FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said a telehealth inquiry's facilities-based focus is aimed at advancing broadband access through a pilot program, but is open to discussion. At a Wiley Rein event Wednesday, Carr outlined his views on a draft notice of inquiry to provide up to $100 million for "connected care" pilot projects slated for a vote Aug. 2, and agency efforts to make wireless regulation "5G ready" and modernize media regulation.
Bill Colwell, 48, assistant general counsel of Northrop Grumman, died Sunday of cancer. The expert in government contracts, who used to work for Boeing and Wiley Rein, had been on the Federal Circuit Bar Association board. He was married to Robin Colwell, who worked for FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly before going to the House Communications Subcommittee as a key staffer. "Bill Colwell was a wonderful person, a devoted father, and the best partner imaginable for my former chief of staff, Robin," O'Rielly said Monday. Colwell's also survived by twin daughters, a brother, and his mother and grandmother. Funeral Mass is Friday at 11 a.m. at St. John the Beloved in McLean, Virginia, followed by a reception at the Columbus Club of Arlington.
Manatt adds to privacy and data security practice with Ingrid Beierly, ex-Visa, as senior adviser-cyber and global payment security; John Treviño, ex-BT Americas, as counsel; and Peter Reid, ex-Hewlett Packard Enterprise, as senior adviser ... National Technical Systems moves up Rich Adams to president-CEO and Hector Paez to chief operating officer ... Consultant Ian Greenblatt, also ex-Arris, joins J.D. Power as Technology, Media and Telecom Practice lead.
Fiber Broadband Association hires Lisa Youngers, ex-Nextlink, as executive director, effective July 9, succeeding President-CEO Heather Burnett Gold, retiring (see this section's Nov. 13 edition) ... FCC Incentive Auction Task Force Senior Adviser-Communications and Policy Charlie Meisch left the agency for SKDKnickerbocker, which hired him as vice president and director-technology practice ... Sustainable Electronics Recycling International promotes Corey Dehmey, who directed its R2 standard, to executive director, succeeding John Lingelbach ... Mintz Levin hires from Morrison & Foerster for Corporate & Securities practice Scott Stanton as member; expertise includes software and semiconductors.
The shift to online public files for radio and TV made it easier for the FCC to catch broadcasters in violations, and is expected to lead to increased disclosures of late or misfiled documents when license renewals come around next June , broadcast attorneys said in interviews. Broadcasters saw online public files as a way to increase convenience and pave the way for eliminating the main studio rule, but the increased scrutiny of fillings is an unintended consequence, said Fletcher Heald's Steve Lovelady. “Given that the contents of the online public file can be viewed by anyone, anywhere, just by launching an Internet browser, we would expect more complaints about incomplete files, and more scrutiny by the FCC,” blogged Wilkinson Barker's David Oxenford.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruling against the FTC on LabMD was called an important decision and bad for the agency. The commission can't require a company to completely overhaul its data security program but can ban specific acts or practices (see 1712070068), an 11th Circuit panel ruled Wednesday. The FTC sued the now-defunct diagnostic cancer lab in 2013 for unfair data security practices. The ruling said the FTC improperly mandated LabMD’s complete overhaul and charged the district court with managing the overhaul. “This is a scheme Congress could not have envisioned,” the panel said. “We therefore grant LabMD’s petition for review and vacate the commission’s order.” TechFreedom President Berin Szoka said Thursday the court’s decision shows the FTC “has been acting unlawfully for well over a decade” and calls into question the validity of past data security consent decrees. The commission didn’t comment. Wiley Rein called it “an important milestone and inflection point for” new agency leadership: “This case raised issues going to FTC power and practice, but ultimately turned on the remedy imposed by the agency which was found to be so vague as to be unenforceable.” The agency can ask for a full 11th Circuit review en banc or Supreme Court review. Judges Gerald Bard Tjoflat, Charles Wilson and Eduardo Robreno made up the panel and Tjoflat wrote the opinion.
Several net neutrality advocates don't plan to seek a stay of the FCC order undoing Communications Act Title II broadband service regulation. They told us Tuesday they aren't aware of any who will seek a stay, with the order to take effect Monday. Some have warned that Monday will mark the start of declines in internet freedom, which Republicans and other net neutrality deregulation backers say is overblown and untrue.
The 12 items on Thursday's FCC meeting agenda are the most in almost 10 years, bringing Chairman Ajit Pai's average to more than seven monthly agenda items, far outpacing recent predecessors. Pai is pursuing free-market, deregulatory policies aggressively, said most we queried, though some believe Pai is trying to overload critics. Pai pitched the commissioners' meeting as a "summer blockbuster" on high-band 5G spectrum, cable leased-access reversal, satellite broadband, intercarrier compensation, rural broadband, telecom legacy discontinuance streamlining aimed at spurring wireline broadband, and other items (see 1805160051).
Broadcasters need to move as quickly as possible to transition to ATSC 3.0 or they're in danger of losing their spectrum and market share to other industries, said FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly and Spectrum Consortium President John Hane in separate speeches Thursday to the ATSC Next Gen TV Conference. Through 3.0, broadcasters need to maximize the use of their existing spectrum, or it will be given to another industry, Hane said. Under the current technology, broadcasters provide a valuable service but take up too much spectrum to provide it, leading regulators to periodically pursue “progressive reclamation” of it as with the incentive auction, Hane said.
CHARLOTTE -- The FCC will vote in July on a proposal for using C-band spectrum, the 500 MHz of spectrum between 3.7 and 4.2 GHz, Chairman Ajit Pai told the Wireless Infrastructure Association Wednesday. Pai urged aggressive action to win the global 5G race but said he wants to find balance between industry and local government interests. Dish Network plans to spend at least $10 billion on 5G, technology that Chairman Charles Ergen predicted would add “a lot more” than $500 billion to the economy. Chasing a 5G network for IoT, “Dish is back to being a startup business,” Ergen said. The company is spending $500 million to $1 billion in the first phase of its plans, and tower executives voiced eagerness to assist.