The FCC should move forward on rules to speed siting of wireless infrastructure, said Wireless Infrastructure Association President Jonathan Adelstein in a meeting with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai last week. “WIA emphasized the importance of the FCC’s current efforts to reduce regulatory barriers … and the opportunity to encourage investment in innovative 5G services and Internet of Things solutions,” said a filing in docket 17-79. WIA said streamlining wireless infrastructure siting rules would lead to better broadband deployment on tribal lands. Illinois' DuPage Mayors & Managers Conference said, meanwhile, the FCC must allow flexibility. Illinois state law gives city governments “extensive discretion” on permitted uses, special uses and variances for land uses, it said. “This discretion is rooted in the variety of urban, suburban, and rural small and medium communities, and in how land use planning impacts each type of community differently.” Different land uses within a municipality are based on different siting and aesthetic requirements, “for example undergrounding or camouflage along main commercial routes,” the group said. “These specific needs must be addressed in the application process and require municipalities to examine applications on an individual basis to ensure collocation requests are structurally sound and aesthetically appropriate given the location.” Comments were filed in docket 17-84.
The FCC should move forward on rules to speed siting of wireless infrastructure, said Wireless Infrastructure Association President Jonathan Adelstein in a meeting with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai last week. “WIA emphasized the importance of the FCC’s current efforts to reduce regulatory barriers … and the opportunity to encourage investment in innovative 5G services and Internet of Things solutions,” said a filing in docket 17-79. WIA said streamlining wireless infrastructure siting rules would lead to better broadband deployment on tribal lands. Illinois' DuPage Mayors & Managers Conference said, meanwhile, the FCC must allow flexibility. Illinois state law gives city governments “extensive discretion” on permitted uses, special uses and variances for land uses, it said. “This discretion is rooted in the variety of urban, suburban, and rural small and medium communities, and in how land use planning impacts each type of community differently.” Different land uses within a municipality are based on different siting and aesthetic requirements, “for example undergrounding or camouflage along main commercial routes,” the group said. “These specific needs must be addressed in the application process and require municipalities to examine applications on an individual basis to ensure collocation requests are structurally sound and aesthetically appropriate given the location.” Comments were filed in docket 17-84.
One of the biggest questions raised in the FCC April NPRM on wireless infrastructure is whether the agency should say an application can be “deemed granted” if a state or local agency responsible for land-use decisions fails to act on it by the shot clock deadline. Industry officials said the FCC might not be able to reach consensus, especially given concerns raised by Commissioner Mike O’Rielly. Meanwhile, Chairman Ajit Pai said Friday he will soon hit the road for a series of meetings with the tribes, sometimes seen by industry as a stumbling block to wireless deployment.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai made more than 40 media appearances in the three weeks before a party-line FCC vote OK'd an NPRM proposing to roll back Title II broadband regulation under the Communications Act (see 1705180029). Supporters said the aggressive outreach was politically savvy in the highly charged atmosphere. Ex-FCC Democrats saw nothing wrong, but net neutrality advocates said the appearances, including with numerous conservative voices, betray weakness and concern about rallying support amid opposition.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai made more than 40 media appearances in the three weeks before a party-line FCC vote OK'd an NPRM proposing to roll back Title II broadband regulation under the Communications Act (see 1705180029). Supporters said the aggressive outreach was politically savvy in the highly charged atmosphere. Ex-FCC Democrats saw nothing wrong, but net neutrality advocates said the appearances, including with numerous conservative voices, betray weakness and concern about rallying support amid opposition.
The FCC urged the full 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to affirm a district court ruling that sided with the FTC in finding AT&T Mobility inadequately informed customers of its data-throttling program. The FCC was backing an FTC en banc appeal of a three-judge 9th Circuit decision that threw out its case against AT&T. The FCC said the two agencies "have worked cooperatively" to ensure the division of authority between them didn't subject parties to conflicting agency demands or create a regulatory gap. The panel decision overturning the district court ruling "gravely upset this careful balance, potentially creating a regulatory no man's land that is exempt from both FTC and FCC jurisdiction," said an FCC amicus brief Wednesday in AT&T Mobility v. FTC, No. 15-16585. The FTC has certain authority ("Section 5") to address unfair or deceptive acts or practices affecting commerce, subject to certain exceptions, including for Communications Act "common carriers." FCC 2015 reclassification of broadband as being under Title II common-carrier regulation effectively exempted broadband providers from the FTC jurisdiction. The brief noted the FCC's proposal to undo the Title II broadband reclassification, but said that wouldn't resolve the 9th Circuit issue because the panel ruling extended the FTC's exemption to the non-common carrier activities of common carriers, and AT&T would retain common-carrier status as a telco. "If the en banc Court were to adopt AT&T’s position that the FTC Act’s common-carrier exception is 'status-based' rather than 'activity-based,' contrary to the reasoned analysis of the district court below, the fact that AT&T provides traditional common-carrier voice telephone service could potentially immunize the company from any FTC oversight of its non-common-carrier offerings, even when the FCC lacks authority over those offerings -- creating a potentially substantial regulatory gap where neither the FTC nor the FCC has regulatory authority," said the FCC brief. "That approach is contrary to a common-sense reading of the relevant statutes and could weaken or eliminate important consumer protections. While AT&T may prefer to offer services in a regulatory no man’s land, the law does not dance to AT&T’s whims." En banc reversal is seen as a potential game changer for both agencies (see 1705100063).
