Today, Public Knowledge joined 15 other public interest, rural, tribal, and consumer advocacy groups in a letter urging Congress to request the Federal Communications Commission extend the 2.5 GHz wireless broadband application deadline for American Indian tribes.

Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld will testify before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation Wednesday, January 22 at 10:00 a.m. His testimony in the hearing on “The 5G Workforce and Obstacles To Broadband Deployment” will urge Congress to balance the wireless industry’s goals with the public interest to maintain America’s wireless leadership while equally distributing the benefits of 5G to all Americans. 

Today, Representative Anna Eshoo (D-CA) introduced the TRUE Fees Act to ensure that pay TV, cellular service, and broadband providers include “below-the-line” fee items in their advertised price for service.

Today, the Federal Communications Commission voted to publish an annual report on the state of mobile wireless competition. The agency claims that the metrics assessed in the report indicate that there is “effective competition” in the marketplace for mobile wireless services. Public Knowledge disagrees with the report’s conclusion.

Today, the Federal Communications Commission approved a controversial Order deregulating incumbent pricing power in the business data services (“BDS”) market. BDS are high-capacity broadband connections purchased by businesses of all sizes as well as schools, libraries, and government agencies. The Order will permit incumbent telephone carriers to raise prices on business broadband customers across most of the United States.

Today, the Federal Communications Commission announced a consent decree settling an enforcement action against Straight Path Wireless. The settlement requires a payment of $100 million and returns these valuable licenses to the FCC for use for 5G services.

Today, the Federal Communications Commission voted to open up substantial amounts of spectrum for unlicensed use, including Wi-Fi and next-generation wireless technologies such as 5G. Public Knowledge commends the FCC for working to make sure that our future wireless networks reflect the values of universal access, competition, consumer protection and public safety.

Today, T-Mobile announced a plan to exempt certain services from metering on its wireless plans. This follows its similar program for music services.

Today, Public Knowledge launched a petition to support the FCC’s proposal to strengthen its location accuracy requirements for wireless calls to 911.

Contact: Harold Feld
             202-861-0020
             hfeld@publicknowledge.org

             Sherwin Siy
             202-861-0020
             ssiy@publicknowledge.org

On August 11, 2011, Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), anticipating protests and demonstrations in its stations, shut down access to cellular communications, disrupted mobile phone and data service to a massive number of consumers for up to four hours.

Today, Public Knowledge, along with a coalition of other public interest organizations, listed below, urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to immediately find that BART violated federal law and to clarify that local government agencies may not interfere with access to mobile phone networks.