An order allowing very-low-power (VLP) devices to use the 6 GHz band appears to be in doubt for the Dec. 10 FCC meeting. More will be known soon. Chairman Ajit Pai is to offer his blog post on the meeting Wednesday, with draft items to circulate Thursday. Wi-Fi advocates reported numerous calls, particularly with Office of Engineering and Technology staff, in recent days to discuss the rule changes, teed up in an April Further NPRM (see 2004230059). Incumbents hope for a delay.
Some FTC staffers are expecting Joe Simons to step down as chairman on Inauguration Day, an agency aide told us. An industry official said Simons is “looking to step down before the end of the year.” He recently told senior staff it could be as early as Thanksgiving, but he wants to vote out the agency’s antitrust case against Facebook before he leaves office, the industry official said.
Facebook v. Duguid, to be argued before the Supreme Court Dec. 8 (19-511), could provide long-awaited clarity on the definition of what constitutes an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS) under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, experts told us. Consumer groups hope the court will do nothing to narrow the definition. In September, the administration supported Facebook in what lawyers on both sides say was an unusual brief.
The FCC effort to interpret Communications Decency Act Section 230 isn’t comparable to the heavy-handed regulations repealed during the net neutrality debate in the late 2000s, Commissioner Brendan Carr said Tuesday during a Federalist Society event. Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld questioned how Carr could be against Communications Act Title II regulation of internet service providers but also support Section 230 regulatory changes envisioned by the Trump administration (see 2011060053).
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., threatened Tuesday to place a hold on FCC nominee Nathan Simington amid dissatisfaction with his refusal to commit during a Commerce Committee hearing to recuse himself from participating in the rulemaking on its interpretation of Communications Decency Act Section 230 and his answers on other matters. Senate Commerce Chairman Roger Wicker of Mississippi and other Republicans were supportive of Simington. The nominee's confirmation prospects were expected before the presidential election to be jeopardized if Democrat Joe Biden won (see 2011020001).
CTA President Gary Shapiro and Jason Oxman, CEO of the Information Technology Industry Council, expressed hope Monday that President-elect Joe Biden’s bipartisan skills would bring progress on high-skilled immigration and infrastructure initiatives in Congress. President Donald Trump hasn't conceded.
Zoom deceived users about encryption services, circumvented browser security features and exposed consumers to third-party surveillance, the FTC alleged Monday in a nonmonetary settlement with the company. The commission voted 3-2 with Democrats Rohit Chopra and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter dissenting.
The FCC’s Communications Decency Act Section 230 rulemaking proceeding (see 2010210062) opens the door for a potential Biden administration to pursue its own interpretation of the technology industry’s liability shield, tech observers and legal experts told us. Rather than drop the proceeding, initiated by President Donald Trump’s social media executive order, a Democratic FCC could take an activist approach with it, they said.
House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone of New Jersey and other Democratic committee leaders are expected to ask the FCC to stand down work on any further controversial matters during a potential transition from President Donald Trump’s administration if Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s leads hold in several marginal states, communications sector observers told us. No similar call from Senate Commerce Committee Democrats is expected, since the party doesn’t have control of the chamber, and the majority in the next Congress remains in doubt (see 2011050056), lobbyists said.
Dish Network will light up 5G in “some preliminary small markets” in 2021's first quarter, said Chairman Charlie Ergen on a Q3 investor call Friday. “It will be the third quarter before we have a major market up and running that the world can touch and feel a little bit,” he said. The disclosures set off a barrage of questions from analysts skeptical about Dish’s progress and its ability to meet its FCC obligations of bringing 5G to critical mass by June 2023.