The FCC’s broadband mapping order, approved Thursday, increases allowable distance between facilities for fiber and cable, per final text posted Friday. The FCC proposed in the draft a maximum distance of 6,600 route feet between the node to the end point for everything. It sticks with that buffer for DSL but increases it to 12,000 feet for cable connections and 196,000 feet for fiber to the premises technologies. The change was expected (see 2007140060) after industry objected. As indicated Thursday, a proposed wireless infrastructure reporting requirement was moved to a Further NPRM. “We seek to refresh the record and seek further comment on collecting infrastructure information as part of the Digital Opportunity Data Collection,” the final FNPRM said: “Such information could help Commission staff independently verify the accuracy of provider coverage propagation models and maps submitted by mobile wireless service providers.” A staff report on problems in since-scuttled Mobility Fund Phase II “concluded that collecting such infrastructure data could help accurately verify mobile broadband coverage,” the FCC said: “Infrastructure data could advance the Broadband DATA Act’s requirement that we verify the accuracy and reliability of submitted coverage data.”

The Senate Commerce Committee plans a vote Wednesday on FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly’s renomination to a new term and a July 23 hearing on the FCC and NTIA roles in spectrum policymaking (see 2007150070). President Donald Trump nominated O’Rielly in March to a new term ending in 2024 (see 2003180070). A Senate Commerce vote on O’Rielly had been expected before the end of July (see 2007130054). O’Rielly’s confirmation hearing was last month (see 2006160062). Commerce will also vote on confirming Commerce Department acting General Counsel Michael Walsh, the Fundamentally Understanding the Usability and Realistic Evolution of Artificial Intelligence (Future of AI) Act (S-3771) and Advancing AI Research Act (S-3891). S-3771, first filed in 2017 (see 1712120051), would direct the Commerce Department to establish a Federal Advisory Committee on the Development and Implementation of Artificial Intelligence to “provide advice” on AI. S-3891 would establish a National Institute of Standards and Technology AI research program and other research institutes focused on AI. The executive session begins at 10 a.m. in G50 Dirksen, the committee said. New America’s Open Technology Institute Wireless Future Project Director Michael Calabrese and CTIA General Counsel Tom Power are among those to testify at the Communications Subcommittee’s July 23 spectrum hearing, the committee said. Also to appear are CommScope Director-Business Development Mark Gibson and Aalborg University Visiting Researcher Roslyn Layton, an American Enterprise Institute visiting scholar. That hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in 253 Russell.

The agency will act on an order changing the allocation of the 5.9 GHz band “certainly by the end of the year,” Chairman Ajit Pai answered our query in speaking with the media. Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said he’s not sure why an order isn’t on the Aug. 6 agenda. “I don’t think we’re that far away,” he said in response to our question: “A month or two here or there doesn’t cause me that much concern.” The FCC is expected to reallocate the band in coming months, with 45 MHz set aside for unlicensed use (see 2004300032). “I’m very excited about the potential for the 5.9 GHz band,” though he hasn’t reached a decision yet, Commissioner Brendan Carr said. “We kind of let 5.9 sit out there for a long time,” he said: “I’m glad that it’s on the table and that we’re working on it.”

The 988 suicide hotline draft order to be voted on at Thursday's commissioners' meeting doesn't change the two-year implementation deadline or make notable changes to the waiver process for wireline operators that struggle to meet it, an FCC official told us. The FCC didn't comment. Telecom interests argued two years isn't possible (see 2006230022). Verizon said the draft order's expected approval "will enhance mental health care in our country by helping people easily access potentially life-saving resources."

The FCC plans to renew its Disability Advisory Committee and sought applications for membership by Aug. 13, said a Tuesday notice.

