Telecom-focused congressional leaders are voicing interest in including a temporary restoration of the FCC’s auction authority in a continuing resolution to extend federal appropriations past the end of FY 2023 Sept. 30. Lobbyists and observers told us they remain doubtful about Capitol Hill’s appetite for such a move due to the factors that hindered talks on a broader spectrum legislative package (see 2308070001). Senate Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee members sounded alarms about the remit’s lapse during a Tuesday hearing on the FCC’s FY 2024 funding request. House Communications Subcommittee member Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, also raised concerns during a Punchbowl News event the same day.
Expect the rapid growth in space launches to continue in coming years, driven by NASA and national security demands as well as by “almost unquenchable demand” for data via satellite connectivity, Peter Knickerbocker, Bank of America space practice manager, said Wednesday at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce aerospace conference in Washington. He said as many as 40,000 satellites could be in orbit by 2030. Knickerbocker also said venture capital investing in space dropped 50% in 2022, and investors' confidence will rebound when they see investment success stories.
The FCC’s Public Safety Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology are forwarding concerns House China Committee leaders raised about the extent to which Chinese equipment manufacturers like Fibocom and Quectel are spying via U.S. IoT-connected devices via connectivity modules “to each of the authorities enumerated in” the 2019 Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act to probe the status of those companies, commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in letters to panel leaders released Tuesday. House China Chairman Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and ranking member Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Calif., asked Rosenworcel in August about Fibocom and Quectel, citing concerns about the threat to U.S. IoT devices (see 2308080059). “The issues you raise with respect to connectivity modules merit continued attention,” she wrote the House China leaders. The commission “is examining additional steps it should take to protect U.S. networks. In addition to our efforts to prevent equipment on the Covered List from being approved through our equipment authorization process, the agency sought comment on the extent to which certain ‘component parts’ associated with equipment authorized by the agency, if produced by entities identified on the Covered List, should be precluded from authorization because they might also pose an unacceptable risk to national security.” The FCC “also sought comment on whether the Commission should revoke authorizations of specific Covered List equipment that was issued prior to the date any prohibition on authorization went into effect, what the process would be for doing so, and how this would work in the marketplace,” she said: “At present, the agency is examining the record in this proceeding and considering what steps will further protect communications networks and equipment supply chains.” Fibocom and Quectel “are among those that have obtained authorizations of modules,” Rosenworcel said. “The agency does not have information about whether authorized equipment may have been or is currently used in U.S. networks, and, if so, where precisely it is deployed,” but “we coordinate closely and regularly with our federal partners and executive branch bodies that have the responsibility for making determinations regarding equipment and services that pose an unacceptable risk and have written to them to ensure that this matter receives appropriate review.”
The FCC released a draft Further NPRM on the long-awaited 5G Fund Thursday, with commissioners scheduled to vote Sept. 21 (see 2308300062). Also on the agenda is a Space Bureau “transparency initiative,” with the bureau giving more guidance at initial application stages. Per the draft order and accompanying Further NPRM, the streamlining proposal is to be the first in a series of intended improvements to the Space Bureau. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel also is seeking a vote on an additional action targeting VoIP robocalls.
The FCC should consider a central clearinghouse, similar to the one used in the 800 MHz transition, to address problems that arise as use of the 6 GHz band becomes more prominent, Enterprise Wireless Alliance representatives told an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. EWA also “urged the FCC to adopt cost recovery mechanisms for incumbents that need to baseline their operations and take other steps to mitigate against interference from unlicensed devices,” said a filing Tuesday in docket 18-295. “We expressed our concern that the FCC not adopt further changes to the technical rules in this band without also addressing these issues,” EWA said.
USTelecom names Alanna Chapell, ex-office of Rep. Daniel Kildee, D-Mich., director-government affairs ... The Blue Owl Group, consultants including for internet, launches with Colin Crowell, ex-Twitter vice president and ex-FCC senior counselor, as managing director and including as advisers Alder Renewables’ Ian Punkett, Lucia Gamboa, Ledyard Group’s Lauren Culbertson Grieco, all also ex-Twitter, and Sotera Consulting founder Patricia Cartes Andres, ex-Google.
The FCC released an NPRM Thursday on a voluntary cybersecurity labeling program for smart devices (see 2307180054). Commissioners approved the NPRM 4-0 last weekend. The NPRM poses dozens of questions about the scope and nature of the program. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Nathan Simington released statements. Comment deadlines will come in a Federal Register notice.
