Direct-to-device (D2D) services enjoy strong demand worldwide, but putting a dollar figure on that potential market is challenging, speakers said Monday at Access Intelligence's Satellite 2024 conference in Washington. Multiple launch providers discussed new rockets coming online. Satellite operators touted the role of satellites closing the digital divide worldwide.
The FCC released the Further NPRM added to an order on a voluntary cyber trust mark program that commissioners approved 5-0 last week (see 2403140034). The final order includes numerous other tweaks to the draft, addressing security and excluding motor vehicles and related equipment. The order and FNPRM were posted in Monday’s “Daily Digest.”
The Media Alliance and Great Public Schools Now nonprofits, which filed a petition for review challenging portions of the FCC’s Nov. 20 digital discrimination order under the Administrative Procedure Act, seek to intervene on the FCC’s behalf against the 20 industry petitioners who want to set the entire order aside (see 2403140042), said their motion Friday (docket 24-1315) in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. If the industry petitioners are successful in having the FCC’s digital discrimination rules vacated, communities that nonprofits advocate for -- including disproportionately low-income communities and communities of color -- “will be left with inferior options with limited speeds and increasing prices,” said their motion. This would harm their interests “in advancing equitable broadband access for their members and constituents, who, because of their race, ethnicity, color, income level, religion, or national origin, lack access to quality, affordable broadband,” it said.
A May 13 effectiveness date for the January FCC order requiring that carriers implement location-based routing for calls and real-time texts to 911 (see 2403130028) means the implementation deadline for nationwide carriers is Nov. 13, the Public Safety Bureau clarified Thursday. The deadline for non-nationwide carriers is May 13, 2026. By that second date, all providers must deploy a technology that supports location-based routing for real-time text to 911 originating on their IP-based networks, the bureau said.
The Senate Commerce Committee needs to meet with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and the Senate Intelligence Committee before deciding on potentially marking up TikTok-related national security legislation, Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told reporters Thursday (see 2403130039).
An FCC rule requiring mobile service providers to "block texts purporting to be from" North American numbering plan numbers on a reasonable do not originate list that includes "numbers that purport to be from invalid, unallocated, or unused numbers" takes effect Sept. 3, said a public notice Wednesday in docket 02-278. Commissioners adopted the item in March 2023 (see 2303170056).
Industry officials expect changes in the cyber trust mark rules, set for a vote Thursday, though the extent is still evolving, said lawyers in the proceeding. One wildcard is whether the FCC will attach a further notice, asking questions about issues including the country of origin of security updates under the program. The item is expected to be approved 5-0, with Commissioner Nathan Simington getting some edits to reflect his initial concerns, officials said.
SpaceX already dominates the U.S. commercial space launch market and many commercial space industry experts expect that trend will continue for the next few years. Its under-development Starship rocket -- able to carry upward of 100 tons of cargo per launch and potentially put satellites in orbit for a fraction of the cost on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket -- could further cement that dominance, launch experts told us.
An FCC proposal prioritizing processing of applications from broadcasters that offer local programming (see 2401180074) won’t have much of an effect and doesn’t do enough, according to a wide swath of comments filed to docket 24-14 by Monday’s deadline.
Social media companies should obtain parental consent before sending children push notifications that keep them on platforms, a bipartisan group of 43 state attorneys general told the FTC in comments due Monday (see 2312280030). Some tech and telecom groups warned that the FTC's push-notification proposal is likely to be unconstitutional and outside its statutory authority.