The FCC released a draft order that would streamline wireless infrastructure rules in keeping with the push that started in the early days of the Ajit Pai chairmanship. Pai blogged Thursday that the changes are critical to 5G. Commissioner Brendan Carr, heading the FCC’s wireless infrastructure push, already highlighted many of the changes in a speech Wednesday (see 1802280031). A key American Indian group raised initial concerns. Among other items up for a vote at the March 22 meeting, as expected, are a Further NPRM on the 4.9 GHz band, changes to cell booster rules and deregulation for when satellite stations' parents have ownership changes. The meeting will start at 9:30 a.m., an hour earlier than normal.
The FCC should waive for five years its Section 79.2(b) emergency information accessibility requirement that dynamic image crawls used during breaking news and emergencies be conveyed aurally since there’s no good technology for broadcasters doing so today, its Disability Advisory Committee said Wednesday. Instead, voluntary best practices put together by broadcasters and advocacy groups are “the best and only way to pursue this,” said NAB Associate General Counsel Larry Walke.
The U.S. will impose a 25 percent duty on all foreign steel and a 10 percent duty on imported aluminum, President Donald Trump announced March 1. "It'll be for a long period of time. We’ll be signing it next week. And you’ll have protection for a long time in a while. What's been allowed to go on for decades is disgraceful."
A ruling upholding FTC authority over ISPs is a consumer win, but more should be done, said Frank Pallone, D-N.J., House Commerce Committee ranking member. He was reacting to a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision Monday affirming commission jurisdiction over the non-common-carrier activities of common carriers (see 1802260031). "The FTC can and should take actions to protect consumers from unfair and deceptive acts by companies when they’re not acting as common carriers," said Pallone. "But this decision does not fix the hole created by Republicans who stopped the FCC from enforcing strong privacy and data security safeguards. Consumers still lack adequate protections without clear rules of the road.”
A ruling upholding FTC authority over ISPs is a consumer win, but more should be done, said Frank Pallone, D-N.J., House Commerce Committee ranking member. He was reacting to a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision Monday affirming commission jurisdiction over the non-common-carrier activities of common carriers (see 1802260031). "The FTC can and should take actions to protect consumers from unfair and deceptive acts by companies when they’re not acting as common carriers," said Pallone. "But this decision does not fix the hole created by Republicans who stopped the FCC from enforcing strong privacy and data security safeguards. Consumers still lack adequate protections without clear rules of the road.”
In oral argument in the “Microsoft Ireland” Supreme Court case Tuesday (see 1710160009), Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor asked whether the high court should defer to Congress for a legislative solution on police access to data stored abroad. Ginsburg called the environment of U.S. v. Microsoft a “brave new world.” Citing the 1986 Stored Communications Act, Microsoft challenged a U.S. government warrant demanding emails stored in Ireland as part of a drug trafficking investigation. The high court granted the government’s application to review a 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that said Microsoft didn't have to comply with a probable-cause warrant for the customer's emails in Ireland because U.S. law doesn't apply abroad.
In oral argument in the “Microsoft Ireland” Supreme Court case Tuesday (see 1710160009), Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor asked whether the high court should defer to Congress for a legislative solution on police access to data stored abroad. Ginsburg called the environment of U.S. v. Microsoft a “brave new world.” Citing the 1986 Stored Communications Act, Microsoft challenged a U.S. government warrant demanding emails stored in Ireland as part of a drug trafficking investigation. The high court granted the government’s application to review a 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that said Microsoft didn't have to comply with a probable-cause warrant for the customer's emails in Ireland because U.S. law doesn't apply abroad.
Reps. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., and Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., plan to soon file their Don’t Break Up the T-Band Act in a bid to repeal a provision of the 2012 spectrum law that mandates that public safety agencies move off the 470-512 MHz T-band by 2021, a Capitol Hill aide and two industry lobbyists told us. Introduction was expected to have occurred as soon as Monday evening. The lawmakers are moving forward with the measure after a briefing with public safety officials earlier this month, the aide said. “This spectrum is essential to public safety and for many public safety entities there is nowhere else to move,” Engel and Zeldin said in a letter to fellow House members. Their spokesmen didn’t immediately comment. House Homeland Security Communications Subcommittee Chairman Dan Donovan, R-N.Y. , and other subcommittee members raised concerns about the effects of public safety agencies’ mandated migration off the T-band, during an October hearing (see 1710120053).
The FCC approved a notice proposing rules implementing Section 7 of the Communications Act, designed to speed review of “innovative” technologies and services, over objections by Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Mignon Clyburn Thursday. Chairman Ajit Pai said the goal is simple -- get out of the way of innovation. “Bureaucratic inertia” is a common barrier, he said. The agency has been taking steps on his watch to promote innovation, from approving the first LTE-unlicensed devices to approving ATSC 3.0 standards to greenlighting a power-at-a-distance wireless transmitter, Pai said: “We have stood on the side of innovation, but these are ad hoc measures.”
The FCC approved a notice proposing rules implementing Section 7 of the Communications Act, designed to speed review of “innovative” technologies and services, over objections by Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Mignon Clyburn Thursday. Chairman Ajit Pai said the goal is simple -- get out of the way of innovation. “Bureaucratic inertia” is a common barrier, he said. The agency has been taking steps on his watch to promote innovation, from approving the first LTE-unlicensed devices to approving ATSC 3.0 standards to greenlighting a power-at-a-distance wireless transmitter, Pai said: “We have stood on the side of innovation, but these are ad hoc measures.”