Scoring a Victory for 5G

When it comes to 5G, we need to keep the playbook fresh and forward leaning. So at our July 12 meeting, the Federal Communications Commission will take another step to ensure that America continues to lead the world in mobile innovation. Headlining the agenda at the FCC’s July meeting is a proposal to make more intensive use of mid-band spectrum from 3.7 to 4.2 GHz, commonly called the C-band. Another area in which the FCC has made substantial progress but must not stand still is emergency alerting. Building on the Public Safety Bureau’s recommendations, we will vote on July 12 on an order and proposed rules designed to stop and correct false emergency alerts. One of our biggest efforts to update the Commission’s rules has been our Modernization of Media Regulation Initiative. In the latest action to come out of the MMRI, the FCC will begin to review our children’s programming rules. These rules impose programming mandates on broadcast television stations (and only broadcast television stations). FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly has developed a number of proposals for updating these regulations to better match today’s video marketplace. Another set of regulations hasn’t kept pace with technology: our rules regarding number portability. [W]e’ll vote on July 12 on preliminary steps to achieving nationwide number portability. We’ll have one final vote—this one focused on improving our internal processes. On tap is an order that would create a uniform set of procedural rules for formal complaint proceedings administered by our Enforcement Bureau.