC’s connectivity agenda in 2022 couldn’t be more packed – or more important."

“As the first permanent chairwoman of the FCC, Jessica Rosenworcel will continue her leadership on key issues like the Homework Gap, connecting all Americans to broadband, spectrum policy and public safety," said Comcast chief legal officer Tom Reid. "We look forward to working with the Commission under her leadership on these and other important communications issues.”

“Ligado congratulates Jessica Rosenworcel on her confirmation today," said Valerie Green, EVP and chief legal officer. "We at Ligado are eager to continue our work with the agency under her leadership to make the most efficient use of our nation’s mid-band spectrum resources and bring 5G services to both consumers and the critical infrastructure companies that keep America running.”

"Throughout her tenure at the FCC, chairwoman Rosenworcel has demonstrated sound leadership, a keen command of critical communications issues and a firm commitment to preserving and expanding the nation’s essential communications capabilities,” said Todd Schlekeway, president of NATE: The Communications Infrastructure Contractors Association. “NATE has been pleased with chairwoman Rosenworcel’s engagement with industry leaders and her continued support of NATE’s legislative and regulatory priorities, updating broadband maps, closing the digital divide and securing the nation’s leadership in 5G deployment.”

"Chairwoman Rosenworcel’s longstanding vision, appreciation and advocacy to champion Wi-Fi and unlicensed spectrum—especially her recent support to make critical 5.9 GHz and 6 GHz spectrum available for Wi-Fi—has enabled great progress towards closing the digital divide and homework gap," said WiFi Forward. "We look forward to continuing to work with chairwoman Rosenworcel and her colleagues as they consider smart, balanced and forward-thinking spectrum policy that will drive the U.S. as a global leader in connectivity and innovation."

"Chairwoman Rosenworcel’s advocacy for midband spectrum solutions is critical to both industry-government collaboration and future commercial 5G growth for our diverse range of member organizations," said the National Spectrum Consortium. "We look forward to working with chairwoman Rosenworcel and her colleagues as they advance innovative spectrum policy."

"The Internet Innovation Alliance (IIA) congratulates Jessica Rosenworcel on her confirmation as chair of the Federal Communications Commission and applauds her commitment to an equitable, evolving broadband ecosystem," said the group. "A dedicated public servant for nearly a decade, chairwoman Rosenworcel‘s inspirational leadership and balanced decision-making merit this well-deserved honor. IIA is eager to continue working alongside chairwoman Rosenworcel in support of her goals to empower all people across America with broadband access and position the United States for global leadership in 5G, 6G and beyond."

“Jessica Rosenworcel is a proven leader who takes on big challenges with substance, vision and grace," said Chip Pickering, CEO of INCOMPAS. "A hero to parents, children and open internet advocates, Chairwoman Rosenworcel has proven to be an inclusive and thoughtful leader who leans on new ideas to move our networks into a better future. Her insistence that the E-Rate program be open to competition, transformed schools and communities around the nation."

"We congratulate Jessica Rosenworcel on her historic confirmation as chair of the Federal Communications Commission," said Information Technology Industry Council president Jason Oxman. "Her leadership could not come at a more critical time, especially as the United States makes historic investments in digital infrastructure to help close the digital divide, increase connectivity among Americans, and spur economic growth and job creation. We are looking forward to working with chair Rosenworcel and her team to advance these goals.”  

"Throughout her tenure, Chairwoman Rosenworcel has shown great interest in promoting spectrum allocation policies that benefit a wide range of wireless service providers," said Louis Peraertz, VP of policy for WISPA, which represents wireless internet service providers. "She is a formidable team builder and administrator.  We know her leadership of the Commission will help America move past the pandemic and thrive by ensuring competitive, affordable and accessible communications for all Americans, no matter where they live."

"OTI welcomes Chairwoman Rosenworcel’s reconfirmation to the FCC," said Sarah Morris, director of New America's Open Technology Institute. "She is a public interest champion with a long record of success at the agency and a demonstrated commitment to digital equity. OTI looks forward to continuing to work with the Chairwoman to close the homework gap, make broadband affordable for low-income households, catalyze competition on a local and national scale, improve broadband maps, pursue progressive spectrum policy focused on unlicensed and sharing, and reinstate strong net neutrality protections that are grounded in Title II authority to ensure that the Commission has the tools it needs to protect consumers and promote competition.”

"Today marks an important landmark in the history of the FCC,” said America's Public Television Stations President Patrick Butler, “as Commissioner Rosenworcel’s Senate confirmation, following her designation by President Biden to serve as chair, means this remarkable public servant has become the first woman to permanently chair the FCC.

“The chairwoman brings rich experience, expertise and leadership skills to the work of setting the nation’s telecommunications policies, and America’s Public Television Stations look forward to working with the Chairwoman and the Commission to advance public television’s missions of education, public safety and civic leadership."

"The Satellite Safety Alliance congratulates Jessica Rosenworcel on her historic confirmation to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)," the group said. "The Senate’s swift and bipartisan action ensures that the FCC has the leadership it needs to address the many pressing challenges ahead of it, including providing a stable satellite environment free from harmful interference at this critical moment."

