Anti-5G group Americans for Responsible Technology is trying to organize formal opposition to the House Commerce Committee-cleared American Broadband Deployment Act (HR-3557) and other bills promoted as streamlining regulatory reviews of connectivity projects, ahead of what the group believes will be an attempt to fast-track the measures after Congress returns from the August recess after Labor Day. House Commerce advanced HR-3557, a package of GOP-led connectivity permitting revamp measures, on a party-line 27-23 vote in May, with all Democrats opposed (see 2305240069). Wired Broadband President Odette Wilkens and three lawyers rallied ART supporters against HR-3557 and other measures during a Wednesday webcast.
5G depends on the allocation of additional licensed spectrum, like the 3.1 GHz band that’s the current focus of federal policymakers (see 2308150066), said Oku Solutions CEO David Witkowski during an IEEE webinar Wednesday. Fixed-wireless access has been described as 5G’s first “killer app,” but there will be others, said Witkowski, also co-chair of the Deployment Working Group of the IEEE Future Networks Technical Community.
The FCC hasn’t made an effort to meet the four-year due date for its 2018 quadrennial review, and its arguments that Congress didn’t specify a deadline (see 2308080062) are “a recipe for eternal stasis” and would “justify perpetual delay,” said NAB in a response filing in its mandamus proceeding at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (docket 23-1120) (see 2304250029). “It is unreasonable for the Commission to have sat on its hands for years.”
The COVID-19 pandemic sent educators scrambling when schools closed overnight in March 2020, said Jason Amos, National School Boards Association director-communications, during a Broadband Breakfast webinar Wednesday. The “silver lining” is that the pandemic led to better broadband buildout, he said. Experts said schools continue to face challenges, including the advent of generative AI.
The FTC shouldn’t pursue enforcement with state attorneys general as a way to circumvent the U.S. Supreme Court’s elimination of the agency’s redress authority, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce wrote the FTC in comments posted Tuesday.
Industry urged the FCC to give providers more time to honor requests from consumers to revoke prior express consent through any reasonable means under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, in reply comments posted Tuesday in docket 02-278 (see 2308010071). Some commenters sought clarity on what would constitute "reasonable means" for a consumer to make an opt-out request.
Don’t let Lumen’s CenturyLink relitigate a Washington state probe of a 911 outage that led to a nearly $1.32 million fine against the carrier, said Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission staff and the state attorney general office’s public counsel in comments Monday. Staff took no position on public counsel seeking about 10 times the penalties ordered. CenturyLink opposed increasing fines, arguing the company should face no penalty.
CTIA asked the government to reallocate the top 150 MHz of the 3.1-3.45 GHz band to wireless broadband, noting the spectrum is seen globally as a “core 5G workhorse, providing the capacity needed to connect the industries of the future.” More than 70 countries are planning or using 5G in this band, and in 30 of those countries it safely coexists with the same U.S. military radar systems that are used domestically, CTIA said Tuesday. CTIA released three other reports, by GSMA, DLA Piper and CCS Insights, exploring how the military uses the band.
LTD Broadband still hasn’t shown it can serve rural Minnesota, said state Attorney General Keith Ellison (D), industry and public interest groups in comments at the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. They urged the PUC to lift a stay on a proceeding to consider revoking the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) winner’s expanded eligible telecom carrier (ETC) designation -- and to suspend the certificate while docket 22-221 remains open. Inaction could stop areas from receiving support from NTIA’s broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program, said the commenters.
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., declared themselves at odds Monday with the FCC’s decision to delay awarding the spectrum licenses T-Mobile bought last year in the commission’s 2.5 GHz auction while its sales authority remains lapsed (see 2303220077). The senators’ opposition highlights a growing view among Republicans that the FCC is delaying action on the T-Mobile licenses to spur on slow-moving congressional talks on a spectrum legislative package that would restore the commission’s auction authority (see 2308070001), Senate aides and others told us.