Supporters of a proposal to reallocate the 12 GHz band for 5G think the proposal will likely move forward in coming months, buoyed by responses by FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Brendan Carr to members of Congress last week, as a follow-up to the recent House hearing. Meanwhile, Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen offered a candid assessment of the future of DBS spectrum in a presentation to analysts.
World Trade Organization ratification of a third Information Technology Agreement “would bring many important emerging technologies driving the global digital economy under ITA coverage” and would “further bridge the digital divide,” said more than three dozen global tech trade associations, including CTA, the Computer & Communications Industry Association, CompTIA, the Semiconductor Industry Association and the Telecommunications Industry Association. The first two ITAs “increased employment, made innovative tech products more affordable to consumers,” and “bridged communities across the globe in ways unimagined when the original agreement was launched 25 years ago,” they said. “Another round of ITA product expansion, coupled with expansion of the geographic scope of the agreement, would yield immediate and sweeping benefits,” they said. No new technologies have been added to the agreement since its second iteration, which passed in 2015, they said: "We therefore call on ITA members to support launching another ambitious new round of negotiations to further expand this critically important agreement and carry forward the robust momentum produced by the original ITA and its 2015 expansion."
U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council negotiators, meeting over the weekend in Paris, agreed to set up an early warning “alert system” to share information about possible disruptions in the semiconductor supply chain, and “incentivize increased production” of chips, said the group in a joint statement Monday. The TTC also agreed to put a “mechanism” in place to avoid chip “subsidy races” among local governments, it said.
Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., will meet with ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., Monday afternoon for renewed privacy negotiations, a committee member told us last week.
NTIA released notices of funding opportunity Friday for applicants interested in its broadband, equity, access and deployment, middle-mile grant, and state digital equity planning grant programs funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The agency cited “end-to-end fiber-optic architecture” as priority broadband projects and encouraged states to give the greatest consideration to subgrantees committed to providing 1 Gbps services at an affordable rate as part of the BEAD program.
Google withdrew its UHD Alliance membership, as did human interface components supplier Synaptics and Chinese semiconductor maker Beijing Eswin Computing Technology, the association told DOJ and the FTC in simultaneous “written notifications” March 21, says a notice for Friday’s Federal Register. UHDA membership "remains open," and the association "intends to file additional written notifications disclosing all changes," said Suzanne Morris, chief-premerger and division statistics in DOJ’s Antitrust Division. The notifications are required to extend UHDA members antitrust protections under the 1993 National Cooperative Research and Production Act, said Morris.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo’s Wednesday testimony to the Senate Appropriations Commerce Subcommittee that the FCC will “possibly” have its revised broadband coverage data map ready in November (see 2205110073) “is correct,” an FCC spokesperson emailed us. “We’ve been working together closely on these efforts.” Raimondo emphasized on Thursday the coming maps’ importance to NTIA’s plans for disbursing its $48 billion in broadband money from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. She spoke during a House Appropriations Commerce Subcommittee hearing on the Commerce Department’s FY 2023 budget request.
The FCC is “forecasting” it will have its revised broadband coverage data maps “possibly” in November, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said during a Wednesday Senate Appropriations Commerce Subcommittee hearing. Raimondo urged swift conference committee action to marry elements of the House-passed America Creating Opportunities for Manufacturing, Pre-Eminence in Technology and Economic Strength Act (HR-4521) and Senate-passed U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (S-1260). She also touted her role in drumming up international support for U.S.-backed ITU secretary-general candidate Doreen Bogdan-Martin.
Wireless telecom “has escaped the worst effects” of the global semiconductor shortage, and chips for cellular infrastructure equipment “will continue to dodge significant shortages going forward,” reported Strategy Analytics Monday. SA expects availability of chips for Wi-Fi access points and smartphones “will continue to improve through next year,” it said. “Tight supplies of semiconductors will gradually ease through the remainder of 2022 into 2023 as new foundry capacity comes online,” said SA analyst Christopher Taylor. China increased its production of semiconductors by more than 17% in 2021, “and production expansion in China will accelerate this year, helping to ease the global shortage,” said Taylor. Semiconductor investments in the U.S., EU, South. Korea, India and other countries “have also started to bear fruit, with the most significant capacity expansions due to start in 2023,” he said.
Reps. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Blake Moore, R-Utah, filed the Supporting American Printed Circuit Boards Act Friday in a bid to encourage U.S. printed circuit board manufacturing alongside current efforts to bolster the domestic semiconductor industry. Congressional conferees are working to marry elements of the House-passed America Creating Opportunities for Manufacturing, Pre-Eminence in Technology and Economic Strength Act (HR-4521) and Senate-passed U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (S-1260), which both include $52 billion in chip incentives (see 2205050025). The Supporting American Printed Circuit Boards Act would create a $3 billion Commerce Department-administered financial assistance program modeled after that in the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors for America Act for U.S.-based facilities making or researching PCBs. The measure would also provide a 25% tax credit for the purchase or acquisition of U.S.-made PCBs. PCBs “are a critical part of that supply chain and are at risk of tampering vulnerabilities related to offshore production, yet the U.S. global production share of PCBs is only approximately four percent, compared to China’s 52 percent,” Eshoo said. “If we want to ensure technological superiority across the global stage and strengthen national security, we need to bring PCB production back to America, which is exactly what my bipartisan bill does.”