“I commend today’s vote by the U.S. Senate to confirm Acting Chair of the Federal Communications Commission Jessica Rosenworcel as the first permanent female Chair of the Commission," said Sheryle Osiene-Riggs, president of the Utilities Technology Council. "Ms. Rosenworcel’s depth of legal and technical knowledge will make her the smart and experienced leader needed to tackle the many pressing issues before the Commission. “

“UTC is looking forward to working together with Chair Rosenworcel and collaborate with her to bring fast, affordable, and reliable broadband access to all Americans.”

“It is a profound pleasure to congratulate FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel on her Senate confirmation," said Parents Television and Media Council President Tim Winter. "This is an historic moment not only for her confirmation as the first female FCC chair, but also as the first ‘mom’ to hold this important regulatory leadership role. Over the many years I’ve known and worked with Jessica, she has proven herself to be a stalwart advocate for America’s children, and also for policies that help parents to be better parents. We look forward to working together with her to advance positive solutions that serve the critical needs of parents and families."

“It was a long and winding road for Jessica Rosenworcel, but she stayed the course and good sense has now finally prevailed with today’s Senate vote," said Common Cause special advisor Michael Copps, himself a former acting FCC chairman and Rosenworcel's former boss when she was on his FCC staff. "Jessica faces a daunting agenda as chair but she has the experience and dedication to make historic progress leading the FCC. Past commission mistakes must be corrected and new trails blazed to provide our country with the communications ecosystem our democracy so clearly must have."

Copps also put in a plug for confirming a third Democrat to the commission so Rosenworcel has a majority. "Needed now is a fifth commissioner, so that a full FCC can get on with its important mandate of protecting the public interest.”

That fifth commissioner seat may be empty for a while yet. The nominee is Gigi Sohn, whose vote may be held up by at least one Republican who has pledged to put a hold on it. ■

It's official. The Senate has voted to confirm Federal Communications Commission chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel to a new, five-year term on the commission, her third term but first as chair — President Joe Biden designated her chair Oct. 26 after she had been acting chair since January.

The vote was 68 to 31.

Had the Senate not voted to confirm her, Rosenworcel would have had to leave the commission at the end of the year since her current term had expired. Commissioners are allowed to stay on through the end of the next Congress.

Also: Senate Vote to Proceed in Rosenworcel Nomination

The full-Senate vote came after a cloture vote Monday night (December 6) that also saw a majority of Republicans — 27  — vote against advancing her nomination to the floor (she recieved 66 “yea” votes). A number of Republicans and two Democrats, Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), did not vote.

Rosenworcel will still need a third Democrat on the commission to tackle some of the politically divisive issues like re-regulation of broadcast and internet-service providers. Gigi Sohn has been nominated for that seat, but has had a tough time convincing Republicans to support her nomination, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) in particular, who Monday (Dec. 6), signaled he would block the nomination.

“Chairwoman Rosenworcel has served as a tireless advocate for consumer protection in today’s digital landscape,” said Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who spoke in support of her nomination before Monday's cloture vote. “Now more than ever, the FCC needs a chair who understands the importance of net neutrality and critical protections for broadband users, and I know chairwoman Rosenworcel is up for the task. She understands that broadband access is an essential utility to millions of small businesses, communities, and students, and has long partnered with me in addressing the ‘homework gap’ to ensure every student has internet connectivity to complete their homework at home. Together we worked to implement the Emergency Connectivity Fund, providing $7.17 billion in E-Rate home connectivity funding across the country, including $47.5 million for Massachusetts to date. I know that Chairwoman Rosenworcel will continue to successfully administer this program, and I believe she is the best person to lead the FCC in its important work.”

“Jessica Rosenworcel will be a dynamic, determined enforcer and advocate for all consumers and underserved Americans,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who championed the nomination of his fellow Connecticut native. “As a vigorous consumer champion with deep roots in Connecticut, her confirmation is a historic step forward for both the FCC and our state," he said. "I’ve seen firsthand Chair Rosenworcel’s commitment to ending the scourge of robocalls and closing the digital divide that plagues far too many disadvantaged communities. As funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal goes to accessible high-speed internet, the FCC will now have an affordable broadband, net neutrality, and privacy champion leading implementation. I’ve been proud to advocate for her nomination as a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, and I look forward to welcoming Chair Rosenworcel back to Connecticut as she continues her impressive work at the FCC.”

“Charter Congratulates chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel on her confirmation to lead the Federal Communications Commission," said Charter EVP, government affairs, Catherine Bohigian. "Throughout her career in public service, Chairwoman Rosenworcel has proven herself a thoughtful leader and champion on behalf of consumers on the most pressing connectivity challenges such as closing the digital divide, eliminating the homework gap, improving public safety communications, increasing unlicensed spectrum for WiFi, and encouraging innovative spectrum policies. We look forward to continuing to work together on these and other important issues that will drive American innovation and connectivity forward.”

