The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology sought comment Tuesday on a Tesla request for a waiver of FCC rules to allow authorization for an ultra-wideband (UWB) positioning system operating in the 7.5-8.5 GHz frequency range “to facilitate wireless charging of electric vehicles.” Comments are due March 27, replies April 11, in docket 25-101. “Tesla describes how it intends to use an impulse radio UWB system to enable peer-to-peer communications between a UWB transceiver installed on an EV and a second UWB transceiver installed on a ground-level pad -- which could be located outdoors -- to achieve optimal positioning to enable wireless charging for the EV,” OET said.
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez’s criticism of potential FCC action on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act “would be more credible” if she had ever expressed concern or regret about former President Joe Biden’s administration “bullying” social media companies, said Free State Foundation CEO Randolph May in a blog post Tuesday. Any FCC action on 230 “would be done in an open manner and be subject to public scrutiny,” May wrote. “Of course, this is much different than the hidden behind closed door efforts of the Biden administration that took place via private emails and telephone conversations.” The U.S. Supreme Court’s rolling back of Chevron deference also means courts “likely won’t simply defer to the FCC’s views,” he said. “I would find Ms. Gomez['s] professions of alarm regarding her claims of ‘bullying’ more persuasive had she sounded the alarm bells regarding the previous administration's content suppression efforts.”
House Republican Study Committee Chairman August Pfluger of Texas confirmed to us Tuesday that FCC Chairman Brendan Carr will speak at the group’s Wednesday lunch meeting. Lobbyists noted reports that Carr would brief RSC about the commission’s investigation of Audacy’s KCBS San Francisco concerning the station’s broadcasting locations and identifying details of vehicles involved in an undercover Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation in January (see 2502050051).
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s warning letters to media companies are “a new and coercive technique” for agency action “without needing to follow the niceties of commission votes and judicial review,” and an agency opinion on tech platform liability would likely follow the same pattern, wrote former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in a post Tuesday for the Brookings Institution. Rather than aiming at the deregulation often emphasized by conservatives, Carr is increasing the regulatory reach of the FCC “to attack corporate decisions he and [President] Donald Trump do not like,” Wheeler said. “Acting through coercion rather than regulation appears to be a workaround of the limits placed on agency authority by recent Supreme Court decisions sought by conservatives.” Rather than using agency processes to investigate matters and build a record, Carr is “unilaterally reaching a conclusion” and initiating enforcement proceedings, Wheeler said. “While this may be possible under the agency’s procedures, the result is anything but procedural and transparent.”
While President Donald Trump has torn out some key guardrails protecting against bias and discrimination in AI, the administration might consider discussions about returning them, panelists representing underserved community interests said Tuesday. Independent of government action, the tech community seems open to maintaining those protections, some said during an event to discuss Trump's first 100 days in office.
The satellite industry is changing rapidly, with many smaller companies making investments and seeking roles, speakers said Tuesday during a Technology Policy Institute (TPI) webinar. They agreed that continued growth depends on spectrum but cautioned that regulators are struggling to keep up with change.
Broadband officials and experts emphasized the need for greater communication and partnerships between industry and government to complete the transition from copper infrastructure to fiber and other technologies during NARUC's Winter Policy Summit on Tuesday. Some stressed the need for greater oversight of the transition and carrier of last resort (COLR) obligations. Others discussed the potential effects of the challenge to the FCC's Title II broadband reclassification and the U.S. Supreme Court's decision for a second time to deny rehearing a challenge to New York's broadband affordability law.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Communications Subcommittee Chair Deb Fischer, R-Neb., probed White House Office of Science and Technology Policy director nominee Michael Kratsios’ views on repurposing midband spectrum during his Tuesday confirmation hearing. The tone of the lawmakers' questions reflected their disagreement about whether a spectrum title in a budget reconciliation package should involve reallocating parts of the DOD-controlled 3.1-3.45 GHz band (see 2502190068). Both cited Kratsios’ role as U.S. chief technology officer during the first Trump administration because it made him part of the White House and DOD's joint America’s Mid-Band Initiative Team. AMBIT worked in 2020 to allow sharing in the 3.45-3.55 GHz band (see 2010130033).
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told us Monday night that he is unlikely to bring up for floor action this week a Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval (S.J.Res. 7) to undo the FCC's July 2024 order allowing schools and libraries to use E-rate support for off-premises Wi-Fi hot spots and wireless internet services. “We're doing” two other non-telecom CRA measures this week, led by Sens. John Hoeven, R-N.D., and John Kennedy, R-La., Thune said.
In a pair of posts on Truth Social, President Donald Trump said Saturday that MSNBC is a threat to democracy and parent company Comcast “should be forced to pay vast sums of money for what they've done to our country.” He called Comcast “Concast” and MSNBC “MSDNC” in one post, in which he also said the “whole corrupt operation is nothing more than an illegal arm of the Democrat Party.” MSNBC has “BAD PEOPLE AT THE TOP!” he said in another post. Trump has repeatedly decried Comcast, and the FCC under Chairman Brendan Carr has opened an investigation into Comcast's diversity policies and reinstated a complaint against NBCUniversal over allegations that it violated the FCC's equal opportunity rules (see 2502110063).