General Motors decided to ask the FCC to pull the company's waiver bid to not provide some real-time texting functions (see 1904250038) after deciding it wasn't necessary, GM confirmed Friday. The company's Cruise shared autonomous vehicles that continue being tested in three big cities lack some features that would have subjected them to the RTT rules, in this view.
The joint industry-government Contraband Phone Task Force released an interim report Friday, based on more than a year of work in response to a push by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who has focused on the issue (see 1901290052). Virginia Tech professor Charles Clancy, who has been coordinating efforts, and officials from CTIA, the Association of State Correctional Administrators (ASCA) and Bureau of Prisons updated the FCC on the status of the efforts to curb contraband devices in prisons, posted Friday in docket 13-111.
Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, is pushing the Senate Commerce Committee’s bipartisan privacy working group (see 1904040073) to include elements of his bill (see 1812120036) in its proposal, according to lobbyists. They said that’s one aspect complicating long-awaited negotiations among Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Schatz.
FCC staff Friday afternoon approved SpaceX's plans for satellite broadband, over some industry opposition that was dismissed. The company's Nov. 8 application to modify its previously authorized 4,425 non-geostationary orbit satellite constellation using Ku- and Ka-band spectrum is greenlighted. Now, the company with its Starlink satellites can cut the NGSO satellites to 4,409 in what staff called "a very small reduction in the number of satellites initially granted." That was deemed "a fundamental element in assessing whether there would be significant interference problems" from the change, as others contended there would be.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative included China for the 15th straight year on its priority watch list for intellectual property violations. USTR also elevated Saudi Arabia from the second-tier watch list and downgraded Canada and Colombia from priority to watch, in the annual special 301 report Thursday (see 1902080063).
CTIA raised concerns about two California bills responding to controversial incidents involving wireless carriers: Verizon throttling traffic of Santa Clara County firefighters during the Mendocino Complex Fire last year (see 1808220059) and carriers selling customers’ real-time data location (see 1904180056). But at a Wednesday hearing, the Assembly Communications and Conveyance Committee widely supported both measures. The panel also supported a bill to require text-to-911 across the state.
Federal officials and private sector stakeholders warned the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission Thursday about the Chinese government's intense interest in becoming a leading space power. They recommended a change in federal strategy to protect against the corresponding threat to U.S. satellite interests. House Armed Services Committee member Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., recently raised concerns via a Center for Strategic and International Studies report that China and other countries had surpassed the U.S. in deploying anti-satellite technologies (see 1904040007). There's widespread debate how the U.S. can eclipse China in the race for dominance over 5G (see 1904090075).
The Supreme Court’s decision in a junk fax case, PDR Network v. Carlton & Harris Chiropractic, has major implications for what the FCC does on the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, experts said Wednesday evening at an FCBA seminar (see 1904240063). Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau Deputy Chief Mark Stone said the FCC is exploring many issues on the TCPA, beyond the definition of automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS). The PDR case, No. 17-1705, was argued in March. Justices took up an appellate court ruling that a litigant in a private junk fax lawsuit can't attack the validity of an FCC order that could have been challenged under the Hobbs Act when issued (see 1903250068).
T-Mobile CEO John Legere still expects the FCC and DOJ to approve the company’s buy of Sprint by the end of June. The FCC’s unofficial 180-day shot clock expires June 4, he said Thursday. “We remain optimistic and confident,” Legere said on a Q1 call. The company reported it spent $93 million advocating for the deal in the quarter.
Whatever C-band clearing plan the FCC takes up for terrestrial 5G use will likely be a compromise, but finding that compromise looks elusive. A Capitol Forum event had debates about the relative merits and shortcomings of rival clearing plans and jostling over whether C-band satellite operators are fully using what they have now.