“I want to extend my congratulations to Chairwoman Rosenworcel on her confirmation by the Senate to serve another five-year term on the FCC,“ said Republican commissioner Brendan Carr. "Under her leadership, the FCC has taken significant steps towards eliminating the digital divide, increasing support for telehealth services and enhancing the security of America’s communications networks.  I have enjoyed working with chairwoman Rosenworcel over the past 12 months on a series of initiatives that have delivered results for the American people. I look forward to continuing this good work.”

“I congratulate my colleague chairwoman Rosenworcel on her confirmation to another five year term to serve on the FCC," said commissioner Nathan Simington, also a Republican. “Chairwoman Rosenworcel has ably led the Commission for the past year, and during that time we have achieved a number of significant, bipartisan objectives in the public interest. It is my hope and expectation that we will continue this vital work together in the years to come.”

The Senate voted Monday (Dec. 6) to invoke cloture and proceed to a vote on a new, five-year, term for acting FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel.

But it was not coronation, with a number of Republicans, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, opposing her nomination. 

The vote, which required 60 yeas to close any debate and move to confirmation, was 64 to 27. 

The final confirmation vote could come as early as Tuesday. 

If she is confirmed, as expected, the President has designated her chair, the first woman to head the agency in a non-acting capacity--Mignon Clyburn was the first female acting chair.

Speaking about Rosenworcel in advance of the cloture vote Monday, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, which has principal oversight of the FCC, called Rosenworcel, urged her colleagues to vote yes, saying Rosenworcel would work on better broadband mapping and promoting telemedicine. "In selecting her, President Biden picked someone with great experience, with great knowledge of the FCC at a moment where we need tremendous leadership," said Cantwell. 

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) called Rosenworcel, also rose to endorse Rosenworcel, who he called a tireless advocate for consumers, competition and children. He also said Rosenworcel had endorsed using Title II to restore broadband regs. 

Despite the "no" votes that followed, no Republican stood to speak in opposition.

Among the Republicans voting to advance Rosenworcel's nomination were Sens. Chuck Grassley of Nebraska, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts.

Also: Senate Commerce Advances Rosenworcel Nomination

The new term would give Rosenworcel new job security--she would have to exit the FCC if not confirmed by year's end--but she still lacks a majority and that could take a while given the threat--or more like the promise--of Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) Monday (Dec. 6) to block the nomination of Gigi Sohn who would be the third Democrat on the five-member commission. ■

Acting Federal Communications Commission chairperson Jessica Rosenworcel was approved by the Senate Commerce Committee Wednesday (Dec. 1) for a new, five-year term, meaning only likely, swift full-Senate confirmation before she becomes the regulator‘s first non-acting woman chair.

The vote was not quite unanimous, with Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) voting no, as he did on several other nominations being voted as a package. Also approved at the business session was Alvaro Bedoya, to be the fifth member of the Federal Trade Commission. Johnson also voted no.

Committee chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) introduced the vote as on Rosenworcel as commissioner, leading Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) to ask whether that should not have been as chair. Cantwell pointed out that the chair post was a presidential designation, and that she had been so designated — meaning confirmation as “commissioner” was correct.

“We congratulate chairwoman Rosenworcel on her approval by the Senate Commerce Committee for another term at the FCC,” NCTA–The Internet & Television Association president and CEO Michael Powell said in a statement. “During her time at the commission, Jessica has been a champion for connecting every American to broadband and she has only heightened this focus during her time as acting chair. We encourage the full Senate to swiftly move ahead with her nomination.” 

“Charter applauds the Senate Commerce Committee on today’s vote approving the nomination of Chairwoman Rosenworcel for another term at the FCC," said the cable broadband operator in a statement. "Throughout her tenure at the FCC, Chairwoman Rosenworcel has proven herself a tireless advocate for consumers and we look forward to continuing to work together.”■

Chris Ruddy, head of conservative cable news channel Newsmax TV, said he believes Democratic Federal Communications Commission nominees Jessica Rosenworcel and Gigi Sohn are fair-minded people of integrity who deserve confirmation.

Rosenworcel is acting chair and will be chair if confirmed. Sohn would be a new addition, the third Democratic commissioner on the five-member panel, which is currently tied at 2-2. As a former top adviser to Obama-era FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, Sohn backed access to distribution channels for independent programmers, something that clearly resonates with Newsmax.

Ruddy, CEO of Newsmax Media, said he had dealt with both nominees on policy issues, from which he had drawn those conclusions about fairness and integrity.

Rosenworcel has also signaled to Congress she will be taking a fresh look at the competitive marketplace and how much access independent programmers can get, through both traditional and over-the-top channels.

“Increasingly, independently operated cable news channels like Newsmax are being sidelined in favor of a small number of mega-corporations who dominate the channel lineups, forcing upon consumers expensive and little-watched networks,” Ruddy said. “It’s bad for the public interest and dangerous for democracy.

