As in-person events return this summer and fall (see 2103240003), organizers are opting for relatively light-touch health precautions such as spacing out lunch breaks or sessions to try to prevent larger gatherings of attendees, they told Communications Daily in an unofficial survey of tech and telecom events. Some health experts said mandatory masks or required vaccinations for attendees would be the surest guarantee for safety. But that's not a common approach events are taking, we found.
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
Aerospace Industries Association, Rural Wireless Associations and Blooston petitions to reconsider the 3.45 GHz band order got pushback Tuesday in docket 19-348. CTIA said in an opposition the AIA petition is an attempt to essentially elevate Part 5 experimental license holders from non-interfering secondary operations to co-primary status through a new coordination framework, and presents nothing new as the basis for a reconsideration. CTIA said it opposes RWA's request the license term for new flexible-use licenses drop from 15 years to 10, since 15 years ensures new licensees have time to deploy service given DOD repurposing. T-Mobile said the FCC correctly rejected a coordination framework for federal contractors, and reversing that would undermine the proceeding's purpose of making more spectrum available for commercial mobile services. It said calls by RWA and small carriers represented by Blooston law firm to license on a countywide basis run contrary to the idea that licensing by partial economic area will better let carriers aggregate the spectrum across similar bands like C. AT&T said the petitions could delay the start of Auction 110, and they recycle previously made arguments. RWA said it backs Blooston's call to reconsider licensing 10 3.45 GHz channel blocks as PEAs, but the agency should license them instead by county. RWA agreed with Blooston that Auction 110 short form application deadlines should be delayed to Q1.
Eligibility for the network equipment “rip and replace” reimbursement program would be capped at providers with 10 million or fewer subscribers, instead of 2 million or fewer, under a draft order (docket 18-89) released Tuesday to be voted on at the FCC's July 13 meeting. The agency also released the drafts of the three other non-enforcement items. Under the “rip and replace” draft, the agency would set a June 30, 2020, date by which providers had to have purchased communications equipment and services to be eligible for reimbursement and create a prioritization system if reimbursement program demand surpasses the $1.9 billion appropriated by Congress. The draft NPRM on permissible uses for short-range radars in the 57-64 GHz band (docket 21-264) would set operating frequencies and power limits for unlicensed field disturbance sensors/radar devices operating in the band. A draft NPRM on updating radio rules (docket 21-263) is focused on small changes to technical rules. It “proposes to update regulations to better reflect current technical requirements and eliminate redundant, outdated, or conflicting provisions.” Those updates include proposals to eliminate an AM transmitter power limitation, to do away with a “seldom-used” rule on FM transmitting antennas, update signal strength contour requirements for noncommercial educational FM Class D stations, and eliminate requirements that broadcasters protect grandfathered common carrier services in Alaska. A draft order on International Bureau applications (docket 21-265) would require electronic filing for the few such submissions that aren’t all-electronic. It would eliminate requirements for duplicate paper versions of those applications.
The FCC's July 13 meeting will have commissioners voting on congressionally mandated changes to its system for replacing insecure U.S. network equipment from Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE, plus a cleanup of its rules for full-power and translator radio stations, acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel blogged Monday. Drafts of four of the five items on the agenda are to be released Tuesday, the fifth being an enforcement item. Rosenworcel said topping the agenda is a draft order that would incorporate such changes to the insecure network replacement program as expanded eligibility that allows more carriers to participate and a wider array of services and equipment eligible for reimbursement funding. Commissioners adopted the replacement program unanimously at their December meeting (see 2012100054). The agency will also vote on a proposal to “update and clean up” rules for full-power and translator radio stations. The update will “reduce any potential confusion, alleviate unnecessary burdens, and make sure they reflect the latest technical requirements,” said Rosenworcel. The July meeting will also include a proposal to mandate electronic filings for some applications to the International Bureau and remove duplicate paper filings, she said. “This common-sense move would reduce costs and administrative burdens, facilitate faster and more efficient communications, and improve transparency to the public.” Also on deck is a proposal for more permissible uses for short-range radars in the 57-64 GHz band, Rosenworcel said. “With the right policies in place, we can help spur the use of these radars for vital sign monitoring in car seats that will enhance in-vehicle safety, for touchless control of device functions or features that can benefit users with mobility or speech impairments, and for much, much more,” she said.
Updated wireless emergency alert/emergency alert service rules approved 4-0 by FCC commissioners Thursday (see 2106170063) explain more fully than the draft order why the commission declined to take up a New York City Emergency Management request, per our comparison of the draft with the approved order. NYCEM asked the FCC to require government entities that originate WEAs to file mandatory false alert reports as part of a pact with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The commission said now that while the update sets up a voluntary system for reporting false alerts, doing so seems consistent with requirements in last year's National Defense Authorization Act, so the agency declined to take up NYCEM's request.
