A White House official called for more predictability in how spectrum decisions are made, at a Silicon Flatirons spectrum conference Friday. Austin Bonner, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy assistant director-spectrum and telecom policy, said she has had meetings with “dozens” of spectrum stakeholders about how policy could change. The administration is moving toward release of a national spectrum strategy, which the Trump administration promised but never delivered (see 2209190061).
Country of origin cases
Advocates for blind and hearing-impaired individuals praised progress on making emergency information accessible but want further improvements, speaking during the FCC’s virtual Video Programming Accessibility forum Thursday. Viewers with significant hearing loss spend their days relying on closed captioning, and thus have high expectations for captions on emergency information, said Lise Hamlin, Hearing Loss Association of America director-public policy. Hamlin and other panelists said the ability to move captions around on the screen to avoid obscuring other information would greatly aid accessibility in emergencies. The graphic displays of emergency information used by newsrooms often originate as data, so it should be possible to incorporate that data into additional audio streams, said Anil Lewis, National Federation of the Blind executive director-blindness initiatives. Broadcasters have to balance screen real estate with the need to display graphics in ways their audience can understand, said ABC-owned stations Vice President-Technology Pat Stahl. ATSC 3.0 should provide additional options for offering accessible emergency information, said NAB Vice President-Engineering and Technology Policy Kelly Williams and Televisa Univision Senior Vice President-Local Media Engineering Javier Garcia. The new standard allows a multitude of additional audio streams and could allow notifications to warn viewers when alternative aural information is available, said Williams. The difficulty of switching between a primary audio stream and a secondary one is a common complaint among the visually impaired, said Kim Charlson, executive director-Perkins School for the Blind library. For consumers, there shouldn’t be any distinction between online and over-the-air content for accessible emergency information, Charlson said. "The consumer should have the same expectation," she said.
The FCC unanimously approved an NPRM seeking comment on proposed updates to the foreign-sponsored content rules, as expected (see 2209260063). The item is intended to update the rules to account for the July U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decision against some of the original requirements. “This proposal will help strengthen the process for identifying foreign governments broadcasting in the United States and fill in the gaps left in the wake of the D.C. Circuit’s recent ruling,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in a release. “The bottom line is that this is about supporting transparency and democratic values -- full stop.” The NPRM proposes standardized certifications from broadcasters and program lessees on whether a lessee is a foreign governmental entity, and seeks comment on an earlier petition from broadcasters seeking clarification on how the foreign-sponsored content rules apply to advertising and whether content less than two minutes in length should be exempt from the rules. It also seeks comment on an alternative first suggested by a D.C. Circuit judge that would require lessees to submit screenshots of federal databases showing their companies aren’t listed. “We look forward to working with the FCC to clarify some of its rules to ensure that broadcasters are airing the correct identifications,” said an NAB spokesperson. “We share the Commission’s goal of ensuring that the public understands when it is watching or listening to foreign propaganda.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., raised concerns Thursday about the Standard General/Tegna deal amid the FCC's ongoing review of the proposed purchase (see 2209200057). "We are concerned that this transaction would violate the FCC’s mandate by restricting access to local news coverage, cutting jobs at local television stations, and raising prices on consumers," the House leaders said in a letter to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. The leaders' claims followed the FCC Media Bureau's request last week for additional information on Standard/Tegna, its second inquiry on the proposed transaction.