“While I don’t always agree with the nominees on many policy matters, Newsmax fully supports the commission’s mandate to promote diversity, localism, and competition in the marketplace,” Ruddy added. “Newsmax believes both nominees are committed to that mandate and I urge the Senate to confirm the nominations of Jessica Rosenworcel and Gigi Sohn.”

Sohn also got support from another conservative cable channel and another strange bedfellow for a progressive Democrat: One America News Network‘s Charles Herring. ■

Acting FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel said Thursday (Nov. 18) that her planned refresh of the record on independent content providers' access to distribution platforms will need to include over-the-top video.

Rosenworcel weighed in on the issue at her post monthly meeting press conference in response to a query from Next TV.

Rosenworcel had agreed to the lookback after she was queried during her nomination hearing in the Senate Commerce Committee this week by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who has heard from independents about the difficulties of negotiating carriage with distribution platforms.

Also: Rosenworcel Pledges to Re-Examine Video Programming

The FCC opened a Notice of Inquiry on the subject back in 2015 under then chair Tom Wheeler, but it was shuttered without taking any action despite reports that Wheeler was working on independent program access rules.

Asked what issues, if any, she had and whether the proliferation of OTT outlets for content somewhat mitigated her concerns, she did not go into specifics but did say she was committed to opening a new proceeding on the issue.

Also: Amazon to FCC: Many OTTs Don't Want Program-Access Rights

"The FCC had a proceeding on this some years ago and the docket was closed by my predecessor," she said.

Once it is re-opened, she signaled, OTT will get its fair share of the FCC's attention. "I think that moving ahead in this environment would require us to open a new proceeding and also ask questions that reflect the moment we're in," Rosenworcel said. "As you just described where watching is not just a function of linear programing but for many households it is also using new streaming services."

Some have argued that more streaming services means more places for independent programming to find shelf space. And while in 2015 OTT was not considered a platform on par with traditional distribution channels, that has clearly changed in the past decade. But others say that the 800 pound gorillas of traditional distribution have simply been mirrored online by the Netflixes, Amazon Primes and Paramount Plusses of the world. ■

The Senate Commerce Committee vetted the renomination of acting Federal Communications Commission chair Jessica Rosenworcel for a new, five-year term Wednesday (Nov. 17) and nary was heard a discouraging word.

If confirmed, President Joe Biden has signaled he will designate her permanent chairman, the first woman to hold that post. (Mignon Clyburn was the first woman to be acting chair.)

Rosenworcel‘s warm reception was not a big surprise, as she was overwhelmingly approved for two previous FCC nominations and is a former top Hill staffer (senior counsel to the committee that was vetting her) with fans on both sides of the aisle.

Also: FCC’s Rosenworcel Pledges to Re-Examine Video Programming Marketplace

While she shared the witness table with a couple of other nominees, she drew most of the questioning.

That doesn’t mean Republicans are welcoming potential returns of media regulation or net neutrality rules, both of which Rosenworcel has supported in the past and could achieve if a third Democrat — Gigi Sohn has been nominated — is installed to form a Democratic majority. It means that given that the Democrats won the right to pick a chair, she is a known and respected quantity who is arguably more moderate than other chairs Biden could have picked.

As per COVID-19, the hearing was a mix of masked and unmasked senators in the room, as well as remote questioners. A video screen was set up in front of the witness table so they could see who was questioning them remotely.

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), chair of the committee, present and masked, said that while the Biden administration’s $65 billion investment in broadband is a start, there needs to be better broadband mapping “before we can get anything really done.”

She said the pandemic had deepened the digital divide and Rosenworcel will be a leading figure in getting broadband to all Americans.

Also: Sen. Markey Will Introduce Bill to Reclassify Broadband Under Title II

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), ranking member of the committee, present and unmasked, congratulated “our old friend” Jessica Rosenworcel, pointing to her time as a professional staffer at the committee and her two previous confirmations for FCC terms. He said he was also concerned about getting accurate coverage maps so the billions in government broadband funds would not be used to overbuild existing service. He said spectrum policy, rural subsidies and internet regulation were all issues that needed talking about.

Asked about the Biden administration's $65 billion investment in broadband, Rosenworcel said that bill is a chance for generational change if Commerce and FCC and others are operating off the same data set.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who formally introduced Rosenworcel (who hails from Connecticut), said he was delighted and honored to introduce her as the first female chair of the FCC. He called Rosenworcel an energetic and effective champion of consumers and privacy and net neutrality. He said she had an extraordinary ability to frame complex issues in ways people can understand, like coining the term “homework gap.” He called her appointment a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for implementing the $65 billion in broadband subsidies.

Rosenworcel, who appeared unmasked and in person (though distanced) told the committee it was clear that modern communications needed to reach everyone. She said the FCC was up to the task.

Actually, while the FCC is handing out billions of dollars for telehealth, low-income resident access, schools and libraries, the Biden infrastructure plan‘s tens of billions are actually being overseen by the National Telecommunications & Information Administration, though it will need better broadband maps, with the FCC‘s help, to make sure that money is going to the right places. Rosenworcel conceded at the hearing that the FCC “doesn‘t have a driving role” in handing out all of those funds.

