House Passes FAA Reauthorization Bill with Language on Voice Cellphone Use Ban, UAV Provisions

The House passed the six-year FAA Reauthorization Act Friday 393-13, with language requiring a renewed ban on voice cellphone use on airplanes and several provisions aimed at the unmanned aerial vehicle industry. HR-4 would direct the Department of Transportation to issue regulations banning “an individual on an aircraft from engaging in voice communications” using a cellphone or other mobile device during flight. Flight crews, flight attendants and law enforcement officers would be exempted for duty-specific voice communications. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai earlier pulled the plug on a long-running proceeding to potentially relax rules on cellphone calls on commercial flights (see 1704100066). The Senate Commerce Committee approved similar language last year in an earlier version of FAA legislation (see 1706290024). HR-4 also includes provisions clarifying how wireless towers should be marked to protect low-flying aircraft. All covered towers would, within a year of enactment, be required to be “clearly marked consistent” with FAA 2015 guidance. “This clarification will protect the safety of low-flying aviation without imposing unnecessary regulations that would have impeded the deployment of next-generation wireless services and could have delayed access to mobile broadband across the country,” said Wireless Infrastructure Association President Jonathan Adelstein. HR-4's UAV language would in part accelerate creation of a “low-altitude unmanned aircraft traffic management system” and streamline the permitting process for all types of UAVs. It would expand the types of permissible UAV operations and require a DOT-led study aimed at identifying “any potential reduction of privacy specifically caused” by integration of UAVs into the national airspace system. The bill would direct the FAA to create a program to study the use of spectrum in civil aviation, including for UAVs. The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International and the Small UAV Coalition lauded passage.