Spire Global has the green light to operate non-voice, non-geostationary mobile-satellite service in the U.S. in the 399.9-400.05 MHz uplink. In an order in Monday's Daily Digest, the FCC Space Bureau said Spire must ensure its operations don't interfere with Orbcomm's adjacent-band activities at 400.15-401 MHz. The bureau waved off SpaceX-suggested conditions about orbital debris, saying the grant addresses only operations in an additional frequency band. But it said the grandfathering period for the commission's rule requiring non-geostationary orbit satellites deorbit within five years of their missions being complete expires in September, and Spire must supplement its orbital debris mitigation plan before deploying any more satellites afterward. It said that supplement should expand information on collision risks, how Spire will comply with the five-year post-mission disposal rule and how many of its satellites have failed at altitudes above 350 km.
The House Commerce Committee’s bipartisan privacy bill doesn't properly preempt state law, CTA, TechNet, NetChoice, Computer & Communications Industry Association and a coalition of industry groups wrote Monday in a letter to Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J. The House Innovation Subcommittee advanced a draft version of the American Privacy Rights Act (APRA) to the full committee in May (see 2405230056). APRA “falls short of creating a uniform national standard due to its inadequate federal preemption of the ever-growing patchwork of state privacy laws,” they wrote. “Without full preemption of state laws, APRA will add to the privacy patchwork, create confusion for consumers, and hinder economic growth.” The group behind the letter, the United for Privacy Coalition, includes ACT | the App Association, Chamber of Progress, Engine, Interactive Advertising Bureau, Information Technology Industry Council, Software & Information Industry Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. They urged the committee to pass a “single, uniform national privacy standard.”
The FCC should exercise care in approving a Samsung Electronics America request for a waiver of a 5G base station radio that works across citizens broadband radio service and C-band spectrum (see 2309130041), Public Knowledge said in a filing posted Monday in docket 23-93. “This proceeding has revealed an unfortunate mismatch between the Commission’s certification rules for composite devices ... and the evolution of new, multiband radio technology,” PK Senior Vice President Harold Feld said in meetings with staff from the FCC Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology, and with an aide to Commissioner Brendan Carr. Feld suggested the FCC could issue an NPRM on broader issues, use a waiver “to state with clarity the meaning of the composite system rule” or grant the waiver “under such conditions that will not create a precedent for similar multiband radio operation, and with sufficient safeguards to mitigate” interference risks. The FCC adopted the composite system rule in 1989, PK said: “At the time, a single multiband radio operating on multiple frequencies under different service rules for each band not only did not exist, but was inconceivable as anything other than a theoretical construct.”
EchoStar Chairman Charlie Ergen and other officials from the company reported on a series of meetings with FCC Wireless Bureau Chief Joel Taubenblatt and staff about 5G and spectrum items. “EchoStar reiterated its support for modernizing and improving the Commission’s spectrum aggregation policies,” a filing posted Monday in docket 23-319 said. The company urged that the FCC address proposed rule changes for the citizens broadband radio service band “including increasing authorized power levels and synchronizing downlink and uplink operations.”
The FCC urged the 6th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court Friday to move the challenge to the FCC’s net neutrality order to the D.C. Circuit (docket 24-3450). The FCC also issued an order declining to stay the rules, which take effect July 22, pending judicial review.
The FCC Wireline Bureau Friday reminded recipients of funding through the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program that their next update to the FCC is due July 8. The last was due April 8. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel wrote Congress last month urging full funding to close the more than $3 billion shortfall in the rip-and-replace program, which pays for replacing Huawei and ZTE communications gear and services (see 2405020071).
The FCC Public Safety Bureau on Friday approved a waiver for the New Bedford, Massachusetts, police department to expand its T-band public safety radio system. The waiver lets the police add nonpublic safety frequencies 482.1125 and 485.1125 MHz. The FCC asked for comment in April (see 2302010031) and there were no responses. The city’s use of the frequencies must not interfere with TV station WPXQ-TV Newport, Rhode Island, with which it shares the spectrum, the order said.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announces retirements of Mark Nadel, attorney-adviser, Wireline Bureau, and Diane Burstein, deputy chief, Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau … C Spire promotes President Suzy Hays to CEO, effective July 1, succeeding Hu Meena, who will step up to chairman of Telapex, holding company for C Spire and Franklin Telephone … Sprinklr, unified customer experience management platform, elevates interim Chief Operating Officer Trac Pham to co-CEO alongside current CEO Ragy Thomas; Pham previously was Synopsys chief financial officer ... Celestial AI, optical interconnect technology provider, taps former Siprocal and Astra Space executive Kelyn Brannon as chief financial officer ... HG Insights, data analytics platform for tech companies, appoints former SolarWinds Chief Product Officer Rohini Kasturi as CEO and board member ... Clari, AI-powered revenue platform, hires former Envoy and Skybox Security executive Claire Darling as chief marketing officer.
Amazon's Kuiper and SpaceX are clashing over SpaceX's request that the FCC Space Bureau impose an object-years condition on the Kuiper system. In an application for review, SpaceX said the bureau's granting a license modification for Kuiper in April "unreasonably deviated" from commission policy because it failed to impose the object-years condition, though it has been applied to multiple other non-geostationary orbit systems. In its opposition last month to the review application, Kuiper called the AFR "meritless." Kuiper said a 100 object-years condition -- that being a cap on the total cumulative time to deorbit failed Kuiper satellites -- isn't appropriate due to orbital characteristics, and the proposed Kuiper system is very different from SpaceX's proposed, much-larger, second-generation constellation, which had a 100 object-years condition on it. Kuiper's arguments against the AFR are "an Orwellian spin on the facts," SpaceX told the bureau this week. The bureau has applied the object-years condition numerous times, it said. The FCC can't wait for a rulemaking to address the reliability risk Kuiper presents, it said.
The FCC should deny Sateliot's petition for providing mobile satellite service in the 2 GHz band as it rejected a similar request from SpaceX, EchoStar told the agency's Space Bureau this week. EchoStar said Sateliot's proposed uplinks and downlinks in the band would interfere with its 5G broadband network. In addition, it said Sateliot's application makes "no practical sense," as Sateliot supposedly wants to use the 2 GHz band for narrowband IoT service for mobile network operators, but EchoStar, the only mobile network operator in the band, "does not want this service." In its April petition, Sateliot said its planned 10 smallsats and blanket-licensed terminals would minimally affect the band's other users. Sateliot said that while EchoStar's Dish Network is the sole licensee of the terrestrial AWS-4 service in the band, creation of that service and Dish's license were "never intended to transform the 2 GHz MSS band into primarily terrestrial spectrum."