The FCC is expected to approve 4-0 an NPRM next week proposing to bar certification of equipment from companies found to be a national security risk. No lobbying meetings were reported on the draft, per docket 21-232. FCC officials said CTA is starting to make the rounds among commissioner aides to discuss the item, which could lead to a few tweaks. Wednesday, Huawei executives criticized the proposal.
Commissioner Nathan Simington said finalizing new broadband data maps is a “very high priority” for FCC action. It's a “very thorny problem,” Simington said in an interview Wednesday. The FCC had to build out capacities that didn’t exist after Congress “passed the ball,” and acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel is “working very hard to get it done,” he said. The commissioner has USF concerns and may be open to some changes.
The global semiconductor shortage “continues to negatively impact U.S. workers and consumers and is a persistent headwind to the U.S. economic outlook,” said the 100-day supply chain review published Tuesday by the White House in answer to President Joe Biden’s call for the report in his Feb. 24 executive order. The Commerce Department’s assessment took center stage in the 250-page report. The Energy, Defense and Health and Human Services departments also weighed in.
The Senate achieved the necessary "yes" votes to pass the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act Tuesday, as expected (see 2106040063). The vote was 68-31, with voting continuing, at approximately 6:25 p.m. EDT. S-1260, previously known as the Endless Frontier Act, includes $52 billion for U.S. chipmaking and $1.5 billion to implement the Utilizing Strategic Allied Telecom Act. The semiconductor money includes $49.5 billion to implement the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors for America Act (see 2105210056).
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., plans to introduce legislation to regulate online platforms like common carriers, he told us Monday. Citing a recent opinion from Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas advocating for such (see 2104090046), Wicker hoped to introduce the bill this week.
The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals repeatedly pressed Maine during oral argument Monday on the state's assertion that its cable TV charges prorating law isn't rate regulation. Judge Rogeriee Thompson challenged plaintiff-appellee Charter Communications to explain how the state law supposedly runs afoul of the Cable Act bars on regulating rates for provision of cable service if the law is about requiring prorated refunds when cable service is no longer provided. Maine is appealing a lower court's summary judgment in November supporting Charter's challenge (see 2010290039).
The Senate plans to vote Tuesday on final passage of the Endless Frontier Act (see 2105270082) and several potential amendments, an aide for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told us Friday. The Senate could consider a manager’s amendment, which might open the door to a host of additional provisions, per an aide for co-sponsor Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind. Some 30 senators are attempting to attach provisions to the manager’s package, lobbyists said.
With the 3.45 GHz auction starting in October, FCC and industry officials say it looks increasingly likely the 2.5 GHz auction will be pushed into 2022. The agency hasn't announced a start for what would be the following 5G auction. Educational broadband service (EBS) licensee and other comments say the agency should address problems with inventory of markets available before a sale (see 2105280032).
Regulatory fees for non-geostationary orbit satellites and a fight between cable and direct broadcast satellite operators dominated comments posted at the FCC Friday in docket 21-190 on proposed changes to regulatory fees. SpaceX slammed the FCC for trying to “allocate increased NGSO regulatory fees based on the 12 GHz rulemaking proceeding, which the NGSO operators strongly urged the Commission not to initiate.” Allocating fees “to the victims of such an effort” would be “inequitable” and “set a precedent that encourages speculation and gamesmanship,” SpaceX said.
Public safety communications leaders haven’t reached agreement with the House Commerce Committee on changes to next-generation 911 language in panel Democrats’ Leading Infrastructure for Tomorrow’s (Lift) America Act infrastructure bill (HR-1848), the advocates said. Infrastructure discussions between President Joe Biden and Senate Republicans were to extend into Monday. Friday's conversation between Biden and Senate Public Works Committee ranking member Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia didn’t yield a deal.