FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has been “very aggressive” working with other countries to reach agreements on robocall enforcement, and the Enforcement Bureau is paying more attention to accessibility issues, a virtual FCBA CLE heard Wednesday. Such agreements “come up routinely,” when the agency meets with foreign regulators, said her aide David Strickland. “A lot of these robocalls are coming from overseas.”
The FCC should eliminate local ownership caps for AM stations but keep them for FMs, iHeartMedia asked an aide to Commissioner Nathan Simington on a call Friday, said a filing posted in docket 18-349 Tuesday: “Deregulation of AM ownership would bring increased investment to the AM band,” but reducing FM ownership limits “would lead to a migration of capital, resources, and talent away from AM stations.” IHeart also opposed GeoBroadcast Solutions' proposal to allow geo-targeted FM broadcasts. Changing booster rules to allow the tech would cause “a financial drain on broadcast radio” by “bifurcating FM advertising spends,” said iHeart, also noting concerns about interference affecting the emergency alert system. GBS has countered EAS concerns (see 2109200066).
Tests of FM radio geo-targeting technology show it doesn’t affect emergency alert system performance and that the “transition zones” between targeted areas can avoid affecting listeners, said Covington & Burling in a letter and report posted Monday in FCC docket 20-401. Roberson and Associates did the study on behalf of GeoBroadcast Solutions, which seeks a change to rules on FM boosters. Summer tests at Universal Media Access' KSJO(FM) San Jose showed the system works with analog and HD radio systems, the law firm said. “Listeners in FM transition zones experienced no material change.” Commissioner Geoffrey Starks endorses GBS efforts; NAB and iHeart Media oppose them (see 2108260034).
USTelecom promotes Trevor Jones to vice president-government affairs ... Analog Devices taps Janene Asgeirsson from Acacia Communications as senior vice president-chief legal officer and corporate secretary ... International Trade Commission promotes Monica Bhattacharyya from its Office of Unfair Import Investigations to administrative law judge for Tariff Act Section 337 patent infringement cases.
HD Radio expanded to motorbikes, said parent Xperi Monday. HD Radio receivers are available on the digital dash display of the 2022 BMW R 18 Transcontinental. The system, for AM and FM, broadcasts a digital signal over traditional radio frequencies, allowing for up to three additional channels of separate audio programming, along with improved “static-fee” sound quality, emergency alerts and metadata. HD Radio receivers have had an estimated 85-plus billion listening hours in cars since 2005; over 95% of all Americans are able to receive an HD Radio signal, Xperi said.
New Orleans and nearby Louisiana parishes faced 911 outages Monday after Hurricane Ida hit, local authorities reported. Ida caused “significant impacts” to AT&T's Louisiana network due to “massive power outages and storm damage,” the carrier said Monday. The FCC disaster information reporting system (DIRS) was activated Sunday for affected counties in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. Staffers were deployed “to assess the post-landfall impact to communications networks and to assist in efforts to restore service as quickly as possible,” acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said Saturday before landfall: “We know the reality of the danger from this kind of hurricane all too well.”
The three major national wireless carriers reported problems during the recent nationwide wireless emergency alert test, but they said the system mostly worked as expected. The FCC posted reports from Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T Thursday, in docket 15-94. Some glitches were observed during the test earlier this month (see 2108110067). In the first national test in 2018, many alerts didn’t go through (see 1812210056).
Comments are due Oct.19, replies Nov. 18, in docket 15-94 on an FCC Further NPRM on recommendations to improve the emergency alert system, said a public notice listed in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. The FNPRM stems from a unanimous FCC vote in June (see 2106170063).
The Alarm Industry Communications Committee and alarm companies asked the FCC to direct AT&T to pause a planned 3G data termination sunset, now planned for Feb. 22, until the end of next year. AICC and members said they won’t be ready for the change next year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the chip shortage and other issues. The FCC said initial comments are due Aug. 30.
Xperi’s HD Radio is expanding into the commercial truck category, said the company Monday. Receivers will be available first on the digital dash display of the Mercedes-Benz Freightliner Cascadia truck, said the company. HD Radio’s digital broadcast system sends a signal over traditional AM and FM frequencies, allowing up to three additional channels of new audio programming, along with information such as album art, station logos, song and artist information, traffic, weather and critical emergency alerts.