The National Association of State 911 Administrators warned the FCC that moving to next-generation 911 will be complicated, in comments on an NPRM commissioners approved 4-0 in June (see 2306080043). The National Emergency Number Association said the FCC is on the right track with the NPRM. Comments were due at the FCC Wednesday in docket 21-479. The notice followed a NASNA petition seeking a rulemaking or notice of inquiry to fully implement NG911 (see 2110190066 and 2201200043).
Country of origin cases
The FCC doesn’t plan to conclude the 2022 quadrennial review before finishing the 2018 iteration, the agency said Monday in an opposition filing in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The FCC “has no intention of combining the Quadrennial Reviews for 2018 and 2022; nor does it plan to allow the 2022 review to ‘cut in front of’ the 2018 review,” the filing said. The FCC “plans to complete the 2018 review of its ownership rules before it concludes its independent 2022 review of the rules,” said the agency. “If NAB’s sole purpose in seeking mandamus is to prevent the FCC from combining the 2018 and 2022 reviews, mandamus is not necessary to achieve that outcome.” The agency was responding to NAB’s mandamus request that the court force the agency to issue a 2018 QR, which NAB filed after the FCC sought comment on the 2022 QR without concluding the previous iteration (see 2307070057). The FCC’s failure to conclude the 2018 QR is “by no measure egregious,” considering the multiyear litigation against the original 2018 QR order that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, said the agency. The SCOTUS decision upholding the FCC was issued in 2021, and the FCC had to refresh the record after the ruling, the agency said. That record refresh drew “almost 1000 pages of new comments and attachments,” and ended less than two years ago, the FCC said. QR proceedings are often contentious and complicated, and the agency has only four commissioners, the filing said. “For the past twenty years, each of the Commission’s orders completing Section 202(h) review has been approved by a 3-2 vote, with two Commissioners issuing lengthy dissenting statements,” the FCC said. NAB is “mistaken” in asserting that QRs are meant to be both started and completed every four years, the FCC said. “Congress did not identify a specific deadline for commission action,” the filing said. “NAB’s claims that the Commission has unduly delayed completion of past Quadrennial Reviews is irrelevant to its claim in this case that there has been undue delay in the 2018 Quadrennial Review,” the filing said. Granting NAB’s mandamus request “would intrude on the FCC’s discretion to order its priorities,” the FCC said. “The FCC is saying, somewhat ironically, if the NAB quits suing us we could finish media ownership, but we shouldn't be made to have to do it,” said University of Minnesota professor Christopher Terry. He said however the agency resolves the two QRs, the matter is likely to lead to further litigation.
Georgia Public Telecommunications Commission elects Bert Huffman, former president and interim CEO of Georgia Public Broadcasting, as its CEO, succeeding Teya Ryan, who retired in May ... Core Scientific, blockchain computing data centers company, promotes President Adam Sullivan to CEO; Chairman Mike Levitt relinquishes CEO role ... Firefly Aerospace names Blue Origin's Brett Alexander, also ex-White House Office of Science and Technology Policy under former President George W. Bush, chief revenue officer ... Cisco promotes Oliver Tuszik to president-Europe, the Middle East and Africa ... Tech investment bank Carlsquare North America names Citigroup’s David Lamb a director in its San Francisco office ... GVTC Communications, fiber telecom provider, elects board member Clint Swindall chairman to succeed Chuck Knibbe, resigning after 27 years in that role, but remaining on the board ... Contract manufacturer Dover adds former Ernst & Young partner Danita Ostling to its board, expanding it to 10 members.
