Video relay service providers and accessibility advocacy organizations disagreed on how the FCC should modify its rules on at-home interpretation services and experience requirements for communications assistants (CA). Advocates said CAs should have a certain number of years' worth of experience, while providers again asked to eliminate the cap on the number of minutes a CA may handle through at-home work, in reply comments posted Tuesday in docket 03-123 (see 2301100081).
Use cases and how carriers will make money from their massive investments in 5G and advanced networks are still taking shape, experts said Tuesday during RCR Wireless’s virtual 5G monetization forum. They repeatedly encouraged providers to be as flexible as possible.
Intelsat and SpaceX officials gave high marks to a draft updated version of the Satellite and Telecommunications Streamlining Act and refiled Secure Space Act (HR-675), in written testimony before a planned Wednesday House Communications Subcommittee hearing on the bills. Representatives from the FCC and Planet Labs gave more measured but positive reviews. Witnesses also spoke positively about the Leveraging American Understanding of Next-Generation Challenges Exploring Space Act (HR-682) and two other draft satellite bills the subcommittee will review Wednesday: the draft Advanced, Local Emergency Response Telecommunications Parity Act and draft Precision Agriculture Satellite Connectivity (PASC) Act. The hearing will begin at 10:30 a.m. in 2322 Rayburn.
Satellite-provided emergency SOS messaging is just the starting point for satellite operators looking to provide direct-to-handset service, but it won't be the business plan for anyone, said Iridium Director-Legal and Regulatory Coral Faradjian Tuesday in a Smallsat Symposium panel. She said the real revenue, and business plans, seamless transitions between terrestrial mobile and satellite-enabled services.
House Commerce Committee Republicans skipped regular order, considering several TikTok bills at a subcommittee markup Tuesday, ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said during the proceeding. The bills address problems worthy of committee consideration, but Republicans haven’t held proper legislative hearings on several of the bills, so they haven’t gotten proper stakeholder review, he said.
FCC media ownership data shows little growth in diversity, but federal broadband infrastructure funds and advertiser and lender commitments to diversity make this a time of opportunity for minority- and women-owned media companies, said panelists Tuesday at the Communications Equity and Diversity Council’s Media Ownership Diversity Symposium. Meruelo Media CEO Otto Padron called the FCC’s biennial media ownership data “an extinction report,” but Urban One CEO Alfred Liggins said “this is the first time being a minority-owned company or black-owned company has netted us a positive economic opportunity.”
Colorado should extend the effective date for companies to comply with the latest revisions to the state's privacy law, and enforcers should consider mirroring data security regulations in other states, industry groups told Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser (D) in recent comments.
Use of Wi-Fi has grown to a huge extent, driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, experts said Monday during the virtual Fierce Wireless Wi-Fi Summit. But speakers disagreed how quickly adoption of the 6 GHz band for Wi-Fi, through Wi-Fi 6E, will happen as other bands become more crowded. Commissioners approved an order in April 2020 (see 2004230059) allocating 1,200 MHz in the band for sharing with Wi-Fi and other unlicensed use, and other countries followed the U.S. lead.
The number of items the FCC is considering at its monthly meetings has slowly declined in the two years since Jessica Rosenworcel was designated to lead the agency. The January meeting was over in about half an hour and had two items for votes. Similarly, Rosenworcel has teed up just two items for this month's meeting. A review of the record found the FCC tackled 59 items, large and small, at meetings the first year under Rosenworcel. That was down to 42 in year two. In more than half the meetings in year two, commissioners tackled three or fewer items at the meetings.
The California Privacy Protection Agency voted 4-0 to approve California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) rules Friday. Also at the virtual meeting, the agency agreed to seek comments on a proposed rulemaking on risk assessments, cybersecurity audits and automated decision-making. The privacy agency’s executive director said in December the CPRA rules could take effect in April or later (see 2212160040). The statute took effect Jan. 1.