Rosenworcel said that if confirmed and designated as chair, her guiding principles would be public safety; competition, which she said was the most effective way to foster innovation; and an “absolutely fierce commitment” to consumer protection. She also pointed to the pressing need for universal fast, affordable and reliable broadband, which are the connections needed for entertainment, telehealth, education; for breaking down barriers; and for “a fair shot” at success in the economy.

To achieve that, she said there would need to be greater coordination among government agencies, renewed vigilance over safe and secure networks, and ensuring tech leadership. She pledged to lead that charge while listening to Congress, business, and most importantly, the American people.

Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) said his only frustration with the Rosenworcel nomination was that it was done in March, something he said the strong bipartisan vote she was about to get in the committee and the Senate would demonstrate. That was seconded by Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii).

Among the highlights:

• Rosenworcel said she supported legislation to give tax breaks to media outlets to support local journalism, as well as supporting legislation restoring the minority tax certificate that gives tax breaks to companies who sell media outlets to minorities and women.

• Pressed by Wicker on when the FCC would actually produce better broadband maps, Rosenworcel pointed out that the agency had come out in August with better wireless service mapping. As to wired broadband, she pointed out that while she has long known that the FCC did not have the requisite computing power, under her predecessors — both Republican and Democrat — she did not herself have the power to address that deficit. 

Rosenworcel said she did know that, and although the FCC last week took an important step by picking a key “broadband serviceable location fabric” technology provider, due to the government contracting process all of the losing applicants were challenging that decision, which would delay matters. She said the best time to produce better broadband maps would have been five years ago, with the second best time being now. ■

Acting Federal Communications Commission chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has pledged to re-examine the marketplace for video programming and take “appropriate action.”

She made that promise during her nomination hearing in the Senate Commerce Committee Wednesday (Nov. 17).

During her questioning, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said that from her work at the Judiciary Committee (she chairs the antitrust subcommittee), she had heard concerns from independent programming networks “regarding the negotiating tactics of some of the video distributors.” Independents have long complained that they lack the leverage to get crucial carriage on large distributors.

The senator asked if Rosenworcel would work with Klobuchar and her colleagues “to re-examine these practices and take appropriate action to protect the public interest.”

Rosenworcel said that if confirmed, she would do so.

Rosneworcel has long been concerned about program-access issues. Back in 2015, when the FCC sought input on that issue, she said: “Time and again we hear that independent programmers face a daunting challenge securing ‘real estate’ on cable and satellite systems. These systems still dominate our video experiences — and securing carriage can be a prerequisite to build the viewership that supports investment in more diverse content.”

If she is confirmed, designated chairman and gets the necessary Democratic majority, Rosenworcel will have both the tools and the impetus to follow through on that re-examination. ■

The Senate Commerce Committee has scheduled a Nov. 17 nomination hearing for acting chair Jessica Rosenworcel. She must be vetted and voted in before the end of the year or she would have to leave the commission since her term has already expired.

But not on that hearing schedule is President Biden's other nominee to the FCC, Gigi Sohn. Sohn's installation on the committee is needed to give the Democrats the three-commissioner majority Biden earned by winning the presidency but there was talk in Washington this week that she might get a separate hearing.

While Rosenworcel is expected to be confirmed with the support of some Republicans as well as Democrats, Sohn's road to confirmation appears rougher.

Also: Hill Hails Biden Nominations for Key Communications Posts

Republicans have registered their concern about Sohn, a former cheerleader for network neutrality rules, though Rosenworcel was also a big proponent of them.

The Wall Street Journal's editorial page this week came out in opposition to Sohn.

Also scheduled for the Nov. 17 hearing is the nomination of Alvaro Bedoya to the Federal Trade Commission. Bedoya‘s confirmation is also needed to give the FTC its Democratic majority.

Bedoya is the founding director of the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law as well as a visiting law professor. His resume also includes chief counsel to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law.

As it signaled earlier this week, the White House has sent the nominations of acting FCC chairperson Jessica Rosenworcel and Gigi Sohn for seats on the FCC--Rosenworcel as chair--to the Senate.

President Biden had signaled his intention to nominate them--a renomination in the case of Rosenworcel--but the White House still had to make it official.

The Senate will have to vote, and hold a confirmation hearing for Sohn, before they can be installed in their posts and the FCC have a full complement of five commissioners and a Democratic majority.

The nomination of Alan Davidson to be head of the National Telecommunications & Information Administration was also submitted for vetting and a confirmation vote.

The confirmation hearings will be held in the Senate Commerce Committee. If everything goes as planned, the committee will refer them favorably to the full Senate which will vote to approve, which is expected.

If not, Rosenworcel would have to leave by the end of the year since her current five-year term has expired.

