Judges appeared sympathetic to the FCC Tuesday during oral argument on whether the agency overstepped in reallocating the 5.9 GHz band, with the lawyer for ITS America and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials facing tough questions from a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The FCC’s 2020 5.9 GHz order allocated 45 MHz of the band for Wi-Fi and 30 MHz for cellular vehicle-to-everything technology.
Senate Commerce Committee officials are hoping they will be able to act next week on Democratic FCC nominee Gigi Sohn, after repeated delays in scheduling an advancement vote over the past two months. The committee is eyeing including Sohn and Democratic FTC nominee Alvaro Bedoya (see 2201240055) on the agenda for a potential Feb. 2 executive session, Senate aides and communications lobbyists told us. Opponents hope the delays resulted in traction for their ethics concerns about Sohn’s role as a board member for Locast operator Sports Fans Coalition (see 2201130071).
AT&T Fiber pushed speed, reliability and security in a virtual event Monday announcing advanced speeds, new pricing plans for multi-Gbps and initiatives to address the digital divide. It announced new no-contract 2- and 5-Gbps plans for residential and small-business customers.
The Senate Commerce Committee aims to vote on Alvaro Bedoya’s FTC nomination in early February, an aide told us. The committee had expected a vote this week before the Senate shifted its recess, the aide said.
The FCC should consider imposing cybersecurity rules tied to USF support, similar to what the regulator did on insecure network equipment from China (see 2012100054), said former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai during a Hudson Institute virtual event Friday. Pai was interviewed by former Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth.
Broadcast engineers and equipment manufacturers commenting in docket 21-422 all endorsed an FCC proposal to allow the use of computer models to verify the patterns for FM directional antennas. The one exception was antenna manufacturer ERI (Electronics Research Inc). “You’re going to have antennas that don’t work the way they’re represented,” said ERI CEO Tom Silliman in an interview Friday. Said engineering firm Meintel Sgrignoli, echoing most commenters: “It is our experience that various computer modeling software programs do an excellent job of predicting accurate antenna pattern data."
State small-cells bill action is slowing in 2022, said wireless industry and local officials. With laws in 32 states and Puerto Rico to streamline 5G deployment by preempting local authority in the right of way (ROW), eyes have turned to New Jersey, which is trying again to pass a bill that missed the finish line last year amid local opposition. Idaho legislators could soon consider small-cell rules for state highways recommended by the state Transportation Department.
A second pass by the FCC at updating orbital debris rules might have to wait until a fifth commissioner is confirmed, space experts and commission staff told us. Commissioners approved an orbital debris rules update order 5-0 in April 2020, with some contentious issues in the draft moved to an accompanying Further NPRM (see 2004230040). An agency official said a draft order is potentially not a huge priority for Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, parked behind bigger priorities and not being vigorously pushed by staff. The chairwoman's office will have to move on it at some point, given the mega-constellation boom, the official said.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit’s decision on 5.9 GHz may not be as straightforward as its ruling on 6 GHz, because the court will have to grapple with a novel issue -- whether the FCC ignored the Transportation Equity Act and the Department of Transportation’s role in encouraging intelligent transportation systems when it reallocated the band, experts said. The FCC’s 2020 5.9 GHz order allocated 45 MHz of the band for Wi-Fi and 30 MHz for cellular vehicle-to-everything technology.
Thirteen licensors populate the one-stop patent pool for ATSC 3.0 technologies that MPEG LA launched Thursday, as was expected recently after about three and a half years of development (see 2112100004).