A lot of the time and effort at 2019 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-19) will likely involve agenda item 1.13 on millimeter wave spectrum for international mobile telecom operations, said government and industry experts at a Satellite 2019 panel Wednesday. It's less clear whether those discussions will be contentious. With that many delegates and nations, "there's always a contest of some sort," said Ken Turner, deputy director-spectrum policy and programs, DOD Chief Information Office.
The FCC is seeking comment on bidirectional sharing, as required by the Ray Baum Act. Whether anything will result from a recent notice (see 1905010205) remains unclear, government and industry officials told us this week. NTIA has supported bidirectional sharing and asked the FCC to look more closely at the issue (see 1403250035). Industry officials are interested in what NTIA has to say if it files later this month. Comments are due May 31, replies June 17, in docket 19-128.
Groups representing rural carriers supported a petition by Pineland Telephone Cooperative challenging an FCC decision last year in a Connect America Fund order. The agency decided carriers that accepted the initial or revised alternative connect America model (A-CAM) offers in 2016 aren't eligible for A-CAM phase II support (see 1812120039). The rural ILECs also backed a Silver Star petition asking the FCC to rethink a decision to retain the high-cost loop support rural growth factor and not impose a cap. Replies on both were posted in docket 10-90 through Tuesday.
The FCC shouldn't go it alone on updating orbital debris regulations but should coordinate with other agencies, numerous satellite interests said in docket 18-313 replies last week. The Commerce Department in initial comments asked the FCC to pause the rulemaking proceeding (see 1904080033). But commenters didn't reach consensus on issues like orbital spacing between large constellations and how best to assess risk.
Sprint lost 189,000 postpaid phone customers in Q1, compared with adds of 55,000 a year ago, as it moved off promotional pricing. The negative numbers were expected (see 1905060038). “We delivered on our guidance for fiscal 2018, but many of the underlying financial challenges remain,” CEO Michel Combes said on a Tuesday investor call. “As a stand-alone company, we lack the scale to keep pace with the bigger carriers, AT&T and Verizon, in sustained capital investment.” Without low-band spectrum, Sprint won’t be able to offer the same 5G service as its bigger competitors, he said.
Committees need to collaborate on privacy legislation to ensure there aren’t sectoral inconsistencies, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, told reporters Tuesday. His post-hearing comments again sought financial sector involvement as Senate Commerce Committee privacy talks continue (see 1904040073).
Satellite will play a role in 5G, but not immediately, because it will take time for deployment outside the denser urban areas, and in the meantime satellite's big focus will be on 4G, satellite operator CEOs said Tuesday at Satellite 2019. 4G “still has a long, long way to go” and its deployment will remain the main route for satellite operators participating in mobile until 5G starts rural deployment, said SES' Steve Collar on a panel.
The FM translator interference order will require complaint minimums more in line with the 25 requested by NAB than the possible 65 (see 1905010162) that would have been needed from some full-power FM stations to lodge complaints under the draft released in April, industry and FCC officials said in interviews this week.
Telecom policy issues ultimately drew the most attention during a Senate Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee hearing Tuesday on the FCC and FTC FY 2020 budget requests, including work to combat illegal robocalls and reallocate spectrum to support 5G. Some subcommittee members also talked about what language the FTC and FCC believe should be in a final privacy legislative package, though that garnered far less focus than expected (see 1905020057). President Donald Trump’s administration proposed more than $335.6 million in combined FY 2020 funding for the FCC and its Office of Inspector General and $312.3 million for the FTC (see 1903180063).
Industry reacted against President Donald Trump’s surprise tweets Sunday threatening to hike to 25 percent the Section 301 tariffs currently at 10 percent on $200 billion in Chinese imports, effective this Friday. The uproar overshadowed industry’s response to Trump’s accompanying threat to impose 25 percent tariffs “shortly” on $325 billion more in Chinese goods previously “untaxed.” That would cover virtually all remaining imports to the U.S. from China.