If Congress passes the House Commerce Committee’s bipartisan privacy bill, it would need to double the FTC’s budget for the agency to meet the new law’s requirements, FTC Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter said Thursday.
Congressional telecom policy leaders and other observers are hopeful but not certain that additional funding for the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program and next-generation 911 tech upgrades will remain top priorities in FY 2023 appropriations talks, amid the apparent lack of consensus so far on allocating future spectrum auction proceeds for that purpose. Lawmakers agreed last month to temporarily extend the FCC’s auction authority through Dec. 16 via a continuing resolution to buy additional time for talks on a broader spectrum legislative package that allocates sales proceeds to telecom projects (see 2209300058).
Double poles are a decreasing problem in Connecticut, phone and electric companies assured the state Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) in comments received Wednesday. Companies urged PURA to start with a pilot before going full scale with a single-visit transfer (SVT) pole attachment process.
The FCC is expected to approve soon a recent draft order circulated by Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel that would further clamp down on gear from Chinese companies, preventing the sale of yet-to-be authorized equipment in the U.S. The order, circulated by Rosenworcel Oct. 5 (see 2210070083), would ban the FCC authorization of gear from companies including Huawei, ZTE, Hytera Communications, Hikvision and Dahua Technology, FCC officials said. Industry officials believe the coming restrictions could increase lawmakers' interest in approving additional funding for the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program as part of an end-of-year legislative package (see 2210130074).
E-rate advocates sought more emphasis on cybersecurity in the program, during a Schools, Health, & Libraries Broadband Coalition event Thursday. Delivering internet connections is “an ongoing challenge” for E-rate participants, said Funds for Learning CEO John Harrington, and most identified cybersecurity as a cost that should be part of the program’s eligible services list. Whether it should be listed under category 1 or category 2 “is a debate that I would love for us to be having,” he said. “We should never take for granted that there’s a program that provides support” for more than 132,000 schools and libraries, Harrington said, saying there are also some “real practical limitations” to implementing the FCC’s proposed central bidding portal for the E-rate program (see 2204280051).
5G for 12 GHz Coalition leaders told reporters Thursday they still expect the FCC to act soon on changing the rules for the 12.2-12.7 band to allow two-way use for 5G. The officials hope the FCC will also soon approve a grant of special temporary authority allowing real-world tests. They noted the coalition now includes 38 companies and organizations.
Several Supreme Court justices showed skepticism Wednesday that Andy Warhol made fair use in repurposing a photographer’s portrait of musician Prince and selling it as his own transformative work in the 1980s (see 2208210001).
Major satellite constellation operators are making best efforts at tackling harmful effects of their satellite systems on astronomy, but that’s not enough and regulation needs to be considered, astronomy experts said Wednesday in Washington at a University of Arizona space law and policy seminar.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative should add Meta to its 2022 Notorious Markets List (see 2202170053) due to the proliferation of counterfeit goods on platforms like Facebook Marketplace, Instagram and WhatsApp, trade groups told the agency in comments last week.
Alaska would shift to connections-based contribution for state USF under a joint proposal by many of the state’s local exchange carriers. The Alaska attorney general’s regulatory affairs and public advocacy (RAPA) section urged the Regulatory Commission of Alaska (RCA) Monday to adopt the Friday-filed plan, which would push back an imminent sunset of the Alaska USF (AUSF) by three years to June 30, 2026. “By that time, the focus of significant federal infrastructure funding in Alaska will be better known, and the Commission will have more information that it may use to determine the best AUSF policy for the long term,” said the proposal.