The detonated implosion of the first of two Riviera Las Vegas hotel towers looms in mid-June, and that will set into motion the first stage of an ambitious plan for much of the next decade to renovate and expand the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) in a much-needed "overhaul." So said Terry Jicinsky, senior vice president-operations at the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), in a recent interview. The project's long-term benefits for CES -- LVCVA's largest annual customer -- are uncertain, said CTA's top CES strategist. Karen Chupka, CTA senior vice president-CES and corporate business strategy, told us “we’re one of the few shows that’s using all three convention centers,” of the CES exhibit space at the Venetian-Sands and Mandalay Bay, in addition to LVCC. “As we even are starting to look now for 2018 and 2019, there isn’t additional exhibit space to grow,” she said. Other conferences in the communications area held in Las Vegas include the NAB Show; NAB said attendance at last month's convention topped 103,000 (see 1604210070).
Citi Research said the 126 megahertz clearing target for the TV incentive auction (see 1604290048) is higher than it had predicted. “More spectrum is available for sale than we previously expected, perhaps creating an opportunity for carriers to aggregate more spectrum or pay a lower price than we had estimated,” Citi wrote investors. “This is especially positive for Buy-rated T-Mobile.” Other stock analysts made similar comments late last week and so far this week. The high clearing target means the 600 MHz band will likely emerge as a very valuable band for the wireless industry, emailed Jim Patterson of Patterson Advisory Group. “More spectrum, combined with 5G and other network developments, should be enough to tip the scales in favor of new bidders or challengers looking for nationwide differentiation,” Patterson said. “The implications of this are very positive for bidders such as Comcast, T-Mobile, America Movil and NTT DoCoMo. It could place competitive pressures on Sprint, who has not selected to bid, as equipment and device manufacturers choose to move their development efforts to 600 MHz use cases.”
Expect telecom policy continuity with some wrinkles if Democrat Hillary Clinton wins the presidency, said New Street Research analysts in a Sunday note. A Clinton administration would resemble a "third Obama term" in communications policy, but the agenda could evolve as it did in President Barack Obama's second term, when the FCC carried out broadband reclassification under Title II of the Communications Act, said the analysts. They said the Obama administration's sensitivities eased some after facing a deep recession at the outset. "It is difficult to exaggerate the abyss Obama's economic advisers peered into during the 2008 transition and continuing well into 2010," creating much concern about the investment impact of decisions, they said. But the bigger factor, they said, was the change from FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to Tom Wheeler, who has been more activist, in line with Democratic preferences, on many issues beyond Title II, including municipal broadband, USF changes, set-top boxes, special access, privacy, the IP transition, inmate calling rates and general enforcement. New Street said political forces favor a new FCC chairman in the "Wheeler mold," including Wheeler's popularity with most Democrats and the strong primary challenge of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., which has pushed Clinton toward "a more activist approach." Few Clinton advisers are likely to argue in favor of Genachowski's approach over Wheeler's, though there is some unpredictability, since it's unknown whom Clinton would nominate as FCC chairman and which party will control the Senate confirmation process, they said. "Bottom Line: Early Continuity But Then Circumstances Start to Change Outcomes," New Street concluded. Regardless of "Clinton's choice, we do not see any Democratic Chair stepping away from the core Title II choice, unless a court totally overturns that 2015 decision. Of course, there are still a number of related decisions, such as how to evaluate different zero-rating approaches and how to respond to court decisions chipping away at FCC authority, that will give a new Chair a chance to put meaning to the decision, rather than reversing it wholesale. It’s also likely the first Clinton Chair will continue a number of other Wheeler initiatives, such as supporting municipal broadband efforts, opening up the set-top box market, reforming special access, and imposing a new privacy framework on ISPs." New Street had suggested the communications policy of GOP front-runner Donald Trump would fall within the GOP "Republican norm" (see 1603020020). Former FCC official Blair Levin consults with New Street on telecom policy notes.
The FCC released the business data services tariff order and Further NPRM it adopted Thursday (see 1604280057). The item sets a June 28 deadline for initial comments in the new rulemaking, with replies due July 26.
Citing the length of the NPRM and complexity of issues involved, the National Alliance of State Broadcasters Associations (NASBA) is pushing for later deadlines in the FCC emergency alert rules NPRM. In a motion Friday in docket 15-94, NASBA said the deadline for comments, currently May 29, should be moved to June 23, with the deadline for replies extended 30 days to July 7. Other parties including the Broadcast Warning Working Group and EAS gearmaker Monroe Electronics also sought deadline extensions (see here and here).
