The FCC released an NPRM on equipment certification rules Thursday as one of several, draft items Chairman Ajit Pai is proposing for commissioners' Dec. 10 meeting. The NPRM proposes to “modernize” marketing rules to permit conditional sales of RF devices to consumers before equipment authorization, “provided those devices are not delivered to consumers until equipment authorization has been obtained.” The draft proposes to allow importing a “limited number” of RF devices for “pre-sale activities prior to the devices obtaining a certification.” Pre-sale activities "would include packaging and shipping devices to retail locations, as well as loading devices with specific software to demonstrate specific features and capabilities of the devices” says the draft. The FCC would seek comment on conditions to ensure that RF devices “comply with this new importation provision prior to obtaining equipment authorization.” CTA asked for the NPRM in June and welcomed the inquiry, which had broad support. "The FCC’s current equipment authorization rules handicap the U.S. in the global race to 5G,” said Jamie Susskind, CTA vice president-policy and regulatory affairs. Releasing the draft NPRM was "an important step toward bringing policies more closely in line with today’s marketplace,” she said: “The FCC now has the opportunity to advance U.S. leadership in wireless.”

The concept of the attention economy, where people's attention can help measure aspects of technology, may have merit for government and industry, stakeholders told the Technology Policy Institute. The FTC could "look at how someone" is giving attention as the agency uses various alternative metrics, said Competition Bureau Director Ian Conner in Q&A with TPI President Scott Wallsten. Connor, noting he was speaking only for himself, said he "would never typically define books" as in direct "competition with social media" and with movies, which could compete for a person's attention at "any given moment." The attention economy could be a way to measure markets that lack prices for consumers in the typical sense, he said in a video released Tuesday. "We’re trying to look for different metrics when we don’t have our normal price or revenue measures." Attention can be "kind of like a price" for a product or service, and "it has a price that is very subjective" to each person, said Brown University associate professor of economics Kareen Rozen. "There’s more complementarity between the services than we’re giving them credit for" sometimes, she said of technology. Because consumers can use multiple tech services at once, spending attention may not be a zero-sum game, said participants including Comscore Senior Director-Product Management James Muldrow.

The FCC doesn’t have the authority to “rewrite” Communications Decency Act Section 230, Michael Petricone, CTA senior vice president-government and regulatory affairs, said Monday. He called the rulemaking announcement (see 2010150057) disappointing. The agency lacks authority to “impose new, heavy-handed disclosure requirements on online platforms -- a fact the FCC itself recognized in 2017,” he said. House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., called the proposed rulemaking a “blatant attempt” to help President Donald Trump: “The timing and hurried nature of this decision makes clear it’s being done to influence social media companies’ behavior leading up to an election, and it is shocking to watch this supposedly independent regulatory agency jump at the opportunity to become a political appendage of President Trump’s campaign.” The commission didn’t comment.

Microsoft representatives sought additional clarity as part of an order revising the rules for TV white space devices, set for a vote Oct. 27. Microsoft spoke with commissioner aides and Office of Engineering and Technology staff, said a filing posted Friday in docket 20-36. “Make clear that a narrowband white space device can operate as a master device if it incorporates geo-location functionality and contacts the white space database to obtain a list of available channels at its location,” Microsoft advised: “Permit client narrowband white space devices to be clients to mobile and narrowband master devices, in addition to master fixed and Mode II personal/portable devices.”

Antitrust authorities cleared the way for Ericsson to acquire CradlePoint. An FTC early termination notice dated Wednesday and released Thursday ended the Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period.

Retailer Klein Electronics, a maker of handheld two-way radios and other devices, agreed to pay $20,000 and implement a compliance plan for not following RF labeling rules, said the FCC Enforcement Bureau Wednesday. The rules “help 'ensure”' the devices are operated in a manner that minimizes potential interference to authorized communications,” the bureau said. It investigated after getting a complaint that Klein's devices “did not appear to have an FCC equipment authorization,” the order said. The company didn't comment.

IQiyi “substantially completed” an internal review and uncovered no "evidence that would substantiate the allegations” from short-seller firm Wolfpack Research that the company committed fraud well before its 2018 initial public offering by inflating revenue and subscriber data (see 2008140003), said iQiyi Monday. Known as the Netflix of China, it will continue cooperating with the SEC investigation, it said. It’s “unable to predict the duration, outcome or impact of the SEC investigation,” it said. “No surprise” that iQiyi again denied guilt, emailed Wolfpack founder Dan David. “We're looking forward to the SEC's investigation, which will prove wrongdoing." The agency didn’t respond to questions.

The FCC approved a waiver Monday for Garmin on a device with a low-power, terrestrial Part 95 transmitter and an emergency satellite communications module. Rules otherwise prohibit such dual devices, the Wireless Bureau said. “Garmin’s proposed device contains an important public safety feature, which would not be brought to market if we were to strictly enforce the rule.”

CTA has “a keen interest” in keeping the market free of deceptive Made in the USA (MUSA) marketing claims “about any aspect of the products and services that consumers use," it commented, posted Tuesday in docket FTC-2020-0056. A rule barring deceptive MUSA labels without first reassessing “consumer perception evidence is to put the cart before the horse,” said the association. A July 16 NPRM proposed prohibiting marketers from using “unqualified” MUSA labels unless a product’s final assembly or “significant” processing occurs in the U.S., plus “all or virtually all” components are sourced domestically. The FTC hasn’t done a comprehensive consumer perception study since the 1990s, and “forging ahead” with the rules without new research “raises an impossible situation for many U.S. manufacturers,” said CTA: Some components, “at least in the short term, can only be made internationally,” it said. The rule also would be “counterproductive” for promoting and expanding American manufacturing.

Zebra spoke with FCC Office of Engineering and Technology staff on a waiver request allowing its ultra-wideband locating device to use 7.125-8.5 GHz. “Its transmissions are extremely low power, and there have never been any [such[ interference complaints ,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 20-17: The device is used for airline worker safety monitoring, tracking in auto and airline assembly plants, and NFL player and ball tracking.