Better space situational awareness (SSA) data sharing and clearer delineation of who has authority when two objects are heading toward a collision in space should top the next steps list for creation of a space traffic management (STM) rules regime, experts said at a Secure World Foundation event Monday. It would be "a big leap forward" for Congress to beef up White House authority for STM "for someone to be formally in charge" of handling conflicts among objects in orbit, said space lawyer Brandt Pasco of Pasco & Associates.
AT&T's planned $108.7 billion purchase of Time Warner got the green light Tuesday from U.S. District Judge Richard Leon of Washington. as he ruled in favor of the companies in rejecting DOJ's antitrust complaint seeking to block the deal. Leon announced his decision this afternoon to a packed courtroom.
TV stations headed toward repacking would be smart to employ a "belt and suspenders" approach of doing as many things as possible to get viewers up to speed ahead of time, said FCC Incentive Auction Task Force Chair Jean Kiddoo Friday. Stations will have to think about, for example, having staffed phone banks to field calls from people struggling with re-scanning digital antennas, she told us. Requirements for notifications, which have to start at least 30 days before a transition, aren't very prescriptive because broadcasters generally recognize it's in their own interests to do as much as possible, she said.
After last month's White House commercial space policy directive for regulatory reform of space activities, (see 1805240031), another space policy directive is being prepared on space traffic management, NASA acting Chief of Staff Tom Cremins told an American Bar Association event Thursday. He said it potentially could be signed at the next National Space Council meeting, and the aim is to create norms that allow responsible growth. State Department Director-Space and Advanced Technology Ken Hodgkins said there are international implications and concerns about in-orbit satellite servicing, with some countries not liking the idea of an outside party moving their satellites. He said there needs to be a licensing regime for such activities and a governmental understanding on who's responsible and liable for such missions, and where the line lies on liability when a U.S repurposing vehicle mates with another country’s satellite. Those issues “aren’t show stoppers per se” but need to be sorted through, he said. Embry-Riddle assistant professor of commercial Space operations Diane Howard said there’s a perception problem about space traffic management and the concept of a governing body directing traffic, and more focus is needed on space traffic coordination, with its inherent implication of involving parties that have some free agency. Panelists debated the Outer Space Treaty (OST) level of permissiveness for nontraditional activities. Hodgkins said it has long been U.S. policy to pursue or allow activities it thinks are permissible and then to justify them to the world. “If we set a model that makes sense, we want the rest of the world to follow that,” he said. Hodgkins said that minus particular restrictions in the OST, such as appropriation of territory, "you can do pretty much whatever you want to." OST isn't so much permissive as it contains rights and obligations and duties along with freedoms, and needs to be taken in totality and not in parsed-out sections, said space lawyer Oonagh Sands. She said language in the American Space Commerce Free Enterprise Act (HR-2809), passed by the House in April and now before the Senate, indicating the U.S. won't consider space a global commons, is "a most strange proposition” and doesn't fit with international law.
Commissioners were in lockstep Thursday as they approved a high-band Further NPRM, though there was a party-line rift over the pre-auction limit of 1250 MHz of millimeter-wave spectrum that any party can buy at auction. The agency is sending "confusing signals" to industry given those limits and yet not committing to a time frame for making available more spectrum, said sole Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, who dissented in part. Her support of the pre-auction limits was unclear (see 1805250058). The FCC said there was no substantive changes from the draft, but the approved item wasn't released Thursday. Commissioners also Thursday approved a telecom discontinuance streamlining order and six other items (see 1806070021).
The clock is ticking on AWS-3 licensee build-out requirements, and licensees generally agree about longer initial license terms and later build-out deadlines, though not about who should get them, in docket FCC 18-104 comments. They were due Tuesday to a Wireless Bureau inquiry on possible extensions of up to three years, 12-year license terms and associated build-out requirements (see 1804060060). Federal agencies likely are sticking to plans for relocating from the bands, since there were no updates since May 2017, T-Mobile said. A servicewide extension isn't warranted, and the FCC instead should make any extensions specific to geographic areas and spectrum where there's evidence agencies can't relocate, it said. CTIA said there should be three-year extensions for licensees that entered market-specific coordination requests in the early entry portal system but were subsequently denied because the federal system hadn't transitioned out. It said most AWS-3 licenses expire April 2027, but "a large portion" of federal operations aren't expected to relocate until 2025, and many AWS-3 licenses have interim build-out requirements due in April 2021. It said three more years would ensure licensees have time after the expected 2025 clearing to start network deployment. Blue Ridge Wireless also pointed to government relocation timeframes in calling for a three year delay. 2014 AWS Spectrum Bidco, with AWS-3 licenses in the 1695-1710 MHz band, said extension for all would give more time for government relocation in some bands and coexistence mechanism development in others. It said government users won't be relocating operations from the unpaired A1 and B1 blocks of 1695-1710 MHz, and there needs to be development of long-term coexistence plans, and talks with NOAA produced progress and raised questions requiring lengthy technical analysis. AWS-3 licensees Chester Telephone, FTC Management Group and Sandhill Communications encouraged three more years. They said agencies "appear to be working diligently" on relocation, but that process and requirements such as accepting interference from federal operations until those operations vacate the band has slowed commercial AWS deployment. Those plus rural challenges such as shortage of tower collation opportunities mean there's less time for meeting "already challenging buildout deadlines," they said.
Between now and the U.S. 5G future sit hurdles ranging from an "urban crunch" of spectrum availability to the morass of dealing with legions of local zoning and permitting steps, speakers said at an Axios event Wednesday. North America “started late” on 5G standardization, behind the Far East, but the country has reversed its position in the past two years and the first large-scale rollout likely will happen within the next 12 months in the U.S., said Ericsson North America CEO Niklas Heuveldop.
September's expiration of DOJ-imposed behavioral conditions on Comcast's buy of NBCUniversal will unleash a vertically integrated behemoth with plenty of incentive to squash competition, panelists said at a Public Knowledge-organized panel Wednesday. There were no Comcast-friendly voices, and much discussion involved how to extend the conditions or whether broader changes are needed in antitrust enforcement. “Beware Comcast unleashed,” said American Cable Association Senior Vice President Ross Lieberman.
That media and telco companies now have to release data publicly about what their median employees make and how that compares with the CEO's pay package likely won't change their compensation approaches for either those at the top or for average workers, experts told us. The numbers could be fodder in ongoing populist movements like gender pay equality and living wage issues, said Deborah Lifshey, a managing director at executive compensation consultancy Pearl Meyer.
The FCC proposal to bar USF spending on products or services from companies seen as posing a national security risk is meeting with mixed reaction, with disagreements about whether rules should be limited to USF-funded equipment and services or should have broader reach, recent docket 18-89 comments show. Huawei called the rulemaking launched in April (see 1804170038) an "improper and imprudent" blacklist, and some critics questioned the efficacy of the proposed approach. Comments were due Friday, replies July 2.