NOAA is making plans with NASA for what could result in a high accuracy and robustness service (HARS) that augments GPS, members of the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) Advisory Board heard Wednesday. Board members also discussed a draft presidential transition issue paper urging the President-elect Donald Trump's incoming administration to bolster reliable national PNT capabilities.
ISPs are hopeful that the new Trump administration will focus on streamlining federal permitting once President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January, experts said Wednesday during a Broadband Breakfast webinar.
Democratic FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said Wednesday he has “no plans to resign,” an apparent response to talk that he was eyeing a Jan. 20 departure, in tandem with Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, when Republican Commissioner Brendan Carr takes the gavel (see 2411210028). Several Senate Commerce Committee Democrats told us earlier Wednesday they were concerned that he would leave early and they were considering joining Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., in pushing Starks to stay into the early months of President-elect Donald Trump’s second administration. Punchbowl News first reported Tuesday night that Schumer is urging Starks to stay. Meanwhile, Republican Commissioner Nathan Simington also is facing pressure to delay an early potential exit, but his departure doesn’t appear as imminent.
NextNav is hopeful the incoming FCC will move forward on an NPRM that proposes reconfiguring the lower 900 MHz band to enable terrestrial positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services as well as 15 MHz of spectrum for 5G (see 2404160043), emailed CEO Mariam Sorond. Some observers expect Commissioner Brendan Carr, already picked as the next agency chair under President-elect Donald Trump, will move quickly on spectrum issues that the current FCC left unresolved (see 2412020043). “Our national security, economic strength, and public safety depend on having a reliable terrestrial backup to the essential GPS technology we use every day,” Sorond said: “To ensure dependable PNT services in case of GPS disruptions,” the U.S. “must enable terrestrial PNT as part of a comprehensive system of systems that backs up and complements GPS.”
Communications industry executives and former federal officials said during a Practising Law Institute event Tuesday they see a likely GOP-led budget reconciliation package next year as a potential vehicle for legislation that would reinstate the FCC’s lapsed spectrum auction authority. House Commerce Committee leaders and Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., have repeatedly attempted to reinstate the authority during this Congress only to have their efforts stall (see 2409170066).
Cable programmers could end the lawsuit against their Venu sports streaming partnership if they allowed multichannel video programming distributors to offer more customized programming bundles, LightShed Partners blogged Friday. The source of the Venu suit is that third-party distributors aren't offered "Venu-like bundles," LightShed said. The big bundle's future "is grim at best," and now might be a good time to allow MVPDs to offer smaller bundles and reduce or end minimum penetration requirements, it added. That could slow the demise of linear TV, though it also would hasten the end of non-core non-sports networks like MTV, TLC and USA, LightShed said. DOJ and various states are backing fuboTV in its litigation against Venu and its defense of a preliminary injunction against Venu (see 2408160040). Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery -- the Venu partnership -- is challenging the injunction. In a docket 24-2210 amicus brief last week filed with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of fuboTV, 16 states and the District of Columbia said the "no duty to deal" doctrine -- under which businesses aren't liable for unlawful monopolization by refusing to do business with competitors -- doesn't shield those businesses from antitrust scrutiny of anticompetitive joint conduct. Signing the amicus brief were New York, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. DOJ, in an amicus brief, dismissed the programmers' argument that it's not anticompetitive to stop rivals from getting unbundled sports channels because there's no antitrust duty to deal with distributors. "That argument is a red herring," and the appeal is about creation of Venu as a violation of the Clayton Act, DOJ said. Asked whether the change in administrations and the Donald Trump DOJ might have a different stance, a fubo spokesperson emailed that "we believe our issue is bipartisan."
The FTC, in a 4-1 vote last week, extended the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) to apply to inbound telemarketing calls made for technical support services. Dissenting Commissioner Andrew Ferguson said his vote was "not because [TSR] ... is bad policy, but because the time for rulemaking by the Biden-Harris FTC is over." He added, "The proper role of this lame-duck Commission is not to announce new policies, but to hold down the fort, conduct routine law enforcement, and provide for an orderly transition to the Trump Administration." Ferguson said he will vote against rules that the statute does not require until the transition is complete. In a concurrence, Commissioner Melissa Holyoak said the Democratic majority "has prioritized controversial and unlawful rulemakings" and the agency "should redirect its efforts and resources toward enforcement against fraud and, only where appropriate, rulemakings that ensure the Commission can robustly prosecute fraud and provide consumers redress." She said the TSR amendment fit that bill.
Congress should require that the likely next FCC chair, Commissioner Brendan Carr, “commit to protecting free speech and the public interest” because as a sitting commissioner he won't have a Senate confirmation process to lead the agency, and he's “a threat to free speech,” Free Press co-CEO Jessica Gonzalez wrote in an opinion column in The Hill Saturday. Gonzalez highlighted Carr’s public statements on using the FCC news distortion and equal opportunity rules against broadcasters and FCC regulation of social media platforms as evidence that he is a free speech threat. “Talk about Orwellian,” Carr responded in a post on X. “My decision to stand up for the free speech rights of everyday Americans and against the censorship cartel is not the threat, enforced silence is.”
Tapped to lead the FCC during the second Trump administration (see 2411170001), FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr is expected to be as aggressive as possible on spectrum and wireless siting issues, industry experts said. During President-elect Donald Trump's first administration, then-Chairman Ajit Pai made Carr lead commissioner on wireless siting.
It would be a mistake for the Trump administration to undo President Joe Biden’s efforts at establishing a rights-based regulatory framework for AI technology, Democrats told us in interviews before the break.