The FTC is changing how it investigates mergers and acquisitions, including making second requests accessible to all commissioners, the Competition Bureau announced Tuesday. Commissioner Rohit Chopra said his motion to “better secure ‘second requests’ and other information related to merger investigations” got 5-0 approval from the commission. “Commissioners have long been left in the dark on key documents,” Chopra tweeted. “For years, I was denied access to ‘second requests’ and other deliberative information, even as outside parties and FTC alumni got inside info.” Commissioner Christine Wilson recently tweeted about the lack of access. Before the change, access to second requests was granted only at the discretion of the chair. Staff will now provide the full commission with access through a secure system. The FTC is expanding the scope of market competition factors in second requests, potentially involving labor markets, cross-market effects and investment firm activity. Companies now must provide “certain foundational information,” including specifics on business operations and data maintenance, before submitting requests for modifications. The bureau said the changes are an attempt to make the best use of limited resources amid a recent surge in M&A filings.

Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou flew home to China Friday, released from custody in Canada, said a Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Saturday. The case was "an incident of political persecution against a Chinese citizen, an act designed to hobble Chinese high-tech companies," said the spokesperson. Charges against her were "purely fabricated," she said. The spokesperson said Monday, "The party and the Chinese government have the firm will and strong capability to firmly uphold the legitimate and legal rights and interests of Chinese citizens and companies." The U.S. agreed to dismiss its indictment against Meng at the four-year anniversary of her December 2018 arrest in Vancouver (see 1901280052) if she complies with a deferred prosecution agreement she reached Wednesday with the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn, said DOJ Friday. Meng admits to defrauding "global financial institutions" by lying about Huawei’s ownership in its Iranian affiliate Skycom. “There is no link” between DOJ’s resolution of the Meng case and the Chinese government’s release of two Canadian citizens detained in the country, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Monday. “We have an independent Justice Department, we can’t determine how the Chinese or others manage their business over there,” Psaki said. “We have made no secret" about the U.S. push to get Canadians detained in China released, she said. "That’s certainly positive news.” DOJ didn't respond to our follow-up questions Monday.

FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Brendan Carr will visit Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Tuesday to tour areas hit by Ida, before Thursday’s FCC meeting, which includes an NPRM on ways to bolster network resiliency. “They plan to meet with government and industry officials to assess the status of recovery efforts and consult on next steps that the FCC should take to assist in the restoration of communications networks,” said a Monday news release.

The FCC extended the filing window for FY 2021 regulatory fees to Monday, said a public notice Friday from the Office of Managing Director. Fees had been due at 11:59 p.m. Friday. The Arkansas Broadcasters Association emailed members Friday that it had been told about “glitches” in the payment system. The FCC didn't comment on the reported glitches but said the extension was intended to keep smaller entities from facing penalties. "We wanted to provide additional time before the end of the fiscal year, consistent with prior years, for especially small companies to make their payments to avoid penalties," emailed a spokesperson.

Groups raised concerns on 10-digit long code (10DLC) texting rules proposed by major carriers, during a Coalition for Open Messaging webinar. In an effort to curb spam, carriers are examining whether to require high-volume text senders to register with a campaign registry, and to impose higher messaging fees on all that don’t file, or potentially block them, the group said Thursday. Rules limiting texting “would have a devastating impact on our organizations, on the progressive movement’s ability to reach voters and our communities,” said MoveOn Executive Director Rahna Epting. She asked listeners to sign a petition urging members of Congress to stop the 10DLC rules and to offer testimony on how they use person-to-person (P2P) messaging. “We want all groups and organizations to be able to effectively and reliably communicate with their intended audience via text messaging,” AT&T said in a statement: “Our policies are designed to ensure that our customers receive the messages they want, while protecting them from unwanted robotexts. Our policies apply to all types of mass text senders and are consistent with industry best practices.” The carrier is in “a months-long grace period to scale our systems, collect feedback from interested parties and improve the registration process to ensure the integrity of the texting platform for senders and receivers,” AT&T said. Verizon isn't “involved” and doesn’t have changes pending, a spokesperson emailed. T-Mobile didn’t comment. P2P messaging is the “safest, most accessible way to reach voters and our communities,” the coalition said. Progressive groups relied heavily on texting during the 2020 election cycle to get members to the polls, said State Voices CEO Alexis Anderson-Reed. “Despite all the benefits,” carriers are imposing rules “that would stop grassroots organizations like yours, coalitions and volunteers from texting our community members,” said Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., in taped comments: She's working with other legislators to call attention to this.

Sept. 30's FCC meeting agenda added an NPRM regarding SIM swapping and port-out fraud, in the Sunshine Agenda released Thursday evening. A draft NPRM circulated on the eighth floor last month (see 2108300061).

