With an order on the 6 GHz band considered likely at the April FCC meeting (see 2003050058), Stan Connally, Southern Co. executive vice president-operations, told FCC Chairman Ajit Pai the utility remains concerned about harmful interference to its operations. Connally “applauded the Chairman’s appreciation of and support for the need to ensure that incumbent licensed 6 GHz operations are sufficiently protected from potential interference by unlicensed operations,” said a posting Friday in docket 18-295. Comcast representatives met Pai aide Nick Degani. “The Commission can and should authorize low power, indoor use throughout the band without the need for automated frequency coordination,” the cable company said. CTIA representatives met with Pai aide Aaron Goldberger. The group “provided further evidence of how untethered, low power indoor devices will cause harmful interference to Fixed Service operations in the band and urged the Commission to issue a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to consider licensing the upper portion of the band,” CTIA said. Verizon, Sprint, Ericsson and U.S. Cellular executives attended. Pai told three House lawmakers, including Communications Subcommittee member Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Calif., he agrees “that the FCC must protect incumbent users” in the 6 GHz band “from harmful interference.” The Office of Engineering and Technology has “spent considerable time reviewing the substantial record that has been compiled in this proceeding and meeting with interested stakeholders,” he said in separate letters to McNerney and Reps. Don Bacon, R-Neb., and Morgan Griffith, R-Va., released Friday. “The Commission’s ultimate decision will be grounded in sound engineering analysis. I remain optimistic that we will be able to develop a set of technical rules that will both safeguard incumbent users and allow for unlicensed operations.” McNerney and Griffith in February jointly supported the commission’s 6 GHz sharing proposal (see 2002120055). Bacon wrote Pai in November to urge the agency to ensure its sharing proposal didn’t cause harmful interference.
California Public Utilities Commission members pondered their power to increase broadband adoption, at an en banc livestreamed Wednesday from San Francisco. The CPUC should take an active role, including by funding open networks and issuing more aggressive speed guidelines, said Preston Rhea, engineering director of local ISP Monkeybrains. AT&T and Comcast officials described an informational role for the agency to spur adoption as they promoted their own low-costs programs. Commissioner Martha Guzman Aceves cited flaws in programs like AT&T Access and Comcast Internet Essentials.
The consortium selected to manage industry efforts to trace illegal robocalls to comply with the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act "should enable the participation of a diverse range of voice service providers in the tracebacks that it conducts and allow the participation of any and all providers that are identified in the call path of a traceback," USTelecom told the FCC. Comments were posted through Tuesday in docket 20-22. The agency opened a rulemaking this month (see 2002060038). NCTA wants the consortium to create an executive committee represented by different industry sectors "given an equal voice in the management." The cable group wants budget transparency if fees are collected. It asked whether a traceback group must be independent from a single association. Incompas wants the FCC to spell out how it will evaluate a registrant's claim of neutrality, and it wants to know what criteria the agency will use to select a single consortium for the private-led traceback efforts. Incompas suggested the North American Numbering Council advise the FCC here. The FCC also got comments this week on technical requirements for a reassigned numbers database (see 2002250062).
The “time lag” will be shorter on the release of future form 323 ownership data, said FCC Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey at an FCBA brown-bag lunch discussion Thursday, after being asked about the bureau’s recent release of 2017 ownership data. Carey and other Media Bureau officials at the event also discussed the transition from the consolidated database system (CDBS), upcoming rulemakings and ATSC 3.0. Carey said the bureau is already working on the data collected from the 2019 forms but didn’t say whether the next such report would include the most recent information.
With FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks hosting a field hearing in Puerto Rico Friday about the need for telecom network resiliency after widespread damage from hurricanes in 2017 (see 1710030057) and more recent earthquakes (see 2002130056), scheduled witnesses hope the hearing will call attention to Puerto Rico's plight and help the telecom industry strengthen its communications infrastructure. The Wireline Bureau is moving ahead with plans to allocate millions in funding to help such efforts.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai proposes holding Phase I auctions for the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund on Oct. 22. Pai circulated a public notice among commissioners Thursday proposing procedures for the Phase I auctions, which would allot up to $16 billion of the $20.4 billion USF rural broadband program, he blogged, outlining his agenda for the Feb. 28 meeting. The RDOF auction procedural PN is one of eight items for what Pai is calling "spectrum month." Drafts are expected to be released Friday. Pai's proposal Thursday to pay up to $9.7 billion to C-band incumbents to free the spectrum for a Dec. 8 auction (see 2002060057) will lead the February meeting.
The FCC’s new political ad file rules would burden broadcasters, swamp transparency advocates in irrelevant disclosures, and may be unconstitutional, said NAB, America's Communications Association, state broadcast associations and station groups. Their replies were filed in docket 19-363 by Tuesday night’s deadline in support of NAB’s petition for reconsideration. The rules cross “a constitutional line,” said Tech Freedom, comparing them to the fairness doctrine.
The 5G Spectrum Act, even if it doesn't become law, could benchmark how satellite communications incumbents get compensated for clearing part of the C band, FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly told reporters Tuesday in a wide-ranging interview. S-2881 "does have weight," especially as there seemingly has been a general shift from Capitol Hill resistance to any incentives, said. If satcom incumbents receive a percentage of the $40 billion in auction proceeds, as the legislation says (see 2001090021), debate will likely center on between 30 and 50 percent, though compensation could be a hard number for incumbents, or a combination of percentage and hard number, he said.
Broadband interests back a draft order on the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund up for a vote at the Jan. 30 FCC meeting (see 2001080049). They told us to expect commissioners to approve the rulemaking this month. Industry continues visiting the agency's eighth floor to ask for changes.
ISPs expect wide participation in the first phase of the $20 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund auctions FCC Chairman Ajit Pai signaled he wants in 2020, they said in interviews this month. RDOF replaces the Connect America Fund phase II USF program that supports deployment in high-cost, sparsely populated areas (see 1907110031). "We'll start to see the pace of things quicken in 2020," said Mike Saperstein, USTelecom vice president-policy and advocacy.