Wi-Fi will still rule in the smart home in the 5G era, said speakers on a Tuesday IHS Markit webinar. They sought robustness and reliability for good customer experiences.
Country of origin cases
The FCC’s proposal for allowing cellular market area-level bidding in the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service auction changed considerably from the original proposal by Chairman Ajit Pai, based on a side-by-side comparison. Commissioners approved a public notice 5-0 Thursday. Officials said then (see 1909260040) clarifying language was added at the request of Commissioner Geoffrey Starks and questions at the request of Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. The issue has been important to smaller players who prefer county-level licenses. The rules would permit larger licenses if conditions are met in the 172 largest markets. “We clarify that under this proposal, prices ... would be determined on a county-by-county basis, consistent with the basic clock mechanism,” says language in a new paragraph: “Prices in a particular county would depend upon whether the aggregate demand for blocks in that county exceeds the supply, regardless of whether the demand comes from bidders bidding on a CMA level, on a county level, or both.” The draft says simply: “We seek comment on this proposal for CMA-level bidding generally and on the specific implementation procedures we propose.” The final version adds more than 100 words of questions. “We seek comment on how this proposal, including the proposed implementation procedures ... would affect auction participation by bidders that seek licenses for individual counties,” the notice now says: “We also seek comment on whether there are modifications that should be made to our proposal for CMA-level bidding that would assist auction participation by smaller entities interested in county-sized licenses.” The PN was in Monday's Daily Digest in docket 19-244.
Cable operators have made it increasingly difficult for subscribers to find and watch public, educational and government channels, and the Cable Act allows Maine to require cable operators to return PEG stations to their original channel numbers and include the channel information in programming guides. So said state Attorney General Aaron Frey in opposition Monday to NCTA's motion for preliminary injunction of a PEG law (see 1909160027). Maine filed in U.S. District Court in Bangor (in Pacer, docket 19-cv-00420) that Congress gave local governments broad authority over PEG service provision and that the cable industry's unlikely to succeed on the merits so the preliminary injunction should be denied. NCTA didn't comment.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., plans to visit Silicon Valley and meet with companies to better understand their algorithms and operations, she told C-SPAN's The Communicators to have been televised Saturday. Her office declined to provide specifics when we asked Friday. Congress should protect important provisions in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act for smaller companies and new entrants, she said, but the tech industry’s content liability shield deserves a review from Congress. Whether large platforms like Facebook and Google deserve to keep those protections should be part of the broader discussion, she said. Blackburn suggested ISPs would be “well-served” to scrutinize unmoderated platforms like 8chan and review the information originating from those outlets. The 50 state attorneys general investigating Google and nine states probing Facebook reflect the frustration from consumers and small businesses within their states, she said: “They feel as if they have the right to move forward, and indeed they do.” Competition is a topic the Senate Judiciary Committee Task Force, which the legislator leads, will address early next year, Blackburn said. She’s heard anecdotal evidence that smaller companies like Yelp are stifled by incumbents like Google. The task force learned there’s agreement Congress needs to get a privacy law with one set of rules and one regulator, she said. It’s important to establish a basic, simple standard for privacy, and Congress can add and amend as needed, she said: Consumers need to know their privacy rights are protected.
Hughes "believes it can meet" the new mean opinion score testing requirements for high-latency bidders in USF competitive awards, after the FCC addressed earlier concerns "that the original MOS testing framework adopted by the bureaus might not be achievable by satellite broadband providers using geostationary satellites," it filed, posted Thursday in docket 10-90. The FCC updated its MOS testing regime this month (see 1909120064). Satellite broadband can compete for USF support through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund and a $950 million program to strengthen broadband networks in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands commissioners OK'd Thursday.
Rationales for opposing the President Donald Trump’s plan to increase Section 301 duties on Chinese goods to 30 percent “have only strengthened with the passage of time since the imposition of the original tariffs on Lists 1, 2, and 3,” commented CTA in docket USTR-2019-0015. Since July 2018, “these tariffs have cost the consumer technology industry and its consumers -- not China -- more than $10 billion,” it said. That includes more than $1 billion in tariff payments “on 5G-related products, it said. For Q4, the industry “expects to pay an additional $7 billion to account for tariffs on new products,” said CTA. Tariffs create “a negative chain reaction” for the consumer tech industry, commented the Information Technology Industry Council. The administration claimed it acted “to avoid placing tariffs on consumer products” when it imposed the first three rounds of 25 percent duties, but “there is simply no way to protect consumers from tariffs on $200 billion worth of goods,” said ITI. Hiking the duty rates to 30 percent “would only cause additional harm to U.S. consumers, cost U.S. jobs, and undermine U.S. technology companies in the fight for global leadership,” said ITI. “The proposed increase of tariffs on products from Lists 1-3 specifically affects” a wide variety of consumer products, including smart appliances and virtual-reality headsets, it said. Raising tariffs “will have broad implications, as all telecommunications equipment relies on gateways, modems, optical transceivers and routers,” it said.