The reconstituted Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council met virtually for a little more than an hour Wednesday, getting an update on the work it’s expected to do under its charter that expires in June 2023 (see 2103100054). CSRIC last met in March, wrapping up reports started during the previous administration (see 2012090055). “Every day in our lives, there are too many cyber events that have the potential to harm the safety and well-being of people and businesses all across the country,” said acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “No entity is immune from this threat," she said. "It is time to turn resolve into action.” The need for tighter security is more critical as 5G launches, she said. The promises of 5G will come “only if we properly secure our networks and the communications supply chain,” she said. Rosenworcel, who has made collaboration with other agencies a priority, said it's “really important” that the group will be co-chaired by Billy Bob Brown from the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (see 2109140057). “It really does take a constellation of partners all working together in order to achieve security and resilience for the nation,” Brown said. Co-chair Nasrin Rezai, Verizon chief information security officer, briefly discussed each of the six working groups and asked members to volunteer for assignments. They are: 5G Signaling Protocols Security; Promoting Security, Reliability and Interoperability of Open Radio Access Network Equipment; Leveraging Virtualization Technology to Promote Secure, Reliable 5G Networks; 911 Service Over Wi-Fi; Managing Software & Cloud Services Supply Chain Security for Communications Infrastructure; and Leveraging Mobile Device Applications and Firmware to Enhance Wireless Emergency Alerts. The working groups all focus on real world problems that face industry, Rosenworcel said: “These issues are evolving fast and it can often feel like we’re playing catch up.”

Proposals in a July FCC Further NPRM, seeking revised rules for short-range field disturbance sensor (FDS) radars in the 60 GHz band (see 2107090047), got general support in comments due Monday in docket 21-264. Facebook, Intel and Qualcomm, which have other operations at 60 GHz, urged caution. “Adopt technical rules to ensure successful sharing with all types of unlicensed communications devices, applications, and services that use this band, including ultra-high throughput and ultra-low latency Wi-Fi,” they commented. Radars, subject to the 10% duty cycle limitation proposed in the NPRM, “can repeatedly interrupt short range communications equipment in this band unless the radar applications provide sufficiently long silent periods that communications applications can meaningfully use,” they said: A review of devices operating under an FCC waiver “demonstrate that radar devices are, in fact, operating with a much higher effective duty cycle that blocks other operations and impacts the ability of communications applications to meaningfully utilize the spectrum.” The Wi-Fi Alliance said any rules “to permit expanded use of FDS devices must ensure that those devices can co-exist with, and cause no harmful interference to, unlicensed operations in the 60 GHz band.” Most others support the proposal in the FNPRM. “Given the continued interest in use of mobile radars in the 60 GHz band and the success of various innovative and beneficial deployments under recent waivers, the time is ripe to revisit and broaden these rules,” said the Alliance for Automotive Innovation. “Increase flexibility in the band for future innovative automotive use cases, including those that may operate outside of the vehicle cabin environment or those facilitating detection over greater distances,” the alliance urged. “Radar technologies in the 60 GHz band have been approved for gesture control, detection of unattended children or pets in vehicles, sleep assessment, and monitoring of vulnerable medical patients,” Google said. The FNPRM proposes to authorize FDS devices in 57-64 GHz at 20 dBm effective isotropic radiated power without coexistence, Amazon noted, urging extending that “across the entire 14 gigahertz of the band.” Amazon supported ending current waivers as long as “any rule changes adopted in this proceeding are not more technically and operationally onerous than the FDS waivers." Provide "as much flexibility as possible,” asked IEE Sensing: Set technical operating limits “and allow all manner of devices to operate in the 60 GHz band, so long as they stay within the ‘technical envelope’ set forth in the amended rules, rather than try to limit allowable use cases, like the Commission did in the 60 GHz Waiver Order, where sensors could only be deployed to ‘passenger motor vehicles.’”

Comments are due Oct. 21, replies Nov. 5, in docket 21-190 on the methodology the FCC should use to assess regulatory fees on unlicensed spectrum users and how the agency should calculate the fee for small satellites that will become a fee-paying category in FY 2022, says Tuesday's Federal Register. The NPRM was unanimously adopted in August along with an order on FY 2021 fees (see 2108270072).

The only written communications between the White House and FCC before President Joe Biden's July 9 executive order to promote tech competition (see 2107090006) were some emails the day the EO was issued between an aide to Commissioner Geoffrey Starks and an Executive Office staffer about Starks' attendance at the signing ceremony. That's per a Freedom of Information Act request we submitted to the FCC July 14. We received a 34-page response Friday, most of which was a copy of the EO provided to Starks' office in advance of the signing, plus confirmation of Starks' attendance.