USTelecom and its partners are hoping the results of the four-month location fabric broadband mapping pilot project it recently concluded in two states will be promising enough to convince the FCC to move forward with and pay for similar efforts nationwide, executives said during a webinar Tuesday on its findings. The nationwide initiative could take 12-15 months to complete and cost upward of $8.5 million to $11 million depending on the types of datasets used, said Jim Stegeman, CEO of CostQuest Associates, during Q&A after the presentation. He recommended the maps be updated once or twice a year thereafter to take into account new construction or structures that are torn down. USTelecom estimates annual costs of $3 million to $4 million for updates.
New ways to help farmers get the best yields from their crops and the most from their broadband connections are being pushed by some rural ISPs, we found in interviews last week. Policymakers are looking at how to advance precision agriculture and expand broadband access to farms in unserved communities. The FCC plans a precision agriculture task force (see 1906170024). And the USDA's ReConnect funds are for expanding connectivity to unserved rural areas (see 1812130064).
New ways to help farmers get the best yields from their crops and the most from their broadband connections are being pushed by some rural ISPs, we found in interviews last week. Policymakers are looking at how to advance precision agriculture and expand broadband access to farms in unserved communities. The FCC plans a precision agriculture task force (see 1906170024). And the USDA's ReConnect funds are for expanding connectivity to unserved rural areas (see 1812130064).
Arizona's two senators -- a Democrat and a Republican -- are questioning the Commerce Department's efforts to update a recently terminated agreement between Mexico and the U.S. that ended an old antidumping case against Mexican tomatoes.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said Wednesday he circulated an order approving T-Mobile buying Sprint. Opponents promise another legal challenge on top of the one by states to be heard in December in a federal courtroom in Manhattan. Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks are expected to dissent, so a 3-2 vote is likely. DOJ, which cleared the deal subject to conditions including a divestiture to Dish Network, cheered.
One of the top concerns of the U.S. firearms industry is the delay in transitioning export controls of firearms and ammunition from the State Department to the Commerce Department, said Larry Keane, senior vice president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation. As the wait for Export Control Reform has increased -- beginning in 2009 under the Obama administration and continuing under the Trump administration -- the U.S. firearms industry increasingly feels as if it has been left behind, Keane said.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said Wednesday he circulated an order approving T-Mobile buying Sprint. Opponents promise another legal challenge on top of the one by states to be heard in December in a federal courtroom in Manhattan. Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks are expected to dissent, so a 3-2 vote is likely. DOJ, which cleared the deal subject to conditions including a divestiture to Dish Network, cheered.
Arizona's two senators -- a Democrat and a Republican -- are questioning the Commerce Department's efforts to update a recently terminated agreement between Mexico and the U.S. that ended an old antidumping case against Mexican tomatoes.
TracFone outside counsel Geoffrey Why met Monday with Nicholas Degani, senior counsel to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, to repeat the importance of incorporating into the Lifeline national verifier program application programming interfaces (APIs) that allow two-way communication between the national verifier online registry and Lifeline service providers (see 1907080009), said an ex parte letter posted Thursday in docket 11-42. The parties also discussed Lifeline minimum service standards (see 1907310074) and a TracFone petition to expand its eligible telecommunications carrier designation to include tribal lands (see 1904040071).
The broadcast industry’s “commitment,” announced at the NAB Show, to roll out ATSC 3.0 services in markets covering 72 percent of the U.S. population by the end of 2020 (see 1904080071) “sort of solves the chicken and the egg problem with 3.0,” said Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley on a Q2 earnings call Wednesday. “You need to get the transmission side up for receivers to begin penetrating the marketplace,” he said. Sinclair’s One Media 3.0 partner Saankhya Labs, which is developing 3.0 reception chips for mobile devices (see 1703280044), “made its first sale of those chips,” said Ripley. He didn’t identify the customer and Sinclair didn’t respond to queries. “There’s a number of people interested in them to start testing and developing new products around that. That was another major milestone, as OEMs and manufacturers start thinking about how to integrate this in a variety of different products.” The U.S. decision asking the ITU to adopt 3.0 as an international broadcast TV standard, also announced at NAB (see 1904070001), was “a major step” toward commercializing the technology in other countries, said Ripley. “We think some that are targets for us to focus on are India and Brazil,” he said. Both would “benefit immensely from the 3.0 standard,” he said. “In India, you’ve got hundreds of millions of people with low to no connectivity.” He thinks 3.0 would be “an incredible use case for that country,” he said.