The FCC will work to fill some of the holes that the commission has yet to answer on the dynamics of the upcoming broadcast spectrum incentive auctions, said Chairman Tom Wheeler. “We live in revolutionary times and it’s requiring revolutionary thinking,” he said Monday in a video at an Association of Public Television Stations event in Washington. “Part of that revolution is spectrum and how the analog assumptions of yesterday don’t fit with the digital realities of today.” Never before has there been such a “risk-free and rewarding opportunity for people to participate in the digital revolution,” he said. Wheeler said the channel-sharing trial with Los Angeles TV stations KLCS and KJLA is “really important in demonstrating the realities of moving from analog concepts to digital reality.”
The FCC approved Thursday 5-0, despite concerns of its two Republican members, an NPRM that seeks comments on how the agency can ensure that wireless calls to 911 forward accurate location information to dispatchers. The vote came at the commission’s monthly meeting. The notice proposes revised location accuracy standards for all wireless calls, as well as rules for calls made indoors. The FCC last updated its wireless location accuracy rules in 2011. States led by California have raised concerns that current requirements aren’t strong enough. In November, the FCC held a workshop on the topic (CD Nov 19 p1).
An FCC move to make TV joint services agreements (JSAs) attributable at the same level they are in radio would be unpopular with broadcasters but is unlikely to cause widespread divestitures or end the practice of using pacts like JSAs to get around ownership rules, said broadcast attorneys in interviews Friday. Such a rule “would be a good first step” for the public interest groups that oppose such sharing arrangements, said Free Press Policy Counsel Lauren Wilson. “We wouldn’t see that as the end."
The FCC approved a policy statement and second further NPRM, designed to make text-to-911 more widely available, at its meeting Thursday, potentially imposing a mandate on interconnected over-the-top (OTT) text providers. The policy statement approved was a somewhat watered-down version of the statement originally circulated by Chairman Tom Wheeler (CD Jan 27 p5), FCC officials said. With the changes, all five commissioners voted to approve. Wheeler said Thursday that at the FCC’s February meeting it will take on a second 911 issue -- location accuracy for wireless calls made indoors.
On Capitol Hill Thursday, public safety officials and Democratic senators urged the FCC to kick off a proceeding setting standards for wireless 911 location standards while industry representatives struck a cautious note. Hill pressure surrounding this issue has risen over the past half year, with members of Congress in both chambers writing to the FCC last fall expressing concern following a summer CalNENA report indicating poor wireless location accuracy. The Find Me 911 Coalition has beat the drum with advertisements, a Hill briefing and other efforts to raise awareness for what it deems a problem.
For the second time in four years, the FCC failed to convince the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that it had authority to impose net neutrality rules on broadband ISPs. The anti-discrimination and anti-blocking rules in the agency’s December 2010 net neutrality order were indistinguishable from prohibited common carrier restrictions, said the decision (http://1.usa.gov/1m0UQPi). Chairman Tom Wheeler’s FCC has already faced renewed calls to reclassify broadband Internet as a Title II service.
For the second time in four years, the FCC failed to convince the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that it had authority to impose net neutrality rules on broadband ISPs. The anti-discrimination and anti-blocking rules in the agency’s 2010 net neutrality order were indistinguishable from prohibited common carrier restrictions, said the decision (http://1.usa.gov/1m0UQPi). Chairman Tom Wheeler’s FCC has already faced renewed calls to reclassify broadband Internet as a Title II service.
LAS VEGAS -- All four FCC regular commissioners indicated they're likely to support the agency’s next moves on the IP transition, during a panel discussion late Wednesday at CES. The commissioners disagreed sharply on what should happen to the net neutrality order, now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Several industry officials said during CES they expected a decision soon, probably this month.
The FCC granted Dish Network the relief it sought to decide on the operations of its AWS-4 spectrum. The waiver, granted Friday, is conditioned on Dish’s bid of nearly $1.6 billion in the H-block auction next month. “Failure by Dish to comply with either of these conditions will automatically terminate the waivers granted in this order,” the Wireless Bureau said in its decision (http://fcc.us/1i8eU1M). Dish must elect no later than 30 months from the release of the order whether operations at 2000-2020 MHz will be uplink or downlink, the order said. The DBS company also was granted a one-year extension of the final buildout requirement, which gives it eight years to build a terrestrial network service, it said.
The FCC should try out important rule changes in small-scale “policy sandboxes” before issuing decisions, incentivize efficient use of spectrum, and take steps to attract up-and-coming engineers, Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel told the IEEE at its Global Communications Conference Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1gt0OYa). “What if instead of always relying on the big reveal, we set up small-scale policy experiments?” asked Rosenworcel. “What if we examined the effects of new rules before unleashing them all at once?” The commissioner pointed to experimental spectrum licenses as an area where the FCC is already encouraging trial phases for new ideas and said the concept might also expedite the authorization process for new radio equipment. “Because the number of devices in this process is expanding, our systems deserve an update to meet this demand,” said Rosenworcel. “By moving new devices through our approval process more quickly we can move them from sandbox to market much faster.” Small-scale policy experiments could also “kick-start” the IP transition, Rosenworcel said. “After all, big issues are at stake -- how to foster deployment, how to spur investment, and how to best serve consumers,” she said. The FCC should work with carriers to come up with location-specific and service-specific IP trials, she said. “Trying them out on a small scale just makes sense.” To increase the efficiency of spectrum, the FCC should hold a contest, with a prize of 10 MHz of mobile broadband spectrum to be awarded to the first person to make spectrum use below 5 GHz 50 times more efficient over the next decade, Rosenworcel said. “Think of it as [White House education incentive program] Race to the Top, the Spectrum Edition,” she said. The prize is worthwhile, because “if the winner can truly use spectrum 50 times more efficiently, they can make their 10 MHz do the work of 500 MHz,” she said. Rosenworcel also said the FCC could benefit from an influx of engineering talent. The commission should establish an engineering analog to its honors attorney program, she said. “By mixing young men -- and women -- with experienced engineers already on staff, the FCC could be better prepared to face the challenges of next generation communications networks,” said Rosenworcel.