CTA President Gary Shapiro can’t sit back and placate critics of President-elect Donald Trump who “would have me spend the next four years just waiting for a new president,” he said in a Tuesday LinkedIn post in which he expressed hope that Trump's acumen as a business leader will be the "silver lining" of his presidency. To help the tech industry succeed, “we need the right public policies in place,” Shapiro said. “So I must identify opportunities to work with the incoming Trump administration to promote innovation, grow the economy, create high-wage jobs and collaborate on pro-tech policies.” Shapiro, after months of harshly criticizing Trump the candidate (see 1611090038), said he has been surprised “at the vitriol on social media” expressed about his public tweets and commentaries warming to “the positive actions a Trump presidency can produce,” he said. “America has voted, and I choose to be optimistic and see a positive path forward, especially regarding the economy.” Shapiro “genuinely” wants to work with the Trump administration “to foster our industry and build products and services that change our world for the better,” he said. Trump’s Dec.14 outreach to tech leaders in which the president-elect struck a conciliatory tone (see 1612140060) “underscores his commitment to working with our industry -- not against it,” Shapiro said.

Gigi Sohn, a top aide to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, has left the building. Sohn’s last day was Tuesday, an FCC spokesman confirmed. Sohn tweeted that starting Jan. 16 she will be a leadership in government fellow at the Open Society Foundations. “I want to thank my wonderful @FCC colleagues, from the security guards 2 the Commissioners 4 making me feel like one of the family.” Sohn tweeted Tuesday. Sohn was president of Public Knowledge before going to work for Wheeler three years ago.

The FCC is seeking comment on dozens of rules it adopted in 2001 through 2004 and on what kind of economic impact they have had or might have, it said in a public notice Wednesday. The agency said under the Regulatory Flexibility Act it will review in the next 12 months which rules might need to be amended or rescinded to minimize economic impact. Comments will be due 90 days after Wednesday's notice is published in the Federal Register, the agency said.

The New York City Emergency Management (NYCEM) Department protested a Dec. 1 petition by CTIA seeking changes to the FCC’s new wireless emergency alert rules. Implementing embedded references mustn't be deferred past one year, as CTIA requests, the agency said. “Delaying support for Spanish-language Alert Messages would unnecessarily continue to [under serve] communities and if the Commission were to change the deadline to be concurrent with support for 360-character messages on 4G-LTE and future networks and devices, the deadline should be two years, not thirty months,” NYCEM told the FCC. “All devices, not only new devices, capable of receiving Alert Messages, should support embedded references, even if the device is not internet-capable.” The NYCEM filing was posted in docket 15-91. The FCC approved the rules in September over a partial dissent by Commissioner Mike O’Rielly, who highlighted industry concerns (see 1609290060).

The FCC listed dozens of major items and other significant proceedings that are under development or review and that pertain to the Regulatory Flexibility Act in Friday's Federal Register. The list -- compiled twice annually -- includes more than 70 separate docket items and their status.

Most GPS devices don't suffer lengthy signal reacquisition problems when in the presence of adjacent band LTE signals, said a Ligado-commissioned study it summarized in a filing Friday in docket 11-109. The study was done by Roberson and Associates and looked at 18 GPS devices made by Trimble, Topcon, NavCom, Motorola, Garmin and Furuno and how quickly they reacquired GPS signals both in and out of the presence of LTE signals of varying strengths and in different bands, said the filing. A variety of GPS companies signed off on Ligado's broadband terrestrial low-power service plans over the past year (see 1612060023).

Globalstar's revised terrestrial low-power service broadband plans got FCC commissioner approval, with the agency on Friday issuing an order for rules changes regarding terrestrial use of the 2473-2495 MHz band for low-power mobile broadband use. The revised proposal -- which has the company dropping its plans to use unlicensed spectrum (see 1611100031) -- went on circulation last week (see 1612190052) after numerous former opponents signed off (see 1612130020 and 1612090043). While the Hearing Industries Association last week said that it still needed more technical details regarding what kind of interference problems Globalstar's service poses for unlicensed users of the 2.4 GHz band (see 1612150041), the FCC in the order said that while there is a benefit to using weak Bluetooth signals for hearing assistance devices and other unlicensed devices operating in the spectrum, especially to preserve battery life, "this design choice does not warrant constraints on users of the spectrum outside the licensed bands." The agency also said that it repeatedly has made the point that unlicensed devices don't get protection from harmful interference and thus more tests to determine the interference susceptibility those devices face from operations in adjacent bands "are unwarranted." Globalstar CEO Jay Monroe said the company anticipates "a busy 2017 as we plan to put our terrestrial authority to use for American consumers and pursue similar authority internationally.” Commissioner Mike O'Rielly -- who was the subject of heavy Globalstar lobbying over the summer -- said in a statement he was "somewhat surprised by the path this proceeding took and the public spectacle that occurred earlier this summer. I did not expect to be the deciding vote on the item, as originally circulated, but once there I went about my normal review to understand the proposal's details and the concerns raised in the record. It was never my intent, nor do I believe that I was the cause of delay in reaching a decision regarding Globalstar’s original proposal. Moreover, it should be noted that I found a lot of merit in that request and did not foreclose the possibility of voting in favor of it under certain circumstances, until the new proposal was put forth." And Commissioner Ajit Pai, in a separate statement said that he opposed Globalstar's original proposal that would have "given [it] special rights to unlicensed spectrum in the 2.4 GHz band ... [departing] from our successful and long-standing policy of promoting innovative, shared access to these spectrum commons" but that the revised proposal eschews use of unlicensed spectrum while still giving the company more flexibility with its licensed spectrum.