Nebraska Public Service Commission staff recommend changes to state USF reverse auctions to “better incentive participation,” said Telecom Director Cullen Robbins at a partially virtual PSC hearing Wednesday (docket NUSF-131). The commission had a sound framework for conducting the first reverse auction in August 2022, said Robbins. But it makes sense to raise starting reserve prices next time, he said. “Afterall, it is a reverse auction [and] the main goal of the reserve price is to incentivize bidding -- ideally, by multiple parties -- so that the price can be lowered in successive rounds.” Staff recommends setting the reserve price two to three times higher than the model price, Robbins said. Also, the commission should reconfigure the units up for bid, said Robbins. “Since the bidding units in the last auction were census block groups, sometimes the blocks that made up the group were scattered and not contiguous,” which may have ballooned possible project costs, he said. Staff recommends allowing participation by the originally assigned price-cap carriers that returned USF funding or were withheld support, said Robbins: They might want to bid since they could get more money than they would have under the previous USF distribution mechanism, especially with the proposed higher reserve prices and smaller bidding units. Such companies are also likely to have the closest facilities and may be able to provide service for the least cost, he said. Also, staff recommends all participants have eligible telecom carrier designations to participate, which would allow carrier of last resort obligations and ongoing support to be transferred to the winning bidders, said Robbins: Bidders should commit to taking those obligations. Commissioner Tim Schram (R) suggested the Nebraska PSC at least ask applicants to say whether they will connect all the way to a customer’s location, such as in a situation where the customer has a half-mile-long driveway. Also, Schram wants to make sure winning bidders will connect customers to the state’s nearly complete next-generation 911 network. “We've spent millions ... to modernize that network and I just want to make sure that consumers have the ability to connect to it." Fixed wireless can participate if they can meet the program’s requirements for 100 Mbps symmetrical broadband, Robbins answered Commissioner Kevin Stocker (R). “I believe they can meet the speed requirements according to what I’ve seen them claim in the past.”
The FCC unanimously approved an order and NPRM on digital FM, said an agency news release Tuesday (see 2301130053). The item was on the agenda for commissioners' open meeting Thursday but was instead voted Monday, and a deletion notice was issued. Stemming from petitions filed by NAB and Xperi, the item proposes relaxing restrictions on digital FM power levels to make it easier for more stations to improve their digital FM coverage. The FCC said the proposals in the NPRM would “offer more efficient FM digital operation, increase digital signal coverage and provide a more robust digital signal for reception inside buildings,” though some raised concerns about increased interference. “This would AM-ize the FM band,” said broadcaster Robert McAllan, CEO of Press Communications, referring to the high levels of background interference from multiple sources in the AM band.
CTIA names Umair Javed, former adviser to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, senior vice president-spectrum (see 2308010025) … Cloudera, data company for enterprise AI, appoints Charles Sansbury, ex-ASG, as CEO, to begin Monday … Backlight, media and entertainment technology company, names Telestream’s Benjamin Desbois chief operating officer ... Synopsys names PTC’s Jill Larsen chief people officer ... RealBlocks, web-based private equity platform, hires Addepar’s Ron Barasch as chief marketing officer.
Cybersecurity officials and industry experts urged widespread implementation of best practices to improve border gateway protocol (BGP) security, speaking during a hybrid FCC event Monday on securing internet routing (see 2306160050). Many agreed more collaboration between the public and private sector is needed to strengthen BGP security.
California faces higher-than-expected construction costs as it works to complete the state’s middle-mile network, said Mark Monroe, deputy director-California Technology Department (CDT) Broadband Middle-Mile Initiative, at a partly virtual California Broadband Council meeting Thursday. And many more miles of fiber will be needed than originally planned, he said. Other state broadband officials said it’s important to keep funding the federal affordable connectivity program (ACP) as California makes gains enrolling households.
Attorneys general from states led by New York raised concerns about how the FCC addresses wireless emergency alerts in multiple languages, in a filing at the FCC in docket 15-91 (see 2307240045). “We are concerned that relying on machine translation to translate WEAs from English to other languages may result in inaccurate alerts,” the AGs said in a filing posted Monday: “It is critical that alerts be accurate. We therefore urge the Commission to adopt the alternative approach of requiring installation on cell phones of translated alert templates prepared for the National Weather Service and other federal alert originators by human translators.” The AGs also questioned whether the 13 languages, other than English, proposed by the FCC are enough. AGs from Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and New York City also signed the filing. The National Weather Service said with dedicated funding it could create templates in different languages for alerts. The "long-term goal is to automatically translate all alerts and forecasts into other languages,” the service said: “Experience with Spanish translation has shown that if NWS alerts use a limited set of words and phrases, the AI/[machine learning] process can automatically provide translated products with an accuracy exceeding 97%.”
Congress needs to establish a national commission to license and audit AI companies, Senate Privacy Subcommittee Chairman Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said Tuesday.