The FCC is expected to vote on an order opening the 5.9 GHz band for Wi-Fi and cellular vehicle-to-everything in November and an order on proposed further changes in the 6 GHz band in December, regardless of what happens in the Nov. 3 election. Chairman Ajit Pai likely will have broad support for the changes even if Joe Biden is elected and FCC control shifts to Democrats in January, agency and industry officials told us.
Country of origin cases
Longtime FCC Administrative Law Judge Richard Sippel died Sept. 8 at age 82 at his Kensington, Maryland, home, confirmed his daughter Serra Thursday. She said the cause was complications from a fall. Sippel was the FCC’s chief ALJ for 32 years until his retirement in 2018. Before joining the FCC, Sippel was an ALJ for the Department of Labor and an attorney at the FTC. He also worked as a private attorney and at the SEC. Originally from Jersey City, New Jersey, Sippel moved to the Washington, D.C., area in 1967. He's survived by his wife and three daughters.
House China Task Force Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, believed “we can accomplish” many of the all-GOP group’s recent recommendations regardless of whether President Donald Trump or Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden wins the Nov. 3 election. He signaled optimism, during a Center for Strategic and International Studies event, about prospects for Congress to direct more money toward implementing his Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (Chips) for America Act. HR-7178/S-3933 is included in both the House and Senate versions of the FY 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (HR-6395/S-4049).
Cutting intercarrier compensation charges should undermine the incentive for 8YY arbitrage schemes such as robocaller "traffic pumping," said the FCC in an 8YY order approved by FCC commissioners Friday (see 2010090047). Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, who dissented on the 8YY NPRM adopted in 2018 (see 1806070021), concurred in the vote. The 5-0 vote was expected by some (see 2009040016). The order caps originating 8YY end office, database query and tandem switch and transport charges at their current amounts. It also sets transition periods for them, with the originating 8YY end office charges reduced to bill-and-keep in phases starting July 1 through July 1, 2023. It sets a nationwide rate cap of .001 cent per minute for originating 8YY tandem switching and transport access charges effective July 1, and cuts database query charges to .0002 cent per query over three phases ending July 1, 2023. The order also bars carriers from charging for more than one query per call.
Paychex ended fiscal Q1 Aug. 31 with results that were “better than originally projected, as most of our key business metrics recovered at a faster rate than anticipated,” said CEO Martin Mucci on a Tuesday investor call. Payroll clients in “non-processing status” since COVID-19 furloughs began are beginning “to pay employees again,” he said. “We still have some that have suspended their service, but it’s getting down to a very low number,” perhaps “a quarter of what we saw” at the peak, he said. Mucci declined to predict future unemployment trends. Paychex has seen “half the jobs come back that were lost” to the pandemic, he said. “I think it’s going to continue to improve, but at a slower rate than we had. And then I think the hardest prediction is really kind of after the election, what does that do to things.”
Peacock will debut two original shows Monday on its news channel The Choice, featuring MSNBC contributors Mehdi Hasan and Zerlina Maxwell, said the streaming service Friday. “We will continue to expand news content on Peacock with a focus on aggregating varied perspectives and diverse voices," said Jen Brown, senior vice president-topical programming and development. "News is a key differentiator for Peacock."
House Commerce Committee ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore., promotes Ryan Long to staff director for committee Republicans, succeeding Mike Bloomquist, departing for private sector.
Amazon raised the bar for music streaming Friday, announcing a partnership with Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group to remaster “thousands” of songs and albums in 24-bit with sampling rates from 44.1kHz to 192kHz, what Amazon calls Ultra HD. Amazon cited songs from artists including the Eagles, Marvin Gaye, Lady Gaga, The Notorious B.I.G., Ariana Grande and Selena Gomez as among those that have been remastered “to the highest quality streaming audio.” They are available exclusively on Amazon Music HD, Amazon said, and all titles resulting from the partnership will be delivered in 24-bit and 96 kHz or 192 kHz. Amazon Music HD subscriptions are $12.99 monthly for Prime members, $14.99 non-Prime. David Solomon, chief high-res music evangelist at streaming service Qobuz, messaged us that he was told by Warner Music that none of the material being remastered in 24-bit is exclusive to Amazon. Qobuz doesn’t support Dolby Atmos Music or Sony’s 360 Reality Audio, “so that wouldn’t have any bearing on what we’re doing now,” Solomon said. He called the Amazon news “a bit misleading at best.” Warner and Universal couldn’t be reached for comment. Amazon didn't respond. The partnership builds on a promise to deliver the best possible recordings available for streaming "by upgrading existing recordings to make the listening experience even better, and preserving artistic legacy for future generations,” said Amazon Music Vice President Steve Boom in a statement. The partnership delivers “key recordings” from Universal and Warner catalogs, “exclusively for Amazon Music customers.” Amazon plans to work with other labels to upgrade the digital quality of more audio recordings and “provide customers with all of the emotion, power, clarity, and nuance of original recordings across all genres,” said Boom.
Personalized TV, a smart speaker for music enthusiasts and 5G phones highlighted Google’s fall product introductions in a Wednesday YouTube event geared to the increased time consumers spend at home due to COVID-19. Over the past five months, Americans increased the time they spend listening to music at home 61%, said Mark Spates, Nest product manager.
A USTelecom proposal to exempt some small voice service providers from a proposed two-year extension of caller ID authentication requirements is raising ACA Connects concerns. The group said in a docket 17-97 posting Friday that it backs the goal of clamping down on providers that knowingly originate big volumes of illegal robocalls, but there's not enough time to see if the USTelecom proposal could also entangle legitimate voice providers that the FCC plainly is including in the small provider exemption in the draft order. It urged the FCC to get comment on the proposal. USTelecom, in meetings with aides to Chairman Ajit Pai and the commissioners, said the secure telephone identity revisited (Stir) and secure handling of asserted information using tokens (Shaken) implementation draft order on Wednesday's agenda (see 2009090048) proposed the two-year extension exception for small voice service providers that originate a disproportionate amount of traffic relative to their subscriber base. USTelecom recommended the FCC expand its robocall mitigation program requirement to all domestic traffic and on intermediate providers and get more comment on restricting intermediate providers from taking traffic from foreign voice service providers while not disrupting legitimate calls. CTIA urged its own modifications. They included seeking further comment on barring providers from accepting voice traffic from foreign voice service providers that haven't registered or certified and extra time between the filing deadline for robocall mitigation program certifications and the effective date of not accepting traffic from providers that don't appear in the database.