Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel backed FCC inmate calling service (ICS) action as the agency heads toward a planned vote Thursday on a draft item to limit ICS user rates and charges. “The high cost that prison inmates and their families pay for phone service is not just a marketplace issue, it is a broader issue of social justice. That’s why it is so important for us to act in this proceeding,” Rosenworcel said in an email from her office in response to our query. The offices of other commissioners provided no comment on the plan circulated by Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn to cap all ICS rates, restrict ancillary fees, "strongly discourage" site commissions indirectly and implement changes after 90 days (see 1509300067).
The FCC, NTIA and Department of Transportation plan to meet to discuss the future use of the 5.9 GHz band, a potentially important band for Wi-Fi, government officials confirm. The long-standing conflict is that the spectrum being looked at for unlicensed use, the 5850-5925 MHz band, has long been allocated to automakers for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) crash avoidance systems.
The FCC, NTIA and Department of Transportation plan to meet to discuss the future use of the 5.9 GHz band, a potentially important band for Wi-Fi, government officials confirm. The long-standing conflict is that the spectrum being looked at for unlicensed use, the 5850-5925 MHz band, has long been allocated to automakers for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) crash avoidance systems.
The FCC, NTIA and Department of Transportation plan to meet to discuss the future use of the 5.9 GHz band, a potentially important band for Wi-Fi, government officials confirm. The long-standing conflict is that the spectrum being looked at for unlicensed use, the 5850-5925 MHz band, has long been allocated to automakers for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) crash avoidance systems.
House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., immediately drilled down on what specific bands of spectrum Congress could target in legislation, pressing witnesses during a Wednesday subcommittee hearing on the topic. ”We have limited time and resource, too,” Walden told them. “Can you give us some suggestions?”
The Senate Commerce Committee may hammer together a spectrum legislation package “probably end of the year, early next year, I’d say,” Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., told us Tuesday. “There is” talk of specific spectrum bands to legislatively target for auction, Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, confirmed in an interview, declining to give numbers.
The Senate Commerce Committee may hammer together a spectrum legislation package “probably end of the year, early next year, I’d say,” Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., told us Tuesday. “There is” talk of specific spectrum bands to legislatively target for auction, Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, confirmed in an interview, declining to give numbers.
Getting the rules right on when operations start after a wireless company buys a license in the TV incentive auction is critical, CTIA said in meetings on the eighth floor at the FCC. The wireless association recommended that the FCC find that operations “commence” when the licensee begins either market or site commissioning tests, which CTIA said is a compromise proposal. Under that definition “low-power television and unlicensed users of the UHF band will be able to remain in operation in the 600 MHz band even after it is reallocated and licensed to others, while 600 MHz licensees will gain access to their licensed spectrum as necessary to ‘commence service,’ including the pre-requisite market and commissioning testing steps that must precede a commercial launch,” CTIA said. Secondary users could continue to “utilize the mobile wireless band in the vast majority of areas beyond the market testing stage, until pre-commercial launch testing necessitates the use of the mobile wireless band for mobile wireless service.” CTIA officials met with staff from the offices of commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel, Ajit Pai and Mike O’Rielly, CTIA said in a filing posted in docket 12-268.
LAS VEGAS -- FCC commissioners expressed sharp disagreement last week on an expected NPRM on broadband providers’ privacy obligations under new net neutrality rules (see 1509090061). Similar to the February vote on the order itself, Chairman Tom Wheeler appears to have the support of Commissioner Mignon Clyburn on the NPRM, with Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Ajit Pai in opposition. FCC officials say the NPRM is likely to circulate for the agency’s October or November meeting.
LAS VEGAS -- FCC commissioners expressed sharp disagreement last week on an expected NPRM on broadband providers’ privacy obligations under new net neutrality rules (see 1509090061). Similar to the February vote on the order itself, Chairman Tom Wheeler appears to have the support of Commissioner Mignon Clyburn on the NPRM, with Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Ajit Pai in opposition. FCC officials say the NPRM is likely to circulate for the agency’s October or November meeting.