The House Rules Committee appears likely to clear at least some of 17 amendments to the Save the Internet Act net neutrality bill for floor consideration this week, said communications sector lobbyists and officials in interviews. A final vote on HR-1644 is expected Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning.
Some changes are possible to the draft order on the 37 GHz band, teed up for a Friday vote by FCC members. The agency proposes rules for coordinating with DOD on future use of the upper 37 GHz band beyond current DOD sites located there. FCC and NTIA officials met to discuss the order Monday and a few tweaks are possible, government officials said.
The U.S. needs to devote the “proper” federal resources to the rise of white nationalism, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., told us, citing what he called a lack of attention from President Donald Trump. It’s obvious why Tuesday’s hearing (see 1904040064), in which Facebook and Google are expected to testify, is needed, Nadler said. The hearing will convene at 10 a.m. in 2141 Rayburn.
Expect the District of Columbia Public Service Commission to be “more active” in FCC proceedings, including Lifeline, Chairman Willie Phillips said. A commissioner since 2014, Phillips took the PSC’s top seat this year after three-term Chairman Betty Ann Kane retired. In an interview, Phillips raised concerns about state-federal coordination on the Lifeline National Verifier, which soft-launched in D.C. in February and will hard launch in May. Also, Phillips said he wants to support 5G deployment in the District.
While the FCC looks to revamp its broadband mapping regime, some broadband experts told us the effort is hampered by the discussion not focusing more on including pricing data and involving crowdsourced or locally provided coverage data. ISPs all know each other's prices, but "the public is the only one who doesn't know," said Institute for Local Self-Reliance's Director-Community Broadband Networks Initiative Chris Mitchell. The FCC said the proceeding is still open.
Some wireless industry officials came away disappointed from CTIA’s 5G Summit Thursday (see 1904040048) that FCC Chairman Ajit Pai didn’t offer new details or make a more explicit commitment on the C band. CTIA President Meredith Baker said at the event the band offers the best opportunity for making more mid-band spectrum available quickly. Pai, who spoke at the end, said the FCC is looking closely at the band and repeated earlier comments that it’s unusually complicated. Pai said he was still “sitting down with engineers, economists and lawyers” working through the future of the band.
SpaceX plans to relocate more than 1,500 satellites to a lower orbit is getting pushback from satellite operators on spectrum interference and orbital congestion grounds. Given the expected boom in satellite traffic, including Amazon acknowledging plans for its own mega constellation (see 1904040034), the industry has "got to figure this out" and coordinate more, with the current status quo insufficient, space consultancy Lquinox President Charity Weeden said.
The California Supreme Court said cities may consider aesthetics of telecom equipment when reviewing permit applications. Thursday's opinion affirmed two lower courts’ decisions supporting a San Francisco ordinance providing the city that discretion. Local governments cheered rejection of the 2016 appeal by T-Mobile West, ExteNet and Crown Castle from the California 1st District Court of Appeal (see 1705170046).
Senate Banking Committee leadership told us they want more involvement in the ongoing privacy debate but, for now, will defer to the Senate Commerce Committee to lead the legislative effort. Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, also expects Senate Judiciary Committee participation, which raises jurisdictional questions for the three panels.
An advisory board to the Pentagon took what some consider an unusual step of encouraging the department that arranged for the group to do more to free up spectrum for commercial use such as for 5G. The U.S. can’t be the world leader in 5G without more spectrum below 6 GHz, the Defense Innovation Board (DIB) reported. The independent federal committee, which advises the secretary of defense, said DOD must share much more mid-band spectrum and the department must revise how it views spectrum. “The current status quo of spectrum allocation is unsustainable," DIB said. Milo Medin, Google vice president-wireless services, and venture capitalist Gilman Louie wrote the report.