ICANN selects London Internet Exchange CEO Kurt Lindqvist as president-CEO, effective December; Sally Costerton continues until then as interim president-CEO … Quadra Partners announces Brian Regan, ex- Aura Network Systems and former National Spectrum Consortium executive committee member, as firm’s first managing director … Crest Hill Advisors names Ken Turner, former DOD deputy director-spectrum, as senior adviser … Bridge Growth Partners, tech investment firm, taps former Siris Capital Group principal Prosper Vignone, also former IBM vice president-corporate development and business development, as a senior adviser.
Spire Global has the green light to operate non-voice, non-geostationary mobile-satellite service in the U.S. in the 399.9-400.05 MHz uplink. In an order in Monday's Daily Digest, the FCC Space Bureau said Spire must ensure its operations don't interfere with Orbcomm's adjacent-band activities at 400.15-401 MHz. The bureau waved off SpaceX-suggested conditions about orbital debris, saying the grant addresses only operations in an additional frequency band. But it said the grandfathering period for the commission's rule requiring non-geostationary orbit satellites deorbit within five years of their missions being complete expires in September, and Spire must supplement its orbital debris mitigation plan before deploying any more satellites afterward. It said that supplement should expand information on collision risks, how Spire will comply with the five-year post-mission disposal rule and how many of its satellites have failed at altitudes above 350 km.
The FCC commissioners split along party lines on the foreign-sponsored content order, with Commissioner Nathan Simington dissenting and Commissioner Brendan Carr dissenting in part. Approved last month, the order (docket 20-299) was released Monday. It's in response to a July 2022 U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruling against the agency regarding its foreign-sponsored content rules (see 2207120069). The order replaces a requirement that broadcasters check federal databases for each entity leasing time on their stations to see if they are registered foreign agents. Instead, broadcasters have two options for showing that they tried to determine if the programming is foreign-government sponsored. The order also clarifies that the FCC's foreign-sponsorship rules don't apply generally to ad sales for commercial goods and services. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in a statement said the rules clarification makes clear that if a foreign government pays to broadcast programming or campaign advertising, a disclosure would clarify that the government paid for it. The clarification "is about supporting transparency and democratic values," she said. "As listeners, viewers, and citizens, this is something we are entitled to know." Carr and Simington objected to new definitions in the order. "While this Order fixes one legal infirmity highlighted at the D.C. Circuit, it creates new problems that may require us to revisit our foreign sponsorship rules in a future proceeding following another appeal," Carr said. Simington said the order's new definitions of "lease of airtime" and "short-form advertising" go against past definitions and violate the Administrative Procedure Act. He said the FCC rule also covers the same ground as Federal Elections Commission rules prohibiting foreign sponsorship.
The FCC’s rechartered Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council will meet for the first time June 28, the FCC announced Monday. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said Billy Bob Brown from the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and Todd Piett of Motorola will serve as co-chairs. It will have three working groups: Harnessing AI/Machine Learning to Ensure the Security, Reliability and Integrity of the Nation’s Communications Networks; Ensuring Consumer Access to 911 on All Available Networks as Technology Evolves; and Preparing for 6G Security and Reliability. The group last met a year ago (see 2306260058).
The FCC should exercise care in approving a Samsung Electronics America request for a waiver of a 5G base station radio that works across citizens broadband radio service and C-band spectrum (see 2309130041), Public Knowledge said in a filing posted Monday in docket 23-93. “This proceeding has revealed an unfortunate mismatch between the Commission’s certification rules for composite devices ... and the evolution of new, multiband radio technology,” PK Senior Vice President Harold Feld said in meetings with staff from the FCC Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology, and with an aide to Commissioner Brendan Carr. Feld suggested the FCC could issue an NPRM on broader issues, use a waiver “to state with clarity the meaning of the composite system rule” or grant the waiver “under such conditions that will not create a precedent for similar multiband radio operation, and with sufficient safeguards to mitigate” interference risks. The FCC adopted the composite system rule in 1989, PK said: “At the time, a single multiband radio operating on multiple frequencies under different service rules for each band not only did not exist, but was inconceivable as anything other than a theoretical construct.”
