California is the 20th state this year to introduce right-to-repair legislation, said iFixit Monday. AB-1163, introduced by Assemblymember Susan Talamantes Eggman (D-Stockton), would require electronics manufacturers to make service literature and equipment or parts available to product owners and to regulated, independent repair shops. “Consumers should have the right to choose their repair provider,” said the nonprofit iFixit. Increasing independent repair options “will encourage people to fix the electronics and appliances they already own, rather than toss their broken belongings and buy new ones,” it said. Overcoming tech lobby opposition to get legislation passed and enacted is a tall task, but right-to-repair advocates will take every victory they can get, iFixit said: “This month Minnesota became the first state in Right to Repair history to pass legislation through two state committees.” One California consumer, Andrew Keates, thinks devising a “repair-ability rating would be a useful addition to product labeling,” he commented to the FTC, as posted Tuesday in docket FTC-2019-0013 in the agency's inquiry into manufacturer limitations on third-party repairs (see 1903150055). “We label dangerous goods as such,” and labeling products as repairable “would be equally valid,” he said. “If items are repairable,” said Keates, “somebody like me would repair them and we might even start a secondary market for repaired goods, avoiding them landing in landfills.” He recently repaired a desktop PC by fitting it with a new power supply, he said. He would have repaired the power supply itself if he had had access to a repair manual, he said: “I imagine at least part of the old power supply is now sitting somewhere in a landfill.”

The Enterprise Wireless Alliance sent members and customers a fact sheet Monday trying to set the record straight on the future of the 700 MHz T band. It was repurposed for commercial use by the 2012 law that created FirstNet, EWA noted. “It is debatable that the Congressional decision to take this heavily used band away from public safety (and collaterally from business entities) in exchange for 700 MHz spectrum for deployment of a national public safety broadband network was prudent policy, but the private land mobile industry is now stuck with the impending consequences,” EWA said: Some "attempt to capitalize on FCC inaction and licensees’ lack of understanding of spectrum policy processes to promote premature system migrations.” Congress requires only that the FCC start an auction of the band by 2021, not clear it of incumbents, the group reminded. EWA said any licensee that leaves the band now won't receive grant money from NTIA to cover its relocation costs. Proponents of rewriting the act face a tough road in Congress, the alliance said.

Counterfeit goods made up as much as 6.8 percent of total imports into the European Union in 2016, up from 5 percent just three years earlier, mirroring a worldwide increase in trade in counterfeits, the European Union Intellectual Property Office said in a new report. China remained the world’s top shipper of counterfeits, though Hong Kong plays an increasing role as a transit point, and “India, Malaysia, Mexico, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates remain among the top provenance economies,” the report said.

Viasat hammered Hughes Network System opposition to its request for designation as an eligible telecom carrier (see 1903070067) after winning support in a Connect America Fund Phase II subsidy auction. "The premise underlying Hughes’s opposition is absurd," replied Viasat, posted Thursday in docket 09-197. "When Hughes offers [VoIP] services over its satellite network, it has no qualms about claiming that satellite-provided VoIP services are 'virtually indistinguishable from landline voice service' and meet the applicable standard for federal support under the [CAF] program. But when a competitor proposes a satellite VoIP offering, Hughes’s view of the world suddenly flips. According to Hughes’s opposition, commitments to offer satellite VoIP services that will meet applicable Commission requirements in states like Alabama, California, Florida, and West Virginia should now supposedly be viewed with 'great skepticism.'" The FCC doesn't require a party to "provide the supported service at the time of its ETC application, or that an applicant engage in testing of a current service to assess whether the future supported service will comply with the conditions of that support," the filing said. Viasat "is not obligated to provide CAF II-compliant services for at least three more years." Redwire withdrew an ETC petition after Oklahoma Corporation Commission jurisdictional objections (see 1903070067). "After completing a more thorough comparison of census blocks awarded to Redwire in [the CAF II auction] with Otoe-Missouria tribal lands, it does not appear at this time that any awarded census blocks are located within Otoe-Missouria lands," the company said.

Viasat hammered Hughes Network System opposition to its request for designation as an eligible telecom carrier (see 1903070067) after winning support in a Connect America Fund Phase II subsidy auction. "The premise underlying Hughes’s opposition is absurd," replied Viasat, posted Thursday in docket 09-197. "When Hughes offers [VoIP] services over its satellite network, it has no qualms about claiming that satellite-provided VoIP services are 'virtually indistinguishable from landline voice service' and meet the applicable standard for federal support under the [CAF] program. But when a competitor proposes a satellite VoIP offering, Hughes’s view of the world suddenly flips. According to Hughes’s opposition, commitments to offer satellite VoIP services that will meet applicable Commission requirements in states like Alabama, California, Florida, and West Virginia should now supposedly be viewed with 'great skepticism.'" The FCC doesn't require a party to "provide the supported service at the time of its ETC application, or that an applicant engage in testing of a current service to assess whether the future supported service will comply with the conditions of that support," the filing said. Viasat "is not obligated to provide CAF II-compliant services for at least three more years." Redwire withdrew an ETC petition after Oklahoma Corporation Commission jurisdictional objections (see 1903070067). "After completing a more thorough comparison of census blocks awarded to Redwire in [the CAF II auction] with Otoe-Missouria tribal lands, it does not appear at this time that any awarded census blocks are located within Otoe-Missouria lands," the company said.

The United Kingdom would temporarily set tariffs at zero for nearly 90 percent of imported goods should it leave the European Union with no transition deal in place, the U.K. Department for International Trade said in a March 13 press release announcing a draft tariff and customs scheme in the run-up to a vote in Parliament on whether to leave with no deal.

Agencies must improve broadband data collection, mapping and coordination to better target funding and prevent government-backed network overbuilding, said lawmakers and witnesses at a Senate Communications Subcommittee rural broadband hearing Tuesday. The FCC and Rural Utilities Service need better coordination to ensure they don't fund duplicates, said Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., noting broadband data and mapping shortcomings. Better maps are needed to prevent overbuilding, agreed ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, also suggesting the FCC overhaul USF contributions to tap broadband connections.

Agencies must improve broadband data collection, mapping and coordination to better target funding and prevent government-backed network overbuilding, said lawmakers and witnesses at a Senate Communications Subcommittee rural broadband hearing Tuesday. The FCC and Rural Utilities Service need better coordination to ensure they don't fund duplicates, said Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., noting broadband data and mapping shortcomings. Better maps are needed to prevent overbuilding, agreed ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, also suggesting the FCC overhaul USF contributions to tap broadband connections.

Apple landed a two-year FCC experimental license Tuesday to test GPS functionality indoors in California at five locations in its Cupertino headquarters and one in Sunnyvale, Office of Engineering and Technology records show. Apple applied Dec. 6, saying the indoor tests are part of the “continued exploration of utilizing GPS technologies" in consumer devices "to provide innovative applications and continue to provide safe products.” The company will use the know-how it gains in the tests for “further design, development and enhancement of existing GPS applications to provide greater efficiency and more effective means of utilizing GPS derived information,” it said. Apple didn’t comment Wednesday.

Apple landed a two-year FCC experimental license Tuesday to test GPS functionality indoors in California at five locations in its Cupertino headquarters and one in Sunnyvale, Office of Engineering and Technology records show. Apple applied Dec. 6, saying the indoor tests are part of the “continued exploration of utilizing GPS technologies" in consumer devices "to provide innovative applications and continue to provide safe products.” The company will use the know-how it gains in the tests for “further design, development and enhancement of existing GPS applications to provide greater efficiency and more effective means of utilizing GPS derived information,” it said. Apple didn’t comment Wednesday.