Making headway with the burgeoning orbital debris problem is less about the limits of technology and more about a lack of cohesive policy and universally embraced priorities, space experts said Wednesday at an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics panel talk. One chief challenge is the lack of any uniformity around what is an acceptable level of debris, they said.
The Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday advanced two pieces of children’s privacy legislation with overwhelming support, as expected (see 2207210056).
Senate backers of the Chips and Science Act package of U.S. semiconductor incentives and tech competitiveness initiatives and House leaders voiced strong optimism Wednesday that the measure will make it through Congress before the lower chamber recesses Friday for the six-week August break.
The Michigan Public Service Commission is preparing for telcos to opt out of the state Lifeline program later this year due to a 2020 state law. Providers may give customers 90 days' notice starting Aug. 30. “There’s always worries” about customers who may be using the state discount, but the number of customers receiving the discount is “very small and continuing to diminish pretty drastically,” and getting people enrolled in the FCC’s affordable connectivity program (ACP) could have bigger impact, Commissioner Tremaine Phillips told us last week at the NARUC meeting in San Diego.
No technical conditions exist that could ameliorate worries about harmful interference expected to come from opening the 12 Ghz band to terrestrial use, SpaceX Satellite Policy Senior Director David Goldman told reporters Tuesday. Satellite operators' already-heavy use of the band means employing highly sensitive receivers and low power levels, and given 5G advocates' suggested high-power mobile service, "there is not an in-between on that," Goldman said.
Public safety groups and carriers continue to clash on what actions, if any, the FCC should take to ensure use of location-based routing (LBR) to 911 call centers. The disagreement surfaced in replies to a June public notice, approved by commissioners 4-0 (see 2206080040). T-Mobile warned that no consensus is emerging as a result of the record refresh.
Industry groups asked the FCC to streamline its rules for its annual data collection of subscription rates and plans offered through the affordable connectivity program (ACP). Some said the FCC should rely on the forthcoming broadband consumer labels and raised privacy concerns if data is collected at the subscriber level in comments posted Tuesday in docket 21-450.
House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., and other House Commerce Committee members urged the chamber Tuesday to pass the Spectrum Innovation Act legislative package (HR-7624) by a lopsided bipartisan margin ahead of floor votes as soon as that evening on several telecom and tech measures. The House planned floor votes on HR-7624 and two other telecom and tech bills on the docket: the Reporting Attacks from Nations Selected for Oversight and Monitoring Web Attacks and Ransomware from Enemies Act (HR-4551) and Safe Connections Act (HR-7132). The chamber was also expected to consider the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences Codification Act (HR-4990). The Rules Committee, meanwhile, began considering Tuesday afternoon a set of proposed amendments to the Advancing Telehealth Beyond COVID-19 Act (HR-4040) amid Republicans’ concerns that the measure didn’t first get House Commerce clearance.
Key FCC decisions on the 5.9 GHz band appear to be on hold, pending a U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruling on a case challenging the commission's 2020 order reallocating the spectrum. Judges heard oral arguments six months ago and appeared to be sympathetic to the FCC (see 2201250066).
The Senate has the 60 votes needed to pass legislation that would ban Big Tech platforms from self-preferencing products (see 2206070059), Senate Antitrust Subcommittee Chair Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told us Tuesday. They’re waiting for word from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., about floor time.