China-based Hikvision USA answered FCC questions on its proposed plan for compliance with agency rules (see 2308070047) and requested confidential treatment on information filed. The filing notes that Hikvision equipment is sold in the U.S. through distributors and original equipment manufacturers and provides data on its marketing. The data was redacted from the filing, posted Tuesday in docket 21-352.
Broadcom, Wi-Fi Alliance Services and the Wireless Broadband Alliance offered the FCC an update on changes to power spectral density rules for automated frequency coordination systems in the 6 GHz band, which the three proposed in March (see 2404150050). The filing, posted Tuesday in docket 21-352, asks the Office of Engineering and Technology to “promptly approve the proposed code modification for our systems so that they can continue to perform as the Commission anticipated while accounting more accurately for the permitted PSD levels.”
Among other objections to an FCC proposal to expand the parts of the 6 GHz band where very-low power (VLP) devices can operate without coordination, and make other changes to the rules (see 2404290035), NAB stressed the importance of protecting broadcasters' use of the band for electronic news-gathering. “Allowing unrestrained VLP operation by millions -- or even billions -- of unlicensed devices amounts to letting the metaphorical ‘genie out of the bottle,’ potentially creating a radio frequency interference environment that cannot be controlled,” NAB said. Sirius XM said its satellite digital audio radio service business “cannot operate without reliable access to the 7.025-7.075 GHz band to uplink programming for delivery to listeners and control its spacecraft.” Proponents haven’t demonstrated a need to expand the bands where VLP devices can operate, Sirius XM said: “The public interest in protecting service to tens of millions of satellite radios -- both subscribed and unsubscribed -- far outweighs any speculative benefit from adding marginally to the spectrum that can be used for outdoor VLP devices.” The Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition said the record “remains insufficient to move forward with the Commission’s proposals at this time.” Comments in favor of changing the rules “were either non-substantive or rehashed information previously submitted to the record,” the group said. The 5G Automotive Alliance said out-of-band emissions limits of -37 dBm/MH are needed to protect cellular vehicle-to-everything operations in the 5.9 GHz band. “The record in this proceeding demonstrates commenters’ well-founded concerns about VLP devices interfering with C-V2X operations and the possible dire consequences of such interference,” the alliance said. Comments were posted this week in docket 18-295.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel will appear before lawmakers twice next week, with the House Appropriations Committee announcing Tuesday that the Financial Services Subcommittee will hold a hearing May 8 on the commission’s FY 2025 funding request. President Joe Biden in March proposed $448 million for the FCC in FY25 and $65 million for NTIA (see 2403110056). The Appropriations Financial Services hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in 2362-A Rayburn. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo will testify at the same time during a Commerce, Justice and Science Subcommittee hearing on the Commerce Department’s FY25 request. Rosenworcel and the four other FCC commissioners are set to testify May 7 at a House Communications Subcommittee hearing on the commission’s FY25 funding request (see 2404190067). That panel will begin at 10 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn.
NTCA takes special interest in the impact of the FCC’s Nov. 20 digital discrimination order on its small-business members, the association’s amicus brief argued in the 8th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court (docket 24-1179) said Monday. The brief supports the 20 industry petitioners that want the order vacated as unlawful (see 2404230032). The “potential adverse effects” of the order implementing Section 60506 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act “risk particular impact to small businesses that generally lack access to resources and economies of scale that can enable larger businesses to absorb substantial market or regulatory changes,” NTCA’s brief said. But those impacts “are neither envisioned nor authorized by the statute, whose language contemplates a far more limited scope of implementation,” it said. Compliance with certain of the standards presented in the FCC’s order “is effectively impossible since the processes by which those measures can be achieved are wholly inconsistent with the normal and ordinary practices within which NTCA members conduct their business,” it added. The standards contemplate the ability of small private businesses “to have access to the confidential business considerations of other businesses,” it said: “This result, too, is neither contemplated nor accommodated in the statutory language.” The 8th Circuit should hold the order as "unlawful" and set it aside, said NTCA.
Developing rules for opening the lower 3 GHz band, a top focus of U.S. carriers (see 2404080063), won’t be easy, Monisha Ghosh, engineering professor at the University of Notre Dame and former FCC chief technologist, said during an RCR Wireless virtual test and management forum Tuesday. Much discussion at the forum centered on the challenges of performance testing in evolving 5G networks.
