House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., said he's intent on advancing net neutrality legislation that contains the legal language of Communications Act Title II. Title II-level language is needed to underpin “strong, enforceable” rules and to ensure “a cop on the beat to enforce them,” he said at a University of Pittsburgh Law Review event Friday. James Donahue, Pennsylvania executive deputy attorney general-public protection, and others questioned whether FCC reliance on transparency rules and antitrust and consumer protection enforcement are sufficient backstops after FCC reversal of Title II regulation.
A major Conference Preparatory Meeting (CPM) for the 2019 World Radiocommunication Conference ended Thursday (see 1902280070). Reports out of Geneva are the U.S. is struggling to find its way, industry and government officials said. The U.S. had planned to accredit its delegation, but the partial federal government shutdown made that impossible, industry officials said.
Energous maintains exclusive rights to all intellectual property in its technology, with the exception of a 2015 development and licensing agreement with a “top-tier consumer electronics company” described as one of the top revenue-producing CE companies in the world, it said in its annual report filed with the SEC Wednesday.
A two-week, worldwide Conference Preparation Meeting (CPM) for the upcoming World Radiocommunication Conference ended in Geneva Thursday. The next step is release of a 1,000-page report expected within the next month. The CPM was a success, with a record 1,300 participants from 107 member states, ITU officials said during a news media call.
Breaking up big tech platforms like Facebook could “very potentially” help with political censorship issues related to anti-competitive behavior, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told us, responding to questions about the FTC’s newly formed tech competition task force (see 1902270063). Facebook’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp are an “obvious place to inquire,” said Cruz, the agency’s Office of Policy Planning director in the early 2000s. “I hope the task force looks at both antitrust issues and consumer protection issues and in particular, the political censorship that we’ve seen from big tech.” He called the group “long overdue.”
Privacy advocates said a Washington state law sought by Microsoft and other tech companies provides too little protection to consumers. The House and Senate privacy bills lack teeth and cede too much control to companies, American Civil Liberties Union and Consumer Reports officials said in interviews. State Sen. Reuven Carlyle (D) responded that his bill is “the strongest, meaningful privacy measure that is on the table.” House Innovation Committee Chair Zack Hudgins (D) has appeared more open to making changes in response to concerns, telling us his chamber’s bill is a “work in progress.”
Best Buy shares closed up 14 percent to $68.82 Wednesday after a better-than-expected fiscal Q4 earnings report showing a 3 percent year-over-year hike in comparable sales. Enterprise revenue was $14.8 billion over 13 weeks vs. $15.3 billion in a 14-week year-ago quarter. Domestic comp sales grew 3 percent. A 3.5 percent revenue decrease to $13.5 billion was driven by the lost week and closing 257 Best Buy Mobile and 12 large-format stores over the year, said Chief Financial Officer Corie Barry. She estimated the extra week last year brought in $760 million in sales.
The 5G Automotive Association told the FCC there's broad support for its proposed waiver to deploy cellular vehicle-to-everything technology (C-V2X) in the upper 20 MHz of the 5.9 GHz band. Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel recently said they support instead a broad NPRM (see 1902140057), a stance taken by commenters (see 1902110007). Replies were posted Wednesday in docket 18-357. Wi-Fi advocates see the band as offering critical mid-band spectrum for unlicensed use.
ANNAPOLIS -- The Maryland Senate Finance Committee took up the Senate version of small-cell legislation considered by the House Economic Matters Committee. The Senate panel heard testimony Tuesday evening on industry-supported SB-937 and local government-backed SB-713, after a lengthy hearing on other bills. A Verizon official warned that absent industry-friendly legislation, the state might not see 5G anytime soon.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and industry officials are open to passing a federal privacy law that’s stronger than California’s. Cantwell suggested during the committee’s first privacy hearing in 2019 that federal law should be stronger, at a minimum. Wicker sounded hopeful about prospects for privacy legislation during a later Incompas event, saying it's one of his “must-pass” priorities for the committee this year (see 1902270018).