FCC to Increase Satellite Division Staffing 38%: Rosenworcel

The FCC will boost staffing of its International Bureau's Satellite Division by 38%, Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in docket 12-1 letters to two House Communications and Technology Subcommittee members dated March 30 and posted Thursday. She said she also is accelerating the agency's satellite regulatory review process. The letters to Doris Matsui, D-Calif., and Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., were in response to their joint March 14 letter encouraging Rosenworcel "to work with Congress to update the FCC’s rules and authorities to support new [satellite] entrants and to increase competition and consumer choice while protecting the operations and significant investments of existing operators." Matsui and Guthrie also urged sunsetting interference protections for earlier-round systems from later-round ones "after a reasonable time period" as a means of encouraging more efficient spectrum use while preventing "the creation of entrenched incumbents." The FCC "should also sunset more protections, especially those for outdated technologies, in order to encourage continuous innovation and spectrum efficiency," they said.