With big expectations for small satellites in coming years, the launch industry is ramping up, as are uncertainties about the market for smaller rockets designed specifically for payloads of small satellites, experts said at a Transportation Research Board conference Wednesday. Inspired partly by SpaceX's success, the launch industry is "definitely in a 'launch fever' environment," said Carlos Niederstrasser, Northrop Grumman master systems engineer. There's "a bottleneck" now, which could explain small-rocket launch companies mushrooming, said Euroconsult USA Managing Director Sima Fishman. Three FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation speakers scheduled for panels didn't attend due to the partial federal shutdown.
The U.S. needs federal privacy legislation, said National Economic Council Special Assistant to the President Gail Slater Wednesday. “We can either define what it is we want at the federal level or have it be defined” by states, she told a Technology Policy Institute event. Federal privacy movement begins with Congress, and the administration is ready to “work constructively,” she said. NTIA’s privacy effort (see 1811130058) is on hold because of the partial government shutdown, she noted.
T-Mobile and Sprint executives are taking the prolonged partial federal shutdown in stride, though there's an effective pause in reviewing the deal at the FCC and DOJ, said lawyers familiar with their strategy. Analysts say as long as regulators go back to work in a somewhat timely manner, the shutdown shouldn’t be a major threat, although it will inevitably delay resolution. Some aren't convinced government will OK the deal (see 1901140017), while others expect approval. And T-Mobile caught some heat for executives staying frequently at a Trump hotel down Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House starting shortly after the deal was announced.
The ongoing partial government shutdown is affecting Capitol Hill's ability to conduct oversight of the FCC, a problem that will grow more acute in coming weeks if it continues, lawmakers and lobbyists said in interviews. Most FCC activities have been curtailed during the shuttering. Commission lawyers asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Tuesday to postpone a Feb. 1 oral argument on Mozilla v. FCC, which challenges rescission of the 2015 net neutrality rules (see 1901150011).
Plans for a pan-EU digital single market (DSM) are unlikely to be finalized during the current term of the European Commission and Parliament, and when completed may not have the desired effect, stakeholders told us. While the EU institutions have agreed to 23 of the 30 measures proposed for creating the DSM, several contentious issues remain to be resolved. The EC added additional initiatives outside the DSM that, combined with moves by the European Parliament to push DSM initiatives more toward consumer protection, could change the direction, said Inline Policy consultant Shomik Panda, who focuses on platform regulation and policy.
Google remains hopeful the 3.5 GHz band citizens broadband radio service band will open for business in the first half of 2019, said Andrew Clegg, spectrum engineering lead, at the Next Century Cities conference Tuesday. Clegg predicted sharing will remain a key theme under President Donald Trump and will hit new heights with use of the 3.5 GHz band. The CBRS band will benefit rural and urban consumers, Clegg said: “It’s going to add a lot of fill-in capacity for urban systems. It’s a great complement to 5G.” In rural markets, wireless ISPs now have access to 50 MHz in the band and will be able to use up to 150 MHz, he said.
There are ways to move forward on policymaking to improve broadband deployments as the new Congress begins, federal and communications sector officials said Tuesday during a Next Century Cities-led event. Officials highlighted the potential for compromise as a contrast to the rancor over the ongoing partial government shutdown. They also noted policy disagreements. Later, the conference heard about spectrum (see 1901150043).
It’s unclear why DOJ sued to block AT&T’s buy of Time Warner, Attorney General nominee William Barr told Congress Tuesday. He had concerns the Antitrust Division wasn't engaging with some TW arguments. In Tuesday's Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing, Barr again committed to recusing himself from lawsuit proceedings (see 1901110028) because he was on TW's board during the deal.
The FCC asked a court to postpone Feb. 1 oral argument on the agency's net neutrality reversal, citing the partial government shutdown and the need of its attorneys to prepare. The commission said petitioners challenging the order oppose its Tuesday motion, its industry supporting intervenors don't oppose it, and others took no position (see 1901150057).
Though critical cyber offices at the Department of Homeland Security are understaffed because of the partial federal government shutdown, DHS can manage its duties for now, former department officials told us. The bigger issue is that a dysfunctional government makes the public sector less attractive to cyber professionals, who already have more incentive to work in the private sector, they said.