Broadcasters and ATSC 3.0 advocates are focused on establishing a “beachhead” in the home and in TVs rather than on mobile uses or chips in handsets, said Pearl TV Managing Director Anne Schelle at an FCBA event Tuesday. Consortiums Pearl and Spectrum Co see 3.0 consumer devices rolling out in 2020, she said.
DOD and other federal officials assured an NTIA spectrum symposium Tuesday the paradigm is changing and they're willing to share. Questions occurred repeatedly over the future of some bands, especially 5.9 GHz, now allocated to automotive safety, and the 6 GHz band, a top target for sharing with Wi-Fi.
House Communications Subcommittee leaders appear to be eyeing ways to combine language from at least five bills on improving the federal government's collection of broadband coverage data, before a planned Wednesday hearing on the subject, communications sector officials and lobbyists told us. The lawmakers are aiming to make progress on broadband mapping legislation, an issue that drew bipartisan interest. That's amid slower progress on other House Commerce Committee communications policy priorities to clear spectrum in the 3.7-4.2 GHz C band for 5G and Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization (see 1908050037 and 1908230049).
Enforcers in 50 states and jurisdictions are investigating Google’s advertising business for antitrust violations, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) and 12 other AGs announced Monday, as expected (see 1909030053). Texas launched the probe Monday, issuing civil investigative demands to Google, South Dakota Jason Ravnsborg (R) told reporters after a news conference in Washington.
The time is right for more broadcast TV consolidation, broadcasters, analysts and media brokers said in recent interviews, but the specific nature of those deals isn’t known. It's not clear what will follow the expected closing of Nexstar's buy of Tribune (see 1909040035), and Apollo Global Management's buy of Cox's broadcast stations, which isn’t expected to face roadblocks.
FCC work on 6 GHz has hit an apparent bottleneck at the Office of Engineering and Technology, which is working through the engineering analysis of potential threats to incumbent users by radio local access networks (RLAN), said industry officials on both sides. Sharing with Wi-Fi has broad support at the commission, but OET has lots on its plate so a final order could take time, officials said. Meanwhile, the first Wi-Fi 6 devices are hitting stores. The band is considered the most promising to provide broad channels for a new generation of Wi-Fi.
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).