The FCC Communications Equity and Diversity Council -- formerly the Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment -- plans its first meeting Nov. 3, says Friday's Federal Register. The charter for the committee was renewed for a two-year period that began June 29. The meeting will involve introducing the members of the CEDC and establishing working groups, the FR says.
T-Mobile asked to strike a Dish Network official’s testimony at last month’s California Public Utilities Commission hearing on the wireless carrier’s planned CDMA shutdown (see 2109210040). T-Mobile filed a motion Wednesday in docket A.18-07-012 to remove from the record Sept. 20 testimony by Dish Executive Vice President-External and Legal Affairs Jeffrey Blum, who was the satellite company’s only witness. Blum’s testimony was “irrelevant” to issues raised by the CPUC’s order to show cause, T-Mobile said. “He did nothing more than offer his own personal opinion about how to interpret agreements between the parties and testimony from the prior proceedings.” Blum gave “false testimony ... including fabricated assertions about a three-year CDMA maintenance commitment, and abused the process of this Commission and other government agencies in a bad-faith attempt to hold T-Mobile to this non-existent commitment,” it said: T-Mobile was denied due process because its cross-examination of Blum was “abruptly cut short” when the hearing ended. T-Mobile Technology President Neville Ray "repeatedly testified about a three year migration period during the CPUC’s review of the merger," and the carrier negotiated for an option to lease back 800 MHz spectrum for an extra two years, a Dish spokesperson emailed: "Instead of making meritless claims, T-Mobile should focus on upholding the promises made under oath and ensuring low-income consumers won't be disenfranchised" by a Jan. 1 CDMA shutdown.
The 3.45 GHz auction opened Tuesday with $672.4 million in gross bids after the first two rounds. That compares with $1.9 billion in bids in the C-band auction after the initial day in December (see 2012080040). The bidding after the first round “suggests all four national carriers are bidding for 40MHz in the auction, meaning the auction is on the right track to close,” New Street’s Philip Burnett told investors. Three rounds are scheduled for Wednesday. The auction has to raise almost $14.8 billion to close and cover the expected sharing and relocation costs for federal users. “We are moving with record speed and collaboration to free up more mid-band spectrum for 5G,” said FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, announcing the start of the auction.
An order on updating the table of allotments would incorporate changes from the broadcast incentive auction, the repacking, and from after a freeze on changes was lifted in November, says the draft the FCC released Tuesday. The order is set for commissioners' Oct. 26 meeting (see 2110040068). The table was last updated in 2018. The order would remove language in regulations that became outdated with the auction’s reallocation of channels and the DTV transition. The order doesn’t stem from a preexisting notice and comment process because the revisions “merely correct outdated information from the 2018 Table as a result of channel reassignments and/or community of license changes that have already been approved by the Commission,” the draft says. A third round of connected care pilot program winners will treat "high-risk pregnancy/maternal health, mental health conditions, opioid dependency, COVID-19, and chronic conditions," says a draft public notice on docket 18-213. Selected participants would have six months to file their initial funding requests with Universal Service Administrative Co.
A virtual hearing on Hurricane Ida headlines a skinny agenda for the Oct. 26 commissioners’ meeting. Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced the hearing last week when the FCC approved 4-0 NPRM on making networks more resilient during disasters (see 2109300069). “The information gleaned from this hearing will serve as a foundation for recommendations and actions to make our networks more resilient before the next unthinkable event occurs,” she said in a Monday post: “We’ll be hearing from a variety of viewpoints.” The agenda includes an unspecified national security item, Rosenworcel said. “Since January we’ve maintained a proactive and meaningful response to security threats to our communications networks, and this item will continue that effort.” Rosenworcel said an item slated for a vote will update the TV table of allotments and “delete or revise rules rendered obsolete” by the end of the broadcast incentive auction and the DTV transition. A third round of funding for the Connected Care Pilot program will be considered, Rosenworcel wrote. It would help "a range of nonprofit and public health care providers connect with their patients" and "support internet access for patients and providers, focusing on maternal health and high-risk pregnancy, public health epidemics, opioid dependency, mental health, and chronic conditions," she said.
Congressional Democratic leaders moved back the deadline for enacting the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (HR-3684) and a related budget reconciliation package to Oct. 31, after renewed infighting between the party’s liberal and moderate factions over the latter bill (see 2110010001). Oct. 31 also is expiration of a 30-day extension of the surface transportation statute (HR-5434) enacted Saturday in a bid to buy more time to pass HR-3684, which includes $65 billion for broadband. “Not every member will get everything he or she wanted” in HR-3684 or reconciliation still under negotiations, said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York Monday in a letter to the chamber’s Democratic caucus. “At the end of the day, we will pass legislation that will dramatically improve the lives of the American people. I believe we are going to do just that in the month of October.” A final reconciliation deal needs to happen “within a matter of days, not weeks,” for Democrats to meet that goal, Schumer said. President Joe Biden indicated during a Friday meeting with House Democrats that they'd likely be "working with a lower topline number" for the reconciliation bill than the $3.5 trillion originally envisioned "and decisions must therefore be made regarding the size and scope" of the measure, Pelosi said in a Monday letter to the caucus.
