Tech companies told the FCC it should reject reconsideration petitions from CTIA, Verizon and the Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition seeking changes to 6 GHz rules, approved 5-0 in April (see 2004230059). Other comments divided on what the FCC should do. Oppositions were posted Thursday in docket 18-295. “None presents any argument that would justify altering the carefully reasoned decisions in the Commission’s order,” said Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, Facebook, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Intel, Microsoft, Qualcomm and Ruckus Networks: “Most of the petitions merely repeat arguments already raised in the proceeding that the Commission explicitly rejected.” New America’s Open Technology Institute said similar. “The conclusions the Commission reached in its 6 GHz Report and Order were both well-reasoned and based on an extensive record,” the group said. The petitions “seek to delay or disrupt unlicensed access to this critical spectrum and all the innovation it has the potential to unleash,” said NCTA. “The sharp increase in fixed bandwidth demand resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic illustrates the importance of spectrum to better enable distance learning and teleworking and the importance of interference-free wireless backhaul links,” said the Wireless ISP Association. “Bare disagreement with the Commission’s conclusions -- without demonstrating any flaws in the Commission’s rationale for reaching those conclusions -- is insufficient grounds for granting reconsideration,” the Wi-Fi Alliance said. Southern Co. supported FWCC’s complaints. “The Commission relied upon hypothetical simulations, rather than actual field testing, to reach a determination that unlicensed use of the 6 GHz band would not cause harmful interference to primary, licensed incumbent operations,” the utility said: “Preliminary bench tests and field tests using the parameters established in the Report & Order have already raised concerns about potential harmful interference to licensed microwave systems.” The Utilities Technology Council backed the FWCC. “Interference must be prevented before it occurs, not after the fact because it will be far too late to undo the damage that could result," UTC said. Nokia supported higher power levels urged by Verizon.
The iconectiv petition asking the FCC to move to a competitive bidding process for selecting a toll-free numbering administrator (TFNA) (see 2006300003) got no clear industry consensus in docket 20-174 postings Thursday. AT&T said the TFNA's tariff use "is an anomaly" compared with competitive bidding and contracts the FCC uses for other numbering administrators. Going to a competitive process for the local number portability administrator resulted in hugely reduced costs, it said. Also backing the petition, USTelecom said FCC use of competitive bidding for numbering services shows market-based approaches lead to more efficiency. Now isn't the time to change TFNAs since the pandemic has been a major disruption to so many businesses already, and such a switch raises the risk of some kind of interruption that could hurt those relying on toll-free numbers, Unisys said. No one has shown that incumbent TFNA Somos hasn't been doing the job adequately, it said. Iconectiv should be commended for pointing out lack of Somos transparency, but its petition is meritless because it says TFN rates have gone up without reason when it's common knowledge Somos has been doing sizable technology upgrades, responsible organization Vanity International said. "This is nothing but a land grab by a 3rd party venture fund," it said. Iconectiv's complaint about use of a tariff-based approach would hold true no matter who is TFNA, and it would be nice to have multiple providers, but that isn't technologically feasible now, said EZ Texting. Somos is an independent, nonprofit TFNA, and someone else selected through competitive bidding might focus on cost control to the exclusion of protecting the public from scammers using toll-free numbers, Duke Energy said. Establishing a competitive bidding process for selecting a TFNA needs to carry guarantees the new TFNA provides the scam protection services Somos does, it said. Make sure new rules don't significantly interfere with or require changes to the way providers interface with the TFNA and don't require costly changes, said ATIS. Somos, in posting on meetings with aides to Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Jessica Rosenworcel, said any consideration of changing processes to select a TFNA and changing the tariff structure requires issuing an NPRM. It said the current system "is working well." Its comments said similar.
The Environmental Health Trust (EHT), Consumers for Safe Cell Phones and the Children’s Health Defense asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to rule the FCC’s refusal to update its 25-year-old “obsolete” RF exposure rules is a violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and the Telecom Act. EHT officials argued for forcing FCC action during a news conference Thursday.