Google representatives explained a March report by the company that said the FCC can set aside one or more channels in every market for unlicensed use without causing harm to broadcasters (see 1603250019). A filing on Google's series of meetings at the FCC was posted Friday in docket 15-146. The report said only 0.01 percent of low-power TV stations and 0.51 percent of translator stations may have to make adjustments, such as channel sharing, to continue to reach their viewers. Google’s simulation “provides the only substantial data in the record that predict the effect of the proposed vacant channel rule on [low-power] TV and transistor stations,” Google said in the filing. NAB had called the Google report “uninformed, careless and misleading” (see 1603310059). The Google representatives said they discussed Google’s simulation results with Gary Epstein, chairman of the Incentive Auction Task Force; Bill Lake, chief of the Media Bureau; and officials from the Office of General Counsel and Office of Engineering and Technology.
When the FCC issues a public notice to refresh the record on rules for unlicensed national information infrastructure (U-NII) devices in the 5 GHz band, it should particularly seek input on sense-and-avoid and re-channelization sharing approaches, and the best sharing approaches for crash avoidance and dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) systems applications, NCTA and Comcast said in an ex parte filing Thursday in docket 13-49. They also said the FCC should seek input on DSRC questions on which the IEEE 5.9 GHz DSRC Tiger Team was unable to come to consensus, including the noise tolerance of DSRC from noise sources, what out-of-band limits would be needed to protect vehicle-to-vehicle communications, and the kind of DSRC interference that will occur in a vehicle when Wi-Fi also is transmitting inside. The filing recapped meetings NCTA and Comcast had with staff from the offices of Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioners Ajit Pai and Michael O'Rielly, and an NCTA meeting with a Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel aide. Last week, Google, NCTA, Qualcomm, Public Knowledge and others asked the White House to help broker a deal on Wi-Fi use of the 5.9 GHz band (see 1604280043).
The FCC Wireline Bureau said "no" to industry requests for additional time to file comments on the ISP privacy NPRM. That means initial comments are due at the FCC on May 27, the Friday before the long Memorial Day weekend. Communications industry groups had asked for a 45-day delay (see 1604210048). FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a news conference Thursday that commenters had enough time to prepare (see 1604280061). The American Cable Association, CTA, CTIA, the Internet Commerce Coalition, NCTA, USTelecom and the Wireless ISP Association signed the industry letter seeking an extension. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce also had supported a delay. “The Commission put interested parties on notice more than a year ago that it would address broadband privacy issues through a separate proceeding,” said the Friday notice in docket 16-106, signed by Wireline Bureau Chief Matt DelNero. The FCC’s policy is that extensions not be routinely granted, the notice said: “Commission proceedings often involve novel and important issues, yet granting an extension is not the norm. Likewise, overlapping comment cycles in Commission proceedings are not unusual given the press of Commission business. Further, the Commission has set similar comment deadlines in comparable proceedings, and we see no need to deviate from that precedent in this case.”
The Supreme Court approved DOJ's proposal Thursday to alter its Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 41 to allow federal judges to issue warrants for remote searches of computers outside their jurisdictions, quickly drawing criticism from digital rights groups. The Supreme Court approved the Rule 41 revision as part of a larger set of proposed changes to the criminal procedures rules. Rule 41 currently severely limits federal judges' ability to issue search warrants outside their court districts. Congress has until Dec. 1 to consider the Supreme Court-endorsed Rule 41 revision proposal, at which point the rule change will automatically go into effect, said Chief Justice John Roberts in the order. Both AccessNow and New America’s Open Technology Institute separately urged Congress to block the DOJ proposal. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., vowed in late March to work to block DOJ’s Rule 41 proposal (see 1603310062). “Instead of directly asking Congress for authorization to break into computers, [DOJ] is now trying to quietly circumvent the legislative process by pushing for a change in court rules, pretending that its government hacking proposal is a mere procedural formality rather than the massive change to the law that it really is,” OTI Director Kevin Bankston said in a news release. “Congress shouldn't let [DOJ] and an obscure judicial rules committee write substantive law, especially on a novel and complex issue with serious privacy, security, and civil liberties implications.” Congress should consider approving the Rule 41 revision proposal only after putting “strong protective rules in place, and after deep investigation and robust debate,” Bankston said. “Rather than leading public policy Congress is stuck in a Groundhog Day loop: debating the same issues over encryption for decades as technology, and the FBI’s use of it, marches on,” Access Now Senior Legislative Manager Nathan White said in a news release. “The FBI is spending millions to hack into our private digital devices. This should be a wake up call. We need a public conversation about what law enforcement is doing. We need safeguards and rules based on public input.”
Industry commenters have had plenty of time to prepare comments on proposed privacy rules, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said at a news conference after Thursday's commission meeting. The issue of the FCC's taking up privacy enforcement was first raised during the net neutrality proceeding, he said. "Not exactly a surprise." The commission has provided "meaningful time" for comments and replies "to bring that debate to a point of closure," he said. Some industry groups have sought more time to comment on the privacy NPRM, while public interest groups have opposed more time (see 1604250043).