FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks’s planned Puerto Rico field hearing on disaster preparation and response in Puerto Rico is a chance to draw attention to issues on the island, but the short lead time between the event’s announcement Thursday and its Feb. 21 date have caught some stakeholders by surprise, they told us (see 2002130012). “We’re playing catch-up to this announcement,” said Reuben Jusino, who consults on FCC matters for the Puerto Rico Radio Broadcasters Association. “We’re trying to get a turn at the table,” he said. “It’s an important opportunity.”
As the list of marquee exhibitors and participants bowing out of MWC 2020 continued to pile up from coronavirus fears, GSMA pulled the plug Wednesday on the mobile industry’s spring launch event in Barcelona (see 2002120041). The show was to have opened Feb. 24 for a four-day run.
SAN FRANCISCO -- Government and Qualcomm officials will argue Thursday in federal court in a case with implications for 5G technology, FTC antitrust authority and the tech industry (see 1910100017). Qualcomm said the FTC’s antitrust lawsuit threatens national security because of the impact on U.S. companies competing with China for 5G technology dominance. DOJ sided with Qualcomm, while rival Intel and automakers backed the commission (see 1912020029).
A White House directive on a non-satellite backup of GPS positioning, navigation and timing services could affect plans for that terrestrial version, or at least muddy a related issue, PNT experts told us. White House officials told reporters, on condition they not be identified, about the PNT executive order issued Wednesday. It said the Department of Transportation is testing 11 commercial terrestrial backup technologies for GPS. Testing's to be completed by May and a recommendation for a backup system issued by year's end.
“Four hours is not enough” for battery backup at wireless cellsites, since last year’s public safety power shutoffs lasted two to eight days, California Public Utilities Commission member Genevieve Shiroma said Wednesday. CPUC is looking into the issue, she replied to our question on a resiliency panel at the NARUC winter meeting. For the state commission, “the wildfire emergency has really put an exclamation point on the importance of communications and broadband during an emergency,” said former FCC and CPUC Commissioner Rachelle Chong in an interview.
The space economy is growing rapidly, but that means increased potential problems with orbital debris and the need for space traffic management (STM), speakers said at a Space Foundation event Tuesday. Rep. Kendra Horn, D-Okla., co-chairwoman of the House Space Power Caucus, said with looming satellite mega constellations, there's a need to "set some lanes" for STM.
Universal Service Administrative Co. sees “good momentum” on the Lifeline national verifier after a rocky start that state regulators criticized last year, USAC Vice President-Lifeline Michelle Garber told NARUC. Garber told Telecom Committee members about progress connecting state databases and refining enrollment and reverification processes.
The goal is to produce a draft bill this year to update the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, said Senate Intellectual Property Subcommittee Chairman Thom Tillis, R-N.C., Tuesday. “I have low expectations we can get it done in this Congress. But I think we can get a generally accepted baseline and continue to work with the House to move it on a bicameral basis,” he told us before Tuesday’s hearing on DMCA. “It hasn’t been touched since Chumbawamba was topping the charts” in 1998.
Communities unserved by broadband often overlap with those at risk of losing their jobs to displacement by new technologies such as 5G and artificial intelligence, panelists told FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks at an event he hosted. Earlier Tuesday, AT&T showcased how U.S. industries will adopt 5G and IoT technologies to increase productivity.
A set of FTC Act Section 6(b) orders to Alphabet/Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft aren't a warning to big tech, though the agency could start a criminal investigation if it finds something problematic in its analysis of their mergers and acquisitions, Chairman Joe Simons said Tuesday. He said the agency will look at "hundreds" of unreported transactions by the companies in 2010-2019 as it tries to decide if deals that fall outside Hart-Scott-Rodino Act reporting requirements nonetheless affect competition, and if those HSR thresholds should change. The FTC announced the 6(b) orders Tuesday (see 2002110020).