The FCC urged the full 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to affirm a district court ruling that sided with the FTC in finding AT&T Mobility inadequately informed customers of its data-throttling program. The FCC was backing an FTC en banc appeal of a three-judge 9th Circuit decision that threw out its case against AT&T. The FCC said the two agencies "have worked cooperatively" to ensure the division of authority between them didn't subject parties to conflicting agency demands or create a regulatory gap. The panel decision overturning the district court ruling "gravely upset this careful balance, potentially creating a regulatory no man's land that is exempt from both FTC and FCC jurisdiction," said an FCC amicus brief Wednesday in AT&T Mobility v. FTC, No. 15-16585. The FTC has certain authority ("Section 5") to address unfair or deceptive acts or practices affecting commerce, subject to certain exceptions, including for Communications Act "common carriers." FCC 2015 reclassification of broadband as being under Title II common-carrier regulation effectively exempted broadband providers from the FTC jurisdiction. The brief noted the FCC's proposal to undo the Title II broadband reclassification, but said that wouldn't resolve the 9th Circuit issue because the panel ruling extended the FTC's exemption to the non-common carrier activities of common carriers, and AT&T would retain common-carrier status as a telco. "If the en banc Court were to adopt AT&T’s position that the FTC Act’s common-carrier exception is 'status-based' rather than 'activity-based,' contrary to the reasoned analysis of the district court below, the fact that AT&T provides traditional common-carrier voice telephone service could potentially immunize the company from any FTC oversight of its non-common-carrier offerings, even when the FCC lacks authority over those offerings -- creating a potentially substantial regulatory gap where neither the FTC nor the FCC has regulatory authority," said the FCC brief. "That approach is contrary to a common-sense reading of the relevant statutes and could weaken or eliminate important consumer protections. While AT&T may prefer to offer services in a regulatory no man’s land, the law does not dance to AT&T’s whims." En banc reversal is seen as a potential game changer for both agencies (see 1705100063).
Addressing the estimated 4,300 twilight towers in the U.S. has proven elusive for the FCC and illustrates the difficulty of moving forward on infrastructure issues. Commissioner Mike O’Rielly discussed the towers in a Tuesday address to the Wireless Infrastructure Association (see 1705230016). Former FCC officials said the lack of progress wasn’t from lack of trying. Twilight towers, built between March 2001 and March 2005, never went through the FCC Section 106 historic preservation review process and as a result are unavailable for collocation.
Marvell Technology landed “multiple design wins” in Q1 for its automotive Ethernet and Wi-Fi products with U.S., European and Asian car manufacturers, said Matt Murphy, CEO of the semiconductors supplier, on a Thursday earnings call. Though those wins aren’t expected to contribute “meaningful revenue” until 2019 and beyond, “they do represent an important milestone in Marvell's progress in the automotive market,” said Murphy. Marvell sees its “momentum continuing to build” in automotive Wi-Fi/Bluetooth “combo chips” and in “PHY” (physical layer receiver) chips for Ethernet functionality in the car, he said in Q&A. “The way to think about the traction” that Marvell is getting in the automotive space is that “it’s very broad-based in nature in terms of geography” across “all three major regions” of the world, he said. It's also spread widely across “multiple customers and OEMs as well,” he said. “Having been involved with automotive for quite a bit of time, almost 10 years now, going back to 2007 when I got really involved with my old company, this concept of Ethernet in the vehicle was around even then,” said Murphy of his past executive service with chip supplier Maxim Integrated. The “vision” back then of “actually upgrading that legacy bus in the car,” by connecting all the disparate electronic control units “on one packet-based network, is starting to happen,” he said. “And so we feel like we’re in a good position as Ethernet becomes more prolific in vehicle.” Since that business isn’t expected to really flourish before 2019, “we’re not quantifying any revenue yet or sizes,” he said. “But you can imagine we’ll begin to talk more about that as we make progress towards these production ramps.” The design wins Marvell landed in Q1 are “just the signal that we’ve got leverage from our existing R&D efforts that we can apply into adjacent markets that are growing very fast,” he said. “We think automotive is one of those markets for us.”
The FCC Public Safety Bureau sought comment Thursday on a proposal by Washington County, Oregon, to modify a private land mobile radio license by adding six new 800 MHz channels to its base station, located on Gales Peak. The county says its 800 MHz trunked radio system provides mobile radio coverage to 18 police and fire agencies there, but expanded service to include 94 agencies from Clackamas County and Newberg, the bureau said. Washington County contends not enough public safety or vacated spectrum frequencies are available for licensing at the Gales Peak site to add the six channels it needs, said a public notice. The six channels are set aside for business/industrial/land transportation uses, so the county needs a waiver, the bureau said: Comments due June 9, replies June 23.