NTIA offered additional comment on cellular vehicle-to-everything and Wi-Fi use of the 5.9 GHz band, in a filing posted Monday in docket 19-138. NTIA urged the FCC to adopt power limit rules for C-V2X on-board units (OBUs) “that provide for optional use of ‘geofencing’ techniques.” NTIA proposed allowing equivalent isotropic radiated power (EIRP) of 33 dBm for OBUs “with geofencing capability operating outside a coordination zone.” The units should be limited to 23 or 27 dBm depending on the location without geofencing capability, NTIA said. The FCC reallocated the 5.9 GHz band for use by Wi-Fi and C-V2X in late 2020 after a prolonged fight, with DOT arguing the entire 75 GHz should remain set aside for automotive safety (see 2011180043) but has yet to adopt final rules.
CTIA asked the FCC to address an issue it raised on pole attachments in 2019, providing clarity that wireless providers have access to utility light poles (see 1911200033). “Given the remarkable and growing consumer demand for wireless services and 5G home broadband -- the fastest growing segment of the home broadband marketplace -- the Commission should act on this pending request,” a filing posted Monday in docket 17-84 said. These poles “are well-suited for small cell facilities, which comprise the largest number of deployments: industry analysts report upwards of 80 percent of future deployments will be small cells, which are ideally suited to leverage street furniture such as light poles in the rights-of-way,” CTIA said.
EchoStar Chairman Charlie Ergen and other officials from the company reported on a series of meetings with FCC Wireless Bureau Chief Joel Taubenblatt and staff about 5G and spectrum items. “EchoStar reiterated its support for modernizing and improving the Commission’s spectrum aggregation policies,” a filing posted Monday in docket 23-319 said. The company urged that the FCC address proposed rule changes for the citizens broadband radio service band “including increasing authorized power levels and synchronizing downlink and uplink operations.”
The House Rules Committee will decide Tuesday about allowing a floor vote on an amendment from Reps. Nikki Budzinski, D-Ill., and Mike Carey, R-Ohio, to the Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and FY 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (HR-8070) that mirrors an earlier bipartisan Senate proposal that allocates funding for the FCC’s expired affordable connectivity program and Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program. The Budzinski-Carey proposal, like the amendment Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., unsuccessfully sought to attach to the FAA reauthorization law in May (see 2405090052), allocates $6 billion in FY 2024 ACP stopgap funding and $3.08 billion for rip and replace. It also proposes major structural changes for ACP, including ending the initiative’s $100 device subsidy and altering its eligibility rules. Another amendment, led by Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Wash., would direct that the Federal Emergency Management Agency's director “clarify and document the responsibilities and decision-making process” for the Integrated Public Alert Warning System “to deliver tsunami alerts to the Emergency Alert System.” House Rules’ meeting on HR-8070 amendments will begin at noon in H-313 in the Capitol.
Financier BIU, which unsuccessfully petitioned the FCC to reinstate a Spectrum Five complaint against Intelsat, is appealing the agency's dismissal of that petition. The full commission's April dismissal of a petition seeking reinstatement of the SF complaint (see 2404110053) was fraudulent because it was done at the instruction of someone who had no right, power or authority to do so, BIU said Friday in a petition for review (docket 24-1189) at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The D.C. Circuit complaint seeks reinstatement of SF's petition that the FCC act against Intelsat for allegedly interfering with SF's spectrum license. "The unauthorized withdrawal of the [SF] Petition amounts to a fraud on the Commission itself," BIU said. The SF petition was withdrawn at the instigation of SF CEO David Wilson, who lacked authority to do so, BIU argued. Wilson didn't comment Monday.