European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, just after their meeting Oct. 13, said they have confidence they can manage their differences over electric vehicle tax credits without the issue turning into a formal trade dispute.
The National Public Safety Telecommunications Council urged the FCC to act soon to renew the FirstNet Authority’s band 14 license. The group said it takes no stand on issues raised by the National Sheriffs Association and the Major Cities Chiefs Association (see 2209070059) and 2208250056) and “to the extent the Commission decides to pursue those issues” that shouldn’t delay renewal. The license “will expire in mid-November, just slightly over a month away,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 12-94: “NPSTC believes the significant work accomplished to date to stand up the [network], and the resulting broadband service utilizing Band 14, are both too important to the public safety community to let the license lapse.”
A new bill in the Senate and House could impose one-year bans on the export of certain weapons and defense items to Saudi Arabia. The bill, announced this week by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., would suspend all new license applications for exports of “any defense articles proposed or submitted to Congress” pursuant to the Arms Export Control Act, including “direct munitions containers; weapon support and support equipment; spare and repair parts; United States Government and contractor engineering, technical and logistical support services; and other related elements of logistical and program support.”
The Wireless Infrastructure Association is continuing its push, started under former President Jonathan Adelstein (see 2204180045), to ensure that wireless has a big role to play as the federal government awards more than $48 billion in connectivity money through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, new President Patrick Halley said in an interview. WIA was among the groups that raised concerns NTIA is putting too much emphasis on fiber, in contravention of the direction from Congress when it created the broadband, equity, access and deployment program (see 2205130054).
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said the FCC should launch a rulemaking on higher power levels for the citizens broadband radio service band, saying that could be helpful to wireless ISPs, in a prerecorded interview with new WISP Association President David Zumwalt. The interview was aired Wednesday at a WISPA meeting in Las Vegas. “It’s worth asking the question, teeing it up,” Carr said. “There are certainly some use cases, particularly in rural communities where upping the power … might allow you from your existing tower site to reach one more home, one more business,” he said of CBRS changes: “At the end of the day, WISPs are so connected to their communities. … WISPs are scrappy. WISPs are getting the job done.” The FCC didn't comment. Carr said the FCC needs to get moving on other spectrum initiative as well, including on client-to-client devices in 6 GHz and the UNII2c band. WISPs are “looking for ways to have some stability in the ability to plan on what kind of spectrum they need to be prepared for, whether it’s licensed or unlicensed, and over what period of time they can roll that out,” Zumwalt said. His members are paying close attention to all the spectrum decisions being made at the FCC, he said. The FCC wants to offer licenses covering smaller geographic areas where possible, Carr said. “Maybe every single auction we might not get right ... but hopefully, over a course of years, we are doing some small geographies, some large geographies, and people are seeing a healthy mix,” he said. WISPA members have continuing concerns about NTIA’s broadband, equity, access and deployment program notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) and appreciate the questions that have been raised by Carr (see 2207210064), Zumwalt said: “It should have been more technology neutral and inclusive.” Carr said it looked to him like NTIA made “a lot of the right cuts” in the NOFO but “there was some political turning of the dials at the last minute.” Carr agreed about the need to refocus the NOFO. “We love fiber, we want tons of fiber,” he said. “But we need to be open-minded … for last-mile technologies, including fixed wireless,” he said. “We love fiber too,” Zumwalt responded: “But we love fiber in the right place, in the right circumstance.” Carr said insisting on a fiber-only approach means telling people “you need to wait on the wrong side of the digital divide years longer than necessary.” The FCC faces challenges delivering on a broadband map, expected in November, Carr said. “I don’t know that we have to hit a bulls-eye” with the initial map “but we have to at least get it in the strike zone,” he said. Carr said he hopes the FCC doesn’t revisit reclassifying broadband as a Communications Act Title II service. “That’s just a backward looking debate,” he said. Title II and possible price controls, “really that’s a 2005 debate,” he said.
FDA is proposing to amend its regulations on administrative detention to provide for the destruction of low value medical devices that have been refused admission to the U.S., and modify its procedures so the agency can more easily destroy low value shipments of drugs, it said in a notice released Oct. 6. Comments on the proposal are due Dec. 6.
ISPs, states and local officials said they're closely monitoring the FCC’s bulk challenge process for the broadband serviceable location fabric, before the initial map’s release later this fall. Few issues have been identified so far, though some ISPs raised concerns about potential challenges by states since the new maps will be used to allocate broadband-related Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funding.
The U.S. Supreme Court in an Oct. 3 order denied Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska's petition for certiorari over his sanctions designation. The move comes shortly after he, along with his associates, were charged with conspiring to violate his sanctions listing. The court rejected the cert motion without issuing any further explanation.
The U.S. Supreme Court in an Oct. 3 order denied Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska's petition for certiorari over his sanctions designation. The move comes shortly after he, along with his associates, were charged with conspiring to violate his sanctions listing. The court rejected the cert motion without issuing any further explanation.
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and House Commerce Committee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., urged NTIA Friday to encourage streamlining of permitting processes for recipients of money from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s $42.5 billion broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program. “With inflation already raising costs, we cannot afford to waste time and resources on needless bureaucracy when we should be building networks,” the GOP leaders said in a letter to NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson. “Without action, we worry that deployments will take longer and be more expensive, leaving more Americans on the wrong side of the digital divide.” NTIA should “require states and territories to work with their local governments to streamline permitting processes to expedite and reduce barriers to deployment,” Rodgers and Wicker said: “We are encouraged” that BEAD’s notice of funding opportunity (see 2205130054) “asks states to identify steps to reduce deployment barriers, including streamlined permitting processes, and encourages state and territorial governments to expedite permitting timelines," but “merely encouraging and promoting these actions … is not enough.” NTIA should “require states and territories to work with local governments to adopt streamlining policies that reduce the burdens associated with obtaining permits,” the lawmakers said. The agency “should also set a high bar for the ‘other critical policy goals’ that states and localities can use to justify burdensome permitting regulations so that the exception does not become the rule.”