House China Committee leaders pressed FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel Tuesday for information about the extent to which Chinese equipment manufacturers like Fibocom and Quectel are spying via U.S. IoT-connected devices via connectivity modules. Those “modules have the capacity both to brick the device and to access the data flowing from the device to the web server that runs each device,” House China Chairman Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and ranking member Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Calif., said in a letter to Rosenworcel. If the Chinese government “can control the module, it may be able to effectively exfiltrate data or shut down the IoT device. This raises particularly grave concerns in the context of critical infrastructure and any type of sensitive data.” The lawmakers specifically cited Fibocom and Quectel because both gearmakers get “extensive state support” from the Chinese government that makes their equipment a surveillance vector. “The FCC has taken important steps to counter the nefarious influence of [Chinese Communist Party]-controlled technology in U.S. telecom networks, including” clamping down on use of gear from Huawei and ZTE on U.S. networks, Gallagher and Krishnamoorthi said: “There are still many U.S. and allied firms that compete with” Chinese “cellular IoT module providers -- such that restricting Quectel and Fibocom’s access to the U.S. market would not undermine U.S. telecommunications networks.” Tackling Chinese IoT modules “is a natural next step for the FCC, in consultation with appropriate national security agencies,” the lawmakers said. They asked Rosenworcel to tell them whether the FCC is “able to track the presence” of IoT modules on U.S. networks and whether the commission is considering addressing that equipment as part of its November order (see 2211230065) to prevent the sale of yet-to-be authorized equipment from Chinese companies in the U.S., among other matters.
The FCC is working with the White House's interagency Task Force on Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks to Children regarding concerns about environmental and health risks potentially posed by telecommunications companies' lead cables, agency spokesperson emailed us Friday. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said the agency has offered assistance to EPA (see 2307210004). "We take seriously the concerns raised about potential lead exposure from communications lines," she said. Meanwhile, the EPA, the FCC and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration should form a joint task force with the aim of mapping lead cable deployments nationwide and prioritizing remediation, former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Blair Levin, who oversaw development of the agency's National Broadband Plan, wrote for the Brookings Institute Friday. "One would hope [the three] along with the White House are already coordinating such a response," as such a task force could give guidance on remediation strategies and exposure risks, they said. Wheeler, a Brookings visiting fellow, and Levin, a nonresident senior fellow, said the first step must be mapping where and how the lead cables are deployed, and then prioritizing the different installations where remediation is necessary. If there are debates and litigation about what science says about the actual threat, as well as about ownership liability, "the matter will drag on unresolved for years," they said. Other states are likely to follow New York and require telcos to provide an inventory of lead-affected cables, they said. But only the federal government "has the combination of skills and resources to orchestrate an acceptable resolution," they said. The EPA will be a focus of discussions, though the FCC has the authority to demand such information as data about previous testing and the location of lead sheathed cables, they said. Having taxpayers foot remediation costs seems unlikely, but it's probably the best path to accelerated remediation of sites where the cables present an immediate or near-term risk, they said. The FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program "provides a model for addressing common practices that in the fullness of time created risks that America broadly wants to be eliminated," they said. Since billions spent on cleanup by telcos could affect their broadband deployment activity, "we need the federal government to map, prioritize and fund the solutions."
Representatives of Apple and Broadcom proposed rule tweaks for very low-power operations in the 6 GHz band, in a meeting with an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. They also spoke with a staffer from the Office of Engineering and Technology. The FCC proposed in an April 2020 Further NPRM to allow VLP devices to operate in the band indoors without automated frequency control (see 2306230046). “In order to reduce the already insignificant risk of harmful interference even further … we discussed that the Commission could take two further steps,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 18-295. The FCC could create a transmit power control (TPC) rule for VLP equipment “that contains a specific and measurable power-reduction mandate,” the filing said: “Such a rule could state that TPC shall, on average, reduce the PSD [power spectral density] of the VLP device by 3 dB, compared to the maximum permitted PSD of VLP devices. The Commission would then permit VLP equipment makers to demonstrate during the FCC device certification process that a particular VLP device complies with this rule in order to receive authorization to operate at the maximum permitted” PSD. The FCC could also prohibit VLP devices from operating as part of a fixed outdoor installation, Apple and Broadcom said: “By doing so, the Commission would ensure that all VLP operations would be itinerant, not operating at any one set place and in any one set orientation to a FS receiver.”