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."
EstrellaTV's sizable white area distribution is a sign the network is home to largely undesirable programming, Comcast argued in a meeting with FCC Media Bureau and Office of General Counsel staffers. EstrellaTV parent Liberman Broadcasting countered it's a deliberate strategy. The companies Tuesday in docket 16-121 (see here and here) recapped a joint meeting with the FCC on Liberman's 2016 unsuccessful carriage complaint (see 1604080013) and current petition to reconsider (see 1609260049). Finding the EstrellaTV complaint gives it standing in white areas, even if the Media Bureau affirmed its dismissal order, would be valuable, Liberman said. It said in a proceeding before an administrative law judge it would ask that the FCC order Comcast to carry EstrellaTV on similar terms to Comcast-owned Telemundo. Liberman said nothing in the 2016 order disqualifies EstrellaTV from qualifying as a video programming vendor (VPV) under Section 616 of the Communications Act, and determining Liberman isn't a VPV would take away a tool to prevent unlawful MVPD behavior. It said the plain language of the Communications Act, FCC precedent and that EstrellaTV is distributed the same way cable network feeds are point to it qualifying as a VPV. It also argued it's similarly situated to Telemundo, with both having the same target audience and common advertisers. Yet Comcast distributes Telemundo in all of the Telemundo owned-and-operated stations and affiliate markets it serves, but carries EstrellaTV in only three EstrellaTV O&O markets, Liberman said. Comcast said the bureau should affirm its August order finding EstrellaTV isn't a VPV and lacks standing to file a program carriage complaint. It said the bureau should deny EstrellaTV's petition for recon. Comcast argued the record isn't established enough to rule whether EstrellaTV is a VPV with respect to its white area feed. It said if EstrellaTV wants to pursue that line of complaint, it should file a new one, but when looking at the existing record, EstrellaTV has no basis to assert it's a VPV for purposes of its white area feed. It said stations are EstrellaTV's primary distribution mode, so a white area feed -- serving areas outside broadcast signal range -- makes no sense. The cable firm said the Liberman demand for compensation for the white area feed "is out of step with how it is treated in the broader marketplace," since there's no evidence it gets such license fees from other MVPDs. Meeting participants were Comcast representatives including Senior Vice President-Legal Regulatory Affairs Frank Buono, Liberman representatives including CEO Lenard Liberman, and Media Bureau and Office of the General Counsel staffers.
FCC Electronic Comment Filing System woes that the agency says stem from a distributed denial-of-service attack point to necessary overhauls to the comment system, including more capacity, more protections and potentially a move to Regulations.gov, experts tell us. Such a move isn't likely in the foreseeable future. The FCC should release data on the ECFS issues it experienced earlier this month to definitively prove they were caused by DDoS attacks, experts said. The FCC says multiple DDoS incidents came amid an onslaught of comments on FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's proposed revised net neutrality rules (see 1705080042, 1705090063 and 1705100062).
Given operational problems in recent days with the FCC Electronic Comment Filing System (see 1705120052), groups opposed to a net neutrality rules rollback say the agency should delay its planned Thursday vote on the NPRM. The agency has no plans to do so. "No consideration is being given to delaying the vote," the agency emailed us. "If the Restoring Internet Freedom Notice of Proposed Rulemaking is adopted on Thursday, there will be three months for the public to comment on the Commission’s proposal. We appreciate the input we have received on the Chairman’s draft and look forward to further public participation in this process."
Requiring all non-geostationary satellite operators in Canada to provide complete coverage of the country as a condition for market access would mean fewer competing NGSO services available for Canadians. That was the argument raised by U.S. satellite operators in replies posted Friday by Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) Canada as it looks at a rewrite of NGSO rules (see 1704240026). Boeing said there's broad agreement that ISED shouldn't limit the number of licensed systems, require third-party arbitration of coordination disputes or make foreign NGSOs complete international coordination before being authorized for Canada, but there's broad disagreement on coordination requirements and Canadian coverage and capacity requirements. ISED might want to impose conditions on Canadian-licensed NGSOs on direction and control of the systems, but there's no valid argument for concluding Canadians won't see satellite service without Canadian coverage and capacity reservation requirements, it said. O3b said some proposals, such as requiring foreign-licensed NGSOs coordinate with Canadian-licensed systems before getting access to the Canadian market, could create an imbalanced competitive playing field. It advocated that ISED adopt in-line interference rules similar to the FCC's, with consequences such as spectrum splitting for two operators unable to coordinate as a means of encouraging coordination in good faith. ViaSat said requiring foreign-licensed NGSOs to complete coordination with Canadian satellite operators gives those Canadian operators the incentive and opportunity "to control the timing and pace of market entry by their competitors." ViaSat backed a proposal by a coalition of Canadian satellite operators that coordination be required, but requests for Canadian landing rights not be denied or delayed if a foreign-licensed operator has ITU date priority or is facing delays in reaching a timely coordination arrangement. OneWeb said ISED's proposed milestone requirement, that large NGSO systems have a third of their constellations up by year six after being licensed and fully deployed by year nine, would result in spectrum warehousing and give a milestone extension to already authorized NGSO systems.
Satellite broadband operators and the Competitive Carriers Association continue to joust over a satellite push for reconsideration of spectrum frontiers earth station deployment restrictions in the 27.5-28.35 GHz band. CCA objections come from "a fundamental misunderstanding as to the nature of satellite earth station deployment in this band" and don't recognize how extensively satellite is using the 28 GHz band already to provide broadband service, as well as the ability of satellite and terrestrial wireless to coexist, the satellite operators said in a filing Friday in docket 14-177. That satellite use of the band would be only "at discrete and identifiable locations, not ubiquitous deployment at customers’ premises" should satisfy many CCA concerns, the operators said. Boeing, EchoStar, Inmarsat, Intelsat, O3b, SES and OneWeb said the limited deployment of local multipoint distribution service, with 58 percent of the LMDS license areas not being issued licenses, particularly in rural areas, doesn't back up CCA arguments competitive carriers are using the spectrum in rural and regional service footprints. The satellite broadband proposals "will devalue and interfere with rural broadband providers’ mobile service to consumers in hard to serve parts of the country," CCA emailed us. It said issues like the unreliability of satellite service due to atmospheric conditions need to be considered "before granting more rights to satellite operators that could substantially interfere with more reliable terrestrial-based services. The FCC must consider the interference potential to reliable services before encumbering operators that have relied upon FCC rules to build out networks. This is sort of like changing the ‘rules of the game’ during halftime; it is not a good idea.”