ASPEN, Colo. -- House and Senate priorities when they're back in session in September include reauthorizing the FCC's spectrum auction authority, agency oversight and filling FCC and FTC commissioner openings, legislative aides said Monday at Technology Policy Institute's Aspen Forum. Panels and speakers also discussed the inevitability of further media consolidation and social media's effect on political polarization. UScellular CEO Laurent Therivel urged revisiting the decision to allocate the 6 GHz band for unlicensed use. The prospects of AI regulation also were discussed (see 2308210029).

Dish Network's planned buy of EchoStar (see 2308080009) could point to New Dish trying to gain traction in the in-flight/maritime connectivity market, we were told. Industry followers see a variety of potential aero/maritime options.

Carriers welcome the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s plans for an Oct. 4 test of the wireless emergency alert system, with a nationwide emergency alert system test the same day. The FCC is examining possible changes to WEA, including requiring participating providers to ensure mobile devices can translate alerts into the 13 most commonly spoken languages in the U.S. aside from English, and to send thumbnail-sized images in WEA messages. Industry said some of the changes would be difficult to quickly implement (see 2307240045). Replies are due Monday in docket 15-91.

ARRL, which represents amateur operators, slammed an April petition by the Shortwave Modernization Coalition (SMC) asking the FCC to launch a rulemaking to amend its eligibility and technical rules for industrial/business pool licensees to authorize licensed use of frequencies above 2 MHz and below 25 MHz for fixed, long-distance, non-voice communications (see 2305010053). SMC defended the petition in two filings. Hundreds of amateur operators warned the proposal would be harmful to their operations (see 2307270035). Comments were posted Friday in RM-11953.

A bill that would restrict California regulators’ discretion to make extra rules for NTIA’s broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program dismayed local and consumer advocates. With a month left in session, California legislators are also weighing broadband bills to require wireless eligibility for federal funding and to streamline broadband permitting. Assembly Communications Committee Chair Tasha Boerner (D) said the goal of her BEAD bill (AB-662) is to bring “accountability” to the California Public Utilities Commission.

The current iteration of the FCC’s Technology Advisory Council, with its focus on 6G, held its final meeting Thursday, its first meeting in 2023. TAC members approved two white papers and reports by its working groups. Andrew Clegg, co-chair of the Advanced Spectrum Sharing Working Group, told TAC the group faced roadblocks getting data from the government. TAC approved recommendations and a white paper from the WG, which the FCC hasn't posted.

Anti-5G group Americans for Responsible Technology is trying to organize formal opposition to the House Commerce Committee-cleared American Broadband Deployment Act (HR-3557) and other bills promoted as streamlining regulatory reviews of connectivity projects, ahead of what the group believes will be an attempt to fast-track the measures after Congress returns from the August recess after Labor Day. House Commerce advanced HR-3557, a package of GOP-led connectivity permitting revamp measures, on a party-line 27-23 vote in May, with all Democrats opposed (see 2305240069). Wired Broadband President Odette Wilkens and three lawyers rallied ART supporters against HR-3557 and other measures during a Wednesday webcast.

5G depends on the allocation of additional licensed spectrum, like the 3.1 GHz band that’s the current focus of federal policymakers (see 2308150066), said Oku Solutions CEO David Witkowski during an IEEE webinar Wednesday. Fixed-wireless access has been described as 5G’s first “killer app,” but there will be others, said Witkowski, also co-chair of the Deployment Working Group of the IEEE Future Networks Technical Community.

The FCC hasn’t made an effort to meet the four-year due date for its 2018 quadrennial review, and its arguments that Congress didn’t specify a deadline (see 2308080062) are “a recipe for eternal stasis” and would “justify perpetual delay,” said NAB in a response filing in its mandamus proceeding at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (docket 23-1120) (see 2304250029). “It is unreasonable for the Commission to have sat on its hands for years.”

The COVID-19 pandemic sent educators scrambling when schools closed overnight in March 2020, said Jason Amos, National School Boards Association director-communications, during a Broadband Breakfast webinar Wednesday. The “silver lining” is that the pandemic led to better broadband buildout, he said. Experts said schools continue to face challenges, including the advent of generative AI.