The pandemic "is becoming a tipping point for telehealth," with the Veterans Administration going from 7,400 remote mental health consultations weekly in early April to 52,600 by April's end, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai told the Health Innovation Alliance Wednesday, per prepared remarks. VA virtual primary care visits went from 1,100 to 13,000, and specialty care and rehabilitation visits went from 1,200 to more than 21,000, he said. Other health providers are also having big demand increases for telehealth services, he said, saying the agency has awarded funds.
The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology extended through March 31 a waiver of the push notification requirement for fixed and mode II personal/portable TV white space devices, set to expire Sept. 30, said an order in Tuesday’s Daily Digest. The original waiver was approved in an August 2015 order on Part 15 rules.
Tesla's request to market a sensing device for the 60-64 GHz band at higher power than specified in FCC rules for applications including child safety systems and seat belt reminders (see 2008200027) got general support in comments posted through Tuesday in docket 20-264. Commenters also supported an Infineon Technologies waiver request, with the same deadlines, in docket 20-263, for in-vehicle child safety systems that operate in the 57-64 GHz band at higher power. “Granting Tesla’s request … will be in the best interest of the public by creating significant safety and security benefits through advanced vehicle safety applications” and won’t pose interference risks, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation said. “Children unknowingly left in or independently accessing ‘hot cars’ result in tragic, yet preventable, fatalities,” said Advocates for Highway & Auto Safety. Infineon's waiver would “accelerate the advancement and availability of such devices” and “will not increase the potential for interference to other spectrum users,” Tesla said. ADC Automotive Distance Control Systems said "the Commission should encourage the development and deployment of in-cabin technologies such as the chip technology proposed by Infineon."
Myriota asked the FCC International Bureau for a blanket license to operate up to a million IoT terminals to communicate with its non-voice non-geostationary mobile satellite service system. Friday's application said the UHF-band battery-powered terminals are aimed at such applications as environmental resource monitoring, equipment tracking and preventative maintenance, asset tracking and infrastructure management.
The FTC and DOJ Antitrust Division are looking at possible changes to Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act implementation, FTC said Monday, announcing an NPRM and Advance NPRM to be published in the Federal Register. It said the NPRM suggests proposed transaction filers disclose more information about their associates and exempting the acquisition of 10% or less of an issuer's voting securities. The ANPRM seeks information on such topics as the size of the transaction and routes for avoiding the HSR Act requirements. The FTC said the vote to publish the ANPRM was 5-0. The NPRM vote was 3-2, with Commissioners Rohit Chopra and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter dissenting. Chopra said the exemptions provisions are concerning because the FTC "will completely lose visibility into a large set of transactions involving non-controlling stakes." Slaughter said the expanded de minimis exemption is a "broadening of the black box of unseen transactions," and the proposed changes could have unforeseen effects on corporate governance. DOJ antitrust chief Makan Delrahim said he backs creating an exemption for certain de minimis investments of 10% or less "to address the regulatory burdens of an overbroad HSR requirement for certain minority investments that do not raise competition concerns.” DOJ said the agency was particularly interested in feedback on the NPRM on removing the director/officer and vendor/vendee carve-outs.
The FCC should view mobile and fixed broadband as “distinct offerings,” the Wireless ISP Association commented on the FCC's upcoming broadband progress report. “Demand for broadband connectivity has dramatically increased and shifted to fixed residential environments to accommodate remote learning and work-from-home uses and applications during the" pandemic, WISPA said. The annual Communications Act Section 706 proceeding “comes during an unprecedented time in history that has exposed the vast gulf in access to telecommunications service,” said New America’s Open Technology Institute and Access Now. Increase speed benchmarks, the groups said: The benchmark should “account for current needs and technological advancement. Service that is 25 Mbps in download speed and 3 Mbps in upload speed is insufficient for online applications used today.” Identify "the remaining gaps in deployment, recognize the substantial progress broadband providers and their partners have made in connecting Americans to broadband (especially low-income families and students), and develop strategies for closing those gaps quickly,” NCTA commented. The 25/3 connection benchmark “still satisfies the statutory definition of advanced telecommunications capability,” the group said. Comments were due Friday in docket 20-269.
NCTA disputed Alliance for Automotive Innovation comments on risk to 5.9 GHz safety applications from unlicensed use (see 2009170033). “The substantial technical record -- based on testing, risk-informed interference analysis, and a city-scale simulation -- decisively concludes that unlicensed use in 5.9 GHz will not cause [such] harmful interference,” a cable spokesperson emailed. “In-home wireless connectivity is more important to more Americans than ever before. The FCC should move forward and unleash the 5.9 GHz band, which will deliver gigabit Wi-Fi and much-needed unlicensed capacity to consumers by the end of this year.”
Comments are due Oct. 2, replies Oct. 9 on a request the FCC sign off on GCI Liberty being folded into Liberty Broadband under Communications Act Section 214 (see 2008310050), said a Wireline, Wireless, Media and International bureaus' public notice Friday.
Increasing Lifeline mobile broadband minimums would “particularly harm eligible low-income Lifeline recipients,” said TruConnect in a call Monday with an aide to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, per a filing posted Thursday in docket 11-42: “These Americans depend on the Lifeline program for affordable mobile wireless services so they can grapple with the economic impact of" COVID-19. If the monthly MSS is increased to 4.5 GB, the company said it may consider relinquishing its eligible telecom carrier designations in some states without subsidies available to supplement the federal subsidy and the new data requirements. Others say similar (see 2009150072).
The government's repository of regulatory actions and comment deadlines is experiencing delays publishing complex rules due to the COVID-19 pandemic and an “unusually” large number of documents submitted this year, said Katerina Horska, Office of the Federal Register legal affairs and policy director. The Federal Register typically publishes rules within three days of receiving items, but some “can take more than a month,” she emailed us Wednesday. “Given the unusually high volume of documents submitted since the beginning of this year, compounded with the number of emergency documents related to COVID-19 submitted over the past several months, lengthy and more complex documents are taking longer to publish.” The FTC is among communications agencies affected. Horska said FR staff processes documents “on a first-in, first-out system as much as possible,” but that process may be interrupted by emergency documents for the pandemic and the time it takes to work with agencies on edits. For “complex” documents that aren't designated as emergencies, “the backlog has only extended the usual processing time,” she noted. "The FTC has experienced delays of three to four weeks on rulemaking documents (proposed rules, final rules)," emailed a commission representative Thursday. "There have been no delays on notices." NTIA hasn't experienced slowdowns with its FR documents, most of which at that agency are routine and not of a regulatory nature, a rep said. The FCC declined to comment.