The U.S. federal spectrum governance system needs revamping, GPS advocates were told at Wednesday's Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) Advisory Board meeting in Annapolis, Maryland. Bradford Parkinson, board vice chairman and frequent critic of the FCC's Ligado approval (see 1801170028), said interference testing shows the company's planned L-band terrestrial rollout will cause harmful GPS interference and the board needs to urge the FCC to swap out Ligado's spectrum or "just say no" to Ligado's deployment plans. The agency didn't comment.
The Transportation Department's Office of Commercial Space Transportation, known as AST, is ramping up staffing and will have middle managers increasingly focused on the day-to-day tasks to allow quicker decision-making, AST acting Administrator Kelvin Coleman told the FAA's Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee Tuesday. AST has 110 staffers now and is authorized for 126, he said. The FY 2023 presidential budget request would give it more funding to further add staff, he said. AST staff said its adoption in April of a "complete enough" application process for space launches will be followed this fall by testing of the application portal. Coleman said the "complete enough" approach was aimed at speeding approvals, and streamlining AST's pre-application consultation process. Under "complete enough," AST does a quantitative analysis of an application's contents; if the material in the application is sufficient, the evaluation starts, he said. The FAA is moving toward an electronic system for launches that is akin to the electronic filing of flight plans, said acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen. He said the agency is reviewing software and vendors of electronic licensing portals, aiming for beta testing by year's end. Asked about concerns about the FAA over-regulating nascent commercial activity, Nolen said its primary focus on safety “doesn't mean we can't be innovative.” The U.S. is looking at its Article VI obligations under the Outer Space Treaty, about national responsibility for their national activities in outer space, as going from a focus on authorizations to more of a focus on supervision, with that being the route to space sustainability, said Diane Howard, National Space Council commercial space policy director. She said there's a need for a standardized process to track novel and nontraditional space missions, and a whole-of-government approach.
Fewer Americans are moving, creating broadband woes for big cable, said three cable providers in their quarterly earnings reports. Charter Communications and Alitice cited fewer people moving as a big challenge for adding subscribers. Comcast also pointed last week to fewer people moving as an issue with its slowing broadband growth (see 2204280004).
Fewer Americans are moving, creating broadband woes for big cable, said three cable providers in their quarterly earnings reports. Charter Communications and Alitice cited fewer people moving as a big challenge for adding subscribers. Comcast also pointed last week to fewer people moving as an issue with its slowing broadband growth (see 2204280004).
Comcast is facing growing broadband competition, particularly from fixed wireless and fiber providers, though its churn is at record lows, Comcast Cable CEO David Watson said Thursday, announcing Q1 results. He said its response includes various broadband tiers of service and its increasing convergence of its broadband and mobile services packaging and marketing. The company will do field trials of its first 5G radios as a means for offloading traffic in high-load areas in Q2, he said. Comcast stock closed at $41.70, down 6.2%, in response to what analysts said were soft results.
With "astounding" amounts of money being allocated for subsidization of broadband infrastructure in unserved and underserved areas, a big challenge for agencies and providers is ensuring the funding isn't wasted, NCTA President Michael Powell said at a Media Institute talk (password required) Tuesday. He said there's a sizable implantation risk stemming from federal oversight centering on Commerce and the NTIA rather than the FCC, and oversight expertise is a challenge both for Commerce and the industry. Compounding that is the funding being focused on state grants rather than federal programs, he said.
The cable industry is alerting operators that the FCC may move the goalposts of what defines broadband to 100 Mbps download, 20 upload, but operators and advocacy groups think that target is well within cable ISPs' capabilities already. Some see a move to 100/20 providing cover when better FCC broadband maps show less broadband availability than maps now show.
Spoofing remains a particularly acute problem for U.S. residents already besieged by run-of-the-mill robocalls, with close to one in four robocall complaints to the FCC involving some form of spoofing, per our analysis of those complaints. The agency often says robocalls are the biggest source of public complaints it receives. Via a Freedom of Information Act request, we obtained and then reviewed the 446 complaints the agency received on one day, July 1. Per data from the agency's Consumer Complaints Center, it received just shy of 161,000 robocall complaints last year.
As states look at closing their individual digital divides, satellite broadband is often being forgotten or kept out of the mix by policy decisions, Satellite Broadcasting & Communications Association President Steven Hill told us. Many states are prioritizing fiber.
Intelsat and SES Tuesday painted diametrically opposed portraits of their defunct C-Band Alliance agreement to clear C-band spectrum. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Keith Phillips heard the closing arguments that lasted more than four hours. SES is asking $421 million in damages due to Intelsat leaving the CBA, which would give the two companies a 50-50 split of proceeds for accelerated clearing of the C band. The seven-day trial was in February (see 2202070031). A lawyer familiar with the case told us Phillips, who also presided over Intelsat's Chapter 11 proceeding, could rule within a month.