California Public Utilities Commission confirms John Reynolds, former managing counsel at Cruise self-driving car company, as commissioner … CrowdStrike promotes Chief Technology Officer Michael Sentonas to president ... Identity Defined Security Alliance names Jeff Reich, ex-Cloud Security Alliance, executive director, and elects nine new members to its executive advisory board, including Atos’ Allen Moffett; BeyondTrust’s Morey Haber; CyberArk’s Joanne Wu; and VMware’s Rahul Parwani; newly added to IDSA’s expanded customer advisory board: Comcast’s Rajnish Bhatia, TikTok’s Douglas Rose and Target’s Tom Sheffield.
Country of origin cases
House Commerce Committee Republicans skipped regular order, considering several TikTok bills at a subcommittee markup Tuesday, ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said during the proceeding. The bills address problems worthy of committee consideration, but Republicans haven’t held proper legislative hearings on several of the bills, so they haven’t gotten proper stakeholder review, he said.
The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau wants comments by March 6, replies by March 20, in docket 17-59 on Verizon's petition to waive certain rules on blocking foreign-originated illegal robocalls, said a public notice Thursday. Verizon sought a waiver of the requirement that carriers block "toll-free calls from foreign consumers that terminate at call centers belonging to U.S. enterprises."
Frontier Communications has until Feb. 21 to respond to a Pennsylvania consumer and small business advocates’ service quality complaint (see 2301100035), the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission said Tuesday. The PUC granted Frontier’s request to extend the original Tuesday deadline. Frontier told the commission Monday it needed more time to review records.
Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, on Monday reintroduced legislation that would amend Communications Decency Act Section 230 and require platforms to report illegal drug sales and other illicit activity (see 2009290065). Originally introduced in 2020, the See Something, Say Something Online Act would require platforms to “report suspicious activity to law enforcement, similar to the way that banks are required to report suspicious transactions over $10,000 or others that might signal criminal activity.” The legislation “strong-arms online platforms into handing over the correspondence of civil rights and parents groups to law enforcement simply because speech and chat websites would need to take a better-safe-than-sorry approach to maintain protection from liability,” said NetChoice Vice President Carl Szabo.
Broadcasters are united in their opposition to proposed retooling of the FCC’s foreign-sponsored content rules, according to reply comments posted by Tuesday’s deadline in docket 20-299.
The FCC’s online database of “pirate” unauthorized broadcasters went live Monday, covering the period from Jan. 24, 2020 to Dec. 31, 2022. “Subsequent updates will be published semi-annually,” said the database webpage. The database stems from provisions in the 2020 Preventing Illegal Radio Abuse Through Enforcement Act, which also increased penalties for unauthorized broadcasts and empowered the FCC to go after the landlords of properties hosting pirate broadcasts. While the Pirate Act database was originally due within 90 days of the bill’s 2020 approval, no funding was included for implementation and its enactment was closely followed by the COVID-19 pandemic, delaying FCC action, an agency spokesperson said. “Commission staff was nevertheless able to perform basic planning in anticipation of both conditions ending,” the spokesperson said. Funding for implementing the act was approved in March, the agency said. The database allows users to search for violations by state and links to individual citations, displaying violations on a map of the U.S. The database’s FCC page also includes a link labeled “Licensed AM and FM Radio Station Database” -- another database required by the Pirate Act -- that sends users to the “Facility Search” page of the FCC’s licensing and management system. The FCC also released a Pirate Act report to Congress Tuesday. According to the report, the agency has posted six full-time positions for pirate enforcement and is prepared to buy six mobile direction-finding vehicles for those hires to operate. “Purchase of the additional six vehicles has been delayed, however, until a GSA [General Service Administration] purchasing window opens.” The report also said the agency developed a plan for enforcement sweeps and issued 21 notices to property owners of potential enforcement action.
FCC rural healthcare program participants and industry sought several changes to a draft order and NPRM proposing to modify the program’s funding mechanism. Most urged the FCC to maintain the current support methodology until a new one is established. Commissioners will consider the item Thursday.
The addressable smartphone market for Iridium's Qualcomm Snapdragon Satellite partnership (see 2301050061) includes China, and Samsung, and Chinese Android original equipment manufacturers Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo and Lenovo are likely to adopt QSS in their premium brands, William Blair analyst Louie DiPalma wrote investors Wednesday. QSS partnerships could be announced at February's Mobile World Congress conference, he said. The Samsung Galaxy S23 likely won't have the new chip, but it should be ready for the S24, he said. Iridium's third constellation could cost less than the $3 billion spent on its 66-satellite NEXT constellation, with the spending for that likely being 2030-2037, he said.
Standard General’s proposed concessions aren’t enough to prevent higher retransmission consent rates or collusion between Standard and Cox Media Group owner Apollo Global Management, said comments filed in docket 22-162 in response to the FCC’s request for feedback.