“Four hours is not enough” for battery backup at wireless cellsites, since last year’s public safety power shutoffs lasted two to eight days, California Public Utilities Commission member Genevieve Shiroma said Wednesday. CPUC is looking into the issue, she replied to our question on a resiliency panel at the NARUC winter meeting. For the state commission, “the wildfire emergency has really put an exclamation point on the importance of communications and broadband during an emergency,” said former FCC and CPUC Commissioner Rachelle Chong in an interview.
The space economy is growing rapidly, but that means increased potential problems with orbital debris and the need for space traffic management (STM), speakers said at a Space Foundation event Tuesday. Rep. Kendra Horn, D-Okla., co-chairwoman of the House Space Power Caucus, said with looming satellite mega constellations, there's a need to "set some lanes" for STM.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for Feb. 3-7 in case you missed them.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., believes there’s a rapidly decreasing likelihood lawmakers will reach a deal on legislation allocating the proceeds of a coming FCC auction of spectrum on the 3.7-4.2 GHz C band before or after the commission's planned Feb. 28 vote on Chairman Ajit Pai’s proposal (see 2002060057). House Commerce Committee leaders don’t share Wicker’s pessimism. The House-side lawmakers plan further talks this week on a coming bill, which has become their main telecom policy priority (see 2002070044).
As the final regulations for the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act take effect this week, FIRRMA’s definition for critical technologies remains unclear due to a lack of proposed rules by the Commerce Department on emerging and foundational technologies, trade lawyers said.
Customs duties are estimated at $72 billion in the current fiscal year, and the White House projects that number will climb to $92 billion in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. It projects that duties then will fall to $54 billion the following year.
APCO filed a petition for clarification Friday in response to FCC rules requiring national wireless carriers to meet a vertical location accuracy metric of plus or minus 3 meters for 80 percent of indoor wireless E-911 calls for z-axis capable handsets. The rules are to take effect March 16 (see 2001150011). The filing was expected to have been posted after our deadline. APCO wants to “clarify the rules … so that wireless carriers provide the 9-1-1 location expected.” Emergency communications centers “will be in the best position to know if carriers are providing z-axis information that complies with the metric, but clarification is needed so that, in the event of non-compliance, ECCs can raise appropriate concerns," APCO said. The group asked “which phones should consumers expect to provide vertical location information with 9-1-1 calls? How do carriers ensure that they have deployed z-axis technology in a manner that will achieve the accuracy demonstrated in the test bed? What additional z-axis technology testing is required, given that testing described in CTIA’s Stage Z Test Report was not sufficient to demonstrate compliance with the z-axis metric? When must carriers provide floor level information in addition to the altitude of a 9-1-1 caller?”
Customs duties are estimated at $72 billion in the current fiscal year, and the White House projects that number will climb to $92 billion in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. It projects that duties then will fall to $54 billion the following year.
The House Commerce Committee’s telecom agenda is set to be dominated in the coming weeks by leaders’ work to reach a deal on legislation on allocating the proceeds of a coming FCC auction of spectrum on the 3.7-4.2 GHz C band, lawmakers and lobbyists told us. Committee members are being pressed by a planned Feb. 28 FCC vote on Chairman Ajit Pai’s C-band plan, which he unveiled Thursday (see 2002060057) and released Friday. Other items are also percolating, including on public safety communications, network resiliency and broadband.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai proposed accelerated relocation payments of up to $9.7 billion for C-band incumbents to clear the band quickly for an auction to start Dec. 8, in a speech (see 2002060031) Thursday at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. Those would be above compensation for relocation costs, estimated to be between $3 billion and $5 billion, he said. Pai has the three votes he needs for approval at the commissioners' Feb. 28 meeting (see 2002060048) with quick endorsements of Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Brendan Carr.