March 2017

The Federal Communications Commission moved to reform certain outdated rules applicable to the 800 MHz Cellular Service band to facilitate the use of Cellular spectrum for mobile broadband services such as long term evolution (LTE), which provides high-speed connectivity to today’s mobile consumers. To accommodate continued skyrocketing demand for mobile broadband, the revisions will allow providers to use Cellular spectrum to provide mobile broadband service to the public more efficiently, reduce barriers to innovation and investment and ease administrative burdens. At the same time, the rules will continue to safeguard public safety operations.

Specific reforms include:

• Power Reform: The FCC will facilitate broadband technologies by changing its technical rules to permit Cellular licensees to transmit the same amount of power across the spectrum band, whether they are deploying a legacy (narrow bandwidth) technology or modern (wider bandwidth) technology like LTE.
• Co-existence with Public Safety: The FCC will continue to ensure co-existence of Cellular and neighboring public safety systems by retaining Cellular-specific interference resolution rules and procedures and by engaging stakeholders via a public forum.
• Consistent Treatment with Similar Spectrum Bands: The FCC will treat Cellular spectrum consistently with other similar commercial wireless spectrum bands by conforming rules related to power measurement, out of band emissions, field strength, and discontinuance of operations.
• Unnecessary rules/burdens: The FCC will eliminate unnecessary rules and burdens related to application filings, domestic and international coordination, and comparative renewal.

The Federal Communications Commission adopted a Report and Order that expands broadcast stations’ ability to share a single TV channel so viewers can continue to receive their broadcast programming.

The ability to channel-share is an important component of the FCC’s incentive auction, mandated by Congress in 2012, which provides a voluntary opportunity for full power and Class A broadcast stations to relinquish their spectrum and share a channel with another full power or Class A broadcaster in exchange for a part of the proceeds from a related mobile wireless auction. Separately, the Commission in 2015 extended channel sharing to low power television (LPTV) and TV translator stations to help stations displaced by the incentive auction stay on the air. The Order permits television broadcast stations with an auction-related channel sharing agreement (CSA) to continue channel sharing by entering into a new CSA in the event that their existing agreement ends. This enables stations to continue providing service to their viewers. The new rules also permit Class A stations to channel share outside of the auction context. Additionally, all LPTV and TV translator stations are now able to share a channel with a full power or Class A station. This flexibility gives LPTV and TV translator stations that are displaced by the auction repacking process more options for continuing to operate. It also may reduce construction and operating costs for LPTV and TV translator stations, many of which have limited resources, are minority-owned, or provide programming to underserved audiences.

I predicted a lot of things, Michael. Some things that came to you a little bit later. But, you know, we just rolled out a list. Sweden. I make the statement, everyone goes crazy. The next day they have a massive riot, and death, and problems. Huma [Abedin] and Anthony [Weiner], you know, what I tweeted about that whole deal, and then it turned out he had it, all of Hillary’s email on his thing. NATO, obsolete, because it doesn’t cover terrorism. They fixed that, and I said that the allies must pay. Nobody knew that they weren’t paying. I did. I figured it. Brexit, I was totally right about that. You were over there I think, when I predicted that, right, the day before. Brussels, I said, Brussels is not Brussels. I mean many other things, the election’s rigged against Bernie Sanders. We have a lot of things…. I’ll give you the front page story, and just today I heard, just a little while ago, that Devin Nunes had a news conference, did you hear about this, where they have a lot of information on tapping. Did you hear about that? Now remember this. When I said wiretapping, it was in quotes. Because a wiretapping is, you know today it is different than wire tapping. It is just a good description. But wiretapping was in quotes. What I’m talking about is surveillance. And today, [House Intelligence Committee Chairman] Devin Nunes just had a news conference.

Rep Devin Nunes (R-CA), the chairman of a House panel investigating Russian interference in the presidential election, may have dealt his own inquiry a fatal blow.

Armed with intelligence that some Republicans said bolstered President Trump’s widely disputed claim of being wiretapped by the Obama administration, Chairman Nunes bypassed Democrats and went directly to the White House. The new information, Chairman Nunes said, showed that American intelligence agencies monitoring foreign officials may have “incidentally” picked up communications of Trump transition team members. The move angered Democrats who said that Nunes’s attempt to buttress Trump’s accusation raised questions about his ability to conduct an impartial bipartisan investigation. The House Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat, Rep Adam Schiff (D-CA), issued a challenge, saying that Chairman Nunes had to decide whether he was chairman of an independent investigation or “is going to act as a surrogate of the White House, because he cannot do both.”