NPRM Looking at Spectrum Above 95 GHz Expected to Get FCC Vote Feb. 22
The FCC is expected to consider an NPRM on the future of spectrum above 95 GHz at its Feb. 22 commissioners' meeting, industry and agency officials said Wednesday. The commission asked initial questions about the very-high frequency spectrum as part of the July 2016 spectrum frontiers order and Further NPRM (see 1607140052). A tentative agenda is due out Thursday.
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The NPRM had been expected as early as the December meeting (see 1711130059) but had been delayed, partially to address concerns raised by NTIA, industry officials said. Chairman Ajit Pai discussed the use of spectrum above 95 MHz in a March speech (see 1703150020). NTIA and the FCC didn’t comment.
The commission is expected to take up an item on specifics dealing with a Mobility Fund II auction. Many industry officials expect an auction in early 2019 though the FCC is targeting a 2018 auction, carrier officials said.
The tentative agenda also is expected to include an order doing away with rules that require broadcasters and MVPDs to keep hard copies of FCC rules in their offices, an FCC official told us. The NPRM teeing up the order was the first in the agency’s monthly series of such proceedings, and was announced by Pai at 2017’s Radio Show (see 1709070056). The NPRM received unanimous support from all commissioners, and the proposal is widely seen as noncontroversial.
The agenda could include an NPRM seeking comment on doing away with filing requirements for mid-term equal employment opportunity reports, the official said. Current rules require broadcasters file their last two EEO reports with the FCC, though those documents are already required to be in their online public file, said Fletcher Heald broadcast attorney Dan Kirkpatrick. Eliminating the separate filing requirement was proposed by broadcasters on a media modernization NPRM (see 1707060060).
The agenda is expected to include a payphone compensation item, the official said. Industry commenters generally supported NPRM proposals to remove payphone auditing and reporting duties (see 1708100014. Also expected is a draft item aimed at encouraging new technologies, the official said.