While applauding the FCC for requiring covered text provider support of text-to-988 capabilities, mental health and disability communities raised caution flags about the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline having adequate resources come July to handle texting traffic. Commissioners unanimously approved an order Thursday that requires routing of texts sent to 988 to the Lifeline, and setting outer bounds for text message formats to be sent. The final item wasn't released. Also OK'd 4-0 was U.S. market access for French-flagged satellite IoT operator Kineis, as expected (see 2111030008), and a Further NPRM on creating an enhanced competition incentive program aimed at boosting spectrum access by small carriers and tribes (see 2111180071).
Matt Daneman
Matt Daneman, Senior Editor, covers pay TV, cable broadband, satellite, and video issues and the Federal Communications Commission for Communications Daily. He joined Warren Communications in 2015 after more than 15 years at the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, where he covered business among other issues. He also was a correspondent for USA Today. You can follow Daneman on Twitter: @mdaneman
Radioastronomy isn't yet blind in the Ku band, but it's becoming increasingly inaccessible to radioastronomers due to increased satellite downlink traffic there, said Square Kilometer Array (SKA) Observatory Mission Assurance Head Tim Stevenson Thursday on a Satellite Industry Association webinar. Geostationary Ku-band traffic is transitory and “relatively benign,” but OneWeb and SpaceX low earth orbit (LEO) constellations are vastly noisier, he said. Other bands, like V, will surely face similar problems as LEO satellite traffic there grows, he said. Radioastronomy has some ITU protections, but it also uses bands well outside those protected zones, he said. Rather than counting on ITU or national regulations, the SKA and radioastronomy community "want[s] to work with you," Stevenson said. "We know you need to service customers." SKA Spectrum Manager Federico Di Vruno said the scale of the problem makes some mitigation steps that have been used in the past unworkable. He said the aim is to find a way to lower the power flux density over SKA's radio quiet zones in Australia and South Africa. The two SKA telescopes are to be built by 2028.
Getting action on a terrestrial supplement or alternative to GPS requires more advocacy by the Department of Homeland Security about the danger of going without one, plus pilot programs testing various technologies rather than waiting to settle on one, said George Washington University Space Policy Institute Director Scott Pace Wednesday on a Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation/Domestic Preparedness Journal webinar. The government doesn't know which tech approach will work but should experiment with different ones and “see who can move quickly,” he said. Pace said technologies ranging from UHF to 5G could be employed in a backup system, but market ability to turn out millions of receivers also has to be considered in deciding which to choose. Speakers criticized a lack of government action. "There's a lot of understanding of what the issues are, a lot of kvetching and hand-wringing," said former Department of Transportation Assistant Secretary Greg Winfree, now director of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute. Pace said lack of progress over the three previous presidential administrations shows a critical U.S. weakness in planning, budgeting and acquisition. “It's not a question of affordability [or] policy needs. We can't execute,” he said. Many speakers also said this week's anti-satellite missile test by Russia (see 2111160063) underlines the need to supplement GPS. The anti-satellite exercise was part technical test and part Moscow saber rattling, said Center for the National Interest Director of Studies George Beebe. He said U.S. reliance on GPS is one of the nation's key strategic weaknesses. Beyond such potential deliberate threats to GPS, it faces unintentional environmental ones such as interference from use of nearby spectrum, Pace said. "We need to be stewards of the entire noise floor," he said. Winfree said any GPS supplement or alternative needs to be shepherded by the federal government rather than left to the private sector. He likened it to the variety of electric car charging technologies and plugs in the market: “We would wind up with a Tower of Babel.”
Wireless interests told the FCC any rules aimed at preventing SIM swap and port-out fraud shouldn't make it too difficult for consumers to change wireless carriers, per docket 21-341 comments that were due Monday. Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy (CITP), citing a study it did of SIM swap safeguards at the five major wireless carriers, said the companies are guilty of "pervasive insecurity." The Rural Wireless Association (RWA) urged reissue of the customer authentication and data encryption measures that were part of 2016's repealed broadband privacy order. The FCC adopted a SIM-swapping/port-out fraud NPRM 4-0 at September's meeting (see 2109300069).
Viasat's planned $7.3 billion purchase of Inmarsat, announced Monday, shouldn't face big regulatory headwinds, satellite communications industry watchers told us. Whether it's the start of more consolidation among the biggest operators is less clear.
Nine satellite operators submitted plans for a combined more than 38,000 non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) V-band satellites, in a series of FCC International Bureau applications and U.S. market access petitions last week in response to the V-band processing round instituted after Viasat, Mangata and AST V-band petitions (see 2108040062).
Funding is a bigger concern than adopting needed technology as rollout of the 988 call line and likely text-to-988 capabilities nears, crisis call center operators told us. They said most crisis centers anticipate sizable text volume and worry about staffing and tech resources available to manage it. FCC members will decide at their Nov. 18 meeting on requiring text providers to support texting to 988 when the three-digit nationwide suicide prevention hotline goes live on July 16 (see 2110270049).
On the contrary, Dish Network is the one that delayed and obstructed negotiations with Tegna, refusing to engage with its proposal, the broadcaster told the FCC Friday in a docket 21-413 answer and good-faith negotiations cross complaint in response to the MVPD's October complaint (see 2110180033). Dish's negotiation tactics "have made it a leader in retransmission consent disputes, with more than 200 'blackouts' in the past year alone," Tegna said. Dish said Tegna's answer and cross-complaint "is meritless and riddled with mischaracterizations and falsehoods," omitting that the TV-station owner didn't respond to Dish's proposal for close to six weeks before doing so three days before the agreement's expiration. It said Tegna communications "have been inconsistent, dilatory, and its offers repeatedly unreasonable."
ViacomCBS streaming audiences are growing rapidly, but so are its streaming content expenses, the company said Thursday, announcing Q3 results. CEO Bob Bakish said streaming content expenses will be double in 2021 what they were in 2020, and continue to grow to $5 billion by 2024. Overall revenue rose 13% year over year, to $6.6 billion. Streaming revenue topped $1 billion in the quarter for the first time, with a 62% increase. Global streaming subscribers exceeded 46 million, adding 4.3 million in the quarter. Chief Financial Officer Naveen Chopra said pay subscriber additions will be higher in Q4, due to demand for Paramount+ content. Bakish said a deal announced with T-Mobile, where every T-Mobile postpaid customer gets a free year of Paramount+ Essential, is part of the strategy of exposing consumers to Paramount+ as its content is ramped up. He said Pluto TV's lunch in Italy last week was part of the that service's international expansion, and Paramount+ will launch next year in the U.K. and Germany and be in 45 markets globally by end of 2022. ViacomCBS stock closed at $35.90, down 4.4%.
Nascent satellite operators are planning low earth orbit (LEO) IoT constellations, but experts told us to expect many to abandon constellation plans and industry consolidation. An FCC official said there's no apparent opposition among any commissioners to a draft order on Nov. 18's agenda granting U.S. market access for French IoT operator Kineis (see 2110280065). Its 25-satellite LEO constellation is scheduled to go into orbit via five launches starting in Q2 2023.