Several of the nine Republicans the House GOP Steering Committee added to the Commerce Committee roster Wednesday have been involved in communications, cybersecurity and privacy policymaking. House GOP leadership, meanwhile, formally named Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., as Commerce chair Tuesday, as expected (see 2211170089). Former panel Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., will stay on as ranking member during this Congress (see 2301030064).
Broadband mapping experts raised questions about crowdsourcing and availability data challenges to the FCC's new broadband maps during a Broadband Breakfast webinar Wednesday. Some expressed concerns about how the challenge process will affect the maps that NTIA will ultimately use for the broadband, equity, access and deployment program as the agency urged entities to file challenges by Jan. 13.
Video relay service providers and accessibility advocacy organizations welcomed the FCC's NPRM proposing to increase the number of minutes a communications assistant may handle remotely and reevaluating CAs' experience requirements, in comments posted Tuesday in docket 03-123 (see 2206300058). Some repeated their requests for the FCC to consider functional equivalence and sought to have the monthly cap on minutes eliminated.
The FCC’s proposed updates to its foreign-sponsored content rules would exceed the agency’s authority, increase burdens for broadcasters, and are unnecessary, said NAB, Gray Television, network affiliate groups, and the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council in comments this week in docket 20-299. Enacting “unnecessary, burdensome regulations” to “protect against something that from all indications has never happened does not reflect a sound approach to rulemaking,” said the affiliate groups. If such rules are enacted, the agency should carve out exceptions for advertising and religious and local programming, as well as grandfather existing agreements, the broadcasters said.
The FAA is proposing that passenger and cargo aircraft in the U.S. have 5G C-band-tolerant radio altimeters or install approved filters by early 2024. The requirement is proposed in a notice for Wednesday's Federal Register, with comments due Feb. 10. Industry experts saw the latest as a net positive for telecom carriers, but some warned of a dangerous precedent being created by the FAA.
Local governments opposed a New York state wireless siting bill that’s returning to the legislature after failing in previous sessions. Crown Castle supported the bill that’s meant to streamline 5G deployment by preempting local authority in the right of way. However, a New York wireless industry lawyer raised doubts that the measure has any better chance of passing in 2023 than it did in several previous years.
Completing NTIA’s work on more than $48 billion in connectivity spending through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will take years and require “a huge amount of work,” but it’s not the agency’s only focus, NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson told CES Saturday. Other speakers said wireless projects must be able to fully compete with fiber for the program to be most successful.
Digital healthcare offers promise for doctors and their patients, but doctors have to play a role as technology unfolds, physician Bobby Mukkamala, immediate past board chair of the American Medical Association, told CES Friday. Telehealth has been a recurring focus of the FCC under Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, with a telehealth item teed up for a commissioner vote later this month (see 2301050048). Mukkamala and other speakers also noted challenges posed by AI.
The FCC is seeking comment on revised rules for carriers to report data breaches. The NPRM, released Friday and approved 4-0 last month, proposes eliminating the “outdated” seven-business-day mandatory waiting period before notifying customers of a breach and requiring the reporting of inadvertent but harmful breaches to the FCC, FBI and Secret Service.
A new FCC approach on how it calculates satellite constellation collision risks, used in its partial approval of SpaceX's second-generation constellation, is raising some space expert concerns, especially since it's seen as a possible harbinger of how the FCC might look at collision risk for future constellations. Viasat petitioned the commission to clarify aspects of that SpaceX authorization granted in November (see 2212010052). The agency and SpaceX didn't comment.