Nearly two years since it took effect, the FCC's streamlined licensing regime for small-scale satellite operations is getting mixed feedback from the satellite universe. Some regulatory lawyers say it's an improvement, but others see the process hurting from lack of enough staffing. The FCC didn't comment. Lynk urged the International Bureau earlier this month to approve its pending mobile service application constellation under the streamlined rules, noting it had been pending since May 2021 and it hoped for launches to commence in October (see 2206060002).
Two top litigators in the FCC Office of General Counsel think the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit’s December decision upholding the FCC’s 6 GHz order (see 2112280047) and a decision by the same court remanding the FCC’s 2019 RF rules to the agency for further work (see 2108130073) were the two most important recent court decisions affecting the FCC. The two spoke during an FCBA webinar Friday. A top administrative law expert said the Chevron doctrine is in doubt, but still not dead.
The FAA said Friday “key stakeholders in the aviation and wireless industries” have identified steps that will protect commercial air travel while allowing Verizon and AT&T to turn up the power on 5G C-band radios around protected airports on a case-by-case basis. The carriers agreed to keep mitigation measures in place around some airports for another year or longer. Airlines for America (A4A), which represents major airlines, raised concerns in a Friday letter to the FAA.
The FTC voted 4-1 Thursday to issue a report recommending Congress use “great caution” when mandating or promoting use of artificial intelligence in order to reduce online harms. Some AI tools show promise, but overall, AI is inadequate and shouldn’t be overly relied on, the report said.
Europe's focus on the behavior of internet platforms advanced Thursday on several fronts. The European Parliament's lead committee endorsed a provisional agreement with governments on the Digital Services Act (DSA). The European Commission announced stricter rules for tech companies to fight disinformation. And European telecom regulators are examining the role Big Tech plays in internet connectivity issues and competition dynamics.
NTIA received letters of intent from 39 out of 56 states and territories indicating their interest in participating in the agency’s $42.5 billion broadband, equity, access, and deployment program, said Administrator Alan Davidson Thursday during a Media Institute event. “It’s going really well,” Davidson said: “We’ve been talking about the digital divide in this country for over 20 years … and finally, thanks to the bipartisan infrastructure law and other funding out there, we’ve been given this historic opportunity to really do something about it.”
The California Public Utilities Commission threatened action against several large phone and cable companies that the agency says didn’t fully comply with a March 15 request for granular deployment data needed for a state map required for California’s $6 billion broadband effort. The CPUC seeks responses by Friday to similar warning letters sent June 10. ISPs said privacy and confidentiality concerns stopped them from sharing all data sought by the state commission.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel now expects a final estimate of demands for money from the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program to repay U.S. carriers for removing from their networks equipment made by companies deemed a national security risk to be ready on or soon after July 15. The House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee, meanwhile, advanced by voice vote Thursday its FY 2023 bill with FCC and FTC funding mirroring what President Joe Biden is seeking for the agencies (see 2203280069). The Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee advanced by voice its FY23 bill Thursday with funding for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency well above what Biden sought.
The 4.9 GHz band appears to be one of the wireless items likely to get further FCC action relatively soon, industry and FCC officials told us. Comments have been in since January on rewriting the rules, and 4.9 has long been a focus of Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. There's also general agreement that the band has been underutilized for a long time.
The Senate Armed Services Committee’s FY 2023 National Defense Authorization Act includes language seeking “an assessment of the implications of” provisions in the NTIA Organization Act “on DOD's access to the electromagnetic spectrum and resources,” the committee said Thursday. Acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen, meanwhile, is urging the aviation industry to “move with all due haste to protect the fleet against known vulnerabilities to 5G C-band interference” and install “radio frequency filters” on altimeters before the July 5 expiration of the AT&T-Verizon agreement to use exclusion zones on their commercial C-band operations (see 2201030063).