Rather than the FCC requiring reviews for each mission undertaken on an in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing mission, numerous ISAM interests are pushing the agency to consider a blanket license approach. In docket 22-271 comments this week, numerous parties also questioned the FCC's authority over ISAM and whether it's drifting far from its spectrum oversight role. Commissioners, on a 5-0 vote, approved an ISAM licensing NPRM in February (see 2402150053).
The Senate Commerce Committee will likely advance an amended version of the draft Spectrum and National Security Act during a Wednesday executive session with unanimous support from the panel’s 14 Democratic members, but lobbyists will watch closely how many Republicans don’t openly object to the measure as a means of determining its viability. The spectrum bill, led by Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., would restore the FCC’s lapsed auction mandate through Sept. 30, 2029. The measure proposes using future license sales revenue to repay a proposed loan to the commission to fund the affordable connectivity program in FY 2024 and $3.08 billion for the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program (see 2404250061).
The FCC Media Bureau approved a Cumulus "pro forma" request to assign several broadcast licenses from one Cumulus subsidiary to another and will seek comment on a remedial petition from the company to allow an increase in foreign ownership, said an order Friday. The foreign-ownership request is connected to a Singaporean company, Renew Group, which in January informed the SEC that it now owns approximately 9.8% of the equity and 10.01% of the voting interests in Cumulus. Under the terms of a 2020 foreign-ownership approval (see 2005290046), Cumulus must seek FCC approval for any foreign investor to own more than 5% of the voting interest in the company. Cumulus has certified that Renew’s acquisition of interests exceeding the 5% threshold “was an independent investment decision that occurred on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange and was wholly beyond Cumulus’s control, was not reasonably foreseeable to Cumulus, and was not known to Cumulus before Renew reported the acquisition to the SEC.” Friday’s order grants the internal transfers of control but imposes conditions limiting the voting rights associated with the stock Renew owned until a declaratory ruling approving the foreign ownership is issued. The conditions would also limit Renew investors from serving as officers of Cumulus, attending board of directors meetings or having any role in management of Cumulus stations or decisions to buy or sell stations until a declaratory ruling is issued, the order said. Until the ruling, dividends payable to the Renew investors will be placed in escrow, the order said.
Charter Communications sought New Hampshire conditions on Consolidated Communications' transfer of indirect ownership and control of its local subsidiaries to Condor Holdings, a subsidiary of private equity firm Searchlight. Charter didn’t oppose the deal but asked the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission for conditions related to wholesale intercarrier relationships. Statements from Consolidated and Condor about maintaining the status quo "are ultimately meaningless unless there is a specific minimum period of time that ensures the continuity of existing wholesale intercarrier relationships,” said Michael Scanlon, Charter vice president-circuit operations, in written testimony Friday (docket DT 23-103). First, the PUC should require that Consolidated "honor existing interconnection agreements and their terms, including those of any tariffs or pricing guides" for three years after the deal closes, the Charter official said. Second, force Consolidated to process "number ports so as to meet or exceed [PUC] and FCC porting requirements with at least the same level of quality and intervals as they did pre-Transaction,” he said. Third, require that the company use existing operations support and billing support systems for at least 36 months after the deal closes. "It should also maintain at least the same intervals, quality of service, accuracy, and flow-through,” Scanlon wrote. Additionally, still under the third proposed condition, Consolidated should agree that, before migrating away from any existing systems related to wholesale, it should file a plan for the state commission to seek comment on, then approve, delay or deny. If approved, the company should provide CLECs with training on the new system, the Charter official said. If the migration results in “significant negative impacts to wholesale providers occur due to the migration, CLECs should be able to seek Commission approval of payment by Petitioners of all documented costs directly related to the migration." Under a fourth proposed condition, the PUC should require the company to "sufficiently staff its wholesale customer support centers with adequately trained personnel dedicated exclusively to wholesale operations; maintain updated escalation procedures, contact lists, and account manager information; and assign a single point of contact to [Charter New Hampshire] to address interconnection agreements, systems, and other issues,” said Scanlon: And the company should agree not to recover any transaction or rebranding costs through wholesale rates.