Matt Daneman

Public safety items will dominate the FCC's June 22 meeting. Commissioners tentatively will vote on a special emergency alert system code for imminent threats against law enforcement and changes to caller ID rules to allow those receiving threatening calls and law enforcement to get identification information quickly. Such items focus on "help[ing] law enforcement and first responders," Chairman Ajit Pai blogged Thursday.

Proliferation of comments to the FCC on net neutrality -- particularly those generated by dubious means -- is raising the likelihood the agency will give public comments even less weight than it does in other proceedings, agency watchers told us. There have been calls for the FCC to investigate filings not actually made by the people whose names are attached (see 1705250064). The source is largely moot, since such comments are more akin to bumper sticker statements than what the agency would look for, said cable consultant Steve Effros.

The sometimes-acrimonious rhetoric between FCC GOP Chairman Ajit Pai and Free Press on net neutrality could be a harbinger of how the debate plays out, experts tell us. Pai's attack last month on the group that often backs regulation and President Craig Aaron, (see 1704260054) might indicate some concerns the chairman might lose the debate, said consultant Jerry Mechling, formerly a vice president at Gartner and faculty member at Harvard's Kennedy School.

Growing demand for in-flight connectivity could affect how both airlines and satellite operators view obsolescence, industry insiders said at a Washington Space Business Roundtable event Thursday. Moves to wider channels and increased interest in the V- and Q-band mean obsolescence for installed in-flight connectivity systems will come sooner from changing technology than from problems with parts, said Bill Milroy, chief technology officer at antenna maker ThinKom. ViaSat Vice President-Space and Satellite Broadband Richard VanderMeulen said satellite operators are trying to provide LTE-like service today and expect to have to provide 5G-level service in the near future, and airlines ultimately will have to decide whether to prioritize the customer experience or eking out extra life of aircraft. As in-flight connectivity offerings follow the same 4G-to-5G trend of higher speed and capacity, "we're going to have to change our expectations about obsolescence," said Inmarsat Vice President-Enterprise Tim Johnson. SmartSky Networks Vice President-Digital Aviation Bruce Holmes said that beyond in-flight connectivity, an increased number of worldwide broadband networks will lead to "the Holy Grail of air space management" -- pre-computed flight plans avoiding any conflicts of flight paths and maximizing fuel and time efficiency. VanderMeulen said growth of those global networks could also lead to the point where airline passengers have choices of multiple data providers on a flight. He said the Department of Homeland Security laptop ban will have minimal effect on in-flight connectivity demand, since phones are the leading consumers of data on flights. Johnson expects carriers disproportionately affected by such a ban would find work-around for high-value customers, like providing tablets. Asked about typical per-customer connection speeds on a flight, operators largely demurred, saying the focus was on optimized service. Milroy said ThinKom often sees spectral efficiency that can work out to 250 Mbps per aircraft. While for many operators that averages out to 150-200 Kbps per passenger, "of course that number is going up and up," he said. Euroconsult earlier this month predicted more than 17,000 commercial aircraft will offer in-flight connectivity by 2021, up from 6,500 in 2016 and that as of the start of the year, more than 80 airlines installed or committed to in-flight connectivity.

Prompted in part by last week's manhandling of a reporter at an FCC meeting, the National Press Club told us Thursday it plans to organize "a summit" among news, public affairs and security interests to discuss best practices or possible new models for media access to government agencies. "We have had too many of these incidents happen," said NPC Journalism Institute Freedom Fellow Kathy Kiely. "Having a conversation might be helpful" in balancing security concerns with maximizing openness, she said. Kiely said the FCC has been invited to participate. The agency didn't comment.

The solution to increasingly congested Wi-Fi networks in dense urban areas lies primarily in middle-band spectrum, particularly in the 5.9 GHz band and potentially the 6 GHz band, said Wi-Fi Alliance CEO Ed Figueroa Wednesday. Having 80 MHz and 160 MHz channels is paramount, but that kind of channelization is tough to find in low bands, while high-frequency bands carry propagation limitations, he said at a Microsoft/New America’s Wireless Future Project panel.

