Barriers remain to wide-scale launch of open radio access networks, said NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson and other speakers at an NTIA listening session Tuesday as the agency seeks advice on a $1.5 billion federal fund to spur ORAN. The fund was part of the $54.2 billion Chips and Science Act signed into law in August (see 2208090062). NTIA is also taking written comments, due Friday in docket NTIA-2022-0003.
Industry continued to urge the FCC to help facilitate the transition to fully IP-networks and Stir/Shaken caller ID authentication. In reply comments posted Tuesday in docket 17-97 (see 2212130065), some disagreed whether the transition should be mandated and how to treat existing non-IP networks.
Standard General founder Soohyung Kim is “optimistic” regulators will approve the company's proposed $8.6 billion buy of Tegna before Feb. 22, the merger agreement date on which Tegna can choose to pull out of the deal or trigger a 50% increase in the ongoing ticking fee, increasing the purchase price, he said on a press call Monday. Friday was the end of an FCC comment period on concessions offered by Standard (see 2301170064), and the company told the agency it doesn’t object to those concessions being codified as merger conditions, though it resisted requests from MVPDs and public interest groups. New Tegna would be the nation’s second-largest broadcaster by revenue, Kim said.
FCC rural healthcare program participants and industry sought several changes to a draft order and NPRM proposing to modify the program’s funding mechanism. Most urged the FCC to maintain the current support methodology until a new one is established. Commissioners will consider the item Thursday.
The Wireless ISP Association’s message to NTIA is simple: Without WISPs, the U.S. won’t connect everyone everywhere to broadband, said WISPA President David Zumwalt in an interview Monday. WISPA is working to overcome NTIA reluctance to fund projects that rely partly on using unlicensed spectrum, he said. Zumwalt is a former WISP executive who took the helm at WISPA last year.
The University of Oklahoma is reconsidering its ban of the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok on university-issued devices and networks, the school said in a statement Friday.
The FCC is investigating the latest data breach at T-Mobile, an agency spokesperson said Friday. T-Mobile reported in an SEC filing Thursday that someone started obtaining data through a single application programming interface (API) starting Nov. 25. T-Mobile said it became aware of the breach Jan. 5. The perpetrator accessed billing addresses, email, phone numbers and other limited data covering about 37 million customers, the company said.
The Senate Commerce Committee’s schedule for reconsidering FCC nominee Gigi Sohn remained unclear before the chamber’s expected Monday return from a more than two-week recess, with lobbyists and other observers saying chamber organizational uncertainties are the main barrier. President Joe Biden renominated Sohn this month, setting up a third partisan showdown with Republicans after the Senate stalled her confirmation process in 2021 and 2022 (see 2301030060). Friday marked two years since the FCC began operating with a 2-2 split, following former Chairman Ajit Pai’s resignation the day Biden took office (see 2101210067).
The U.S. Export-Import Bank said Thursday the U.S. doesn’t have comparative leadership in telecom equipment manufacturing and agreed to move forward on a long-term project to restore it. The Ex-Im board supported 4-1 a policy change to potentially provide additional support for gear made outside the U.S., to better compete with China, and to promote open radio access networks.
A Democratic bill filed in New Hampshire that would treat social media platforms as common carriers and require them to carry speech violates the First Amendment, tech industry associations told New Hampshire’s House Judiciary Committee during a hearing Thursday.