The author of the California privacy ballot initiative that spawned the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) pitched another ballot vote. Since the 2018 law, “some of the world’s largest companies have actively and explicitly prioritized weakening the CCPA,” and “technological tools have evolved in ways that exploit a consumer’s data,” Californians for Consumer Privacy’s Alastair Mactaggart said Wednesday. The proposal would address use and sale of sensitive personal information including health and financial information, racial or ethnic origin and precise geolocation, triple CCPA fines for violating children’s privacy laws and require opt-in consent to collect data from kids under 16 and require transparency about “automated decision-making and profiling.” It would establish the California Privacy Protection Agency, with a $5 million budget. Lawmakers made minor CCPA tweaks in their session ended this month, rejecting significant changes proposed (see 1909200030). In 2018, Mactaggart had enough signatures to get a ballot initiative but pulled it when legislators agreed to pass CCPA. He would need signatures from 623,212 registered voters to get his new proposal on 2020’s ballot.
FCC members approved 5-0 a public notice Thursday seeking comment on an auction of priority access licenses (PALs), the licensed part of the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band. As expected, Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks raised concerns (see 1909230056) but voted to approve after each got changes to the notice. The auction is to start June 25.
The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology extended through March 31 a waiver of the push notification requirements for TV white spaces devices. The waiver dates to a 2015 order updating Part 15 rules (see 1508060025). Several parties filed petitions for reconsideration on the push notification requirements, OET said Wednesday. “Given the complexity of the issues, ... there was good cause to grant a waiver of the requirements" and the waiver will remain in effect for 180 days or until the Commission takes final action on the petitions for reconsideration, OET said: “Because the petitions for reconsideration remain under active consideration, the reasons supporting the original waiver remain valid and a further time extension is warranted. This action is being taken without prejudice relative to the merits of these petitions.”
House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore., led filing Tuesday of the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act (HR-4459), as expected (see 1909230068). House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., and ranking member Bob Latta, R-Ohio, bowed their Studying How to Harness Airwave Resources Efficiently (Share) Act, also as expected. House Communications is expected to examine both measures during a Friday hearing on supply chain security and spectrum legislation (see 1909200058), to begin at 9:30 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn. The long-anticipated HR-4459 would require the FCC to establish the Secure and Trusted Communications Reimbursement Program to provide funding to small carriers to remove equipment originating from companies that may be a security risk, including Chinese equipment makers Huawei and ZTE. The measure would appropriate $1 billion to fund the program. Carriers with 2 million or fewer customers would qualify to receive the funding. It would also bar the use of federal funds to buy communications equipment or services from any company that's a national security risk to U.S. telecom networks. House Communications Vice Chair Doris Matsui, D-Calif., and Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., the Congressional Spectrum Caucus co-chairs, co-sponsored HR-4459. “This bipartisan legislation will protect our nation’s communications networks from foreign adversaries by helping small and rural wireless providers root-out suspect network equipment and replace it with more secure equipment,” said Guthrie, Matsui, Pallone and Walden in a statement. The Share Act is aimed in part at reasserting the existing roles the FCC and NTIA hold in managing and sharing federal spectrum. The bill's filing comes as House Commerce leaders push to jettison language in the Senate-passed FY 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (S-1790) that would tell DOD to work with the FCC and NTIA to establish a spectrum R&D program aimed at sharing among 5G technologies, federal and nonfederal incumbent systems (see 1906270051). Pallone and Walden are pushing (see 1909180048) to remove the language from the NDAA via a House-Senate conference working to marry elements of S-1790 and the House-passed NDAA (HR-2500). The Share Act would direct the FCC and NTIA to develop a plan for sharing the 7 GHz band and other frequencies between federal incumbents and commercial users. CTIA lauded Doyle and Latta for bowing the Share Act. Senior Vice President-Government Affairs Kelly Cole said the bill “reconfirms the U.S.’s longstanding process for managing and sharing federal spectrum assets is the right one.”