Expect lots of satellite operators in the direct-to-device space using myriad approaches, from reusing terrestrial spectrum, using satellite spectrum or something else altogether, satellite company executives said Tuesday during a SpaceNews webinar. Multiple satellite operators beat the drum for the FCC's supplemental coverage from space (SCS) framework adopted in March (see 2403140050). Other large regulators will follow suit and put forward SCS frameworks, Lynk Global Chief Operating Officer Margo Deckard said. AST SpaceMobile's CEO said something similar to Wall Street this week (see 2404020007).
NTIA said it will follow FirstNet’s National Environmental Policy Act procedures on an interim basis and establish 33 categorical exclusions in compliance with NEPA, the Council on Environmental Quality regulations and other related authorities, as it awards funds under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). NTIA proposed that step a year ago (see 2303290035). The ruling is effective immediately, said a notice for Tuesday’s Federal Register. “Following the FirstNet Authority’s procedures will facilitate the IIJA’s large-scale investment in NTIA programs and the need for NTIA to fulfill the mandates of the IIJA in a timely manner, by ensuring NTIA make[s] the most efficient use of time and available funding and resources to fulfill its environmental analysis and decision-making responsibilities,” the notice said.
The 5G Fund order that FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel circulated March 20 raised long-standing concerns that the agency releases drafts for "meeting" items but not for those voted electronically, regardless of their relative importance. For those items, industry groups and companies must schedule meetings with commissioner staff and the bureaus and offices to ask about details.
Advocates of the FCC’s affordable connectivity program and Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program believe funding for both priorities remains available this year, despite Congress having omitted funding in the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act FY 2024 minibus spending package enacted last week (see 2403210067). Program backers acknowledge funding will be more difficult as the FY24 package was their best opportunity. They also admit appropriations politics will only prove trickier with Capitol Hill hunkering down for the 2024 election campaign.
Customers expect that carriers use the same kinds of technologies for robocalls and robotexts that are used to filter suspected scam and spam emails, Microsoft told the FCC in a filing posted Monday in docket 23-362. “Recent advances” in AI and large-language models “create the opportunity to combat fraudulent communications based on content analysis, and with the right guardrails in place, this analysis can be done at scale while preserving the privacy of the communications,” Microsoft said. The FCC should make clear that “when communications service providers choose to offer AI-enabled fraud detection features with sufficient safeguards in place, those tools are considered a necessary incident to the provision of voice communications,” the company said. Microsoft representatives spoke with aides to Commissioners Brendan Carr and Anna Gomez and Consumer and with Governmental Affairs Bureau staff.
Netflix's stated goals of expanding its live content offerings and its World Wrestling Entertainment deal (see 2401300062) point to the streamer playing a bigger role in the traditional sports rights market, Ampere Analysis wrote Friday. The growing number of subscribers watching with ads means Netflix will be in a position to profit from large audiences viewing live content in a way it previously couldn't, Ampere said. It said non-U.S., non-China rights for the NBA could also be an option for Netflix, as they will be up for renewal in many key territories in the next few years and would be far more affordable than domestic rights.
Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told us Thursday she hopes to soon file legislation on a five-year renewal of the FCC’s lapsed spectrum auction authority without language authorizing sales of specific bands, despite Republican criticism during a Thursday hearing about omitting an airwaves pipeline. Senate Commerce ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., emphasized their 2024 Spectrum Pipeline Act (S-3909) as an antidote to concerns about the Biden spectrum strategy, as expected (see 2403200001). The hearing also revealed clear divisions among panel Republicans about continuing to explore 5G use of the 3.1-3.45 GHz band, which has drawn opposition from DOD and top Capitol Hill allies (see 2403200061).
The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology rejected petitions seeking changes to the commission’s 5.9 GHz rules filed by the Alliance for Automotive Innovation and the 5G Automotive Association. The alliance urged the FCC to reconsider its 2020 order opening 45 MHz of the band for Wi-Fi, while allocating 30 MHz for cellular vehicle-to-everything technologies. The 5GAA sought revised out-of-band emissions limits for unlicensed devices in the band. The response was mixed to both reconsideration petitions (see 2107230033). “In making the lower 45 megahertz available for more flexible unlicensed use, the Commission found that, when added to U-NII spectrum in the adjacent 5.725-5.850 GHz … band, the 45 megahertz of spectrum from the 5.850-5.895 GHz … band would provide for increased high-throughput broadband applications in spectrum that is a core component of today’s unlicensed ecosystem, thereby providing the American public with the most efficient and effective use of this valuable mid-band spectrum,” OET said in an order this week. In 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the order (see 2208120035). OET noted the decision rejects alliance claims the agency “exceeded its legal authority” in issuing the order: “The court rejected the argument that the change in administration requires the Commission to revisit its decision.” 5GAA’s coexistence analysis “does not convince us to reconsider the OOBE limits decision for indoor unlicensed operations adopted” in the order, OET said. “We conclude that the indoor unlicensed device OOBE limits the Commission adopted … will sufficiently protect C-V2X communications in the upper 30 megahertz from harmful interference,” OET said.
A Thursday Senate Commerce Committee hearing is likely to highlight stark differences between panel leaders’ competing proposals for a spectrum legislative package, including whether it should mandate sales of specific bands before NTIA completes studies of those frequencies in keeping with the Biden administration’s national spectrum strategy (see 2403120006). Lawmakers’ apparent failure to reach a deal allocating additional money for the FCC’s affordable connectivity program and Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program (see 2403190062) as part of a FY 2024 still-unreleased “minibus” spending package also ratchets up the pressure for a spectrum bill to use future auction revenue to pay for multiple telecom priorities, officials and lobbyists told us.
Converged terrestrial and satellite connectivity is a given, but the path is strewn with unknowns and sizable technological and business stumbling blocks, according to satellite operator CEOs. For example, satellite operators must start thinking and acting like mobile network operators, creating an ecosystem that allows seamless roaming among them, Viasat CEO Mark Dankberg said during Access Intelligence’s Satellite 2024 conference in Washington Wednesday. Separately, space sustainability advocates urged a mission authorization regulatory framework and universal use of design features such as docking plates enabling on-orbit serving or towing. Meanwhile, conference organizers said event attendance reached 14,000.