FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr sent a letter to Voqal CEO John Schwartz Tuesday asking questions about the nonprofit’s business model and how it has conducted business. Meanwhile, the FCC is preparing to vote on an order relocating the 2.5 GHz educational broadband service band (see 1906190063). FCC officials told us another 10 or so letters are coming for similar entities. The Voqal letter raises questions about alleged self-dealing. Officials also said the draft 2.5 GHz order is likely to be changed to reflect concerns about the national nonprofits.
The net effect of U.S. concessions on Huawei is murky, much like U.S. trade policy at present, experts said in interviews this week. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed at the G20 conference in Osaka, Japan, to delay discussion of such U.S. sanctions “until the end” of trade talks (see 1907010070). Such penalties were seen as one of the best U.S. bargaining chips with China (see 1905240038). It’s unclear whether Congress will be able to channel into action bipartisan outcry over President Donald Trump’s move to ease federal restrictions on the Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer, experts said.
The Wireless ISP Association, backed up by Google, made a case for sharing with repacked satellite earth stations C band spectrum that's not reallocated for licensed use The two unveiled a new study at an event Tuesday by Virginia Tech professor Jeff Reed on a methodology for sharing the band while protecting earth stations. FCC officials told us the sharing plan may not get much traction there, where a C-band plan is taking shape.
Carriers warned the FCC they will have difficulty meeting a Nov. 30 deadline for more-targeted wireless emergency alerts. Commissioners approved 5-0 an order in January 2018 requiring participating wireless providers to deliver alerts to the target area specified by the alert originator with no more than a one-tenth of a mile overshoot (see 1801300027). In June, the Public Safety Bureau asked (see 1906050072) the five largest U.S. wireless carriers about their plans to meet the geotargeting deadline. Responses were posted Monday in docket 15-91. The carriers noted ATIS didn’t publish a standard for geotargeting until May 6.
Tech and business groups hailed President Donald Trump’s decision postponing the fourth installment of tariffs as his administration tries to negotiate a comprehensive trade deal with China, though three existing rounds of tariffs stay as is. Bipartisan condemnation greeted Trump’s surprise announcement he will let U.S. companies resume shipments to Huawei, though the tech-equipment giant remains subject to Commerce Department export administration regulations and entity list restrictions (see 1905160081).
San Francisco's Police Code Article 52 has been either a boon or barrier for smaller ISPs seeking to enter large multi-dwelling units, backers and critics said before the FCC's July 10 vote on pre-empting one aspect of the regulation (see 1906190067). Portrayed as helping small ISPs compete, the regulation does the opposite, said Carl Kandutsch, a lawyer with small ISP clients and a board member of the Multifamily Broadband Council. MBC petitioned for Article 52 pre-emption (see 1706120052).
Electric utilities asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to use its influence to urge the FCC to go slow on opening the 6 GHz band for unlicensed use, which was controversial when the FCC took comment this year in docket 18-295 (see 1903180047). Utilities warned FERC of their concerns during a technical conference last week. Energy industry officials said this was the first time the regulator made communications a separate part of that conference. Wi-Fi advocates see the 6 GHz band as critical to meeting the growing demand for unlicensed spectrum (see 1906250015).
A polygon shapefile approach to submitting provider broadband data, endorsed by NCTA, and a location fabric proposal backed by USTelecom both add valuable data to inform updated national broadband maps from the FCC and aren't mutually exclusive, said cable and telco representatives. Congress asked the FCC to develop more-granular broadband maps to better pinpoint where service is available to consumers and at what speeds. The agency is expected to address the topic at its August meeting (see 1906200048).
A California Senate panel delayed considering a bill to extend state VoIP deregulation another 10 years after the California Public Utilities Commission took the uncommon step of voting to strongly oppose the measure. Continuing deregulation under the Assembly-passed AB-1366 would undermine public safety and carrier-of-last-resort obligations, delay commission proceedings, contradict CPUC responsibilities and allow companies to disregard other state laws, the CPUC said in a position paper adopted unanimously Thursday.
Localities and broadcasters have many options to offer some multilingual emergency alerts, but none is comprehensive, and federal rules requiring them are unlikely to help, said alerting officials Friday during the FCC Public Safety Bureau's Multilingual Alerting Workshop. “There's enough toys in the toy box, let us fit them together,” said Sage Alerting Systems President Harold Price on the event's final panel. “Multilingual still has a long way to go, but there are still things you can do,” said Public Safety Bureau Attorney Adviser David Munson.