Verizon continues to invest in its network, with $17.8 billion in capital spending last year, said Donna Epps, who directs Verizon’s domestic public policy team, in a blog post. “We remain committed to working with policymakers to keep Americans working to strengthen these vital communications systems,” she said. Policymakers at the state and local level “will also play an important role in the coming year,” Epps wrote. “Local leaders can help incent investment in broadband infrastructure -- like in Boston, where Mayor Martin J. Walsh announced a partnership with Verizon this year to replace the city’s copper-based infrastructure with a state-of-the-art fiber-optic network. FiOS became available to order in the first Boston neighborhoods earlier this month, less than eight months since the mayor’s announcement this past spring.” Congress also has a role to play and needs to update communications law, Epps said. “A lot has changed since the Telecommunication Act was updated last in 1996. Services most Americans take for granted today did not even exist then, and large portions of the law pertain to services that no longer exist or have become completely irrelevant such as competition for long-distance phone service.”

Oracle asked the FCC to rethink its ISP privacy rules, in a petition for reconsideration in docket 16-106. Oracle’s main complaint was that the FCC treats ISPs differently than edge providers, not subject to the rules. “The Order correctly recognizes that protecting consumer privacy online is ‘fundamental,’ but completely undermines that goal by handing Google the market to the obvious detriment of consumers,” Oracle said. Rules for ISPs that depart from the FTC’s guidelines will hurt competition, Oracle said. “The corresponding harm to consumers is clear from an examination of the Order’s benefits for Google,” Oracle said. “Google already has the ability to track virtually every movement of a consumer’s day through an Android phone or tablet. It has created a proprietary Android world to derive substantial economic benefit from advertising and -- perhaps even more importantly -- obtain access to huge amounts of personal data through search, location tracking, and other activities.” Google didn’t comment. The ISP privacy rules, approved 3-2 by the FCC in October (see 1610270036), are seen as a top target for reversal by FCC Republicans once they gain a 2-1 edge at the agency Jan. 20 (see 1611090034). The main criticism by ISPs has been that they now face different regulations from edge providers.

Amtrak asked the FCC to change the rules under which its Wi-Fi network operates so it can offer more robust service along its key Northeast Corridor (NEC). To keep up with customer demands, Amtrak is building a private trackside network along the NEC providing dedicated capacity in the UNII-3 band for Amtrak's Wi-Fi and other broadband-related services, Amtrak told the FCC in a petition. The network could achieve download speeds “measureable in hundreds of megabits per second,” but only if it can use the 5.1 GHz U-NII-1 band in addition to the spectrum it's using, the 5.725-5.825 GHz U-NII-3 band, Amtrak said. “The UNII-1 band could provide Amtrak with a second 80 MHz channel that takes advantage of the IEEE 802.11ac standard and that also assures consistency of coverage in a cost efficient manner,” the railroad said. But under FCC rules non-fixed operations in the UNII-1 band are limited to an output power of 250 mW with antenna gain up to 6 dBi. “Were Amtrak to operate at this power level, it would have to construct three times as many trackside stations to achieve the coverage it already achieves in the 5.8 GHz band,” Amtrak said. “This would dramatically increase Amtrak's capital costs, delay network deployment and otherwise undermine the business case for Amtrak's” network. Amtrak asks instead that it be allowed to operate in both bands under the same technical specifications. The requested waiver “poses no meaningful risk of aggregate interference to Globalstar's satellites in U-NII-1 band,” Amtrak told the FCC. “Even without the requested waiver, Amtrak estimates that it will need to construct less than 800 trackside stations to cover the entire NEC, which is de minimis when compared with, for example, the thousands of outdoor Wi-Fi access points that are or will be deployed in the U-NII-1 and U-NII-3 bands across the entire country.” Globalstar didn't comment.