A notice of inquiry for the FCC's annual broadband deployment report was adopted 3-2 Oct. 4 and posted Wednesday afternoon. Comments are due Nov. 22, replies Dec. 9, in docket 19-285. The NOI circulated in July (see 1908090012) and concerns were raised about incorrect data. Now, Democratic commissioners' concerns focused on lack of better data collection methods. The FCC proposed to maintain 25/3 Mbps as the metric for fixed broadband and will take comment on whether another approach is justified.

A notice of inquiry for the FCC's annual broadband deployment report was adopted 3-2 Oct. 4 and posted Wednesday afternoon. Comments are due Nov. 22, replies Dec. 9, in docket 19-285. The NOI circulated in July (see 1908090012) and concerns were raised about incorrect data. Now, Democratic commissioners' concerns focused on lack of better data collection methods. The FCC proposed to maintain 25/3 Mbps as the metric for fixed broadband and will take comment on whether another approach is justified.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr wants more healthcare providers to contribute to a docket on a proposed Connected Care pilot program before it moves from NPRM to order. Carr touted the pilot Thursday at a Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition conference.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr wants more healthcare providers to contribute to a docket on a proposed Connected Care pilot program before it moves from NPRM to order. Carr touted the pilot Thursday at a Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition conference.

The threat to networks is real, Clete Johnson, of Wilkinson Barker, said at a Silicon Flatirons spectrum conference Thursday. The threat comes from intelligence services and their agents in countries including North Korea, China, Iran and Russia, he said. There are “tens of thousands of people” who “go to school, go to work, they provide for their families, they find fulfillment in their daily life by trying to figure out how to get into our networks and devices,” Johnson said. “It’s their job. So it’s not some abstraction. It’s a concrete set of forces who are out there working on this every day.” The more everything is connected “everything is vulnerable” and 5G will pose new threats, he said. The government and industry need to work together, Johnson said: “If everything is connected, then all of the solutions need to be connected.” Monisha Ghosh, engineering professor at the University of Chicago and program director at the National Science Foundation, said the U.S. is researching the security threat. “A lot of the news items that you see of threats being discovered or solutions being proposed are coming from the academic community,” she said: “We need to get that community much better connected to industry as well as federal agencies.” Ghosh said “funding is never adequate” and the joke is “NSF stands for not sufficient funds.” Some of the threats will be revealed only as networks launch, she said. “5G is going to roll out as a production system,” she said: “It’s not being experimented with at the scale at which it’s going to roll out. When it rolls out is when you’re going to find the holes.” Rebecca Dorch, senior spectrum policy analyst at the NTIA Institute for Telecommunication Sciences, oversaw testing of systems in the new 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band. Researchers did their best to identify the unknowns, she said. “My nightmare scenario is, notwithstanding all of the careful analysis, … something unexpected or unanticipated could occur within that entire ecosystem that could actually cause harmful interference,” she said. Dynamic spectrum sharing in general poses risks, Dorch said. “Sharing between very, very different types of communications systems, as that increases, and the density of those devices and systems … that’s where I think that we really haven’t fully tacked for potential for interference at the RF level,” she said: “We’ve got some real vulnerabilities potentially there.” Johnson recalled the financial crisis of 2008, where problems in the subprime mortgage market in the United States developed into a full-blown international banking crisis. “You had a problem in one place that cascaded and took over the entire economy,” Johnson said: “My nightmare is as the speed of innovation increases, or the rate of innovation increases, and we deploy billions and billions of devices” it connects people and companies “that may not be aware or where their data sits or how it can be corrupted or manipulated.” We need to test networks, but we don’t know what the “bugs are” until 5G rolls out on a mass scale, he said. Cooperation is crucial, Johnson said: “We’re all part of this increasingly symbiotic relationship and we don’t know exactly what the effects of that are going to be when something goes wrong.”

