The FCC under Chairman Tom Wheeler has been remarkably quick and responsive on making spectrum available for 5G, a differentiator that will make the U.S. the global leader in deployment, 5G advocates said Thursday during Information Technology and Innovation Foundation panel. "The U.S. is going to lead because of the FCC," said Peter Pitsch, Intel executive director-communications policy. He said South Korea, Japan and China are considering 5G trials because they and other nations are "looking at the fact the commission is moving so quickly on allocation and assignment." Qualcomm Senior Vice President-Government Affairs Dean Brenner, pointing to recent speeches by Wheeler (see 1606200044) and Commissioner Mike O'Rielly (see 1606270082), said the agency's consensus on 5G is notable "in an era when everything is partisan."
Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, succeeded at quietly watering down the Senate’s set-top box rider attached to the FY 2017 Financial Services funding bill, which advanced through the full Appropriations Committee Thursday in a 30-0 vote. The rider, which would force a pause to the FCC's set-top rulemaking for further study, never came up directly during the long markup, encompassing FY2017 FCC and FTC funding. But Schatz changed the wording of the set-top rider through the bill’s manager’s package, unanimously accepted as part of the bill.
A Democratic Senate appropriator told us a set-top box rider may stay hitched to the appropriations legislation this year. The Senate’s FY 2017 funding bill followed the House lead and included a rider to require “the FCC to complete an impact study of the agency’s set top box proposal” and another that “reaffirms congressional intent on grandfathered joint sales agreements,” said a GOP summary. The Senate Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee cleared the bill Wednesday and the Appropriations Committee will mark up the measure at 10:30 a.m. Thursday in 106 Dirksen.
House Commerce Committee Republicans worked with the Armed Services Committee to tweak spectrum-related floor amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY 2017 (HR-4909). That legislation cleared the House Wednesday night 277-147, with those spectrum amendments included in forms that mollified CTIA and members of the Commerce Committee.
House lawmakers decided to take up some of the spectrum amendments that alarmed CTIA (see 1605130054), in a second tranche of floor amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY 2017 (HR-4909). CTIA singled out three amendments of deep concern out of the more than 300 filed, two that will proceed to floor consideration and one that won't. The House Rules Committee deemed 61 amendments in order Monday, and on Tuesday another 120 amendments in order. The chamber hadn't vote on the measure or the amendments at our deadline.
Federal funding for 911 will likely be hard to come by for the foreseeable future, said the ranking Democrat on the House Commerce Committee at the APCO Summit Monday. Republicans usually block new funding efforts, and no spectrum auction legislation is on the horizon, said Rep. Frank Pallone and his telecom aide, David Goldman. States and localities will be the biggest source of 911 funding, said an FCC official.
Trade groups representing broadcasters, tech companies and others jointly filed a petition for rulemaking Wednesday asking the FCC to allow broadcasters to begin using the new ATSC 3.0 broadcast standard. “This enhanced digital IP-based standard will create the bedrock for continuing innovation by the television industry for decades to come,” said the petition filed by America's Public Television Stations (APTS), CTA, NAB and a group of broadcasters and electronics companies called the Advanced Warning and Response Network (AWARN) Alliance, which was officially formed Tuesday (see 1604120069).
Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, wants the two-year FCC Reauthorization Act (S-2644) to compel the FCC to create a report on program access rules. He filed an amendment last week for a Wednesday markup of the measure, which was postponed, that would have required a report “on the effectiveness of the program access rules after elimination of the ban on exclusive contracts for programming by vertically integrated cable companies,” said the text of the two-page amendment, not publicly released. The FCC would have to submit that report to Congress within a year of the reauthorization bill’s enactment. Schatz’s amendment was one of more than 40 amendments filed (see 1603150049). Schatz also filed an amendment requiring the FCC to release annual reports on the average rates for broadband Internet service, “the types of packages and the limitations of those packages sold by broadband Internet access service providers” and “the average rate for customer premises equipment sold or leased by a broadband Internet access provider to a subscriber of that service.” Schatz filed a third short amendment designed to increase FCC flexibility in administering spectrum auctions that would have slashed a provision in the reauthorization text, which Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., introduced earlier this month. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., filed an amendment requiring an FCC report “on the broadband deployment and data collection practices of the Commission,” which would have to include legislative recommendations. Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., filed an amendment that would tweak the FCC Reauthorization Act’s provisions requiring a GAO report on FCC regulatory fees. It would strike the section requiring the GAO report and instead tweak the Communications Act itself. It would strike the act’s section saying how the fees assessed should be derived, and instead insert language saying the fees should be “equitably apportioned among all entities from whom regulatory fees are collected,” based on an annual FCC assessment of its different bureau activities. Udall filed a separate amendment codifying the Office of Native Affairs and Policy, which the FCC created in 2010. Thune has said he now wants to mark up the FCC Reauthorization Act at an April session (see 1603160050).
The Dynamic Spectrum Alliance said India has become the latest market to explore use of TV white spaces spectrum with the government there issuing eight experimental licenses in the 470-582 MHz band. “The purpose of these licenses is to carry out experiments at several locations using TV white space-like rules and regulations already adopted (or being adopted) in other countries such as Malawi, Ghana, Singapore, the Philippines, UK, USA and Canada,” DSA said Thursday. “This decision opens up opportunities for the use of sub-1 GHz spectrum in India in either an unlicensed or lightly licensed fashion without the need for spectrum auctions.”
The U.S. wireless tower industry is "facing some growing pains right now" and was downgraded from "outperform" to "market weight" by Wells Fargo analyst Jennifer Fritzsche Friday. Her investor note cited carrier resistance to current tower pricing, as well as a difficulty achieving "new incremental growth" due to the lead up to the FCC broadcast incentive auction, the creation of the FirstNet system and the development of 5G standards. "Additionally, our sense is AT&T... has still not yet turned on the wireless spending faucet" and instead is focusing capital on fiber deployment, said Fritzsche. "Carriers are indeed saying 'enough,'" Fritzsche said, saying carriers are "definitely pushing back on the structure of amendments and pricing for the tower companies." The current lull in spending is consistent with historical spending plateaus before FCC spectrum auctions and the transition to a new wireless technology, such as 5G, she said. Fritzsche said "little or any of current tower business is at risk." Fritzsche also said the increase in size of cell sites and tower equipment "helps [the] longer term amendment revenue outlook."