A State Department official built the U.S. case against Huawei and other Chinese companies and the threat they pose to 5G and the communications supply chain. “Trust cannot exist where a telecom vendor is subject to an authoritarian government” like China, said Robert Strayer, deputy assistant secretary-cyber and international communications and information policy, during a Thursday Telecommunications Industry Association webinar.
FCC staff extended by a month an opportunity for tribes to file 2.5 GHz applications, until Sept. 2. That's less than the three additional months some sought.
A draft order circulated to eighth-floor offices Thursday would reduce a Dec. 1 increase of the Lifeline program’s minimum service standard for mobile broadband. Currently, the MSS is to go from 3 GB monthly to 11.75 GB monthly on that date. The draft would instead shift it to 4.5 GB per month. It will “permanently clean up the mess” from the 2016 order that instituted the formula leading to the larger increase, Chairman Ajit Pai said. The agency waived a similar increase, from 3 GB to 8.75, in 2019. The metric has to rise to keep up with consumer data use, but increases that are too large prevent providers from keeping Lifeline affordable, Pai said.
A host of companies and associations -- including Comcast, AT&T, iHeartMedia and the Internet Association -- praised Washington, D.C.’s removal of a planned tax on the purchase of advertising. “This proposed tax would have created a substantial barrier for economic recovery and job creation in the District,” said a joint statement Wednesday, which was also signed by Verizon, the News Media Alliance and NCTA. NAB also signed the statement and released its own last week (see 2007230064). The tax’s removal “provides a far better environment for the many large and small business and media entities struggling to recover from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the joint release said.
Oral argument in Maine's appeal of a preliminary injunction request by Comcast and content companies challenging the state's a la carte cable TV law (see 2004300011) will be held remotely Sept. 16 due to the pandemic, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Tuesday (in Pacer, docket 20-1104).
Buying activity in eBay’s core marketplaces grew 29% in Q2, its “highest quarterly growth rate in 15 years,” said CEO Jamie Iannone on an investor call. EBay hired him in April from Walmart, where he was chief operating office for e-commerce (see personals section, April 14). He was an eBay vice president for eight years before leaving in 2009 to become CEO of SamsClub.com. “Consumer behavior is rapidly evolving and this dynamic has been accelerated by COVID-19," said Iannone Tuesday evening. The pandemic is significantly speeding buying activity growth and "new customer acquisition,” he said. But he’s “not satisfied with where we currently stand,” he said. “We've not executed to our full potential. New competitors have taken share because we neglected our core area of expertise.” EBay wrongly focused on new areas that “could not drive sustainable or profitable growth,” he said. “To be candid, we did not adapt quickly enough to the rapidly changing needs of our customers.” The company has “enormous untapped potential that we absolutely must capitalize on,” he said. “This is what brought me back to eBay.” Reshaping the company will be a “multiyear process,” he said. “Tech-led reimagination, our plan is to become the best marketplace in the world for buyers and sellers.”
House Commerce Committee ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore., and Consumer Protection Subcommittee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., pressed Apple and Google Wednesday for information by Aug. 12 about how they ensure apps sold through their mobile platforms “are appropriately vetted, particularly those with close ties to China and the Chinese Communist Party.” Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pinchai were among those testifying Wednesday to the Antitrust Subcommittee (see 2007290063). “The growth of smart device use and reliance on teleconferencing has only increased our dependence on apps, and with that an additional layer of protection that virtual private networks (VPNs) can provide,” Walden and Rodgers wrote Cook and Pinchai. “Bad actors may be taking advantage of the American people’s trust” in Apple and Google amid the pandemic, “which likely extends to apps available through” the companies’ stores. The legislators asked whether the companies “apply additional scrutiny” to TikTok due to parent ByteDance’s “close ties” with the Chinese government. Apple and Google didn’t comment. TikTok said it's enhancing transparency (see 2007290046).