The FCC's best route to LTE-U/Wi-Fi coexistence is by watching and encouraging industry-led progress toward that goal, the Wi-Fi Alliance said in an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 15-105. The group, which earlier this month put out its own suggested guidelines on how the two can coexist in the same spectrum (see 1511040059), has said the agency should monitor that coexistence development and step in on coexistence issues only if necessary. "I hope we have stepped in on it," FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said Thursday after the agency's November meeting. "I've said to [LTE-U and Wi-Fi industry representatives], 'Folks, you've got to come together and resolve this in a broad-based standard.' It appears the House subcommittee has done the same. This is the way things ought to be taken care of. There are two things that characterize unlicensed spectrum. One, it's the innovation band; it's where all kinds of new innovations happen. And you want to make sure that in fact continues. The second is, it's the 'everybody respects everybody else' band. And we want to make sure both of those are happening. And the way that can be done is by a broad-based development of commonly agreed-to standards that meets both of those criteria." LTE-U backer Verizon "agrees," Patrick Welsh, assistant vice president-regulatory affairs, told us Friday in an email. "We are actively working with the Wi-Fi Alliance to develop coexistence guidelines for LTE-U." And in a statement, fellow LTE-U advocate Qualcomm said "proponents of LTE-U, including the members of the LTE-U Forum -- whose members also are members of the Wi-Fi Alliance -- are pleased to continue our ongoing collaboration with the industry through our work with the Wi-Fi Alliance initiative to develop an agreed-upon coexistence test regimen that will ensure that LTE-U and Wi-Fi successfully co-exist in the unlicensed spectrum, where the watchword is permission-less innovation, as Chairman Wheeler has correctly recognized.” The Wi-Fi Alliance ex parte recapped meetings between alliance CEO Edgar Figueroa and front-line staff of Wheeler and of Commissioners Mignon Clyburn, Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel, plus with Office of Engineering and Technology representatives. The Wi-Fi Alliance said it plans a Coexistence Test Workshop for the week of Feb. 8. The group's members include Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, Comcast, Intel, LG, Microsoft, Sony and T-Mobile, its website said.
The FCC proposed rules intended to improve wireless emergency alert (WEA) effectiveness in informing the public about urgent matters. At their Thursday meeting, commissioners voted 5-0 to approve an NPRM. It sought comment on allowing longer WEA messages, inclusion of hyperlinks and narrower distribution of alerts, as was expected (see 1511170049).
The FCC proposed rules intended to improve wireless emergency alert (WEA) effectiveness in informing the public about urgent matters. At their Thursday meeting, commissioners voted 5-0 to approve an NPRM. It sought comment on allowing longer WEA messages, inclusion of hyperlinks and narrower distribution of alerts, as was expected (see 1511170049).
The FCC should approve the “Katrina Petition” and require broadcasters to provide emergency information in multiple languages “before, during, or after an emergency,” the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council said in meetings Tuesday with Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau Chief David Simpson, aides to Commissioners Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel, and an aide to Chairman Tom Wheeler, according to an ex parte filing posted online Tuesday in docket 04-296. The FCC should withdraw a draft order that would update state emergency alert systems with information about which EAS participants offer their information in multiple languages and instead “take meaningful steps to preserve the lives of multilingual Americans,” MMTC said. “If the Commission revisits this issue in light of these comments, it would adopt directives that more effectively protect individuals who are not conversant in English,” MMTC said. “Discussions are underway about MMTC potentially amending the Petition to address questions that the Commission has raised.”
A draft item on accessibility for user interfaces on the agenda for the FCC's Thursday meeting contains a compromise on using voice or gesture commands to activate captions that is expected to satisfy both consumer groups and pay-TV carriers, said industry officials and pay-TV attorneys in recent interviews. Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, the National Association of the Deaf and other groups filed a petition for reconsideration (see 1401240080) of the FCC's first user interfaces order, approved in 2013 as part of efforts to comply with the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA). Along with a recon order containing a captions compromise, the draft item includes an order on training and notification requirements for pay-TV carriers informing their customers about accessibility.
A draft item on accessibility for user interfaces on the agenda for the FCC's Thursday meeting contains a compromise on using voice or gesture commands to activate captions that is expected to satisfy both consumer groups and pay-TV carriers, said industry officials and pay-TV attorneys in recent interviews. Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, the National Association of the Deaf and other groups filed a petition for reconsideration (see 1401240080) of the FCC's first user interfaces order, approved in 2013 as part of efforts to comply with the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA). Along with a recon order containing a captions compromise, the draft item includes an order on training and notification requirements for pay-TV carriers informing their customers about accessibility.
Draft spectrum legislation from Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., may have originated without Democratic involvement, but wireless observers told us the provisions likely warrant little pushback. They see a balanced bill that includes bipartisan ideas on freeing up more spectrum beyond what's in the recent budget deal and other deployment measures, such as timeliness of federal and local authorities in siting. Also in the draft is a provision that would allow federal agencies to recoup money from spectrum they give up to auction -- up to 25 percent -- and, as expected (see 1511040047), the dig once proposal.
Draft spectrum legislation from Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., may have originated without Democratic involvement, but wireless observers told us the provisions likely warrant little pushback. They see a balanced bill that includes bipartisan ideas on freeing up more spectrum beyond what's in the recent budget deal and other deployment measures, such as timeliness of federal and local authorities in siting. Also in the draft is a provision that would allow federal agencies to recoup money from spectrum they give up to auction -- up to 25 percent -- and, as expected (see 1511040047), the dig once proposal.
The FCC should get going on reforming its USF contribution system, ITTA and the Montana Telecommunications Association (MTA) said Friday. There is “growing pressure on the Universal Service Fund as the Commission considers expanding the scope of services supported by USF programs,” said midsize-telco group ITTA in a filing posted in docket 10-90 summarizing an Oct. 28 meeting with Gigi Sohn, counselor to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. “We urged the Commission to undertake USF contribution reform and broaden the base of contributors before taking any further steps to modify the Lifeline program to include support for broadband services.” MTA also urged the FCC to address contribution reform, “particularly given the increasing pressure on the high cost reform efforts caused by budgetary restraints and the shrinking contributions base,” the association said in a filing on its meetings with aides to Wheeler and Commissioners Mike O'Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel. An FCC spokesman said the issue was before a federal-state joint board. Carriers currently contribute 16.7 percent of their interstate and international telecom revenue to USF, a rate that has trended up over the years as subsidies have increased and the industry revenue base has eroded. Carriers generally pass the fees along to consumers.
The FCC approved an NPRM on spectrum frontiers, spectrum at 24 GHz and above for 5G, Thursday. Commissioners Ajit Pai and Mike O’Rielly were critical of the approach in the NPRM. As some predicted (see 1510190067), they partially dissented. Pai said the NPRM leaves out critical spectrum bands that deserve more discussion. The NPRM tees up for further investigation the 28, 37, 39 and 64-71 GHz bands, the FCC said in a news release. The NPRM wasn't released Thursday.