Tech and business groups hailed President Donald Trump’s decision postponing the fourth installment of tariffs as his administration tries to negotiate a comprehensive trade deal with China, though three existing rounds of tariffs stay as is. Bipartisan condemnation greeted Trump’s surprise announcement he will let U.S. companies resume shipments to Huawei, though the tech-equipment giant remains subject to Commerce Department export administration regulations and entity list restrictions (see 1905160081).
San Francisco's Police Code Article 52 has been either a boon or barrier for smaller ISPs seeking to enter large multi-dwelling units, backers and critics said before the FCC's July 10 vote on pre-empting one aspect of the regulation (see 1906190067). Portrayed as helping small ISPs compete, the regulation does the opposite, said Carl Kandutsch, a lawyer with small ISP clients and a board member of the Multifamily Broadband Council. MBC petitioned for Article 52 pre-emption (see 1706120052).
Electric utilities asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to use its influence to urge the FCC to go slow on opening the 6 GHz band for unlicensed use, which was controversial when the FCC took comment this year in docket 18-295 (see 1903180047). Utilities warned FERC of their concerns during a technical conference last week. Energy industry officials said this was the first time the regulator made communications a separate part of that conference. Wi-Fi advocates see the 6 GHz band as critical to meeting the growing demand for unlicensed spectrum (see 1906250015).
A polygon shapefile approach to submitting provider broadband data, endorsed by NCTA, and a location fabric proposal backed by USTelecom both add valuable data to inform updated national broadband maps from the FCC and aren't mutually exclusive, said cable and telco representatives. Congress asked the FCC to develop more-granular broadband maps to better pinpoint where service is available to consumers and at what speeds. The agency is expected to address the topic at its August meeting (see 1906200048).
A California Senate panel delayed considering a bill to extend state VoIP deregulation another 10 years after the California Public Utilities Commission took the uncommon step of voting to strongly oppose the measure. Continuing deregulation under the Assembly-passed AB-1366 would undermine public safety and carrier-of-last-resort obligations, delay commission proceedings, contradict CPUC responsibilities and allow companies to disregard other state laws, the CPUC said in a position paper adopted unanimously Thursday.
Localities and broadcasters have many options to offer some multilingual emergency alerts, but none is comprehensive, and federal rules requiring them are unlikely to help, said alerting officials Friday during the FCC Public Safety Bureau's Multilingual Alerting Workshop. “There's enough toys in the toy box, let us fit them together,” said Sage Alerting Systems President Harold Price on the event's final panel. “Multilingual still has a long way to go, but there are still things you can do,” said Public Safety Bureau Attorney Adviser David Munson.
The FTC isn’t equipped to handle modern enforcement challenges, Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., told us, saying there’s a strong case for creating a new data privacy agency. Eshoo and Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., are drafting a bill that would create such an agency modeled after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (see 1906250033).
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., doesn’t see her panel’s privacy group (see 1906140052) as the best route for reaching legislative consensus, a Democratic committee aide told us Thursday. A day earlier saw reports that Cantwell wants to negotiate bilaterally with Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss.
Pole riders sought revamped Connecticut pole attachment rules to deal with a rush of attachment applications. The state Public Utility Regulatory Authority (PURA) asked for feedback by Wednesday on a United Illuminating proposal to revise PURA's temporary attachment guidelines, but CenturyLink and the New England Cable and Telecommunications Association (NECTA) suggested in comments in docket 19-01-52 that the pole owner’s plan doesn’t address the full problem. Meanwhile, Connecticut legislators’ failure to pass a municipal broadband bill sent debate over a pole space reserved for municipal use back to court.
A Media Bureau investigation into Sinclair Broadcast over allegations of a lack of candor first raised during the Sinclair/Tribune deal (see 1808090042) discussion could be a prelude to a possible settlement or lead to another hearing proceeding, said broadcast attorneys.