The 5G transition is “the first time” in wireless history that consumer devices debuted “ahead of the networks,” said Qualcomm President Cristiano Amon in an IFA keynote Friday. He used the speech to introduce Snapdragon chipsets he said were designed to bring “scale” faster to global 5G deployments. It’s “not by coincidence” that 5G devices preceded network deployments, but because “we now have a very mature smartphone user base,” said Amon. "We need to enable the operators to have that ecosystem ready” as a springboard to “start building coverage,” he said.
Public Knowledge and The Utility Reform Network flied a 10-page petitioner's supplemental filing on standing (in Pacer) Friday in Greenlining v. FCC (17-73283), on federal regulation as phone companies discontinue copper line telephone service. Two 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges in Aug. 27 oral argument in Seattle probed the consumer groups over whether they demonstrated enough injury to merit standing (see 1908270026). Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld asked the court for the opportunity to supplement the records, and the court granted the request (see 1908280052).
Staffers for House Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chair Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., and ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., met throughout the August recess to negotiate a bipartisan privacy bill, an aide familiar with House Commerce Committee discussions told us. A committee spokesperson said Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., is collaborating with members. Pallone is “developing comprehensive data privacy and security legislation with Chair Schakowsky and other committee members,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “Bipartisan discussions continue, which he hopes will produce strong consumer privacy protections for all Americans.”
NTIA plans a spectrum policy symposium Tuesday. With the agency under interim leadership since Administrator David Redl left in May (see 1905090051), experts told us questions remain about the future of administration policy. At last year’s symposium, officials indicated the Trump administration planned to build on, rather than replace, the previous administration's policies (see 1806120056).
Rural broadband stakeholders urged the federal government to continue encouraging connectivity improvements via legislation and agency action, in written testimony for a Thursday Senate Commerce Committee field hearing. The hearing, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, wasn't webcast and footage wasn't immediately available. There's increased attention on broadband among 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls (see 1909040061). The House Communications Subcommittee plans a hearing next week on legislation to improve the federal government's collection of broadband coverage data (see 1909040080).
The FCC proposes eliminating access arbitrage in a 43-page draft order for docket 18-155 updating the intercarrier compensation regime. Commissioners are scheduled to consider that and four other proposals at the Sept. 26 commissioners' meeting. They are USF funding for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands; auction procedures for the 3.5 MHz band; public notice simplifications for broadcast filings; and direct broadcast satellite licensing rules (see 1909040073).
Leading 2020 Democratic presidential candidates' proposals for major broadband funding likely signal a definitive end to hopes for enacting a long-sought infrastructure package before the next election, communications sector officials and lobbyists told us. But focus on the issue is a net positive for the ongoing policy debate, they said. Experts question, though, whether attention to broadband as part of rural-focused campaign platforms will translate into a shift in support among those voters who moved away from Democrats in the 2016 election.
Many ultra-wideband companies want the FCC to explore changes to the rules, but the GPS Innovation Alliance (GPSIA) said the current rules are working. Reply comments were due Wednesday in RM-11844 on a June filing by engineering company Robert Bosch, which said the FCC should launch an "early” and ”comprehensive” review of Part 15, Subpart F regulations on ultra-wideband devices and systems (see 1907190010). Now the FCC will have to decide whether to launch a rulemaking or take no further steps.
Google will pay $170 million to settle allegations that YouTube illegally collected personal data from children without parental consent, the FTC said Wednesday in a 3-2 party line vote.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai circulated a draft order on the eighth floor Wednesday to direct $950 million in a second round of USF funding to strengthen broadband networks in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, after Hurricanes Maria and Irma in 2017 (see 1805290028). The commissioners will vote on the draft order at the agency's Sept. 26 public meeting, the FCC said Wednesday (see 1909040073). The agency has collected public input for over a year on the Uniendo a Puerto Rico and Connect USVI funds in docket 18-143 (see 1805180075).