FCC Commissioners Say Agency Is Recovering From Heated Fight Over Net Neutrality

LAS VEGAS -- Relations among FCC members remain the same as they were before the highly charged net neutrality debate resulting in last month’s vote overturning the 2015 net neutrality rules, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn told us at CES Tuesday. Clyburn joined Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Brendan Carr on a CES panel Tuesday, amid tight security. Meanwhile, preoccupying CES Wednesday was a blackout that struck the Las Vegas Convention Center's Central Hall and kept that portion of the show in total darkness for several hours. Later in the day the blackout was blamed on the torrential rains that poured down on Las Vegas Tuesday.

Attendees had to pass through a metal detector to enter the room where the FCC commissioners spoke and police standing guard. Chairman Ajit Pai canceled an appearance at the show. Industry and FCC officials noted at the conference that he decided not to attend because of security concerns; the agency declined to comment. Wednesday, there was a power failure on the convention site, leading to other, non-security hurdles.

“I really don’t think that much has changed between us,” Clyburn said of her colleagues. “Whatever you see in terms of what has been said is what has been existing. I feel very strongly about my principles.” The net neutrality debate revealed the deep split on the commission, she said. “We just fundamentally disagree on the direction we should head,” she said: The net neutrality proceeding was “a very appropriate one to show the world how differently we view things, how different we are in terms of our approaches to regulation.”

The public's concern about the rules overturn is “obvious,” Clyburn said. But security threats to the FCC aren’t new and she herself received threats in the past, she said. “It’s more heightened,” she said. “People feel very strongly about some of these issues.” Some of the reaction has been “uncomfortable and outside of the boundaries,” Clyburn said. “This is nothing new for the FCC. It’s nothing new for our society.”

Some of Clyburn’s supporters told us they felt she wasn’t treated with respect by some at the agency because of her vehement, at times emotional, objections to the net neutrality vote. “I’m not going to sit here and say that I was not personally impacted by that,” she said. “The position I took, and what I feel strongly about … all of that is more important than any type of momentary discomfort that I might have felt.”

Carr's Comments

Carr said in an interview he hopes the FCC’s eighth floor has recovered from the net neutrality fight, which culminated Dec. 14 in the 3-2 vote to undo Title II net neutrality regulation (see 1712140039). “Hopefully, we come into the building and look to see where we can find common ground,” he said. “That’s the approach I take.”

Some in Washington have “taken the rhetoric too far,” Carr said. “There are people that know the issue, that know the nuances of the issue and are instead are intentionally fanning the false flames.” Some on the political left believe they have to show “they are part of the resistance,” he said. “Okay, I understand the political realities of today. But I think you can maintain your position without crossing the line” and “providing cover” for racist attacks and death threats against commissioners, he said.

The FCC is keeping up with 5G despite complications, Carr told us. Officials said they can hold no major spectrum auctions until Congress approves legislative language that would let auction deposits be sent directly to the Treasury Department (see 1710240065). That means the regulator hasn't set an auction date for the high-frequency bands considered a building block for 5G.

“I don’t think we’re behind at this point,” Carr said. “We’ve been doing a lot of work building spectrum into that pipeline. I think you’ll see us start to turn to finding out where those spigots are going to be where we can unleash that spectrum back into the marketplace.” The questions about FCC auction authority have been a concern, Carr said. “I don’t think that’s at a point yet where it has pinched us in terms of holding us back from any particular spectrum auction,” he said. “There’s still time to fix it. … We’re still in good shape.”

Carr said he has been very focused on wireless infrastructure Pai designated him as the lead commissioner on those issues in October (see 1710260038). “I’ve been spending a lot my time at the building continuing to get into the record, continuing to get my head around … what we should be doing,” he said. “I’m very hopeful and very confident that we are going to enact some streamlining reforms that are going to ensure that we maintain our leadership and that we can see that massive deployment of millions of new small cells happen on a timely basis in the U.S.”