The booming proliferation of low earth orbit satellites, a growing challenge for optical astronomers (see 1906100015), is raising red flags for radio astronomers. Many see no easy technical or regulatory fixes.
Viasat's request that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit stay the FCC's OK of SpaceX's license modification pending judicial review (see 2105240005) saw both an ally and opposition in docket 21-1123 (in Pacer) responses Monday. The FCC put too high an evidentiary burden on the Balance Group and Viasat in their written objections to the proposed license modification, and the appellate court is likely to reverse the agency not finding that SpaceX's application may have a big environmental impact, Balance said in support of the Viasat stay. The FCC said it "closely examined and reasonably rejected Viasat’s claims," and Viasat hasn't made a case for "the extraordinary remedy of a stay pending appeal." The agency said it considered the allegations of environmental impact and didn't find sufficient evidence that the license mod needs further environmental review. The license mod fell into a categorical exclusion under FCC National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) rules, it said. SpaceX, also opposing the stay, said the stay motion is a "transparent bid to co-opt [NEPA] and the procedure for extraordinary stay relief as weapons of commercial warfare." It said the D.C. Circuit isn't likely to overturn FCC "methodical, issue-by-issue treatment of Viasat’s unprecedented and thinly-supported NEPA arguments" while Viasat hasn't shown "anything approaching irreparable harm" if not granted a stay.
Emergency management agencies are backing FCC-proposed changes to emergency alerts. And we're told next week's vote on the draft order and Further NPRM (see 2105260076) should be noncontroversial.
AT&T in hindsight likely wouldn't have bought DirecTV because pay-TV universe subscriber losses were steeper than expected when the carrier started pursuing the deal, CEO John Stankey said Thursday during an Economic Club talk. He said DirecTV didn't generate the value long term that was expected. He said it's "entirely possible" the spinoff of the company's video business (see our report here]) could recapture some lost value, and said the WarnerMedia/Discovery spinoff and combination (see 2105160003) should generate big returns for shareholders, including him. "I intend to leave all my equity in that new business," Stankey said. While the deal goes through regulatory review, WarnerMedia is "full steam ahead" with initiatives such as launch of an ad-supported HBO Max tier this month and work on a CNN streaming product, Stankey said. The $65 billion for broadband the administration and Senate Republicans agreed on (see 2105270072) before talks collapsed potentially "knocks ... out" the rural digital divide problem, though that access likely will use a mix of technologies including wireless and satellite, along with fiber, and won't be as robust as will be found in less-rural areas, Stankey said. Left unaddressed is the affordability issue, which will require about $4 billion annually in subsidies, he said. That money could come from congressional appropriations or from excise or use taxes, he said. Asked about AT&T's $23 billion in 2021 C-band payments, he said it "will not be the last investment we make in spectrum" to meet increasing wireless data demands. Stankey said occupancy at AT&T's Dallas headquarters was about 20% a month ago, and is growing. He said the company will be in its "new hybrid mode" by summer's end, with all employees in one of three categories: in the office a couple of days a month, in the office a couple of days a week, and daily. He said a high percentage of AT&T workers would be hybrid: So far, the company is urging but not requiring worker vaccinations.
Airline broadband connectivity via geostationary orbit (GSO) satellite is on its way out, with low earth orbit (LEO) constellations likely to claim most if not all that market by decade's end, satellite executives said Wednesday during the annual Connected Aviation Intelligence Summit. OneWeb Vice President-Mobility Ben Griffin said many airlines he has spoken with in the past year are "positively anxious" about LEO and its promised capacity, coverage and low latency benefits over GSO. Vice President-Starlink and Commercial Sales Jonathan Hofeller said SpaceX similarly is in talks with several airlines and has its own aviation service in development. He said the company has done some demos and plans to get it finalized for aircraft deployment "in the very near future." Griffin said aviation is "a fairly risk-averse" industry and won't adopt LEO connectivity quickly, as it waits instead to see that networks and constellations are established with a level of credibility. He said LEO connectivity deals likely will start ramping up in the back half of the decade. Hofeller said by the end of the decade, a good number of GSO satellites in orbit will be decommissioned and it's unclear if all will be replaced. He said within 10 years, LEO will be the norm for inflight connectivity. Hofeller said SpaceX has spent considerable time trying to estimate what bandwidth will be needed to serve a particular flight. He said one challenge is that usage will change over time, since usage now on airlines reflects the relatively meager service that's available. Telesat Director-Commercial and Product Development Manik Vinnakota said flights get perhaps 10 to 30 Mbps downlink service, while 50-100 Mbps could easily be needed, and perhaps more for widebody jets. He said links to aircraft also will get more symmetrical as people increasingly send as well as download files. Uplinks of 30-40 Mbps might be needed, he said.