The FCC is getting oppositions (see 2011030053) on draft rules, set for a commissioner vote next week, allowing Wi-Fi to share 45 MHz of the 5.9 GHz band. Filings were posted Monday in docket 19-138. Facebook opposes exclusion zones there. The proposal relies on “profoundly flawed analysis of federal radar operations authorized in the 5.9 GHz band -- an analysis whose assumptions about Wi-Fi operation are both inaccurate and inconsistent with the Commission’s own assumptions in the 6 GHz Order,” Facebook said: “Because the NTIA analysis did not appear in the record until very recently (Oct. 23rd), the parties have not yet had a meaningful opportunity to study and respond.” The order would “cement in place” cellular vehicle-to-everything “as the presumptive technology standard for all future automotive communications technologies,” Continental Automotive Systems said. “Because in many cases licenses to the technology at the core of C-V2X cellular standards are not directly available to many automotive industry participants in the supply chain, or if so are often subject to unreasonable terms, the exclusive use proposal generates the potential for patent holders to abuse and distort the market for the next-generation of automotive communications,” Continental said: “The Commission should have a full understanding of the consequences to the automotive supply chain in this regard.” The company spoke with Office of Engineering and Technology and Office of Economics and Analytics staff.
Joe Biden's presidential transition team for the FCC is starting to take shape, but it's early on given most national news organizations declared his win Saturday. President Donald Trump hasn’t conceded. A few names are emerging for the landing team, and a final list isn't likely until after Thanksgiving, stakeholders said in interviews. Team leaders from former President Barack Obama's interregnum 12 years ago said cooperation from the outgoing administration is critical.
House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone of New Jersey and other Democratic committee leaders are expected to ask the FCC to stand down work on any further controversial matters during a potential transition from President Donald Trump’s administration if Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s leads hold in several marginal states, communications sector observers told us. No similar call from Senate Commerce Committee Democrats is expected, since the party doesn’t have control of the chamber, and the majority in the next Congress remains in doubt (see 2011050056), lobbyists said.
Punishing state 911 fee diverters could worsen funding problems for the emergency call system and might be ineffective, commented local and public safety groups this week in docket 20-291. Penalizing local governments for states’ decisions is “much like sending your daughter to bed without dinner because your son took a cookie from the jar without permission,” the National Association of State 911 Administrators (NASNA) responded to the FCC notice of inquiry. “The two siblings are related, but the response is not.”
Safety advocates are seeking meetings and plan to oppose an FCC proposed order reallocating the 5.9 GHz band, said ITS America President Shailen Bhatt in an interview Tuesday. Bhatt hopes the FCC, set to vote on the order in two weeks, will pause to give dedicated short-range communications a final chance to succeed. “We’re disappointed our pleas have fallen on deaf ears so far,” he said: “Experts are being ignored. Data is missing.”
Lisa Youngers, leaving as Fiber Broadband Association chief (see this section, Oct. 30), hired by Tata Communications as international general counsel ... Boeing adds Brandon Mitchell, ex-NTIA International Spectrum Policy Division Satellite Branch chief, as satellite systems regulatory and spectrum engineer, Boeing Global Spectrum Management ... Dorsey & Whitney adds ex-Jones Day international lawyer Justin Huff as partner; he has experience with technology, telecom and other Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. issues ... Wilson Sonsini adds Joshua Kaplan, ex-Checkout.com, as partner and member, corporate practice.
The FCC should end more than a decade of indecision about giving states access to the network outage reporting system (NORS), said current and former state commissioners in interviews last week. NARUC will vote at its annual meeting Thursday-Friday and Nov. 9-11 on proposed resolutions asking the FCC to grant a 2009 California Public Utilities Commission petition to share NORS information and urging state legislatures to authorize commissions to reduce intrastate inmate calling service (ICS) rates to cost-based prices. NARUC will consider the resolutions just days after a presidential election that might change control of the FCC in 2021.
In what he said will likely be his final speech as a commissioner, Mike O’Rielly told a GSMA/CTIA conference FCC should focus on the 7 GHz and other bands in the months ahead and that some, if not all 7 Ghz, should be repurposed for 5G. Beyond making the 3.45-3.55 GHz band available for 5G, and potentially spectrum below 3.45, the next vein of spectrum to tap for 5G isn't clear and warrants a discussion, said AT&T Vice President-Federal Regulatory Hank Hultquist.
Challengers of the C-band clearing order (see 2007220003) and a panel of federal judges discussed whether the FCC did enough by ensuring 200 remaining megahertz are enough for incumbent satellite operators' future needs, in oral argument Wednesday. With the FCC auction in December, there's a hope and expectation that the expedited argument will mean the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will rule by then, though the court hasn't signaled any specific timing, a lawyer involved in the legal challenge told us.
The FCC approved an order making further changes to wireless infrastructure rules Tuesday, with dissents from Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks as expected (see 2010220048). The order addresses equipment compound expansions as part of collocations, clarifying that an infrastructure modification doesn’t cause a “substantial change” if it entails excavation or deployments up to 30 feet outside macro tower compound boundaries (see 2010060060). Commissioner Brendan Carr indicated there were some changes from the draft. The FCC moved quickly, with a Further NPRM OK’d in June (see 2006090060).