Some lawmakers and advocates believe Capitol Hill’s inability to agree on an additional COVID-19 aid bill that includes broadband funding presents an opening for the issue to become a focus during the presidential and congressional campaigns this fall, they told us. Congress provided some related funding in March via the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (see 2003250046).
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is expected to push forward an aggressive agenda on spectrum during the last part of 2020, which could be the end of his tenure as chairman depending on the results of the November election. The FCC will likely take up the 3.45-3.55 GHz NPRM at the Sept. 30 meeting, and 5.9 GHz at the Oct. 27 meeting. A follow-up order on 6 GHz rules would probably follow in November.
The COVID-19 pandemic “shined a spotlight” on the broadband divide and the digital “skills gap” in the U.S., neither showing signs of abating, Microsoft President Brad Smith told an Axios webinar Thursday. Both were “here last year,” but their impact “is even greater in the current economic climate,” he said. American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten joined Smith on the webinar, urging deploying and regulating universal broadband as “a fact of life.”
The fiber business is different from the power business and complications are sometimes hard to anticipate, electric co-op and public utility members of the Utilities Telecom Council were told at a virtual broadband summit Thursday. Speakers said their focus on customer service in providing power is an advantage in competing on broadband.
Qualcomm’s victory before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals strengthens the hand of patent holders like Huawei, which could create national security risks, tech industry officials and antitrust attorneys said in interviews. A Qualcomm proponent said the FTC shouldn’t seek an appeal in a case that would put “more bad law on the books against” the agency (see 2008110065).
The FAA’s Unmanned Aircraft System Integration Pilot Program, which ends in October, has been a success and led to “some of the most advanced drone operations in the world,” Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said Wednesday during a virtual conference sponsored by the agency and the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International. An FAA official downplayed the need for more spectrum for drones, which is being examined by the FCC.
Open radio access networks (ORANs), the topic of an upcoming FCC forum (see 2008180012), dominated the discussion during a Qualcomm-sponsored webinar Tuesday. Dean Brenner, Qualcomm senior vice president-spectrum strategy and technology policy, sees promise in ORAN. “It’s going to accelerate the 5G rollout dramatically,” he said: “It’s going to lower the costs for deploying. … It brings in a whole new group of players.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and state legislators expect to talk broadband, after the governor set a goal of 100 Mbps download speeds through executive order Friday, said the governor’s office and an aide to Sen. Lena Gonzalez (D) this week. Legislators are weighing two bills to raise the state standard from 6 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload for the California Advanced Services Fund. The executive order put legislative negotiations in flux, said Electronic Frontier Foundation Senior Legislative Counsel Ernesto Falcon.
With the UAS Integration Pilot Program (IPP) to expire in October (see 2006150056), FAA officials stressed Tuesday that drones are moving to a new stage with long-awaited rules almost ready for release, during a virtual conference sponsored by the agency and the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI). The much-watched annual conference went virtual because of COVID-19, with sessions in July and this week, continuing Wednesday (see 2007080059).
Antitrust Chief Makan Delrahim is more likely to act to change the ASCAP and BMI music licensing degrees than Congress is, and any move DOJ makes in that direction is likely to be an uneasy process and complicated by the presidential election, broadcast and music licensing attorneys said in interviews this and last week. DOJ held a workshop on the possibility last month (see 2007290068). “It remains apparent from the continuing attention that the Antitrust Division is paying to the issue of consent decree reform that the DOJ may act” to modify the decrees, said Weil Gotshal intellectual property attorney Benjamin Marks, who represented the TV Music Licensing Committee. “I don’t think Congress is likely to take up the issue before the election or in the short term."