FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has moved more slowly on wireless issues than expected since being confirmed to another term as a commissioner and designated last year as permanent chairwoman. On Wednesday, the FCC acted on the next steps on a 2.5 GHz auction. But other wireless items haven’t advanced as quickly as some hoped.
Much the same way the ITU governs and doles out geostationary orbital (GSO) slots, non-geostationary orbits (NGSO) need a central way of being allocated, Viasat Executive Chairman Mark Dankberg said Wednesday at the SmallSat Symposium. He said there should be policy discussions about and calculations of what the carrying limits are for orbital altitudes and how those constraints get allocated. Former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, now Acorn Growth Companies adviser, said a key policy need is a way of holding companies accountable for debris they create, so they have incentives not to create more.
With federal broadband dollars on the way, Regulatory Commission of Alaska staff disagree with using Alaska USF (AUSF) to subsidize high-speed internet, said RCA Common Carrier Specialist David Parrish at a virtual commission meeting Wednesday. The commission could finalize an AUSF update rulemaking (R-21-001) by August under a staff memo outlining a tentative schedule, he said. Chairman Bob Pickett said he’s “looking forward to getting this process moving again.”
FirstNet is committed to expanding the number of first responders in Indian country who are using the network, CEO Edward Parkinson said at a FirstNet board meeting Wednesday, streamed from Albuquerque. FirstNet staff and board members visited the Laguna Pueblo Reservation in New Mexico Tuesday as part of outreach to the tribes, officials said, meeting with leaders from the Pueblo and the Navaho Nation.
Expect a House suspension vote soon on one of the Judiciary Committee’s less controversial antitrust bills, House Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline, D-R.I., and ranking member Ken Buck, R-Colo., told us Tuesday.
SpaceX faces a new wave of calls for the FCC to reject its proposed second-generation satellite constellation. NASA also raised red flags about the SpaceX plans. A lawyer involved in the proceeding told us it would be surprising if the FCC were able to process the second-gen application in time for SpaceX to commence launches in March, as it targeted (see 2201100004). The FCC and SpaceX didn't comment.
The Senate Commerce Committee’s Wednesday follow-up confirmation hearing on Democratic FCC nominee Gigi Sohn changed next to nothing about the dynamics driving her prospects for winning the chamber’s approval, said lawmakers and communications policy observers in interviews. Committee Democrats, even those who were latecomers to supporting Sohn, said during and after the hearing they still back her. Panel Republicans remained steadfastly opposed to the nominee, in part citing what they viewed as her still-insufficient candor about her role as a board member for Locast operator Sports Fans Coalition and her January commitment to temporarily recuse herself from some FCC proceedings involving retransmission consent and broadcast copyright matters.
Community engagement at “all levels” will be “key” to the broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program, said Doug Kinkoph, associate administrator for NTIA's Office of Internet Connectivity and Growth, during an Incompas policy summit in Washington Tuesday (see 2202080065). “You really do need to get down to the grassroots to make this effective,” Kinkoph said. A notice of funding opportunity for the BEAD and middle mile programs will come out “mid-May,” he said, and a notice for the digital equity programs will come out in early June (see 2202070053).
Senators will try to attach mandatory cyber incident reporting language to must-pass legislation or other vehicles in the near future, Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Gary Peters, D-Mich., told us Tuesday.
Nebraska can’t wait for the FCC to get good broadband maps, said state Sen. Bruce Bostelman (R) at a livestreamed hearing Tuesday in the unicameral legislature’s Transportation and Telecommunications Committee. But the telecom industry poo-pooed having the Nebraska Public Service Commission draw its own map as proposed by Bostelman’s LB-914.