Expect patent "reform" legislation by July, Senate Intellectual Property Subcommittee Chairman Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and ranking member Chris Coons, D-Del., told us Wednesday (see 1906040054). The subcommittee hosted its second hearing on the item Wednesday. The third and final hearing is Tuesday.
New York senators will soon study a net neutrality bill passed Tuesday by the Assembly, a Senate Majority spokesperson said Wednesday. The Assembly voted 109-37 Tuesday to pass A-2432 by Assemblymember Patricia Fahy (D). Alternative measures are pending in the Senate, but Fahy told us she hopes to corral support for her bill to limit state and local government contracts to ISPs that follow open-internet rules. Passing net neutrality in New York would be significant given its size and influence, said Northwestern University law professor James Speta Wednesday.
Regardless of the ultimate direction of the C-band clearing proceeding, it could be a precedent for how the FCC repurposes other contested spectrum bands such as the 5.9 GHz band, said C-Band Alliance (CBA) Head-Advocacy and Government Affairs Peter Pitsch Wednesday on a Technology Police Institute panel. CBA and T-Mobile butted heads over their rival plans, with little common ground beyond the need for 5G access to the 3.7-4.2 GHz band.
Ligado supporters see the 40 MHz of lower mid-band spectrum it wants to offer as the fastest path available for getting more mid-band spectrum in play for 5G. The company needs FCC help: an order modifying its license allowing it to deploy terrestrial equipment and services on what are now L-band frequencies. Time could be running out, industry officials said. The satellite firm exited bankruptcy in December 2015 and will soon need to start another round of financing to remain viable. It hopes for FCC action this summer.
The direction of Capitol Hill's debate on Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization remains uncertain after two hearings this week, said members of the Senate Commerce Committee and House Communications Subcommittee in interviews. Few Senate Commerce members revealed clear positions on renewal during a Wednesday hearing. Questions showed divisions in both parties. House Communications members registered a range of opinions during a Tuesday STELA panel (see 1906040057).
Congress needs to amend patent law, which is outdated, overcomplicated and causing the U.S. to fall behind competitors in China and Europe, experts told the Senate Intellectual Property Subcommittee Tuesday.
New America's Open Technology Institute and Public Knowledge urged the FCC to make more use of use “use-it-or- share-it” rules to encourage carriers to make spectrum available on the secondary market. Industry groups instead backed rule liberalization to encourage more secondary market deals. Comments in docket 19-38 posted through Tuesday. In March, commissioners approved 5-0 an NPRM (see 1903150067) on how changes to spectrum partitioning, disaggregation and leasing rules “might further the agency’s goals of closing the digital divide and increasing spectrum access for small carriers and in rural areas.”
The House Oversight Committee plans a third hearing on facial recognition technology in about six weeks to ensure the FBI is using the tool properly, Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., told reporters Tuesday. Lawmakers hammered an FBI official during a hearing, in which a GAO official outlined agency privacy and transparency failures for the technology. A federal moratorium on the technology remains on the table (see 1905220058). Cummings, numerous Democrats, ranking member Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., are exploring legislation.
Sizable private equity investing resulted in legions of startups in the small-satellite universe, but 2019 will likely be the year when "some of them start peeling off" and failing, said Quilty Analytics President Chris Quilty at an American Bar Association space law symposium Tuesday. "There's going to be a lot of roadkill in the next year or two." Most companies are "fighting over the table scraps" beyond the money that's gone to OneWeb and SpaceX, and when those smaller startups start getting to the point where they're ready for larger-scale investments, "stumbles" are likely, Quilty said, with funding if not declining at least decelerating. "It's healthy, it happens," he said.
It may be an understandable response to the New Zealand attacks, but the "Christchurch Call" has worrying aspects and could be difficult to implement, said digital rights activists and think tanks. There's no clear vision of what social media and video sharing platforms should be doing or planning to do to counter such situations and no effort to address tech companies' business model, they said. The Christchurch Call is a commitment by governments and tech companies to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online. Eighteen countries plus major social media platforms such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft back the agreement, adopted May 15. The U.S. declined to sign (see 1905150047).