The FTC isn’t equipped to handle modern enforcement challenges, Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., told us, saying there’s a strong case for creating a new data privacy agency. Eshoo and Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., are drafting a bill that would create such an agency modeled after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (see 1906250033).
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., doesn’t see her panel’s privacy group (see 1906140052) as the best route for reaching legislative consensus, a Democratic committee aide told us Thursday. A day earlier saw reports that Cantwell wants to negotiate bilaterally with Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss.
Pole riders sought revamped Connecticut pole attachment rules to deal with a rush of attachment applications. The state Public Utility Regulatory Authority (PURA) asked for feedback by Wednesday on a United Illuminating proposal to revise PURA's temporary attachment guidelines, but CenturyLink and the New England Cable and Telecommunications Association (NECTA) suggested in comments in docket 19-01-52 that the pole owner’s plan doesn’t address the full problem. Meanwhile, Connecticut legislators’ failure to pass a municipal broadband bill sent debate over a pole space reserved for municipal use back to court.
A Media Bureau investigation into Sinclair Broadcast over allegations of a lack of candor first raised during the Sinclair/Tribune deal (see 1808090042) discussion could be a prelude to a possible settlement or lead to another hearing proceeding, said broadcast attorneys.
The 6 GHz, citizens broadband radio service and C bands got much of the attention at the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance Global Summit Thursday. Another hot topic was CBRS-like sharing beyond the 3.5 GHz band. FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly touched on all three bands during his keynote speech (see 1906270026).
The telecom industry is eager to help mitigate national security threats stemming from equipment installed on its networks that could be compromised by vendors' ties to the Chinese government, executives said Thursday. Stakeholders wanted to reassure Commissioner Geoffrey Starks at an FCC workshop on his "find it, fix it, fund it" proposal to address vulnerabilities in communications networks (see 1906190050). But carriers, especially those with small, rural subscriber bases, said "rip-and-replace" missions for companies that have Huawei or ZTE equipment installed on their wireless, wireline or broadband networks would be neither quick nor inexpensive. Some estimates place the cost to remove and replace the compromised equipment at well over $1 billion.
Consensus is starting to emerge on the C band, with the different proposals getting closer together, FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said at the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance Global Summit Thursday. The FCC needs to get as much as 300 MHz available for 5G “as soon as possible,” O’Rielly said. “My first priority is speed,” he said.
Regulatory uncertainty about the 5.9 GHz band's future threatens the progress auto industry OEMs and some state transportation departments are making in deploying vehicle-to-everything technology (V2X) for safety purposes, Global Automakers (GA) said in a call Thursday with reporters, arguing its case for a flexible-use licensing regime for the band. How much traction the auto industry proposal has at the FCC is unclear. The industry narrative about using the band to save lives "is a powerful one," but it's also somewhat undercut by relative lack of dedicated short-range communications (DSCR) in the band, said Competitive Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow Marc Scribner.
An internal “review” at Micron Technology found the memory-chip supplier could “lawfully resume shipping a subset of current products” to Huawei because they aren't subject to Commerce Department export administration regulations and entity list restrictions, said CEO Sanjay Mehrotra on a fiscal Q3 earnings call. Micron reinstated those shipments about two weeks ago, he said Tuesday.
FirstNet is starting to lay out a road map for the for the future of its network, and is listening closely to advice from first responders, the board was told at its quarterly meeting Wednesday. Staff described the map as a key document to win more public safety participation in the nascent network. Officials said the network must keep up with advances from 5G.