The FCC announced a new public notice today probing the lack of broadband competition in multiple tenant environments (MTEs), such as apartment buildings and condominium complexes, where an estimated 30% of Americans live.

“Removing monopoly roadblocks in apartment and condo buildings will help bring faster broadband speeds, lower prices and more competition to over 100 million Americans. We applaud the FCC and Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel for launching this import public inquiry and encourage them to move quickly to help families in MTEs that are trapped in monopoly zones," INCOMPAS CEO Chip Pickering said.

“President Biden and the White House made broadband central to their broader competition goals, which was welcome news to families and small businesses who pay too much for poor, slow service," he added. "Competition builds the future, and broadband customers are ready for faster, more affordable choices.”

When faced with the COVID-19 pandemic, telecom service providers rose to the occasion, delivering the solutions that kept us connected. It's no understatement to say that the past 18 months have forever changed the way we do business, shop, learn and communicate. As we move forward, challenges still persist, but there are tremendous opportunities for service providers to expand their business as the nation moves toward universal access to broadband.

During this month’s Member Spotlight webinar, taking place on September 22 at 2 p.m. ET, Patrick Elliott, vice president of Marketing at Rev.io, will share insights about this new environment and offer strategies on how the service provider community can set the stage for their success by:

The House Homeland Security Committee’s Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Innovation Subcommittee held a hearing last week to discuss forthcoming mandatory cyber incident reporting legislation. The legislation, which is likely to be introduced by Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), Ranking Member John Katko (R-N.Y.) and Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), would require critical infrastructure operators to report cyber incidents to the Department of Homeland Security.

The hearing sought feedback from industry stakeholders on the legislation and included witnesses from cybersecurity firm Mandiant, as well as officials from key critical infrastructure sector associations, including the Bank Policy Institute, the Information Technology Industrial Council and USTelecom. This hearing comes after an uptick in cyber and ransomware attacks on major critical infrastructure companies, including energy firm Colonial Pipeline and meat producer JBS, and increased pressure to require companies to share incidents with the federal government.

The third report and order establishing a process for voice service providers to file a request for review to the FCC of a token revocation decision of the private STIR/SHAKEN Governance Authority was published in the Federal Register on Aug. 31, 2021. The order is effective Sept. 30, 2021.