The FAA is working “as fast as” it can to introduce a proposed rulemaking on remotely identifying unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), though there's no set deadline, Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration Office Director Earl Lawrence testified Tuesday. FAA’s UAS Identification and Tracking Aviation Rulemaking Committee submitted a final report in September with recommendations for setting an agency standard for identifying and tracking drones. Remote tracking of drones will have significant implications for commercial use, law enforcement and emergency response.
Many 911 stakeholders pushed next-generation services to help end the problem of misrouted calls, in comments posted this week in docket 18-64. CTIA said the FCC should weigh the costs versus benefits of various call-routing options as it considers how to make wireless calls to 911 more reliable. Public safety groups and others stressed the importance of NG-911. In March, the FCC released a notice of inquiry on ways to ensure wireless 911 calls are routed directly to the appropriate public safety answering point (see 1803230023).
Dish Network views ATSC 3.0 as “a pretty intriguing technology, and so therefore we were willing to co-invest with some of the broadcasters in testing” through the single-frequency-network (SFN) 3.0 trials Sinclair spearheaded in Dallas (see 1804080002), said Tom Cullen, Dish executive vice president-corporate development, on a Tuesday earnings call. On Sinclair’s description of Dish at the NAB Show as a surprising 3.0 partner, Cullen agreed Dish and broadcasters “wear different hats when it comes to these relationships.”
The CBRS Alliance, promoting the future use of the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band, Tuesday launched the OnGo brand and a certification program for CBRS devices. Last month, the alliance unveiled network and coexistence baseline specifications. “I would compare this to Wi-Fi,” CBRS Alliance President Dave Wright said in an interview. “Everybody knows what Wi-Fi means. It’s a very versatile brand. It applies to all kinds of different applications of a technology and use cases.”
The FCC is planning to issue NPRMs on kids' video rules, cable leased access and cable rate regulation as part of media modernization, Media Bureau staff said Tuesday at an FCBA event. A rulemaking on leftover questions from the ATSC 3.0 proceeding is still planned for sometime this year, as is the 2018 quadrennial broadcast ownership review, staff said. The post-incentive auction repacking, which hasn’t run into the resource crunch feared by broadcasters, has progressed, Incentive Auction Task Force Deputy Chair Hillary DeNigro said. “It’s fine,” she said. “We haven’t had any requests for additional time we haven’t been able to accommodate.”
A Congressional Review Act resolution aimed at reversing the FCC order to rescind 2015 net neutrality rules (Senate Joint Resolution-52) appears likely to happen next week, days after expected Wednesday filing of a petition to discharge the measure from Senate Commerce Committee jurisdiction (see 1804260030 and 1804300033), lawmakers and lobbyists told us. Republican lawmakers said they are wary of the possibility the resolution could pass in the Senate by a narrow margin if Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., isn't able to return this month because of brain cancer treatment. Senate Democrats downplayed such a scenario, emphasizing they are optimistic the CRA measure could still garner additional GOP supporters. Fifty senators publicly support the resolution, including all 49 members of the Senate Democratic Caucus and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.
FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said she was able to meet with Chairman Ajit Pai on only a few occasions since the first months of his chairmanship, a sharp departure from her experience with other chairmen. The past 15 months “have not been especially rewarding for me,” Clyburn said in a wide-ranging exit interview Monday. “I’ve seen this agency shift from a consumer-oriented, consumer-first point of view, to a singularly focused … deregulatory, laissez-faire, industry-first, infrastructure-oriented agency.” It's “painful and difficult to watch,” she told us.
Facebook, Google and Twitter executives defended content moderation transparency efforts Monday, the day a coalition of digital rights advocates urged online platforms to release specific information on the scope and reasoning for content removal. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, Center for Democracy & Technology and New America’s Open Technology Institute were among groups unveiling their Santa Clara Principles. The document said platforms should report the volume of removed content, offer detailed explanations for takedowns and give opportunity for appeal.
Federal judges grilled both sides in an FCC video relay service case over rate tiers in a 2017 order, which VRS provider Sorenson Communications is challenging. Judges asked scores of questions and pressed attorneys during oral argument at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Monday that lasted almost 90 minutes after being scheduled to run 30 in Sorenson v. FCC, No. 17-1198.
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. -- The U.S. is worried about fallout from EU's General Data Protection Regulation taking effect May 25, said Trump administration officials at the FCBA retreat Saturday. "It will have a sweeping impact on many, many sectors of the U.S. economy," said NTIA Administrator David Redl. He voiced particular concern about possible disruption to parties needing access to the Whois database of online domain name ownership, which is used by law enforcement and others.