AT&T will move to have its DirecTV subsidiary dismissed as a defendant in the DOJ lawsuit seeking to block its Time Warner takeover, AT&T/TW outside counsel Dan Petrocelli of O'Melveny said Monday, the opening day of trial. Opening argument will be Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon of Washington said, saying the sides estimated a trial of four or so weeks, but "it's looking more like six to eight." AT&T will move for the dismissal by the time Justice has finished presenting its case, Petrocelli said.
A draft NPRM on streamlining reauthorization for satellite TV stations is considered likely to be approved 5-0 but may undergo some changes to its language before Thursday’s commissioners’ meeting, FCC officials told us. The language change in the NPRM is a compromise between two eighth-floor offices, the officials said. Broadcast attorneys said the item isn’t expected to generate much controversy (see 1803010047).
The proposed wireless infrastructure rules have been controversial (see 1803150058), but a proposal to eliminate the personal-use restriction on provider-specific consumer signal boosters and a Further NPRM on the 4.9 GHz band are expected to be approved by commissioners Thursday mostly as put forward March 1 by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, agency and industry officials said Monday.
Artificial intelligence functions properly through machine learning most of the time, but when it’s wrong, results can be “extraordinarily” bad, and this deserves attention, said Google Legal Director Kenneth Rubenstein Friday. He spoke on a panel at an Association of National Advertisers event about AI and autonomous driving.
The Competitive Carriers Association urged the FCC to approve changes to wireless infrastructure rules at Thursday's commissioners’ meeting. But the agency also continues to receive filings from tribal, historic preservation groups and groups representing local governments slamming the draft order. Former Commissioner Michael Copps said the FCC should take a pause. “There is no compelling need for FCC to rush approval next week of new wireless infrastructure rules until it has met in good faith its trust and consultation obligations to affected tribal areas,” Copps tweeted Thursday. “Doesn’t appear that’s really happened yet.”
The push to get dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) systems in U.S. cars may be “dead” in an era of automated vehicles, said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America, at the beginning of a 5.9 GHz forum hosted by his group Friday. Proponents of cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) technology are pushing to build support for that as an alternative to DSRC (see 1803140055).
With a lack of electricity and access to funding hampering recovery efforts for communications services in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, some concerns about the FCC USF-based aid proposal have emerged, industry and government officials in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Washington told us. Some industry officials expressed concern about the proposal's goals and said the plan does nothing for affected broadcasters. A group of Puerto Rico broadcasters pitched a nationwide disaster relief plan for broadcasters to Chairman Ajit Pai during his visit earlier this month. “What happened in Puerto Rico can happen elsewhere in the U.S.,” said Eduardo Rivero of Puerto Rico station owner Media Power Group.
FCC Republicans welcomed partial court reversal of a 2015 robocalling order that fleshed out regulations for the Telephone Consumer Protection Act's general prohibition against using automated dialing devices to make uninvited calls. Chairman Ajit Pai said he's "pleased" the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Friday rejected the prior commission's "misguided decision" and "regulatory overreach." Commissioner Mike O'Rielly, who along with Pai dissented in 2015, said he's "heartened" by the ruling, and Commissioner Brendan Carr said the court "corrected" an error. They favored further FCC actions to combat illegal robocalling, as did Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, though she didn't extol the court decision. Some telecom industry attorneys also hailed the ruling while consumer advocates were wary.
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek shunned “pomp or circumstance” of a conventional initial public offering road show at the company’s first investor day Thursday, saying the traditional model “isn’t a good fit.” Noting the typical IPO requires a quiet period, he said: “We don’t think that’s the right thing to do.” Spotify has allowed employees and shareholders to buy and sell stock for years “and that shouldn’t stop just because our stock is becoming more widely owned,” he said.
NSA should be aware of the ballooning number of IoT devices, but the private sector will be largely responsible for setting cybersecurity standards for the devices, said President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the agency, Lt. Gen. Paul Nakasone, at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing Thursday. He was responding to questions from Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., who said the federal government should use its buying power to drive IoT cybersecurity standards (see 1803130045). Projections show the global number of IoT devices growing to between 20 billion and 25 billion in the next five years, Warner said, and the Defense Intelligence Agency emphasized that the weakest IoT devices are highly vulnerable. Warner said he would “hate to find” the government spending billions on devices that increase cybersecurity risks. Policy decisions for IoT will be up to DOD, Nakasone said.