NTIA should designate a single coordinator within the agency to oversee spectrum policy on drones, said the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems Subcommittee in a report, approved unanimously by the full CSMAC Thursday. Currently, oversight is spread across the federal government, the report said. CSMAC held its first meeting under President Joe Biden's administration. The FCC has considered but has yet to clear specific spectrum for drones.
The FCC should do more to ensure a smooth rollout of its $3.2 billion emergency broadband benefit program, consumer advocates said in recent interviews (see 2102250066). The commission’s website isn’t sufficiently user-friendly, and it should be more transparent on when the program will actually start, they said. Others praised the FCC for the consumer outreach actions it has already taken.
Public safety communications leaders told us they remain divided on the next-generation 911 language in the Leading Infrastructure for Tomorrow’s (Lift) America Act (HR-1848) as the House Commerce Committee eyes how to proceed on the measure. HR-1848 allocates $15 billion for NG-911, along with $80 billion for broadband deployments (see 2103110060). The National Emergency Number Association and National Association of State 911 Administrators are continuing to press committee Democrats to modify HR-1848 language they view as impinging on existing NG-911 work. APCO continues to back the NG-911 provisions and countered opponents’ claims during a webinar last week.
The satellite broadband market likely can sustain three to four operators, given demand for connectivity, with one of those probably a non-North American constellation, OneWeb CEO Neil Masterson said Wednesday at a Satellite 2021-related forum. He said the amount of money nations want to put into having their own constellations could help determine that number.
NAB President-CEO Gordon Smith will step down at the end of 2021 and be replaced by current NAB Chief Operating Officer Curtis LeGeyt, the group announced Wednesday. Broadcasters and broadcast attorneys told us LeGeyt is seen as having extensive contacts among Capitol Hill Democrats.
U.S. officials sent the European Commission an initial offer to replace the Privacy Shield and address concerns in the Schrems II decision, industry officials and advocates told us (see 2103250023). An initial U.S. offer was sent a few weeks ago, but it “wasn’t as strong" as the European Commission hoped, said Gabriela Zanfir-Fortuna, a former adviser to the European Data Protection Supervisor in Brussels. Now senior counsel at the Future of Privacy Forum, Zanfir-Fortuna advised in the development of the first Privacy Shield agreement and the general data protection regulation.
CTA and NCTA announced an extension of a voluntary agreement for ongoing improvement to set-top box energy efficiency. The extension, beginning in 2023 and running through 2025, highlights IP set-top boxes, which are becoming the most common set-top box type in video distribution, they said Tuesday.
The FTC's decision not to seek Supreme Court review of its antitrust case against Qualcomm (see 2103300003) leaves standard-essential patent (SEP) and competition issues on the table, tech officials said in interviews after last week's decision. A Qualcomm proponent argued the FTC knew it had a weak case and wanted to avoid setting bad precedent before the high court.
The FCC’s Emergency Connectivity Fund was enthusiastically praised by education advocates, schools and broadband providers in comments posted Tuesday in docket 21-93. The ECF program will give schools and libraries $7.17 billion to support remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic (see 2103110037). Many suggested that the existing E-rate program is the best model for setting up the new funding as quickly as possible. Others questioned excluding smartphones from funding support.
The biggest surprise in the $94 billion C-band auction was that the A block, the first to clear, didn’t end up being much more expensive than the other two blocks, said Lawrence Ausubel, co-founder of Power Auctions, who worked on the FCC’s C-band auction design, during an FCBA webinar Tuesday. The auction (see 2102250046) was likely the biggest of any kind, ever, worldwide, Ausubel said. Experts said even the record prices reached were likely a bargain for bidders.