Democrats on Capitol Hill led the cheering from that vantage Tuesday (Oct. 26) following President Joe Biden's announcement that he was renominating acting FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel as commissioner and designating her permanent chair, adding Gigi Sohn for the empty FCC seat and to be the third Democratic commissioner, as well as his decision to nominate Alan Davidson to head the National Telecommunications & Information Administration.

“Today’s announcement by the White House of its slate of nominees for the Federal Communications Commission and National Telecommunications and Information Administration comes at just the right time, with more work to do to improve our broadband deployment, spectrum management, and consumer protections," said Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), chair of the Senate Commerce Committee. "I am glad to see Jessica Rosenworcel nominated to be the chair of the FCC, and I look forward to swiftly considering these nominations before the end of the year.”

“Jessica Rosenworcel is a star — supremely expert and experienced, steadfast and committed as an advocate for consumers and competitors," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a key member of the Senate Commerce Committee, where Rosenworcel once worked as a top staffer. "Having worked with her over many years, I know first-hand her energetic dedication to cracking down on robocalls and other abuses, and expanding broadband access. She knows better than anyone else the vital role the Commission plays in protecting consumers and closing the digital divide by connecting Americans to essential services. I am especially proud of her deep Connecticut roots as a native of West Hartford and graduate of Wesleyan University. I look forward to working with soon-to-be chair Rosenworcel as she continues her bold leadership of the FCC.”

Blumenthal was among the two dozen senators who had sent a letter to the president calling on him to name Rosenworcel permanent chair.

Of Sohn, Blumenthal said: "I also look forward to working with Gigi Sohn, whose decades of experience and commitment to privacy, competition, and access will greatly benefit the FCC and consumers across the country.”

Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), formerly chair of the House Telecommunications Subcommittee, had high praise for all the nominees.

“Today President Biden announced historic telecom nominations, including Jessica Rosenworcel as the first woman to serve as permanent chair of the FCC and Gigi Sohn as the first openly LGBTIQ+ commissioner of the FCC," she said. "Rosenworcel and Sohn are brilliant champions for innovation, public safety, national security, universal broadband, net neutrality, and social justice.”

Eshoo was one of over two dozen House members who had urged Rosenworcel be named permanent chair.

“I also applaud the President for naming Alan Davidson as Director of NTIA, and I look forward to continue working together in his new capacity. Bravo to all of today’s nominees," she said, calling for quick Senate confirmation.

Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), joined the applause, or perhaps led it alongside Sen. Cantwell since he is chairman of the House Energy & Commerce Committee, which along with Senate Commerce has principal jurisdiction over the FCC and NTIA.

“I commend President Biden for nominating these outstanding leaders for the FCC and NTIA,“ he said. “With these selections, the FCC will be fully equipped to reinstate Title II oversight and net neutrality for broadband providers, continue its work to close the digital divide, and ensure broadband is affordable for all. Today’s announcement will also ensure leadership is in place at the NTIA for the important issues that agency faces, including spectrum management and implementation of the historic broadband infrastructure investment included in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.“

He called Rosenworcel an exceptional choice and a consummate public servant, and Sohn a devoted public advocate whose career “has centered on ensuring that the public interest is at the core of the FCC’s thinking. Together, and with current commissioner Geoffrey Starks, they will make an excellent team.”  

Of Davidson, Pallone said: “[His] experience and expertise with telecommunications and technology issues will serve him well as the NTIA moves forward with critical programs passed by Congress.”

President Joe Biden has announced his intention to renominate acting Federal Communications Commission chair Jessica Rosenworcel as a member and chair of the agency, and to add Gigi Sohn as the third commissioner. 

Sohn’s appointment is a breakthrough nomination as the first LGBTIQ+ member of that agency.

Also Read: D.C. Weighs In on Biden FCC Picks

“From fighting to protect an open internet, to ensuring broadband access for students caught in the Homework Gap through the FCC’s Emergency Connectivity Fund, to making sure that households struggling to afford internet service stay connected through the Emergency Broadband Benefit program, she has been a champion for connectivity for all,” the White House said of Rosenworcel. “She is a leader in spectrum policy, developing new ways to support wireless services from WiFi to video and the Internet of Things. She has fought to combat illegal robocalls and enhance consumer protections in our telecommunications policies.”

While Mignon Clyburn was the first woman to head the FCC as acting chair, Rosenworcel's office pointed out the current acting chair is the first woman named to the permanent chair post in the commission's history as well.

"I am deeply humbled to be designated as Chair of the Federal Communications Commission by President Biden," said Rosenworcel in a statement. "It is an honor to work with my colleagues on the Commission and the agency’s talented staff to ensure that no matter who you are or where you live, everyone has the connections they need to live, work, and learn in the digital age,” said Rosenworcel.  “I also want to congratulate Gigi Sohn on her nomination to serve as a Commissioner at the agency and Alan Davidson on his nomination to serve as Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.”

Sohn was hailed by the White House as a defender of “fundamental competition and innovation policies that have made broadband Internet access more ubiquitous, competitive, affordable, open, and protective of user privacy.”

