Senators and industry officials are eyeing a laundry list of policy matters they want Alan Davidson to prioritize once he becomes NTIA administrator. The Senate confirmed Davidson Tuesday on a bipartisan 60-31 vote, as expected (see 2201050056). The chamber voted 64-30 Monday to invoke cloture on Davidson (see 2201100058).
Verizon and AT&T agreed to a further two-week delay, until Jan. 19, in turning on their C-band spectrum for 5G, while taking other actions to address air safety, consistent with the model for deployments in France. The agreement will protect air safety, President Joe Biden said in a statement. Industry observers said the carriers, government regulators and the airlines appear close to a final resolution, though questions remain.
Verizon and AT&T agreed to a further two-week delay, until Jan. 19, in turning on their C-band spectrum for 5G, while taking other actions to address air safety, consistent with the model for deployments in France. The agreement will protect air safety, President Joe Biden said in a statement. Industry observers said the carriers, government regulators and the airlines appear close to a final resolution, though questions remain.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. has asked a Ukrainian businessman and his technology company to sell its stake in Texas-based Firefly Aerospace due to national security concerns, Bloomberg reported Dec. 29. CFIUS is concerned that valuable U.S. technology could be transferred from Firefly to Ukraine or Russia via tech entrepreneur Max Polyakov and his firm Noosphere Venture Partners, the report said, and has asked the firm to sell its 50% stake in Firefly. Noosphere told CFIUS it plans to follow through with the request and sell its stake, the report said. Firefly, which develops commercial space launch vehicles, subsequently announced it would pause preparations for its next launch, according to a Dec. 30 report from SpaceNews. Noosphere told Bloomberg that it understands “CFIUS’s actions come amid rising tensions between Ukraine and Russia,” adding that the firm is “working diligently to address CFIUS’s concerns in the most efficient and appropriate manner possible.” Polyakov in 2020 agreed to step down from the company’s board and Firefly’s day-to-day activities “to help make it easier for the company to win U.S. government and military contracts and ease some of the underlying tensions,” Bloomberg said. Firefly, Noosphere and the Treasury Department, which chairs CFIUS, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Verizon and AT&T are poised to turn on their 5G C-band operations this week, a month after agreeing to a delay until Wednesday. Analysts speculated that the biggest potential threat to that start is the FAA or aviation industry going to court to seek a stay. Airlines For America (A4A) asked the FCC late last week for a stay and warned of a legal challenge if the agency doesn’t act. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg asked the carriers to extend their pause.
The FAA believes more work is needed to find a good solution to its dispute with the FCC over the impact on aviation safety from 5G C-band wireless broadband signals “so that 5G and aviation can safely coexist,” a spokesperson emailed Thursday in response to a recent letter from Senate Appropriations Transportation Subcommittee ranking member Susan Collins, R-Maine. “While I understand the effort to deploy 5G services quickly, I do not believe the safety of our aviation system and the public should be potentially compromised,” Collins said in a Dec. 23 letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg that circulated the next week. The FCC and FAA should reach a "safe resolution" to the dispute and "postpone" the C-band rollout, set to begin Wednesday, until an agreement happens, it said. The dispute is likely to be a major factor in the FCC’s 2022 spectrum agenda (see 2112290025). Wireless and aviation groups have been pressing their case to the FCC (see 2112220038) and lawmakers amid increased interest in the issue. The FCC didn't comment.
All the Republican members of the Senate Finance Committee, led by ranking member Mike Crapo of Idaho, are questioning the administration's decision to trade off extraterritorial taxation of U.S.-headquartered companies (Pillar One) in exchange for a global minimum corporate income tax (Pillar Two) and the removal of digital services taxes.
The White House is compiling a shortlist of priority candidates to renominate in 2022 (see our bulletin here), an official in the executive office confirmed Wednesday. This will include “important, noncontroversial” candidates to be sent to the Senate as soon as possible, a former federal official said. The administration “will have more in the coming weeks on who is on the list,” the White House official said.
With the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warning Monday of the “potential for a rapid increase” in U.S. COVID-19 infections from the new omicron variant, CNET withdrew from CES 2022 as an in-person participant. A news bulletin is here. Rising volume of COVID-19 and omicron cases sparked CNET’s parent company, Red Ventures, to “pause travel for all U.S.-based employees through mid-January,” emailed a spokesperson. CNET “will now shift our CES focus to remote coverage,” said the spokesperson, continuing to report "from a remote setting.” CTA didn’t comment Tuesday. Red Ventures completed its $500 million CNET buy from ViacomCBS in October 2020 (see 2010300029).
With the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warning Monday of the “potential for a rapid increase” in U.S. COVID-19 infections from the new omicron variant, CNET’s withdrawal from CES 2022 as an in-person participant bears watching for whether it's an isolated event or the start of a larger trend. See our news bulletin here. The rising volume of COVID-19 and omicron cases sparked CNET’s parent company, Red Ventures, to “pause travel for all U.S.-based employees through mid-January,” emailed a spokesperson. Red Ventures completed its $500 million CNET buy from ViacomCBS in October 2020 (see 2010300029). CNET “will now shift our CES focus to remote coverage,” said the spokesperson. “CNET will continue to report on new consumer and tech products and developments, talk to industry leaders, engage with global brands, and highlight emerging trends from a remote setting.” CTA didn’t respond to requests for comment Tuesday. To some CES 2022 exhibitors, the emergence and rapid spread of the omicron variant appeared to cast a pall over the impending show as November turned into December. “I do wonder if we will see some big changes in the show’s plans this week,” emailed one exhibitor Monday. “Anecdotally, the groundswell of interest in an in-person show that we felt ahead of Thanksgiving seems to be rapidly receding." CTA at least is "well positioned to pivot to a virtual-only show if they must,” said the exhibitor. CTA shows little public appetite for retreating to a digital-only CES 2022, despite CDC’s warning about omicron, now responsible for about 75% of new U.S. COVID-19 cases."Excitement Builds for CES 2022," headlined CTA's announcement Friday of new health and safety protocols for the show.