Coming Challenges

During the panel, O’Rielly said the net neutrality order still must be digested at the Office of Management and Budget “for the purposes of the transparency rule and that will take a little bit of time,” probably “a couple of months,” then it will be posted in the Federal Register. "If I read the newspapers correctly, there will be some votes in the Congress to look at the appropriateness of our actions, as the law allows,” he said. “Then we'll see where it goes after that into the court process." Based on history, court review probably will take at least a year, he said.

The 2015 rules are still being challenged at the Supreme Court and the December order could end up there as well, O’Rielly said. “In the meantime, the commission will huddle on the rest of its work.”

"It should come as no surprise that I was on the other side of the debate when it comes to what I call the 'Destroying Internet Freedom Order,'" Clyburn said on the panel. “At the end of the day, we [all] want what’s best for this country,” she said. “We see the world differently. … Sausage making is not pretty, nor is it easy.”

Carr said he's excited about the future of the internet due to the vote and Title II regulation “wasn’t working.” Commissioners “are very far apart on this particular issue and that’s OK,” he said. Carr said Clyburn’s record on the FCC shows commissioners can disagree sharply on one item and then come together to work on others.

O’Rielly said he would never tell Congress what it should do, but a rewrite of the Communications Act or pieces of the act “would be incredibly helpful” to the FCC. “I appreciate clarity,” he said. “It makes our job easier.” It would be a “heavy lift” for Congress to complete a rewrite this year, said O’Rielly, a longtime Senate staffer. “That’s their business.”

CES Notebook

CTA initially downplayed the impact of the blackout Wednesday in the LVCC’s Central Hall that forced a midday evacuation from the area where the largest CES exhibiting companies are located. As CES and LVCC authorities worked to fix the “isolated power outage,” attendees were urged to “visit our exhibitors in South Hall and North Hall” or “get outside on this beautiful Las Vegas day and check out Central and South Plaza,” CTA tweeted at 11:49 a.m. PST, about 45 minutes after Central Hall went dark. One Twitter user said attendees weren’t being allowed into South Hall, either, though two hours into the blackout, we observed normal activities in North Hall. Other parts of the show did go on as usual, with panels and other events being held in parts of the building that only had brief power outages even as announcements were made during panels with updates in the outage. LVCC authorities made continuous public-address announcements throughout the hall in the first 35 minutes of the blackout. The announcements urged calm and caution in the dark, but a common complaint was that many of the announcements were inaudible. Other activities relocated elsewhere, including on the convention center grounds but outside the building. Security guards told us the power would be brought back up in stages, and a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officer told us at around 1:30 p.m. PST that power had been restored throughout the facility. A half-hour earlier, CTA sent out notifications that it had been "informed by Nevada Power that the outage has been addressed and they’re in the process of restoring power. We will continue to restrict access until full power has been restored." The blackout surged to become the top-trending item on Twitter Wednesday afternoon, with many directing snide remarks at CES management. “Have you tried unplugging it and plugging it back in again?” tweeted ReverieSleep. With voice-recognition products so prevalent at CES this year, some Twitter reactions invoked the name of Amazon Alexa. “Someone told Alexa to turn off the lights,” tweeted Mrnono2.The irony of Central Hall going dark on Day 2 of CES wasn’t lost on some Twitter users. "“LOL the biggest electronic showcase in the world just went blank cause there was no electricity," tweeted Zaeem_m. Other Twitter users reported seeing several exhibitors trying to make the best of a bad situation. A violinist was observed playing at the Intel booth to soothe the crowd when few in Central Hall knew for sure what was going on, said one. A statement released on the "limited power outage" at 2:10 pm PST jointly by CTA, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and Nevada utilities pinpointed the blackout as striking Central Hall and the South Hall "bridge meeting rooms" at 11:15 a.m. PST. "Power in the South Hall was restored within minutes, and power has now been fully restored to all areas," said the statement. "A preliminary assessment indicates that condensation from heavy rainfall caused a flashover on one of the facility's transformers." Though Las Vegas had clear skies Wednesday, storms dumped more than 1.3 inches of rain on the city Tuesday, causing street flooding and massive traffic delays.

