The Senate Commerce Committee's Wednesday hearing for FCC nominee Geoffrey Starks will likely provide further insights on the nominee but don't expect major surprises, lawmakers and communications industry officials said in interviews. He would succeed former Commissioner Mignon Clyburn (see 1806010072 and 1806040067). Senate Commerce has been working to fast-track its consideration of Starks, who remains largely unknown to many (see 1806120047 and 1806150031).
T-Mobile buying Sprint is important to overall wireless industry competition and good for consumers, said their 678-page public interest statement posted by the FCC Tuesday, as expected (see 1806180044). The transaction is now formally before the FCC. The two promise the new T-Mobile will spend $40 billion to combine their networks into a “robust, nationwide world-class 5G network.” CEO John Legere blogged the new company is poised to take on cable and Dish Network, not just other wireless carriers. Early indications are the deal will face some of the same opposition at the FCC that greeted AT&T’s failed buy of T-Mobile.
Replies on an FCC midband public notice, like initial comments, indicate a fight to come on the 3.7-4.2 GHz C-band (see 1805310058). Those using the C band to beam programming to satellites and back to programmers and cable and broadcast interests continue urging caution. Carriers want to be opportunistic.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission was right to exclude cybersecurity and privacy concerns when it undertook its review of the potential safety issues and hazards for IoT consumer devices (see 1803290032 and 1806150044), said the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM) and U.S. Chamber of Commerce in comments posted Friday in docket CPSC-2018-0007. Internet and privacy groups and think tanks disagreed, arguing security and privacy concerns aren’t part of CPSC’s historical purview but can’t be divorced from the physical harms that IoT devices risk inflicting on consumers.
Apple is rolling out technology so 911 operators can more precisely locate callers, which investors in its vendor RapidSOS including ex-FCC chairmen and some others told us is a major boost for next-generation 911 deployment (see 1806150042).
The FCC should relax radio subcap rules, entirely removing limits on owning AM stations and relaxing limits on FM stations, said NAB in a letter to Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey Friday. The proposal would allow licensees in the top 75 markets to own up to eight FM stations instead of the current five, and do away with FM subcaps in other markets. AM subcaps would be eliminated nationwide, and licensees in the top 75 markets could increase their limit to 10 FM stations by acting as incubators for new entrant broadcasters. Though some broadcast officials called this a compromise, National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters President Jim Winston said it would be “a drastic relaxation” of ownership rules that would hurt diversity and kill the AM band. The FCC is expected to address subcaps when it tackles the 2018 quadrennial review later this year.
The Lifeline national verifier is operational in Utah and five other “soft launch” states, the FCC announced Monday. Universal Service Administrative Co. got Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) accreditation Friday, said USAC Communications Director Jaymie Gustafson in a Monday interview. The reveal surprised observers, coming less than a week after the USAC official told a Utah Public Service Commission workshop the release date was unknown. Growing delay brought scrutiny from states and others (see 1806070022), as has an FCC proposal to cut Lifeline support to resellers (see 1806150048).
The FCC is seen leaning toward an order that would set a 50 percent national ownership cap but may no longer be shooting for a July commissioners’ meeting agenda that's also expected to include an NPRM on relaxing kids' video rules, broadcast lawyers and executives said in interviews Monday (see 1806140055). Several said the agency may need more time to settle on a final ownership cap number and arrive at a final cap order, and one suggested the agency may no longer be seeking to beat the expected ruling against the UHF discount by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. If an FCC order on the cap is held until the agency’s August meeting, it's still likely to beat the expected court verdict, attorneys said. The July agenda is expected to be released Thursday.
SHANGHAI -- Hopes to expand CES Asia annually materialized for CTA, we found at CES Asia last week. It covered 20 tech categories in five halls of the 17-building Shanghai New International Expo Centre, compared with one-and-a-half halls at the inaugural event in 2015. Exhibitor count this year is 500 vs. some 200 in 2015, and exhibitor space was 50,000 gross square meters, vs. 20,000, said CTA.
TVs were the big winner Friday when the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative eliminated them from its final list of Chinese imports earmarked for Trade Act Section 301 tariffs of 25 percent. Other sectors didn’t fare so well, including those that import Chinese printer parts, thermostats and computer equipment used in artificial intelligence and blockchain technology. China vowed to retaliate "immediately."