CEDIA Expo owner Emerald doubled down on the company’s commitment to hold the trade event in Indianapolis Sept. 1-3 even as exhibitors continue to abandon the event due to health concerns over the COVID-19 delta variant. Jason McGraw, Emerald Group vice president-CEDIA Expo and KBIS, told the company's CEPro trade publication Wednesday, “The show is 100% going on. Contrary to rumors out there, CEDIA Expo 2021 is still happening.” The number of exhibitors has been whittled down to 150; the trade show company was originally hoping for 300. Last week, Emerald advertised that 250 brands were exhibiting.
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Summit Ridge Group adds: Robin Flynn, ex-Kagan, as adviser and media sector consultant; Rebecca Hanson, ex-HC2 Broadcasting, as adviser and regulatory consultant; and Whitney Lohmeyer, ex-MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, as adviser and engineering consultant.
Verizon and AT&T, counting on early C-band deployments to narrow T-Mobile’s lead on mid-band spectrum, warned of potential delays in the clearing process that could complicate plans to build out in the C band starting later this year. Both companies have been at the FCC to urge an expedited process for the Relocation Payment Clearinghouse (RPC) to make payments to licensees to clear the band on an expedited basis.
The FCC should reconsider its relaxed rules for ATSC 3.0 distributed transmission systems and instead adopt an expedited waiver process, said Microsoft in reply comments Friday in docket 20-74 (see 2108040076). NAB and America’s Public Television Stations didn’t push back on Microsoft’s arguments that an expansion of DTS would hurt unlicensed use of the TV bands, but they “embrace that outcome as a victory in eliminating a perceived ‘constrain[t]’ on their business objectives,” Microsoft said. “Their response is that they are happy with the apparently unintended outcome of expanded coverage and that any harm to unlicensed operations is unimportant,” Microsoft said. NAB and APTS’ response “confirms that the Commission erred” in the original order, Microsoft said. “The soundest approach to permit the further expansion of a broadcast station’s DTS signal beyond its maximum facility is through a targeted expedited-waiver process.” The FCC’s original decision “failed to account for the vast harms imposed on TV White Spaces and the public interest,” said the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute, Public Knowledge and Tribal Digital Village in joint reply comments in docket 20-74. “The ability of several rural, Tribal, and other hard-to-serve communities nationwide to procure broadband networks depends on the Commission getting this policy right."
Dish Network violated an FCC order when it didn’t carry KMTP-TV San Francisco at the start of 2021, said the Minority Television Project in an amended complaint (in Pacer) filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco on Friday in docket 21-2214. The complaint asks the court to force Dish to carry Minority's KMTP, and is the latest iteration of an ongoing must-carry dispute between the noncommercial educational broadcaster and the satellite MVPD that dates from 2017 (see 1711130057). Minority originally filed in March, but its complaint was dismissed in July for failing to show specific evidence that Dish had violated the must-carry rules by not carrying KMTP, after the FCC ruled in 2019 that broadcasters could electronically inform MVPDs of their must-carry status. The agency rejected a previous must-carry claim by Minority after the broadcaster sent the request using the wrong mail service (see 1801230047). In the amended complaint, Minority argues the FCC ordered Dish to carry the channel in a letter dismissing the NCE’s earlier dispute with Dish as moot after the electronic carriage order. In the July dismissal order (in Pacer) in July, the court said that language from the FCC could be considered “essentially dicta” rather than formal orders. Dish didn't comment.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg was right to dismiss the FTC’s antitrust case against Facebook (see 2106280057), but he created a road map for the agency to replead its monopoly case against the social network, antitrust attorneys said in interviews.
Music label copyright litigation against Frontier Communications (see 2108110011) and related movie company claims brought in U.S. District Court are an attempted "end-run" around U.S. Bankruptcy Court, where the claims originally were filed, Frontier told the U.S. District Court in Manhattan Friday in a motion to stay (in Pacer, docket 21-cv-5050). Citing "basic fairness and efficiency," Frontier said the Manhattan court should stay the complaints pending adjudication of what it said were duplicative claims in Bankruptcy Court. Outside counsel for the music label plaintiffs didn't comment.
Verizon and Tracfone approval appears unlikely until after October, with the companies awaiting clearance from the FCC and California regulators, but the companies appear to be making progress. At least one deal opponent, Public Knowledge, appears poised to withdraw its objections. PK hasn’t filed anything at the FCC, but it's looking to do so soon, a spokesperson confirmed. Industry officials said Communications Workers of America will also soon lay out its latest take at the FCC.
The FCC's text-to-911 rules should help define which providers are subject to text-to-988 obligations, but 988 and 911 calling are fundamentally different and should be treated that way, T-Mobile said in docket 18-336 reply comments posted Wednesday. It said location-based routing isn't feasible or practical for 988 calling. It said bounce-back messages about the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline not being available by text should be originated by the Lifeline. It said since carriers don't have any control over whether Lifeline can accept those forms of texts or calls, an enhanced communications feature carrier mandate won't ensure those features are part of text-to-988. CTIA said the FCC should define “covered providers” and “covered services” for text-to-988 consistent with its text-to-911 rules, with “covered services” focusing on the existing capabilities of short message service (SMS), while leaving the record open to consider nascent and evolving messaging technologies. It said the agency should require covered providers to direct text-to-988 messages to the Lifeline just as voice calls to 988 are. Mitel Cloud Services urged exempting non-interconnected applications and services from the requirements. It said some non-interconnected applications can't use SMS, and many that include messaging only provide messaging to other subscribers to the application but don't allow messaging outside these groups. A coalition including the National Association of the Deaf, the American Council of the Blind, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, the National Council on Independent Living and Paralyzed Veterans of America said the FCC should move toward making direct video communication an alternate means of reaching the Lifeline. It urged the FCC to consider including Real-time text and rich communication services formats in the definition of a text message. Crisis Text Line said the agency should use it to help provide texting service through 988, such as a nationwide backup or overflow support provider. There has been some telecom industry disagreement about the July 2022 deadline for a text-to-988 deadline (see 2107130064).
The 2021 nationwide emergency alert system and wireless emergency alert tests appeared to go smoothly in some places but faced reception and transmission difficulties elsewhere, according to anecdotal evidence and early reports from EAS officials. Numerous stations that received their EAS feed from iHeart subsidiary Premiere Radio Networks broadcast a message without an audio alert, several State Emergency Communications Committee chairs told us. “It didn’t go very well,” said Kansas SECC Chair Roy Baum. Reception of the opt-in only WEA test appeared to be inconsistent, but it’s difficult to know if those who didn’t get the message had their phones correctly configured to do so, said Alaska SECC Chair Dennis Bookey.