The U.S. has "an authorization gap" for new outer space activities like in-orbit satellite servicing and asteroid mining, which creates uncertainty for industry, Matthew Schaefer, University of Nebraska College of Law co-director-Space, Cyber and Telecommunications Law Program, told the Senate Space, Science and Competitiveness Subcommittee Tuesday. Testimony involved the possible regulatory regimes of such new activities, and the possible need to revisit the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. OST Article VI, which makes nations responsible for oversight of space activities that originate from individual countries, "has been an issue," said Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass. Numerous questions involved U.S. obligations under Article VI. Satellite lawyer Jim Dunstan of Mobius Legal Group said nothing is to be gained by reopening the treaty regime, which would let unfriendly nations layer on regulatory burdens. Schaefer said fear of the difficulties of OST compliance is unwarranted, since the treaty's obligations are minimally burdensome, but the U.S. not respecting its OST obligations leads to such potential consequences as foreign governments taking away markets and customers from U.S. space businesses. Space lawyer Laura Montgomery of Ground Based Space Matters said the U.S. isn't obligated to regulate all new outer space activities, and it's a misconception Article VI "makes the United States regulate either any particular activity or all activities of U.S. citizens in outer space." She said Congress should prohibit any regulatory agency from denying a U.S. entity from operating based on Article VI considerations. Schaefer said if the U.S. starts legislating in the area of Article VI, some countries will impose the U.S. interpretation for matters of their own national interest, and it would lead to more nations inspired to adopt commercially friendly interpretations. He recommended Congress act to limit the national security barrier to new space activities as much as possible. Many said the U.S. has an effective existing regulatory framework to deal with space debris from such new space industries, but a consolidation and harmonization of the debris mitigation rules required by different agencies would be useful. Since property rights are a good incentive to investment, the U.S.needs to figure out a way to recognize property rights extraterrestrially, and Article II allows that, Montgomery said. Dunstan disagreed, saying OST doesn't allow the U.S. to recognize private property rights. Schaefer said it might be better to proceed on a case-by-case basis for property right disagreements, leaving the discretion in the executive branch rather than doing a rewrite of Article II.

Security measures and responses at the FCC's Thursday meeting, including less seating than usual and the "manhandling" of a reporter after the meeting, are under fire, with questions of whether they may have been aimed at stifling any uproar about the net neutrality vote -- something the FCC denies. "This is very chilling and very intimidating to the public, whether you're for the rules or against," said former Commissioner Gloria Tristani, who attributed the problems to "very heavy-handed security." The National Press Club (NPC) described as "completely unacceptable" an incident in which it said John Donnelly of CQ Roll Call was pushed into and held against a wall by security using their backs when he was trying to talk to Commissioner Mike O'Rielly and then was forced to leave the building.

The separate FCC rules for vehicle-mounted earth stations, earth stations on vessels and earth stations aboard aircraft are "duplicative ... unnecessary and inefficient," Chairman Ajit Pai said Thursday as commissioners approved 3-0 an NPRM on regulations governing earth stations in motion (ESIMs). The rulemaking isn't expected to face major pushback or notable controversy (see 1705090018). Pai said the rules harmonization and consolidation -- with the three regulatory categories of earth station rules being made into one -- should help the agency process applications more easily, while allowing blanket licensing in the conventional Ka-band increases opportunities for deployment. International Bureau Satellite Division lawyer Cindy Spiers said the current rules extend only to C- and Ku-band and were developed in separate but overlapping procedures. In a statement, Commissioner Mike O'Rielly said he appreciated edits in the NPRM soliciting comments about whether ESIMs could potentially cause interference with incumbent satellite operations or future 28 GHz terrestrial operations. As the World Radiocommunication Conference 2019 nears, he said he will pay attention to ESIM use in 27.5-29.GHz: "We must ensure that U.S. positions do not potentially dissuade investment and deployment in the 28 GHz band either domestically or internationally. Our continued commitment to the future success of the 28 GHz band must be clear to all."

The acceleration of cord-cutting and cord-nevering is due more to costs than virtual MVPD growth, Charter Communications CEO Tom Rutledge said Wednesday at a MoffettNathanson event. He said subscriber losses over the past five years are at the margins, with the bulk of customers sticking with pay-TV packages. Programmers increasingly are interested in "rekindl[ing] an affiliation" instead of just a transactional relationship, with Charter helping them sell their products, Rutledge said. He said in coming years, the cost trajectory for content "is marginally going to change to our benefit, but not much. On the edges, there's a lot of pressure on the price for content companies."