The 3.45 GHz transition is much smaller than the one for the C-band but presents its own complications, CTIA said in comments posted Friday on the 3.45 GHz clearinghouse, in FCC docket 19-348. “Both the number of claims and the dollar amount of estimated reimbursements for the 3.45 GHz band are more than a thousand times smaller” than for the C-band, and “there may be a dearth of qualified applicants, or the clearinghouse infrastructure may substantially raise the transition costs for the band,” the group warned: “Key safeguards need to be maintained.” Comcast's NBCUniversal said it and Nexstar, as the only radiolocation incumbents “should play a role in the important step of selecting a reimbursement clearinghouse.” While both “operate weather radars in the 3.45 GHz band, their transition processes will differ in certain respects, making representation by both parties crucial to a fair and equitable clearinghouse selection process,” NBCU said. It called on the FCC to keep things simple, consistent with the small size of the transition.
The FCC added several questions to its final NPRM clarifying that all tribal libraries are eligible for the E-rate program, according to our comparison to the draft (see 2109300069). It sought comment on GAO 2016 recommendations regarding tribal outreach and whether "consultation with other relevant federal agencies such as [the Institute of Museum and Library Services] or the Department of Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs, when developing and promoting such training programs and outreach improve their effectiveness" (see 1604270065). It also asked whether the commission should "consider developing performance goals and measures to track progress" on increasing tribal school and library participation.
The deadline for applications to join a working group of the FCC Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council is Nov. 1, said a Public Safety Bureau public notice Thursday. It said the six working groups and chairs are: WG 1: 5G Signaling Protocols Security, co-chaired by AT&T Assistant Vice President-Standards and Industry Alliances Brian Daly and Oracle Cybersecurity Director Travis Russell; WG 2: Promoting Security, Reliability and Interoperability of Open Radio Access Network Equipment, co-chaired by Mavenir Chief Product Security Officer Mike Barnes and Rural Wireless Association member George Woodward, CEO of Trilogy Networks; WG 3: Leveraging Virtualization Technology to Promote Secure, Reliable 5G Networks, co-chaired by Microsoft 5G Policy and External Engagements Director Micaela Giuhat and Dell EMC Global Chief Technology Officer John Roese; WG 4: 911 Service Over Wi-Fi, co-chaired by Intrado Vice President-Government and External Affairs Mary Boyd and APCO Government Relations Manager Mark Reddish; WG 5: Managing Software & Cloud Services Supply Chain Security for Communications Infrastructure, chaired by VMware Head-RAN Intelligence and Chief Architect Rittwik Jana; and WG 6: Leveraging Mobile Device Applications and Firmware to Enhance Wireless Emergency Alerts, co-chaired by Qualcomm Engineering Director Farrokh Khatibi and Harris County, Texas, Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management Deputy Emergency Management Coordinator Francisco Sanchez.
Her agency's effort with NTIA last week on the latter's annual Spectrum Policy Symposium (see 2109210066) was an important step on collaboration, FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said Thursday at the virtual CTIA 5G Summit. “5G is an essential part of unlocking technologies we've been talking about and slowly developing for years,” including the IoT, “telemedicine, virtual and augmented reality, smart transportation networks, smart energy grids,” she said: “This in turn is going to drive the future of industry and expand the potential for machine learning and the possibilities of artificial intelligence.” The 3.45 GHz auction is important because of more than the mid-band spectrum it will make available for 5G, she said. It will “demonstrate the future viability of coordination zones that require private carriers to depend on other federal actors for information or access,” she said. The FCC is “continuing to work with our federal partners” on opening 3.1-3.45 GHz for a future auction, she said. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said Congress should pass legislation like the Secure Equipment Act (S-1790), which the Senate Commerce Committee cleared in August (see 2108040077). 5G “can be the best of technologies or the worst of technologies, if we don't address the safety and security threats that come alongside expanded connectivity,” he said: “We must take the proper steps to keep compromised equipment out of our networks, as well as safeguard all of the connected technology that is proliferating in consumers' homes and across our critical infrastructure.” Many trends from this pandemic, “including touchless retail, work from home and hybrid work and school arrangements,” will continue, predicted Verizon Consumer Group CEO Ronan Dunne. A survey Verizon commissioned found “more than half of employed adults said that they were working at least partially remotely, nearly twice the share before the pandemic began,” he said: And 60% of respondents “said that they expect kids to be able to attend remote school during inclement weather.”