The Wi-Fi Alliance and several major tech companies, including Apple and Microsoft, are pressing the FCC to create a special class of indoor-only devices that can be safely used in the 6 GHz band, with an NPRM expected later this year. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said after the August FCC meeting the NPRM will likely get a vote in one of the four remaining 2018 meetings, though he wasn't more specific.
The FCC tweaked details but is moving ahead with one-touch, make-ready (OTMR) and other pole-attachment policies in an order and declaratory ruling aimed at streamlining processes and speeding broadband deployment. Although edits addressed some of the many concerns electric-utility pole owners and communications industry attachers had about a draft item, they didn't fundamentally change the agency's direction, according to stakeholders and our basic review of the 120-page final text in docket 17-84 issued Aug. 3. It was adopted the previous day, with Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel partially dissenting (see 1808020034).
Federal judges blocked, for now, FCC restrictions on enhanced tribal Lifeline subsidies that bar resellers and residents of non-rural areas from the extra low-income USF support. The commission's 2017 order "will be stayed pending further [court action] insofar as the Order purports to limit eligibility for the Tribal Lifeline enhanced subsidy to 'facilities-based' service providers, and to limit eligibility for that program to 'rural areas,'" said the Friday ruling by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in National Lifeline Association v. FCC, No. 18-1026, and a consolidated case. They said petitioners showed a "likelihood of success on the merits" of their challenges, and that they'll suffer "irreparable injury absent a stay." Some said the decision further complicated an FCC proposal to ban resellers from Lifeline support in general.
The Trump administration’s failure to appoint a permanent EU-U.S. Privacy Shield ombudsman and stagnation of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) will be points of contention when officials from both sides of the Atlantic meet in October, experts told us. Also expect the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica privacy breach (see 1804100054 and 1804110065) to be a major topic, said Access Now Policy Counsel Drew Mitnick. EU officials want details on how the FTC, U.S. enforcer of the Privacy Shield, is handling its investigation into potential Facebook violations of a 2011 consent decree, so they can better gauge the strength of the agency’s authority.
Incumbents and competitors in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands disagreed over how the FCC should divvy up USF support for the islands' hurricane-hit telecom networks. Puerto Rico Telephone Co. (PRTC or Claro) and Virgin Islands Telephone (Viya) urged targeting funding to their networks, but their rivals backed a competitive process to spread fund around. Reply comments were due Wednesday in docket 18-143, responding to initial comments on an NPRM proposing $889 million in "Stage 2" subsidies for fixed services (over 10 years) and mobile services (over three years): $698 million for Puerto Rico ($444.5 million fixed, $254 million mobile) and $191 million for the Virgin Islands ($186.5 million fixed, $4.4 million mobile). The notice was attached to an order (see 1805290028) that allocated $64 million in "Stage 1" for near-term network restoration (see 1808080011).
Pennsylvania state lawmakers accused local governments of employing scare tactics to stymie state small-cells legislation. At a sometimes prickly hearing Thursday, the Pennsylvania House Consumer Affairs Committee weighed a bill (HB-2564) to streamline 5G small-cells deployment by writing state rules for local governments. It’s Pennsylvania legislators' second attempt at such a bill, and they pledged more amendments ahead to address local concerns. Wireless Industry officials supported amending the bill to give localities more control over height limits. Local government groups said they're cooperative but urged committee members to reject or adjust proposed state requirements.
LAS VEGAS -- APCO closed its annual meeting with a session featuring FirstNet users who made the case for the new network, being built by AT&T. But the officials conceded that in some cases expanding the network will remain a fight. Many attendees at APCO expressed skepticism about the network (see 1808070037), but presentations at the annual meeting had a mostly pro-FirstNet focus.
Tribune filed a $1 billion breach of contract complaint against Sinclair Broadcast in the wee hours of Thursday morning, and the collapse of their deal could mean the end of the FCC’s administrative law judge proceeding against Sinclair but likely won’t put to rest all the consequences of the agency’s hearing designation order, attorneys and broadcasters said in Thursday interviews.
Tech interests virtually struck out in their attempts to persuade U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to spare their products and components from a second tranche of 25 percent Trade Act Section 301 tariffs on imports from China. Despite heavy industry lobbying to exclude semiconductors and other key parts from the second round of new levies, the list Lighthizer released Tuesday contains 279 tariff lines of goods worth about $16 billion in trade value, a mere 2 percent reduction from 284 lines in the originally proposed list released June 15 (see 1806150030). The new tariffs will take effect Aug. 23, said Lighthizer, who soon will announce a "process" for seeking exclusions from the new duties.
Nebraska commissioners voted 4-1 for a hybrid state USF contribution mechanism with a $1.75 per connection surcharge for residential wireline, postpaid wireless and interconnected VoIP services and a 6.95 percent revenue-based surcharge for business and other services. CenturyLink and small rural carriers Wednesday applauded the Public Service Commission’s Tuesday rate design order in docket NUSF-111, which followed last year’s decision to move to a connections-based contribution mechanism. Cox and CTIA raised red flags. Other state commissions are working toward USF updates, including Alaska, New Mexico and Oklahoma.