The White House also pointed out that if she is confirmed, as she is expected to be “the first openly LGBTIQ+ commissioner in the history of the FCC.”

From 2013 to 2016, Sohn was counselor to former FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, where she evangelized for network neutrality rules based on Title II of the Telecommunications Act, classifying them as telecommunications services subject to regulation.

Before joining the FCC, Sohn was co-founder and CEO of Public Knowledge. She was also executive director of the Media Access Project.

“Chair Jessica Rosenworcel and commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Gigi Sohn will create an FCC ‘dream team’ that can implement a progressive telecommunications policy agenda for the coming decades,” said Andrew Jay Schwartzman, senior counselor, Benton Institute for Broadband & Society and a former colleague of Sohn's at Media Access Project. “As Gigi’s colleague for a decade, I may be accused of being biased, but that proximity also gives me confidence that the team of Chair Rosenworcel and Commissioners Starks and Sohn are likely to make major advances in promoting widespread and affordable wireless and wireline broadband deployment, media diversity and an open internet … Jessica has carefully and successfully met the challenge of managing a divided FCC over the last nine months [and] Gigi will be able jump right into the job, and the Senate should confirm her right away,” he said.

The latest buzz inside Washington, D.C. — based on a new report from Capitol Hill paper Politico — is that President Joe Biden will name acting Federal Communications Commission chair Jessica Rosenworcel as permanent chair, and tap former top FCC counselor and Public Knowledge head Gigi Sohn to fill the third seat on the agency.

The progressive Sohn has been part of the conversation over who would fill the third seat, or be named permanent chair, particularly given President Biden's decision to name progressive Lina Khan as chair of the Federal Trade Commission over the more-centrist acting chair Rebecca Kelly Slaughter.

Also: D.C. On Lookout for Nominations

Sohn would certainly be a pick to please progressives while many on the Hill would cheer Rosenworcel's installation as the permanent — at least for this administration — FCC chair. But while Sohn has been an acolyte for net net neutrality rules that classified internet service providers as telecoms, before that, when then-FCC chairman Julius Genachowski offered a compromise proposal, she was willing to work with other stakeholders to find a way forward on the issue as head of Public Knowledge.

Former FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, whose argument that closing the digital divide is the rural electrification issue of this century, is said to continue to have influence on Biden communications policy and is definitely in Sohn‘s corner.

Also: Unions Endorse Rosenworcel for FCC Chair

Rosenworcel will have to leave by the end of the year if not renominated and confirmed to her commission seat since her term has already expired —commissioners are allowed to stay on until the end of the next Congress after the expiration of their term.

Rosenworcel opposed loosening broadcast ownership restrictions and eliminating network neutrality rules under former chairman Ajit Pai, and would almost certainly have the two more votes she needs to restore those regulations. Current Democratic commissioner Geoffrey Starks supports net neutrality rules and Sohn stumped for them as chief counselor to Wheeler, whose FCC imposed the rules against blocking, throttling and paid prioritization.

Rosenworcel has been competing with Charles R. Denny, acting FCC chairman from Feb. 26, 1946, to Dec. 4, 1946, for the longest tenure as acting chair. Rosenworcel was named acting chair on Jan. 21, 2021.

The hold-up on Biden naming a permanent chair has apparently stemmed from a number of factors, including the early endorsement of Starks by the Congressional Black Caucus, whose leading member, Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), was instrumental in Biden's election; the push by progressives for a more activist chair; and the apparent pushback on Rosenworcel by some former top FCC Dems.

If the president did not finally act and nominate candidates that could be confirmed without drama, there was the prospect of a three-person commission starting in January, majority Republican, with lone Democrat Starks as acting chair but unable to do anything the Republicans did not agree with.

D.C. insiders were on the lookout for FCC nominations Friday after Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) reportedly said Tuesday (Oct. 19) that she was expecting them to come from the White House this week.

Acting FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel has to leave the commission by the end of the year unless she is re-nominated and confirmed and there is an empty Democratic seat that needs filling if the Democrats want to start exercising their majority.

Also: Music, Education Groups Urge Biden To Make Rosenworcel FCC Chair

Given the short time frame left in this Congress for the confirmation process and the fact that if Rosenworcel is not named chair she could decide to exit regardless, prospects for her getting the nod as chair were looking up. For one thing, she would not need a nomination hearing since she has already been fully vetted.

One former top FCC official said he thought Rosenworcel would make it after all, saying that some of the more progressive candidates being proposed had not panned out.

Also: Senators Push Biden for Jessica Rosenworcel as Permanent Chair

If the White House does not move quickly, there is the prospect of a three-person commission starting in January, majority Republican, with lone Democrat Geoffrey Starks as acting chair but unable to do anything the Republicans did not agree with.

The hold-up on President Biden naming a chair apparently stems from a number of factors, including the early endorsement of Starks by the Congressional Black Caucus, whose leading member, James Clyburn (D-S.C.), was instrumental in Biden's election; the push by progressives for a more activist chair in the mold of FTC chair Lina Khan; and the apparent pushback on Rosenworcel by some former top FCC Democrats.

