President Donald Trump lifted the federal hiring freeze Wednesday, even while the administration is pushing most agencies to cut staffing levels. Industry and FCC officials said the change means Chairman Ajit Pai has some additional wiggle room to staff up in areas with unfilled positions and to bring in his own people in some key positions. Some observers had expressed concerns that Trump’s Jan. 23 freeze could slow work on Pai’s agenda (see 1703220041).
President Donald Trump lifted the federal hiring freeze Wednesday, even while the administration is pushing most agencies to cut staffing levels. Industry and FCC officials said the change means Chairman Ajit Pai has some additional wiggle room to staff up in areas with unfilled positions and to bring in his own people in some key positions. Some observers had expressed concerns that Trump’s Jan. 23 freeze could slow work on Pai’s agenda (see 1703220041).
President Donald Trump lifted the federal hiring freeze Wednesday, even while the administration is pushing most agencies to cut staffing levels. Industry and FCC officials said the change means Chairman Ajit Pai has some additional wiggle room to staff up in areas with unfilled positions and to bring in his own people in some key positions. Some observers had expressed concerns that Trump’s Jan. 23 freeze could slow work on Pai’s agenda (see 1703220041).
A TV can be fitted with a “software module” that can use GPS or an internet “reverse look up” to determine if the set resides in a “retail store location” so it can “automatically default” to its retail mode. So says a patent (9,621,835) that Vizio landed Tuesday from the Patent and Trademark Office, based on an October 2014 application, listing Chief Technology Officer Matthew McRae as the inventor. If the TV’s location is determined to be in a retail store, the set will “initialize the video and audio quality for a retail store environment,” and do the same for a “residential environment” if it’s determined the set is not located in a store, says the patent. TV sold at retail are “generally, manually placed” into retail mode to make picture and sound conducive to “environments where the ambient light levels and ambient audio levels are quite high,” it says. A TV with “brightness levels and color saturation suitable for the home environment will appear washed out and dim in a retail environment,” it says. “The inventor recognized a need for a television to automatically determine if it is in a retail environment or a home environment and to set up the display variables such that the first time power is applied, the screen variables are automatically set to be appropriate for the environment.” Vizio representatives didn’t comment Tuesday on whether the company plans to commercialize the invention.
FCC work on ISP privacy rules is tied to its pending rulemaking on net neutrality and likely repeal of the reclassification of ISPs under Title II of the Communications Act, industry officials said. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has reportedly been meeting with groups representing ISPs and edge providers to start to share details of the pending proposal (see 1704100053). A Congressional Review Act resolution overturned the 2016 privacy rules approved under ex-Chairman Tom Wheeler (see 1704040059), but the FCC has wiggle room to approve new rules as long as they’re not “substantially similar” to the nullified rule. The most likely course is for the FCC to await repeal of reclassification and then shift privacy oversight to the FTC, industry officials said. The FCC also has before it a number of petitions for reconsideration of the privacy order.
FCC work on ISP privacy rules is tied to its pending rulemaking on net neutrality and likely repeal of the reclassification of ISPs under Title II of the Communications Act, industry officials said. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has reportedly been meeting with groups representing ISPs and edge providers to start to share details of the pending proposal (see 1704100053). A Congressional Review Act resolution overturned the 2016 privacy rules approved under ex-Chairman Tom Wheeler (see 1704040059), but the FCC has wiggle room to approve new rules as long as they’re not “substantially similar” to the nullified rule. The most likely course is for the FCC to await repeal of reclassification and then shift privacy oversight to the FTC, industry officials said. The FCC also has before it a number of petitions for reconsideration of the privacy order.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's efforts to take on net neutrality could start with an NPRM in a few months, we're told. Approving new rules could take as long as a year, current and former commission officials said Friday. Pai and staff have started talking to industry representatives about the process of taking on net neutrality and repeal of broadband classification as a Communications Act Title II service. A staff team within the FCC has been working on an NPRM, agency officials and others said Friday. The goal apparently is to seek a vote by the June 15 commissioners’ meeting, since Commissioner Mignon Clyburn’s term expires June 30, they said.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's efforts to take on net neutrality could start with an NPRM in a few months, we're told. Approving new rules could take as long as a year, current and former commission officials said Friday. Pai and staff have started talking to industry representatives about the process of taking on net neutrality and repeal of broadband classification as a Communications Act Title II service. A staff team within the FCC has been working on an NPRM, agency officials and others said Friday. The goal apparently is to seek a vote by the June 15 commissioners’ meeting, since Commissioner Mignon Clyburn’s term expires June 30, they said.
HEVC Advance, the one-stop-shop patent pool to license technology under the H.265 platform (see 1504010051), scored the biggest coup in its two-year existence Wednesday when it announced landing Samsung as both a licensor and licensee. "Having the support of the largest consumer electronics company in the world, and a leader in innovation with one of largest and most important HEVC/H.265 patent portfolios, will help eliminate HEVC/H.265 IP barriers and further accelerate 4K UHD adoption -- a big win for consumers and all market participants," said HEVC Advance CEO Pete Moller in a statement. Samsung is the largest single H.265 licensor in the rival MPEG LA pool, which declined to comment. Moller confirmed to us that Samsung is the first new HEVC Advance member to take advantage of an option to belong to both patent pools.
U.S. border agents are increasingly asking travelers to provide access to phones and other electronic devices, which Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said happens only in critical circumstances and most searched are foreign visitors (see 1703170019). Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., responded during a Homeland Security Committee hearing Wednesday that he was troubled that some American citizens and mainly permanent residents are being told they can't enter the country unless they give access to their phones. New legislation aims to address the issue but some experts told us they are unclear about its chances.