Rural healthcare program (RHC) participants and industry continued to back the FCC's efforts to modify the program's rate methodologies, in reply comments posted Tuesday in docket 17-310 (see 2304250074). Some urged the FCC to facilitate competitive bidding and a copayment structure in the telecom program and Healthcare Connect Fund (HCF) rather than revert to the commission's previous rates database.

Las Vegas has been able to deploy a private network in just three years, initially as a way to control costs, but it continues to find new ways to use the network, said Michael Sherwood, the city’s chief innovation and technology officer, at the Private Networks Global Forum Tuesday. Other speakers said momentum is starting to build for private networks.

Ford Motor announced the company won’t remove AM radio from its cars in the U.S. after getting pushback from lawmakers and broadcasters. “After speaking with policy leaders about the importance of AM broadcast radio as a part of the emergency alert system, we’ve decided to include it” in all 2024 Ford and Lincoln models, Ford CEO Jim Farley tweeted Tuesday. “In light of Ford’s announcement, NAB urges other automakers who have removed AM radio from their vehicles to follow Ford’s lead and restore this technology in the interest of listeners and public safety,” said NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt. Carmakers such as BMW and Tesla said AM won’t be in some models. “Broadcasters will continue to support this major legislation to ensure consumer access to AM radio in all vehicles," NAB said.

The U.S. government’s national standards strategy for critical and emerging technology (CET), unveiled earlier this month, is helpful but won’t fundamentally change how standards are developed, speakers said Tuesday on a USTelecom webinar. The experts said the strategy is explicit that industry should play a lead role. The strategy is complementary to the national cybersecurity strategy, also released this year (see 2303020051), they said.

Three House Communications Subcommittee priorities drew equal attention during a Tuesday hearing with NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson: leaders’ push for a wide-ranging spectrum legislative package, oversight of federal broadband spending, and renewed Hill interest in reauthorizing the agency’s mandate with an eye to addressing future policy issues. The hearing was partly a curtain-raiser for the Commerce Committee’s planned Wednesday markup of the newly filed Spectrum Auction Reauthorization Act (HR-3565) and six broadband measures House Communications approved last week (see 2305170037).

"There is no immediate disruption to Facebook," the company said Monday after the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) ordered parent company Meta to suspend future data transfers to the U.S. within five months, pay a fine of $1.3 billion (1.2 billion pounds), and come into compliance with EU privacy law within six months. Facebook "will appeal the ruling, including the unjustified and unnecessary fine, and seek a stay of the orders through the courts," Global Affairs President Nick Clegg blogged.

The FCC’s final order, NPRM and Further NPRM on the 12 GHz band had a number of changes, which were noted Thursday as commissioners approved the item 4-0 (see 2305180052). There were few changes to a 60 GHz order, also approved unanimously last week (see 2305170039), based on a second side-by-side comparison.

President Joe Biden’s decision to simultaneously announce his intended pick Monday of former NTIA acting Administrator Anna Gomez to the long-vacant fifth FCC seat and his renomination of sitting Commissioners Brendan Carr and Geoffrey Starks, as expected (see 2305180067 and 2305220020), is likely to speed Senate confirmation for all three candidates, said congressional officials and communications policy observers in interviews. There’s not a hard timeline for Senate consideration of the trio, but a Commerce Committee confirmation hearing is likely sometime in June and some stakeholders said they will push the chamber to approve all three before the start of the August recess.

With the FCC facing growing interest from space operators seeking approval for operations on and above the moon's surface, the agency also needs to update its rules for that lunar future, space policy experts told us. The commercial interest in the moon also should trigger ITU action, they said. The FCC didn't comment.

Industry opposed extending California service-quality rules to VoIP and wireless -- and to sharpening the current penalty mechanism for plain old telephone service (POTS) -- in comments Thursday at the California Public Utilities Commission. Consumer groups urged the CPUC to expand and sharpen the teeth of its oversight regime. The responses to a staff outages report largely tracked with previous comment rounds in docket R.22-03-016 (see 2212220052 and 2205100048).