The threat to networks is real, Clete Johnson, of Wilkinson Barker, said at a Silicon Flatirons spectrum conference Thursday. The threat comes from intelligence services and their agents in countries including North Korea, China, Iran and Russia, he said. There are “tens of thousands of people” who “go to school, go to work, they provide for their families, they find fulfillment in their daily life by trying to figure out how to get into our networks and devices,” Johnson said. “It’s their job. So it’s not some abstraction. It’s a concrete set of forces who are out there working on this every day.” The more everything is connected “everything is vulnerable” and 5G will pose new threats, he said. The government and industry need to work together, Johnson said: “If everything is connected, then all of the solutions need to be connected.” Monisha Ghosh, engineering professor at the University of Chicago and program director at the National Science Foundation, said the U.S. is researching the security threat. “A lot of the news items that you see of threats being discovered or solutions being proposed are coming from the academic community,” she said: “We need to get that community much better connected to industry as well as federal agencies.” Ghosh said “funding is never adequate” and the joke is “NSF stands for not sufficient funds.” Some of the threats will be revealed only as networks launch, she said. “5G is going to roll out as a production system,” she said: “It’s not being experimented with at the scale at which it’s going to roll out. When it rolls out is when you’re going to find the holes.” Rebecca Dorch, senior spectrum policy analyst at the NTIA Institute for Telecommunication Sciences, oversaw testing of systems in the new 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band. Researchers did their best to identify the unknowns, she said. “My nightmare scenario is, notwithstanding all of the careful analysis, … something unexpected or unanticipated could occur within that entire ecosystem that could actually cause harmful interference,” she said. Dynamic spectrum sharing in general poses risks, Dorch said. “Sharing between very, very different types of communications systems, as that increases, and the density of those devices and systems … that’s where I think that we really haven’t fully tacked for potential for interference at the RF level,” she said: “We’ve got some real vulnerabilities potentially there.” Johnson recalled the financial crisis of 2008, where problems in the subprime mortgage market in the United States developed into a full-blown international banking crisis. “You had a problem in one place that cascaded and took over the entire economy,” Johnson said: “My nightmare is as the speed of innovation increases, or the rate of innovation increases, and we deploy billions and billions of devices” it connects people and companies “that may not be aware or where their data sits or how it can be corrupted or manipulated.” We need to test networks, but we don’t know what the “bugs are” until 5G rolls out on a mass scale, he said. Cooperation is crucial, Johnson said: “We’re all part of this increasingly symbiotic relationship and we don’t know exactly what the effects of that are going to be when something goes wrong.”

Rep. Antonio Delgado, D-N.Y., announced two bills Friday aimed at improving the federal government's broadband coverage data collection practices. The Broadband Speed Act would require ISPs to annually report data to the FCC that shows the actual speeds they're capable of providing, instead of what they can potentially provide. The bill would also require all new FCC-funded broadband projects to be capable of producing a minimum top speed of 100 Mbps, Delgado's office said. The Community Broadband Mapping Act would allow local governments, electric and telephone cooperatives, small ISPs and economic development and community groups to access Rural Utilities Service funding they can use to collect local broadband coverage data. The House Communications Subcommittee is working on a broadband mapping legislative package, with the House version of the Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability (Data) Act (HR-4229) expected to be the legislative vehicle (see 1909250063). NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield lauded Delgado for bowing the Broadband Speed Act. “Steps must be taken to address both of these concerns, and we look forward to a further conversation with Congressman Delgado and others in Congress on how best to advance these goals and achieve the ultimate mission of universal service -- delivering quality services that will keep pace with consumer needs in rural and urban areas alike,” Bloomfield said in a statement.

