An order and Further NPRM on improving how Stir/Shaken works as a tool against unwanted and illegal robocalls is expected to be approved by FCC commissioners Thursday, potentially with a few tweaks addressing the handful of concerns raised by industry, industry officials said.
A growing number of space operators are going to face difficulty meeting their milestone deadlines for deployment, and the FCC needs to craft a policy response, said space lawyer Patrick Campbell of Milbank Tuesday at Satellite 2023. The problem is licenses given before the pandemic facing delays due to COVID-19 and supply chain issues, plus a launch supply bottleneck and needing more time, Campbell said. The ITU’s deployment milestones similarly will likely come up at the 2023 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-23), said Audrey Allison, senior project leader, Aerospace Center for Space Policy and Strategy.
The nonprofit watchdog Campaign Legal Center asked the FCC Office of Inspector General and the Office of Government Ethics for investigations into why multiple high-ranking FCC officials were allowed to own stock in companies regulated by the agency. Financial disclosures from 2018-2020 show bureau and division chiefs and other 8th-floor officials with interest in stocks of FCC regulatees such as AT&T, Charter and Verizon, plus computer companies such as IBM and Sony that depend on FCC device authorizations. “The ethics officials responsible for enforcement must explain to OIG and the public why they allowed employees to hold stocks in FCC licensed telecommunications and computer companies in apparent violation of the law,” said a CLC complaint sent to the FCC last week. CLC made a similar submission to the OGE Monday.
Texas “cannot continue to wait on Washington, D.C., to protect” state residents’ privacy, said Rep. Giovanni Capriglione (R) at a livestreamed hearing Monday. The Texas House Business Committee heard testimony on a privacy bill (HB-4) that Microsoft and other businesses praised as being interoperable with other state laws they like.
The government and some major customers are going to start pushing for more standardization for satellite connectivity providers, constellation executives said Monday at Satellite 2023. Several said an open network architecture and interoperability is the route to tying into mobile networks. However, Mangata Networks CEO Brian Holz said there's never satellite industry agreement on standards, and systems have to be designed instead to be adaptable.
Banning TikTok outright is a better approach than relying on the Commerce Department to take action against the Chinese-owned social media app, Senate Intelligence Committee ranking member Marco Rubio, R-Fla., told us last week. Several senators, both Republican and Democrat, told us they're interested in co-sponsoring a bill that favors the latter approach (see 2303080075).
Both Iridium and Lynk target the direct-to-handset universe, but they're seemingly worlds apart on their appraisal of potential market size for the service, with CEOs of the two companies frequently disagreeing during a panel Monday at Satellite 2023. The scant mobile network operator (MNO) investment in such supplemental coverage from space (SCS), and almost no one from the wireless industry attending the panel, is telling, Iridium CEO Matt Desch said.
FCC commissioners are expected to approve a robotexting order and Further NPRM, scheduled for a vote Thursday, though with a few tweaks addressing issues raised by CTIA and others, FCC and industry officials said. Commissioners OK'd a second wireless item, incorporating into agency rules four new and updated standards for equipment testing. That item, which was deleted from the agenda for the meeting, hasn’t been controversial.
The FCC draft ATSC 3.0 report and order circulated to 10th-floor offices would extend the substantially similar and A/322 physical layer requirements indefinitely (see 2303030064), grant NAB requests on multicast hosting in part, and doesn’t take up the matter of a 3.0 task force, FCC and broadcast industry officials told us. The item is expected to lead to a lot of lobbying from industry and negotiating among commissioners, and isn’t expected to be voted soon, industry and FCC officials told us.
Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus are considering recommending either former acting NTIA Administrator Anna Gomez, ex-Wiley, or National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts President Felix Sanchez to replace Gigi Sohn as FCC nominee but haven't finalized those picks yet, communications sector lobbyists told us. Several lawmakers have been readying endorsements for the FCC vacancy amid chatter about potential contenders. Lujan and others are calling for President Joe Biden to quickly renominate Commissioner Geoffrey Starks for a new term (see 2303100050).