The FCC voted along party lines Wednesday for partial pre-emption of San Francisco's Article 52 open-access rule, with dissenting Democratic commissioners complaining of regulatory overreach. Geoffrey Starks called the declaratory ruling “not sound law and not good policy." Jessica Rosenworcel said it's "an affront to our long history" of local control. The Republicans and Starks, meanwhile, backed the related NPRM asking about other ways the FCC could boost broadband deployment in multi-tenant environments (MTE), though Mike O'Rielly said he did so with reservations.
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
Licensing a small satellite could get cheaper and faster through a streamlined process to be on the FCC's Aug. 1 agenda, Chairman Ajit Pai told a U.S. Chamber of Commerce smallsat conference Tuesday. FCC officials told us the agenda could include a local franchise authority order stemming from last year's Further NPRM that would treat cable operators' in-kind contributions required by LFAs as franchise fees and subject to a cap (see 1809250017).
Consensus on FCC legal authority for a particular method of C-band clearing remains elusive, judging by docket 18-122 comments posted through Friday on such issues as enforceable interference protection rights in the band. Parties jousted over the nature of satellite and earth station operators' rights and various proposals for clearing the 3.7-4.2 GHz band.
Amazon's plan now before the FCC for a 3,236-satellite non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) constellation is increasing the pressure on the agency to act on its orbital debris proceeding, especially since the e-tailer's resources make its constellation plan less speculative than others, satellite experts told us. Amazon's International Bureau application filed Thursday also could raise red flags from other satellite operators about its trying to bypass the processing round process, said satellite lawyer Steve Goodman of Butzel Long.
San Francisco's Police Code Article 52 has been either a boon or barrier for smaller ISPs seeking to enter large multi-dwelling units, backers and critics said before the FCC's July 10 vote on pre-empting one aspect of the regulation (see 1906190067). Portrayed as helping small ISPs compete, the regulation does the opposite, said Carl Kandutsch, a lawyer with small ISP clients and a board member of the Multifamily Broadband Council. MBC petitioned for Article 52 pre-emption (see 1706120052).
Just wait, more is coming, Telesat said in an FCC International Bureau filing Thursday in response to a SpaceX filing asking what the basis is for Telesat's saying SpaceX is misreading the rules in its claim it's entitled to first choice of “home base” Ku-band frequencies (see 1906210002). Telesat in its latest filing said it will make an additional filing that explains the reasoning behind its position, and SpaceX will have the opportunity to respond then.
Regulatory uncertainty about the 5.9 GHz band's future threatens the progress auto industry OEMs and some state transportation departments are making in deploying vehicle-to-everything technology (V2X) for safety purposes, Global Automakers (GA) said in a call Thursday with reporters, arguing its case for a flexible-use licensing regime for the band. How much traction the auto industry proposal has at the FCC is unclear. The industry narrative about using the band to save lives "is a powerful one," but it's also somewhat undercut by relative lack of dedicated short-range communications (DSCR) in the band, said Competitive Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow Marc Scribner.
This commercial space boom is fundamentally different from the one that collapsed in the 1990s, executives said Wednesday at a State Department/Commerce Department conference on commercial outer space. The industry should be able to keep growing with smaller satellite sizes and masses meaning lower payload costs, said Spaceflight Industries CEO Curt Blake. Lower payload costs "have really created a platform open to everyone now," he said.
The orbital debris problem not being talked about enough is avoiding "rocks" -- satellites over which the operator loses control -- Iridium CEO Matt Desch said Wednesday at the Secure World Foundation space sustainability summit. "It's basically a missile ... to create more debris." There's lack of discussion in the industry about rocks because it doesn't want to invite reliability standards, he said. If just a fraction of satellites in a constellation fail, it could be a significant danger if that constellation is made up thousands of satellites, he said.
More willingness to name and shame bad actors and stronger international requirements that satellites be actively brought down from orbit after their missions expire instead of waiting for drag and gravity were suggested by space experts Tuesday at Secure World Foundation’s space sustainability summit on an increasingly crowded orbital domain. As the pace of space activities and number of actors grow, there needs to be a shift from academic discussions to real-world policy debates, said Secure World Executive Director Peter Martinez.