With not all on board with stakeholder calls to end eligible telecom carrier designation requirements, momentum may not be sufficient to change FCC policy before would-be bidders in the upcoming Rural Digital Opportunity Fund take first steps to participate in the auction, according to recent interviews. Most think a repeal would take a law.
The California Consumer Protection Act enforcement kicked off Wednesday. Senate Majority Leader Robert Hertzberg (D) told us he expects Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) to act shortly to enforce CCPA, even with some matters unresolved. Privacy attorneys, consumer advocates and others expect the AG to tackle egregious violations of the statute in enforcement’s early days, they said in interviews.
GSMA opened its China conference Tuesday with speakers from Chinese companies under fire in the U.S., including Huawei and China Mobile. The conference is completely virtual, which was unimaginable a year ago, said Mats Granryd, GSMA director general. “This pandemic has highlighted to the world what we have all known for decades, the true relevance of robust and resilient mobile networks.”
The pandemic is intensifying media trends toward digital advertising, streaming video and direct-to-consumer offerings, said Wells Fargo analyst Davis Hebert Tuesday during The Media Institute’s teleconferenced “virtual luncheon,” the group’s COVID-19 replacement for its speaker series. There has been “steady leakage” from traditional media to digital for the past three-five years, Hebert said. The pandemic and stay-at home orders enhanced that, he said.
CTA and others said the FCC should act quickly to make changes proposed in a Further NPRM on the 6 GHz band, approved 5-0 in April (see 2004230059). APCO and NAB were among those opposing the order, opposing further changes. CTIA urged caution. Comments were due Monday in docket 18-295 on proposals to permit very low-power devices to operate across the 6 GHz band and to increase the power at which low-power indoor access points may operate.
Booking.com is eligible for federal trademark protection, the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 Tuesday. The high court overruled the Patent and Trademark Office’s finding that the domain name is a generic term (see 2005040050). Justice Stephen Breyer dissented, saying the term Booking does nothing more than identify a generic product or service. PTO had refused Booking.com’s registration, saying the combination of a generic word like booking with .com doesn’t make it any less of a generic term for online hotel reservation services.
The House began considering amendments to the Democrats’ Moving Forward Act infrastructure legislative package (HR-2) Tuesday, including 10 on broadband. The underlying measure contains $100 billion in broadband funding, with $9 billion for a Broadband Connectivity Fund to give eligible households an “additional broadband benefit” and $5 billion for E-rate. It also includes $12 billion for next-generation 911 (see 2006180062). House Majority Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina and other Democrats pushed for the measure's adoption. Republicans argued it's a purely partisan measure that has no chance of making it through the Senate or getting support from President Donald Trump.
The FCC barred Huawei and ZTE from participating in the USF. The Public Safety Bureau confirmed the designation of both as a threat to national security (see 2006300048). Sen. Mark Warner, Va., warned on a USTelecom webinar the U.S. is falling behind China on 5G and stressed the importance of open radio access networks. Speakers at a GSMA conference Tuesday said China won’t slow down on 5G (see 2006300049). The Rural Wireless Association was “stunned” by the decision to clamp down now.
The end of the FCC's Keep Americans Connected (KAC) pledge -- which was to have expired Tuesday -- won't necessarily mean a universal end of ISPs offering a safety net of modified broadband subscriber terms during the pandemic, companies and consumer advocates told us. They expect a patchwork response of a rollback of some terms and more emphasis on setting up payment plans. Resumption of data caps is expected, as reported in a previous installment in this series of stories about the novel coronavirus (see 2006180002).
European regulators may not make decisions for another 10 years on the future of broadcast TV in the UHF band, speakers said Monday at conclusion of the virtual European Spectrum Management Conference. The FCC repurposed 84 MHz of UHF for wireless in a 2016-17 incentive auction. Such a swath in Europe remains hotly contested between carriers seeking low-band for 5G and broadcasters.