Senators debated whether to invoke cloture on legislation reauthorizing Section 702 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act authority Tuesday, despite pushback from senators seeking stronger privacy protections and urging the Senate to have a fuller debate on the bill’s privacy implications. "What unites our bipartisan coalition is we strongly oppose this end run around our Constitution," Ron Wyden, D-Ore., told reporters. Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.; Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.; Steve Daines, R-Mont.; and Rand Paul, R-Ky., joined Wyden in pushing for additional privacy protections to be added to the bill, in a news briefing earlier Tuesday.
A draft FCC order would give $500 million in new funding to cooperatives and other small rural carriers, and set "strong new rules to prevent abuse of the high-cost program," the agency said Tuesday. The item circulated by Chairman Ajit Pai to colleagues proposes changes intended to improve the high-cost USF program's "effectiveness and efficiency in promoting rural broadband deployment, including the use of a Tribal Broadband Factor to enable better access on Tribal lands," said a release. It contains a report and order, an order on reconsideration and an NPRM, an FCC official told us. An agency spokesman confirmed the tribal broadband factor proposal is in the NPRM.
The FCC anticipates getting at least one non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellite constellation application approved this quarter, and the review for most applications being done potentially this year, an official told us. In some cases, the licensees aren't in a hurry, with constellation plans still being worked on, the official said, adding there hasn't been strong pressure from the industry to accelerate that process.
Wireless industry lawyers see no wiggle room on FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's position that the agency won’t hold any spectrum auctions until Congress approves legislative language that would allow auction deposits to be sent directly to the Treasury Department (see 1710240065 and 1710250026). The stance raises questions about when the FCC will hold the first auction of high-frequency spectrum, which is a key building block of 5G. AT&T and other industry players want an auction of the 28 GHz and 37-40 GHz bands by December (see 1711150022).
State attorneys general and others challenged the FCC net neutrality regulatory repeal in different federal appellate courts Tuesday, to preserve their venue rights due to lingering uncertainty about the judicial timetable despite the regulator's clarification. Twenty-two state AGs (including from the District of Columbia), Public Knowledge, Mozilla and New America's Open Technology Institute (OTI) said they filed separate petitions for review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Free Press filed in the 1st Circuit, where the group said it's headquartered. State net neutrality legislation is moving forward, while more U.S. senators signed onto a Congressional Review Act resolution to undo the FCC's rescission of the rules.
The FCC is investigating a false alarm warning about a possible ballistic missile headed for Hawaii that caused panic there Saturday. The warning was sent as a wireless alert to cellphones in the state as well as by broadcasters and wasn’t retracted for 38 minutes. Chairman Ajit Pai said Sunday the FCC is investigating and called the false alarm “unacceptable.” Public safety officials told us Tuesday other that states are likely to look at their alerting protocols. Wireless customers got the following warning at just before 8:10 a.m. Hawaii time: “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.” The House Communications Subcommittee said Tuesday it plans a hearing.
The NextRadio FM-listening smartphone app is enjoying a “very good” Q4, between Samsung’s agreement to unlock the FM chips in its Galaxy phones and JVCKenwood’s CES announcement adopting NextRadio for the connected car, said Emmis Communications CEO Jeff Smulyan on an earnings call.
Alibaba's Taobao.com mobile commerce site, the Pacific Mall in Markham, Ontario, and online sites like Convert2mp3.net and ThePirateBay.org are among prominent physical and virtual marketplaces that facilitate or ignore rampant piracy and counterfeiting, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) said Friday in its annual notorious markets report. Citing growth of illicit streaming devices globally, USTR added several apps and portals that link such devices to illicit content -- TVPlus, TVBrowser and Kuaikan -- to the list. It said closer cooperation between governments and stakeholders is needed to tackle such video streaming piracy. Alibaba and mall management didn't comment.
With the exact nature of expected divestitures from Sinclair buying Tribune likely depends on DOJ, industry officials and analysts said in interviews they expect stations to be spun off in the Seattle and St. Louis areas and that 21st Century Fox is a likely buyer. Broadcast attorneys and analysts don’t draw any conclusions from the FCC’s stopping of the deal shot clock Thursday (see 1801110063). Since the 180-day shot clock is largely a formality anyway, the agency’s decision to start or stop it rarely signifies much, said Holland and Knight broadcast attorney Charles Naftalin. “I wouldn’t read too deep into the tea leaves.”
The FCC's plan for a new Office of Economics and Analytics was applauded by most economists and others answering our queries. They said the OEA portends more integration of economic and data analysis into decision making and more rational regulation, though the FCC and others recognize trade-offs. Some suggested that if not implemented well, the restructuring could become more akin to bureaucratic reshuffling and said OEA independence and agency leadership are key. Chairman Aji Pai's draft order to establish the office is on the tentative agenda for the Jan. 30 commissioners' meeting (see 1801090050).