Pennsylvania was not included, but attorneys general from ten states have filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block the Sprint T-Mobile merger on the grounds that it will stifle competition in the wireless market and consequently cause increased prices and negatively impact service quality. New York and California are leading the charge.

It was all about rural broadband in the state capital this week, starting with Monday’s unveiling of the Center for Rural Pennsylvania study on BB availability throughout the Commonwealth. The report was highly critical of the FCC’s attempts to accurately map where BB has been deployed with study author Sascha Meinrath saying that “there are […]

The House Consumer Affairs Committee will continue its impressive level of activity in the 2019-20 session with next Tuesday’s committee meeting addressing four bills including: House Bill 1511 which establishes a 60-day shot clock on the PUC when considering uncontested telco mergers, and House Resolution 250 which urges Congress to grant the FCC additional authority […]

Mostly good news this week for wanna-be partners T-Mobile and Sprint whose merger application was approved in a 3-2 vote at the PA PUC, but may be facing additional scrutiny at the U.S. Department of Justice. The majority PUC vote was in support of a Motion from Commissioner Andrew Place which noted the “affirmative public […]

With the start of the new fiscal year on the horizon, several budget bills of interest to the regulated telco industry are poised for consideration. House Bill 1374 contains the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission’s FY 2019-20 appropriation of $75,533,000, House Bill 1370 sets funding at $6,025,000 for the Office of Consumer Advocate and House Bill […]

A little deck shuffling this week by Senate Republican leadership has replaced Senator Wayne Langerholc as Chair of the Senate Communications and Technology Committee with freshman Senator Kristin Phillips-Hill. The latter was formerly co-chair of the House Broadband Caucus during her tenure there, and she has formed a bicameral caucus since joining the Senate. The […]

Governor Tom Wolf provided opening remarks at Wednesday’s Pennsylvania Priorities Summit in State College which featured several panels focused on rural broadband deployment in the state. Wolf was touting his Restore PA plan which proposes to monetize a gas severance tax and utilize the proceeds for a variety of infrastructure projects, including broadband. Not all […]

The White House has politely declined the request of House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) to produce communications between the President and his advisers regarding the merger of AT&T and Time Warner according to The Hill. Nadler is attempting to determine whether the President tried to influence the Justice Department in any manner to […]

At its Public Meeting yesterday, the PUC unanimously approved the application of Tri-Co Connections to be designated as an Eligible Telecommunications Carrier; allowing the rural electric cooperative to receive federal USF funding. In a 4-0 vote, (Chairman Brown recusing herself since her brother works for Frontier), the Commission approved the Joint Petition of Frontier Communications […]