The first 5G smartphones will hit store shelves in early 2019, Qualcomm President Cristiano Amon said Wednesday during a keynote panel on mobility. “We want to start the transition to 5G.” Since much of the computing in 5G takes place in the cloud rather than on the device, 5G phones will need less memory, which lowers production costs, he said. Amon predicted a fast transition from 4G to 5G, with deployment in countries beyond the U.S. “The scale is going to be enormous,” he said. While 5G will take many forms, Verizon’s initial focus will be on residential broadband in up to five markets using millimeter wave spectrum, said Chief Technology Officer Hans Vestberg. Verizon has been surprised at how well the high-frequency spectrum works, with throughput of more than 1 GBs at up to 2,000 feet, he said. Getting standards set is difficult, he said. “Historically, standardization has been on the radio; now it has to include also the core parts of the network,” Vestberg said. “It’s a much bigger thing.” Every technology is more complicated than the past one, he said. Asked if Verizon is in a race to deploy 5G with AT&T, Vestberg said: “We will be first. That is most important.” China likely will have 5G deployments in 2020, said Qi Lu, vice chairman of Chinese web services company Baidu. “This year will be a lot of trials, experimentation” and some IoT tests, he said. Baidu also is working with many municipal governments in China on new vehicle-to-everything infrastructure. “Overall, the future urban areas will be highly efficient,” he said. The Chinese megacity of Shenzhen is being designed from the ground up as a technology city, Lu said. “The intent is to lead the future of urban design.” Artificial intelligence in a mobile world depends on 5G, Lu said. “Mobility is the fundamental essence of intelligence,” Lu said. That’s why animals have brains and trees don’t, he said. “If you need to move, you must memorize and generalize."

Accelerated innovation in connected devices must be paired with security preparations, said experts on a CES panel Tuesday on cybersecurity. “Almost everything at this conference is trying to find some way to get someone to talk to someone else using connected devices,” said Bryson Bort, founder of security platform Scythe. “Who is going to own the data on connected devices?” he asked, urging developers to consider the types of liabilities in connected cars for data both inside and outside of vehicles. “Incident response plans need to be developed at the outset of production,” Bort said. “At some level, the computer is driving the car,” agreed Peter Brown, Wind River chief automotive architect. Cybersecurity needs to be a priority in the entire supply chain, not an afterthought, he said: “But it comes down to cost.” Consumers seem to want security equipped in products from the outset, and for many devices that's not how it works, he said. The key is building adaptive security solutions, and ensuring interoperability on a wide platform of networks and devices, said Steer Tech CEO and founder Anuja Sonalker. “Data is an asset. We need to understand the risks associated with data and build security around that.”

TV in 2020 will mean bigger sets, with better resolution allowing more realistic pictures, with increased capabilities for multitasking on-screen and other features, CES panelists forecast Wednesday. They predicted smaller screens have more features, too, and some TV stations will broadcast in ATSC 3.0. "Screens are getting bigger, resolutions are getting higher" and "it's just getting better and better and more realistic and more capable," said Dan Schinasi, Samsung CE product planning director. He said physical media will "most definitely" still be around. Kevin Cahill, Hisense product marketing head, noted "the big push is 75 and higher" in screen sizes, "which gives you the opportunity to do multiple things" at once on one screen: "The technology is really catching up, it's kind of a mesh of hardware and content." LG Director-New Product Development Tim Alessi sees 3.0 "paving the way for the future in broadcasting" and "as the industry moves to 4K, now over-the-air broadcasting is possible" in such ultra high-definition formats. In 2020, there will be a wide range of video experiences from "the very, very high end" such as big-budget movies to tablets and small devices used by most consumers, said Twentieth Century Fox Executive Vice President-Strategic Partnerships John Penney. He noted about 60 percent of Americans lack $500 in savings, so many won't be watching very sophisticated TV sets. He sees content "offshoots" like virtual reality on smaller devices, with more artificial intelligence and the like in use.