A host of groups have been pressing President Joe Biden to finally name a chair of the Federal Communications Commission, specifically to take the acting from in front of the title of Jessica Rosenworcel, currently heading up the agency on a temporary basis.

It is not unusual for there to be an acting chair during the changeover in administrations, but Rosenworcel‘s almost nine months is pushing the outside of the envelope in terms of precedent for acting chair tenures.

Most recent was a letter from music groups Artist Rights Alliance, MusicAnswers and the Songwriters Guild of America, which were singing her praises.

Also Read: Senators Push Biden for Permanent FCC Chair

They asked the President to ”quickly nominate acting chair Jessica Rosenworcel to a full term leading the Federal Communications Commission.“

They cited Rosenworcel’s progressive positions on media consolidation, boosting competition in the tech and telecom spaces and her ”pro-creator“ positions.

“Acting chair Rosenworcel clearly sees the fast-moving and cross-cutting nature of modern media markets, and we believe she will effectively lead the commission to consider the unique equities of music creators when evaluating competition, consolidation, and other marketplace issues,” they wrote.

While they said they recognized there were a number of able candidates, they said the risk of continued delay and the possibility of a “a less-tested and less readily confirmable candidate,” was not worth taking.

Rosenworcel has already been vetted and nominated multiple times, but unless she is re-nominated for a new term, preferably as chairman the groups say, she will have to exit at year's end since her current term has expired.

“In these polarized times where the Administration has been forced to withdraw highly-qualified candidates for other agencies, acting chair Rosenworcel’s clear path to confirmation is an overwhelmingly important factor,” the groups said.

The groups also pointed out that 30 House Democratic congresswomen have noted that the FCC has never had a Senate-confirmed female chair. The FCC‘s first female acting chair was Mignon Clyburn, who was also in that post for months due to a hold on the nomination of eventual chair Tom Wheeler.

Among groups also sending letters to the President over the past few days backing Rosenworcel were a host of education and library groups — from the American Library Association and National Education Association to the national associations representing principals, superintendents, teachers and schools.

All those are big backers of Rosenworcel as a key ally in support of the FCC's E-Rate subsidy program, which funds advanced telecommunications to schools and libraries, and of advancing ed tech.

Closing the homework gap, which has gained new impetus during COVID-19, has been a Rosenworcel mantra for as long as she has been on the commission.

Called a Friend of Education

Saying Rosenworcel has been a steadfast and trusted friend to the educational community, the groups urged the president “to retain this tremendous public servant by nominating her to another term at the commission and designating her as chair, thereby formalizing a role that she has executed brilliantly for the past several months.”

It is unclear to many inside the Beltway why the President has yet to nominate a non-acting chair — and third Democrat — given issues like net neutrality and media ownership regulation that the FCC is unlikely to tackle before that happens.

Washington watchers remain a bit perplexed by the ongoing lack of a permanent chair.

Initial delays were thought to involve a decision between Rosenworcel and current commissioner Geoffrey Starks. Starks had the backing of the Congressional Black Caucus, whose leading figure, Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), helped elect Biden with his key endorsement in South Carolina’s Democratic primary. (Clyburn is the father of former acting FCC chair Mignon Clyburn).

But another name for chair has also been talked about inside the Beltway recently: Catherine Sandoval, former FCC staffer and currently a member of the California Public Utilities Commission, the first Hispanic female in that post. She would also be the first Hispanic FCC chair if the president chose her, but would need a confirmation hearing and Senate vote, which could mean no full commission until 2022.

The FCC has launched its latest auction (110) of midband spectrum, generally considered the sweet spot for 5G due to its propagation characteristics.

The FCC is auctioning flexible licenses for 100 MHz of contiguous spectrum in the 3.45 GHz band.

Acting FCC Chairman Jessica Rosenworcel had argued during the last administration that the FCC was too focused on high-band spectrum and not enough on midband.

“These airwaves are a critical part of unlocking the 5G promise everywhere in the country," Rosenworcel said.

Also Read: FCC Opens 3.45 GHz Band for Flexible Use

Even if Rosenworcel hadn't been focused on midband, she was under orders to launch the auction.

Congress mandated in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020 that the FCC come up with a system of competitive bidding by year's end for the 100 MHz of spectrum the Defense Department identified for sharing in the band. It set a December 2021 deadline for the auction.

Auction winners will be sharing the band with incumbent federal users, which must be protected from interference.

Back in March, the FCC voted unanimously on how to open up the swath of high-value midband spectrum in the 3.45 GHz band--currently used by DOD for key radar applications--for commercial wireless broadband (5G) and, separately, approved proposed applications and bidding processes for the auction.

The FCC is auctioning the 100 MHz spectrum in 10 MHz spectrum blocks — as commissioner Geoffrey Starks had advocated — with a 40 MHz limit on how much any one bidder can acquire in a single area.

The FCC is providing a $25 million bidding credit for small businesses and a $10 million credit for rural providers.