Backers of extra filing time to comment on public safety aspects of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit’s Mozilla v. FCC net neutrality decision applauded the agency's 21-day extension announcement Wednesday (see 2003250031). Some left the door open to seeking more time. About a dozen groups had sought a month longer, citing COVID-19.
States are rapidly changing rules to increase telehealth access as a pandemic intensifies the need for remote care. Most policies weren't ready for the novel coronavirus, and even with states now taking emergency steps, “there’s a lot of work” left, said Mei Kwong, executive director of the Public Health Institute’s Center for Connected Health Policy. She and other experts predicted the virus will have a tremendous impact on telemedicine.
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told us Wednesday she and other congressional Democrats plan to push for the next bill addressing COVID-19 to include broadband capacity and distance learning provisions. A compromise of a third stimulus bill unveiled that day failed to include those priorities. Capitol Hill leaders and President Donald Trump’s administration reached a deal early Wednesday. A cloture vote on the COVID-19 legislative vehicle (HR-748) was expected to have happened Wednesday night. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and three other Republicans made that outcome more uncertain when they objected to the bill's proposed amount of unemployment insurance.
The FCC Wednesday postponed the first mid-band auction of citizens broadband radio service licenses for about a month because of COVID-19. The FCC postponed indefinitely an auction of FM construction permits. Analysts disagreed Wednesday whether the C-band auction could get pushed to next year.
Replies show little emerging consensus on an NPRM commissioners approved 5-0 at their December meeting (see 1912120063) proposing to remove existing nonfederal secondary and amateur allocations in the 3.3-3.55 GHz band and to relocate incumbent nonfederal operations. Amateur radio operators raised concerns right after the rulemaking was approved (see 2002180056). Replies were posted through Tuesday in docket 19-348.
The FCC Technological Advisory Council heard early reports from working groups at an online meeting Tuesday. TAC Chairman Dennis Roberson warned the COVID-19 crisis might well not be over when the group next meets June 9. The kind of work TAC does is more important than ever, said Roberson, executive chairman of entigenlogicTM. Last year, TAC’s work was slowed by the prolonged federal government shutdown, Roberson said. That was “nothing compared to what we’re dealing with now, of course,” but TAC never got started until June, he said.
Congressional leaders were optimistic Tuesday afternoon they were close to reaching a deal on a third economic stimulus bill addressing the effects of COVID-19, after days of wrangling over legislative language on funding for telecom and other priorities. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was among those saying a deal appeared near, though she warned House Democratic leaders could move forward on a counterproposal if they deem final Senate bill language unsatisfactory. The Pelosi-led counterproposal drew fire from Republicans in part because it contains pandemic-specific Lifeline funding (see 2003230066).
The FCC has been pleased to see industry take-up of its "keep Americans connected" pledge and its push to expand low-income offerings, and doesn't anticipate asking edge providers to throttle their streaming video quality to ensure adequate data network capacity, said Evan Swarztrauber, an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai, in a Recon Analytics web conference Tuesday. The European Union asked streaming services like Netflix and YouTube to reduce their data traffic. Deploying 5G could face some COVID-19 headwinds due to the workforce issues getting antennas installed, Techsponential President Avi Greengart said.
The FCC’s March 31 commissioners' meeting will be livestream only (see 2003240030). Items will be voted ahead of time on circulation and commissioner remarks will be shortened, agency officials said in interviews. The meeting’s changed format takes into account the agency’s COVID-19 preventive measures, which include closing headquarters to most visitors and staff being asked to telework.
The Ultra HD Forum will soon publish an updated “service tracker” that will cover 150 “consumer-facing” content offerings that reach 3 billion subscribers globally, Ben Schwarz, who chairs the forum’s communications working group, told a webinar Monday hosted by Europe’s DVB consortium. The forum had planned to announce the new tracker at the now-canceled NAB Show, said Schwarz.