The threat to networks is real, Clete Johnson, of Wilkinson Barker, said at a Silicon Flatirons spectrum conference Thursday. The threat comes from intelligence services and their agents in countries including North Korea, China, Iran and Russia, he said. There are “tens of thousands of people” who “go to school, go to work, they provide for their families, they find fulfillment in their daily life by trying to figure out how to get into our networks and devices,” Johnson said. “It’s their job. So it’s not some abstraction. It’s a concrete set of forces who are out there working on this every day.” The more everything is connected “everything is vulnerable” and 5G will pose new threats, he said. The government and industry need to work together, Johnson said: “If everything is connected, then all of the solutions need to be connected.” Monisha Ghosh, engineering professor at the University of Chicago and program director at the National Science Foundation, said the U.S. is researching the security threat. “A lot of the news items that you see of threats being discovered or solutions being proposed are coming from the academic community,” she said: “We need to get that community much better connected to industry as well as federal agencies.” Ghosh said “funding is never adequate” and the joke is “NSF stands for not sufficient funds.” Some of the threats will be revealed only as networks launch, she said. “5G is going to roll out as a production system,” she said: “It’s not being experimented with at the scale at which it’s going to roll out. When it rolls out is when you’re going to find the holes.” Rebecca Dorch, senior spectrum policy analyst at the NTIA Institute for Telecommunication Sciences, oversaw testing of systems in the new 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band. Researchers did their best to identify the unknowns, she said. “My nightmare scenario is, notwithstanding all of the careful analysis, … something unexpected or unanticipated could occur within that entire ecosystem that could actually cause harmful interference,” she said. Dynamic spectrum sharing in general poses risks, Dorch said. “Sharing between very, very different types of communications systems, as that increases, and the density of those devices and systems … that’s where I think that we really haven’t fully tacked for potential for interference at the RF level,” she said: “We’ve got some real vulnerabilities potentially there.” Johnson recalled the financial crisis of 2008, where problems in the subprime mortgage market in the United States developed into a full-blown international banking crisis. “You had a problem in one place that cascaded and took over the entire economy,” Johnson said: “My nightmare is as the speed of innovation increases, or the rate of innovation increases, and we deploy billions and billions of devices” it connects people and companies “that may not be aware or where their data sits or how it can be corrupted or manipulated.” We need to test networks, but we don’t know what the “bugs are” until 5G rolls out on a mass scale, he said. Cooperation is crucial, Johnson said: “We’re all part of this increasingly symbiotic relationship and we don’t know exactly what the effects of that are going to be when something goes wrong.”

Rep. Antonio Delgado, D-N.Y., announced two bills Friday aimed at improving the federal government's broadband coverage data collection practices. The Broadband Speed Act would require ISPs to annually report data to the FCC that shows the actual speeds they're capable of providing, instead of what they can potentially provide. The bill would also require all new FCC-funded broadband projects to be capable of producing a minimum top speed of 100 Mbps, Delgado's office said. The Community Broadband Mapping Act would allow local governments, electric and telephone cooperatives, small ISPs and economic development and community groups to access Rural Utilities Service funding they can use to collect local broadband coverage data. The House Communications Subcommittee is working on a broadband mapping legislative package, with the House version of the Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability (Data) Act (HR-4229) expected to be the legislative vehicle (see 1909250063). NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield lauded Delgado for bowing the Broadband Speed Act. “Steps must be taken to address both of these concerns, and we look forward to a further conversation with Congressman Delgado and others in Congress on how best to advance these goals and achieve the ultimate mission of universal service -- delivering quality services that will keep pace with consumer needs in rural and urban areas alike,” Bloomfield said in a statement.

FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly renewed calls to prohibit E-rate funds to schools and libraries that receive broadband service from one provider when another has already received USF dollars at the same location. "It's awful enough when the government subsidizes network builds in areas where the private sector can or does provide service, but it's a separate layer of hell when E-rate money goes to an area already being subsidized by the FCC," O'Rielly told an FCBA USF seminar. O'Rielly has corresponded with school superintendents and consortium leaders in Texas and Arizona about their plans to build self-provisioned wide-area networks that would overbuild a local incumbent's fiber facilities. "I have never been presented with credible evidence that E-Rate funded overbuilding has been anything other than wasteful for the USF," he said, citing "copious evidence of bidding matrices designed to favor a particular outcome and schools buying far more bandwidth than they use or need."