FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and other commissioners placed blame for recent hiccups in work to free up spectrum for commercial 5G use squarely on the Commerce Department and NOAA, during a Wednesday Senate Commerce Committee hearing. Pai used the panel to announce pending FCC action to improve the agency's broadband coverage data collection practices, which have come up repeatedly in Capitol Hill communications policy hearings (see 1905150061). Senators also used the panel to probe FCC actions on other communications policy items, including GOP commissioners' public support for T-Mobile's proposed buy of Sprint.
Trinity Broadcasting/LPN Spectrum's C-band clearing plan (see 1905170034) is another call for a broad array of stakeholders to get a piece of any spectrum rights sale proceeds. Some see that as a route to getting any plan to move forward, they said in interviews in recent weeks. Problem is, one major stakeholder isn't yet on board.
Despite Education Department concerns, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is expected to circulate an order for the July 10 commissioners' meeting on the future of the 2.5 GHz band and the educational broadband service (EBS). ED said the FCC should preserve the band for use by educational institutions where possible (see 1906100041). Transportation Department concerns complicated FCC progress toward a Further NPRM on sharing the 5.9 GHz band with Wi-Fi.
A newer high resolution format is adding movies, even as apart from Amazon and Netflix it lacks wide distribution, the 8K Display Summit was told in New York Tuesday. The coming fourth tranche of tariffs on Chinese products will affect a wider array consumer tech than past versions, attendees also were told.
Microsoft’s proposal for a Further NPRM on broadband in the TV white spaces (see 1905030050) got some pushback in comments posed Tuesday in docket 14-165. Most early-in comments supported calls for an FNPRM (see 1906100035). Wireless mic makers, whose devices use the white spaces, had particular concerns.
The Senate Banking Committee invited data brokers to testify Tuesday, but they declined because they’re “probably a little bit embarrassed” by their data harvesting business models, ranking member Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, told reporters. Brown criticized the “cowardice” of the industry. He cited some of the biggest names: Acxiom, CoreLogic, Spokeo, ZoomInfo and Oracle. The Consumer Data Industry Association didn’t comment.
Kidvid rules are either an anachronism with significant First Amendment problems or a small price for broadcasters to pay in exchange for the "money-making machine" that's a broadcast license. Those were the opposing viewpoints at a Media Institute lunch Tuesday with former Commissioner Robert McDowell, now at Cooley, debating Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law & Policy's Gigi Sohn, a former FCC chairman's aide. The only common ground was that Congress is unlikely to get involved.
Congress has a constitutional duty to ensure antitrust law is working properly within the digital economy, said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., and House Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline, D-R.I., during a hearing Tuesday (see 1906100029). It was the first in a series of tech competition investigation hearings, which ranking member Doug Collins, R-Ga., said he “firmly” supports. Collins said any potential legislation from the probe “should be consistent with keeping the free market free.” Companies “that offer new innovations, better solutions and more consumer benefit at lower prices often become big -- to the benefit of society,” he said.
The C-Band Alliance (CBA) is proposing a sealed-bid combinatorial second-price auction process for clearing 180 MHz of the 3.7-4.2 GHz band. The auction design -- now being discussed with the FCC -- is the last of the major components of its band-clearing plan put before the commission, the CBA told us Tuesday. That follows its transition (see 1904090067) and band plan.
Lawmakers expressed confidence Tuesday about prospects for Congress to pass anti-robocalls legislation this year. Three House Commerce Committee leaders said during a USTelecom event an agreement on a compromise bill may be very near. House Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore., have been negotiating on a bill that combines elements from the Stopping Bad Robocalls Act (HR-946) and six other measures the Communications Subcommittee examined in April (see 1904300212).