Broadcast entities and white space devices proponents accused one another of attempting to seize control of spectrum they don’t own, in replies posted in docket 20-74 Tuesday in the FCC ATSC 3.0 distributed transmission system proceeding (see 2006150060). Microsoft’s opposition to relaxing interference rules to allow DTS systems is “a back door spectrum grab,” said One Media. The proposed changes “will only benefit a subgroup of broadcasters pursuing their vision of Broadcast Internet by allowing them to extend their respective coverage footprint,” Microsoft said. Though a broadcaster, PMCM also argued that DTS supporters’ motives aren’t pure. “The proposal is essentially a grab for new territory at the cost of decades of Commission adherence to community values,” PMCM said. "The only opposition to this proposal comes from parties with secondary or non-existent spectrum rights that ask the Commission to provide them with unprecedented and unwarranted protections,” said NAB and America’s Public Television Stations. Rule changes are premature because broadcasters have “yet to deploy ATSC 3.0 services in any widespread manner” and they aren’t aimed at improving TV broadcasting, said the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute and Public Knowledge. Assertions that broadcasters aren’t seeking those changes to improve over-the-air TV and would heavily invest in single-frequency networks only to compete in a datacasting market that doesn’t yet exist are naive, BitPath said. Revenue and public service benefits from datacasting won’t justify those sorts of investments on their own “for the foreseeable future,” said the company. “While the Commission does not propose granting the DTS spillover area any protection or rights today, based on the history of ATSC 3.0, we know such a request will be forthcoming,” Microsoft said. “It is only a matter of when.”

The campaign of former Vice President Joe Biden, Democrats’ presumptive 2020 presidential nominee, backed universal broadband and 5G access for all Americans in a Tuesday proposal. “Millions of households without access to broadband are locked out of an economy that is increasingly reliant on virtual collaboration,” the campaign said. “As the COVID-19 crisis has revealed, Americans everywhere need universal, reliable, affordable, and high-speed internet.” The digital divide “needs to be closed everywhere. ... Just like rural electrification several generations ago, universal broadband is long overdue and critical to broadly shared economic success.” Biden’s “unity” task force with former 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., cited universal broadband access among several telecom policy recommendations earlier this month (see 2007080068). A spokesperson for President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign called the broader proposal “more like a socialist manifesto” that shows Biden “is beholden to the radical socialist ideology” of Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.

Policy fixes for tackling the 20 million or more "digitally invisible" Americans who lack digital access include universal broadband service, continuing to lift the regulatory restrictions and providing telehealth services, said Nicol Turner Lee, Brookings Institution director-Center for Technology Innovation, Monday on a panel. FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, organizer of the event about communications technology ways of addressing Black mental health needs, said "internet inequality ... has exacerbated other long-standing social gaps in every aspect of American life." Telehealth service provision surged during the pandemic, but Black communities disproportionately lack access to telecom services that allow access to telehealth, he said, according to prepared remarks.

The Transportation and the Commerce Departments -- which held a series of meetings in June with other FCC officials about Ligado concerns (see 2006300069) -- now have held similar such meetings with Commissioner Brendan Carr, per a docket 11-109 posting Monday. DOD and Commerce officials also met with Carr and Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology representatives about classified material involving Ligado, the agencies said.

The telecom industry has put forward "a reasonable transition path" for rolling out the 988 suicide hotline given the 10-digit dialing transition and translations work needed to make it universal, and a phased-in approach is the only route that works, CenturyLink representatives told aides to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, per a docket 18-336 posting Friday. The draft order and its two-year deadline "grossly underestimates" the complexity of numerous simultaneous 10-digit dialing transitions, it said. CenturyLink -- which services all but one of the 87 numbering plan areas (NPA) that will have to transition to 10-digit dialing -- said more than 1,100 of its rate centers will need 10-digit dialing conversions, each taking up to 80 hours of work. It said the draft order is wrong to suggest the ongoing IP transition will speed up or coincide with 988 implementation. "Nothing in the record suggests a two-year timeline is possible, and to the contrary, much in the record plainly states a two-year timeline is not possible," it said. If commissioners go ahead with a two-year timeline at Thursday's meeting, that clock should start ticking only once the North American numbering plan administrator has developed a transition schedule for the 87 NPAs, or require the administrator develop an implementation schedule with the two-year deadline starting after a final FCC order explaining the criteria for wireline providers to get waivers, CenturyLink said. In calls with aides to Pai and Commissioner Mike O'Rielly, USTelecom said waivers might be necessary. The National Institute of Mental Health backs the FCC efforts, NIMH Director Joshua Gordon tweeted Friday. "A 9-8-8 three-digit number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline will help callers quickly and simply access help in times of crisis."