New mobile devices sold in the EU must have common chargers by the end of 2024, with laptops requiring the same USB Type-C charging port by 2026, after the European Parliament approved the proposal Tuesday. The measure covers mobile phones, tablets, digital cameras, headphones and headsets, handheld videogame consoles and portable speakers, e-readers, keyboards, mice, portable navigation systems and earbuds. Laptops rechargeable via wired cable, with a power delivery of up to 100 watts, will also have to be equipped with a USB Type-C port. The law is part of an EU effort to cut waste and help consumers make sustainable choices, parliament said. EU lawmakers voted to broaden the scope of the original European Commission proposal (see 2201260044) by including more devices, and to ensure the same rule applies to future wireless technologies, said rapporteur Alex Agius Saliba (of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, and Malta) at a briefing. By 2024, the EC must harmonize interoperability requirements for wireless technology standards to prevent companies from continuing to sell their proprietary technology: "Proprietary solutions will be a thing of the past." The rules will apply to all non-EU companies seeking to sell products within the EU single market. The law isn't retrospective, and older chargers will be phased out, he said. The measure is likely to have ramifications outside the EU because it makes no sense for producers to make chargers solely for European markets, he said. The law is expected to save buyers up to 250 million euros ($248 million) a year on unnecessary charger purchases and cut down on the 11,000 tons of e-waste generated by disposed-of and unused chargers annually, parliament said. The rule now needs formal approval from EU governments.
Industry asked the FCC to encourage all voice service providers to implement Stir/Shaken on the IP interconnection portions of their networks, in comments posted Tuesday in docket 17-97 (see 2208050055). Some companies urged the commission not to further extend the Stir/Shaken implementation beyond the June deadline for small providers.
Major wireless carriers reported a few glitches during localized, end-to-end wireless emergency alert testing Sept. 12-13, designed to assess the geographic accuracy of alerts (see 2208300046). Reports from AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon were posted Monday in docket 22-160. Carriers reported some problems during a national WEA test last year (see 2108260046). In the first national test in 2018, many alerts didn’t go through (see 1812210056).
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., and Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., led filing Thursday of the Broadband Grant Tax Treatment Act, in a bid to ensure broadband funding from the Infrastructure Investment Jobs Act and American Rescue Plan Act doesn’t count as taxable income. The measure would amend the Internal Revenue Code to say broadband grants enacted via either statute don’t count as “gross income.” Every “dollar that was set aside to fund broadband expansion and deployment should be used for that purpose,” Warner said: “Taxing these broadband investments awards would be counter-productive, and could ultimately diminish efforts to give more Americans access to high-speed internet.” Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., is among four other senators who signed on as original co-sponsors. “Taxing broadband grants … will dramatically reduce the impact of these programs and likely leave the hardest-to-reach communities without essential connectivity for even longer,” said NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield. “It is critical that all broadband grant funds go toward their intended purpose of network deployment.” Requiring “grant recipients to return as much as 20 percent of those grants in the form of taxes jeopardizes our shared goal of universal connectivity,” said USTelecom Senior Vice President-Government Affairs Brandon Heiner. “It is vital that Congress move to eliminate this tax, as America’s broadband providers carefully plan and prepare to allocate resources to connect as many Americans as possible." Warner’s office also cited support from WTA.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announces retirements of Grace Teaney, Media Bureau; Margaret Daley, Enforcement Bureau; Belford Lawson, Office of Communications Business Opportunities; Tim McGuire, Wireless Bureau; and Rodney Small, Office of Engineering and Technology … New hires at Ikotek, original design manufacturer for IoT devices: Bill Leunis, ex-Nortek, as vice president-finance; Tim Newberg, ex-Texas Instruments and Broadcom, vice president-sales, U.S. and Canada; and Steve Burrington, ex-CalAmp, as head-North America engineering ... Cryptocurrency company 21.co names Goldman Sachs’ David Josse, also former Motorola, chief technology officer ... GoDaddy promotes board member Brian Sharples to chair, effective Friday, succeeding Chuck Robel, who plans to retire from the board, effective with the 2023 annual meeting and will continue to serve through a transition period.
The new iPhone 14 includes technology that would have cost more than $100 million to offer in 1991, American Enterprise Institute fellow Bret Swanson blogged Wednesday, noting the rate of technological advance. “The highest-end model includes one terabyte of digital storage, which is 63 times more than the original iPhone, launched in 2007, and which alone would have cost around $45 million in 1991,” the economist said: “Add in the A16 processor, the 5G modem, including new millimeter wave capabilities of up to 500 megabits per second, an amazing graphics processor, and four cameras totaling 84 megapixels, and you’ve got a device that would have cost at least $101 million to build in 1991.”