“Shoveling more spectrum” into the pool of available frequencies for unlicensed use won’t necessarily mean faster Wi-Fi speeds, Richard Bennett, High Tech Forum founder, said during a Georgetown University Center for Business and Public Policy webcast Wednesday. Bennett, who worked on the initial Wi-Fi standard, also questioned whether 6 GHz is taking off as a Wi-Fi band. It's expected he will lay out his arguments in a paper next week.

Europe needs better connectivity to compete globally, speakers said Wednesday at a discussion on the bloc's digital future. They cited former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi's Sept. 9 competitiveness report, which, among other things, urged the EU to "profoundly refocus its collective efforts on closing the innovation gap with the US and China, especially in advanced technologies."

Industry experts expect the FCC will petition the U.S. Supreme Court for a writ of certiori following the split rulings between the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the 6th and 11th circuits on the Universal Service Fund contribution mechanism, they said during a Schools, Health, Libraries & Broadband Coalition webinar Wednesday. The 5th Circuit sided with Consumers' Research in its challenge of the contribution mechanism and agreed to stay its ruling pending the commission's petition (see 2408270030).

ATLANTA -- The U.S. is taking an increasingly hard line against all connected Chinese and Russian devices, not just those from particular manufacturers such as Huawei, cybersecurity expert Clete Johnson told attendees at SCTE's annual TechExpo Wednesday. Meanwhile, cable providers at TechExpo discussed why it's imperative that there is better convergence in wireline and mobile services.

An order approving Audacy’s request for a temporary exemption from the foreign-ownership rules was adopted but isn’t expected to be released before next week, FCC officials told us. The waiver would allow Audacy to complete foreign-ownership review after it finishes a bankruptcy restructuring that involves control of the broadcaster passing to a fund affiliated with George Soros' family. FCC Republicans hadn’t submitted dissenting statements Wednesday afternoon but indicated they plan to do so, the agency officials said. Broadcast industry officials, attorneys and others told us the Audacy transaction wouldn’t attract as much attention without Soros’ name attached, and that radio broadcasters have long sought increased private equity investment in their industry. “They’re making it a political ax,” said Christopher Terry, University of Minnesota media law professor. “The radio industry has been cash-strapped for 20 years.”

ATLANTA -- The cable industry faces potential workforce struggles in coming years due to employee demographics and federal broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) plan spending, CableLabs CEO Phil McKinney told us Tuesday at SCTE's 2024 TechExpo. At the same time, BEAD is helping generate interest within the construction industry, he said in an interview. Meanwhile, some spectrum experts at TechExpo urged a broad rethinking of how the U.S. approaches spectrum management (see 2409240045).

ATLANTA -- Spectrum experts at SCTE's 2024 TechExpo event Tuesday were upbeat about increased spectrum sharing but said that replicating the citizens broadband radio service (CBRS) sharing model in other bands will require better technology first. Some said that the U.S. needs a wholesale rethinking of its spectrum management approach. Also at TechExpo, CableLabs CEO Phil McKinney said the cable industry could face a labor crunch in coming years (see 2409240004).

The U.S. Supreme Court mustn’t discourage states and Congress from trying to prevent children from accessing pornography online, the federal government said in an amicus brief Monday. However, SCOTUS should correct the 5th U.S. Circuit Court’s error of using rational-basis review to support a Texas law requiring age-verification on porn websites, said DOJ. The Supreme Court received a flurry of briefs this week from amici supporting the Free Speech Coalition's challenge of the Texas law. FSC is a porn industry trade association. The American Civil Liberties Union represents it.

House leaders will likely take up kids’ privacy legislation, but not before more legislative work is done on the House Commerce Committee-passed bills, a high-ranking Senate Commerce Committee staffer said Wednesday.

The White House is focused on 6G and wants the U.S. to lead the world, Caitlin Clarke, special assistant to President Joe Biden, said during the 6G Symposium Tuesday in Washington. “We need to think about where we need to be now, before the technology is in place -- we cannot catch up,” Clarke said. Other speakers warned that the U.S. is falling behind (see 2409230053).