Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., re-filed their Amateur Radio Parity Act Wednesday. The bill, a companion to HR-555, would direct the FCC to extend its rule relating to reasonable accommodation of amateur service communications to include private land use restrictions. The House cleared HR-555 in January (see 1701230071).
Smart speakers account for one in three home audio shipments in the U.S., said a Futuresource report referencing a “new CE land grab” that could “unsettle the entire CE industry.” Worldwide in Q1, 3.4 million smart speakers were sold at a retail value of more than $440 million, said the report. Interest in voice-enabled speakers beyond the U.S. and U.K. has been limited, and the U.S. is projected to generate more than half of global smart speaker revenue by 2021, it said. Smart speakers have been the natural home for voice-based digital assistants because of features, functionality and price, and they’ve been an effective vehicle to introduce the concept of voice control to consumers, said analyst Rasika D'Souza. Voice-based personal assistants are poised to become “the new, primary interface for all consumer electronics devices across the board,” said analyst Simon Bryant. Calling voice control “the biggest opportunity of the decade,” Bryant said the company that “gets it right will set the agenda for the next generation of CE devices."
Smart speakers account for one in three home audio shipments in the U.S., said a Futuresource report referencing a “new CE land grab” that could “unsettle the entire CE industry.” Worldwide in Q1, 3.4 million smart speakers were sold at a retail value of more than $440 million, said the report. Interest in voice-enabled speakers beyond the U.S. and U.K. has been limited, and the U.S. is projected to generate more than half of global smart speaker revenue by 2021, it said. Smart speakers have been the natural home for voice-based digital assistants because of features, functionality and price, and they’ve been an effective vehicle to introduce the concept of voice control to consumers, said analyst Rasika D'Souza. Voice-based personal assistants are poised to become “the new, primary interface for all consumer electronics devices across the board,” said analyst Simon Bryant. Calling voice control “the biggest opportunity of the decade,” Bryant said the company that “gets it right will set the agenda for the next generation of CE devices."
The White House is looking for someone to assist Grace Koh, special assistant to the president for technology, telecom and cybersecurity policy, government and industry officials told us. The administration is focused on Kelsey Guyselman, counsel to the House Commerce Committee, they said. The slot is supposed to be an NTIA slot detailed to the White House the same way Tom Power was during the Obama administration, officials said.
The White House is looking for someone to assist Grace Koh, special assistant to the president for technology, telecom and cybersecurity policy, government and industry officials told us. The administration is focused on Kelsey Guyselman, counsel to the House Commerce Committee, they said. The slot is supposed to be an NTIA slot detailed to the White House the same way Tom Power was during the Obama administration, officials said.
Harris and Motorola Solutions each won a five-year contract, worth up to $461.2 million, to help the U.S. Army update its land-mobile radio system infrastructure. “Two bids were solicited and two bids received,” on each contract the DOD said in a news release. “Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of July 6, 2022.”
Google Fiber urged the FCC to back one-touch make-ready (OTMR) pole attachments, saying they would help spur broadband deployment and address most commission concerns about existing make-ready efforts. Google's OTMR proposal "would allow a new attacher with permission to install attachments on a pole to use a contractor approved by the pole owner to perform all work on existing attachments needed to make the pole ready for its new attachments," said a company filing Monday in docket 17-84 on meetings with staffers of all three commissioners and the Wireline Bureau to discuss comments made on wireline infrastructure deployment (see 1706160041). Google said OTMR has broad support from "utilities to Verizon," with the chief opponents being cable companies that seemingly are concerned about third parties performing work on their facilities. The company believes its proposal should alleviate those concerns -- because pole owners would approve third parties -- and would address another concern of OTMR opponents by making the approved contractor the one that determines whether make-ready work is "simple or complex." Proposed alternatives wouldn't work because they don't address the fundamental sequencing problem of make-ready work, it said. Frontier Communications said "rationalizing ILEC pole attachment rates would encourage broadband deployment and remove unnecessary competitive distortions," said a filing on a meeting with Commissioner Mike O'Rielly and an aide. A Loudoun County, Virginia, filing said it's "opposed to any regulatory changes that limit local land use authority and impose unreasonable mandates, as proposed" by an FCC notice (see 1704200046).
Google Fiber urged the FCC to back one-touch make-ready (OTMR) pole attachments, saying they would help spur broadband deployment and address most commission concerns about existing make-ready efforts. Google's OTMR proposal "would allow a new attacher with permission to install attachments on a pole to use a contractor approved by the pole owner to perform all work on existing attachments needed to make the pole ready for its new attachments," said a company filing Monday in docket 17-84 on meetings with staffers of all three commissioners and the Wireline Bureau to discuss comments made on wireline infrastructure deployment (see 1706160041). Google said OTMR has broad support from "utilities to Verizon," with the chief opponents being cable companies that seemingly are concerned about third parties performing work on their facilities. The company believes its proposal should alleviate those concerns -- because pole owners would approve third parties -- and would address another concern of OTMR opponents by making the approved contractor the one that determines whether make-ready work is "simple or complex." Proposed alternatives wouldn't work because they don't address the fundamental sequencing problem of make-ready work, it said. Frontier Communications said "rationalizing ILEC pole attachment rates would encourage broadband deployment and remove unnecessary competitive distortions," said a filing on a meeting with Commissioner Mike O'Rielly and an aide. A Loudoun County, Virginia, filing said it's "opposed to any regulatory changes that limit local land use authority and impose unreasonable mandates, as proposed" by an FCC notice (see 1704200046).
The FCC pre-empted an exclusive license of Sandwich Isles Communications that the agency said, in effect, bars telecom competition in the Hawaiian home lands. Citing its authority under Section 253 of the Communications Act, the commission unanimously pre-empted enforcement of an exclusivity provision of a telecom license granted by Hawaii's Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to Waimana Enterprises and then assigned to its subsidiary, Sandwich Isles, said a Monday order in docket 10-90. A draft order recently circulated (see 1706280032). Commissioner Mignon Clyburn issued a statement saying the order "highlights the importance of section 253 of the Communications Act in enabling competition. And how useless it will likely be in a broadband-only world, if the Commission’s majority moves forward with its plan to reclassify broadband as an information service. Breaking down barriers to infrastructure deployment without Title II is about as effective demolishing a wall by staring at it. Without a Title II telecommunications service at issue, today’s Order would not have been possible." Sandwich Isles didn't comment.
The FCC pre-empted an exclusive license of Sandwich Isles Communications that the agency said, in effect, bars telecom competition in the Hawaiian home lands. Citing its authority under Section 253 of the Communications Act, the commission unanimously pre-empted enforcement of an exclusivity provision of a telecom license granted by Hawaii's Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to Waimana Enterprises and then assigned to its subsidiary, Sandwich Isles, said a Monday order in docket 10-90. A draft order recently circulated (see 1706280032). Commissioner Mignon Clyburn issued a statement saying the order "highlights the importance of section 253 of the Communications Act in enabling competition. And how useless it will likely be in a broadband-only world, if the Commission’s majority moves forward with its plan to reclassify broadband as an information service. Breaking down barriers to infrastructure deployment without Title II is about as effective demolishing a wall by staring at it. Without a Title II telecommunications service at issue, today’s Order would not have been possible." Sandwich Isles didn't comment.