HOUSTON -- The FCC may soon launch a rulemaking on easing local barriers to small-cell deployments, said Wireless Infrastructure Association CEO Jonathan Adelstein in an interview at WIA's HetNet Expo. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said last month at a CTIA conference (see 1609070033) the agency will drive 5G growth by working with local governments to speed siting of new wireless facilities. On a Tuesday panel in Houston, Wheeler aide Edward Smith said the FCC wants to move quickly and is considering what authorities it may use to address the issue, but hasn’t made a decision.
The Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee is firming up the date and time of its planned oversight hearing on AT&T buying Time Warner, and AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson and Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes seem on deck to testify in December. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., meanwhile, wrote a scathing letter to the DOJ urging rejection of the deal.
The Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee is firming up the date and time of its planned oversight hearing on AT&T buying Time Warner, and AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson and Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes seem on deck to testify in December. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., meanwhile, wrote a scathing letter to the DOJ urging rejection of the deal.
HOUSTON -- The FCC may soon launch a rulemaking on easing local barriers to small-cell deployments, said Wireless Infrastructure Association CEO Jonathan Adelstein in an interview at WIA's HetNet Expo. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said last month at a CTIA conference (see 1609070033) the agency will drive 5G growth by working with local governments to speed siting of new wireless facilities. On a Tuesday panel in Houston, Wheeler aide Edward Smith said the FCC wants to move quickly and is considering what authorities it may use to address the issue, but hasn’t made a decision.
ISPs apparently failed in their attempts to get the FCC to drop web browsing and application-use history from the list of types of data to be treated as sensitive, requiring opt-in consent to use or share, as the ISP privacy rules head for a commissioner vote Thursday, we're told. Meanwhile, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn isn't expected to press for provisions that would ban plans that allow subscribers to sign up for cheaper broadband in return for reduced privacy protections (see 1610200044). But Clyburn is pushing for a rule change that would block ISPs from inserting mandatory arbitration clauses on privacy violations in service contracts, informed sources said.
ISPs apparently failed in their attempts to get the FCC to drop web browsing and application-use history from the list of types of data to be treated as sensitive, requiring opt-in consent to use or share, as the ISP privacy rules head for a commissioner vote Thursday, we're told. Meanwhile, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn isn't expected to press for provisions that would ban plans that allow subscribers to sign up for cheaper broadband in return for reduced privacy protections (see 1610200044). But Clyburn is pushing for a rule change that would block ISPs from inserting mandatory arbitration clauses on privacy violations in service contracts, informed sources said.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission should drop plans to move forward with new regulations on voluntary recall plans and disclosure of company information, said nearly 50 industry associations in a letter dated Oct. 18 (here). Consideration of final rules setting the new requirements would ignore overwhelmingly negative comments on CPSC’s 2013 and 2014 proposals, which would make voluntary corrective action plans mandatory and amend the commission’s 6(b) information disclosure regulations. Instead, CPSC should withdraw the proposals and work with industry to issue new and different proposed rules for public comment, said the groups, which include the American Apparel & Footwear Association, the American Association of Exporters and Importers and the National Association of Manufacturers.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler anticipates the Enforcement Bureau tiger teams “should be up and running” by early 2017, he told House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore. That was one of the many written answers Wheeler supplied in a 40-page document sent to the House Commerce Committee this month. He and the other four commissioners were responding to questions for the record that lawmakers submitted after a July 12 FCC oversight hearing.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler anticipates the Enforcement Bureau tiger teams “should be up and running” by early 2017, he told House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore. That was one of the many written answers Wheeler supplied in a 40-page document sent to the House Commerce Committee this month. He and the other four commissioners were responding to questions for the record that lawmakers submitted after a July 12 FCC oversight hearing.
The new Congress in 2017 may provide a window for major legislation overhauling the 1991 Telephone Consumer Protection Act, lawmakers told us. The Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing on the law in May and the House Communications Subcommittee did in September, which some see as setting the stage for action next Congress. Members of both parties agreed the statute is outdated and spent this past Congress advancing bipartisan anti-spoofing legislation.