The Federal Communications Commission adopted new rules to encourage the development of new communications technologies and expedite the deployment of new services in the spectrum above 95 GHz. Prior to this decision, the FCC had no rules for authorizing communications above 95 GHz, other than by amateur operators or through experiments of limited duration and scope. To enable innovators and entrepreneurs to most readily access this spectrum, the Spectrum Horizons First Report and Order creates a new category of experimental licenses for use of frequencies between 95 GHz and 3 THz. These licenses will give innovators the flexibility to conduct experiments lasting up to 10 years and to more easily market equipment during the experimental period. The item also makes a total of 21.2 gigahertz of spectrum available for use by unlicensed devices. The FCC selected bands with propagation characteristics that will permit large numbers of unlicensed devices to use the spectrum, while limiting the potential for interference to existing governmental and scientific operations in the above-95 GHz bands, such as space research and atmospheric sensing. The First Report and Order provides unprecedented opportunities for new experimental and unlicensed use in the frequencies above 95 GHz and will help ensure that the United States stays at the forefront of wireless innovation. Moreover, study of these uses could ultimately lead to further rulemaking actions and additional licensing opportunities within the Spectrum Horizons bands.

This Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) proposes to reconfigure the 900 MHz band to facilitate broadband via a market-driven, voluntary exchange process to allow existing licensees to agree to a voluntarily plan for relocating incumbents and for transitioning the band. The 900 MHz band (896-901/935-940 MHz) is designated for narrowband private land mobile radio (PLMR) communications by Business/Industrial/Land Transportation (B/ILT) licensees and for Specialized Mobile Radio (SMR) providers, with deployed systems primarily used for two-way communication by land transportation, utility, manufacturing, and petrochemical companies. The FCC is proposing to reconfigure the 900 MHz band to facilitate the development of broadband technologies and services as well, including for critical infrastructure.

WT Docket No. 17-200

The Federal Communications Commission is officially moving its Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) team from the Media Bureau to the Enforcement Bureau. The EEO team’s work is primarily focused on periodic random audits of broadcast licensee and multichannel video programming distributors (MVPD) EEO programs, along with any necessary enforcement actions arising from those audits. The team also investigates complaints and takes enforcement action based on those investigations when necessary. The FCC voted in 2018 to move its EEO audit and enforcement functions to the Enforcement Bureau to better serve the public interest and improve the FCC’s operations. This transfer required approval from the House and Senate Appropriations Committees and the Office of Management and Budget. The FCC also negotiated an agreement regarding the implementation of the realignment with the National Treasury Employees Union. All of these steps have now been completed.

A collaboration of three national rural nonprofits hopes to create a more accurate picture for researchers and advocates to use to see how their communities measure up. The TestIT smartphone app invites rural residents to participate in the effort, identifying current broadband speed and service gaps in underserved communities. The Rural Community Assistance Partnership (RCAP) is partnering with the National Association of Counties (NACo) and Rural Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) on the project. The app was developed with the Measurement Lab, a private initiative that includes industry leaders like Google, nonprofits like New America’s Open Technology Project, and researchers like Princeton University’s Planet Lab. The data through the tests collected will be shared publicly.

As privacy scandals mount at firms such as Facebook, Presidential candidate Sen Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) is positioning her data tax as a way to make technology companies think twice about how they share and profit from users’ data. But implementing such an idea might be difficult, experts noted. Taxing data means you have to know what such information is worth, for instance. Former Facebook employee Antonio García Martínez says data is often compared to oil, but that's a poor analogy because unlike oil that has a clear price, the ultimate value of data is unknown. Outside of using data to allow targeted advertising, it’s difficult to measure such information's value because that can change dramatically depending on the context.

Some of the country’s most influential state attorneys general are signaling they’re willing to take action against Facebook, Google and other tech giants, warning that the companies have grown too big and powerful -- and that Washington has been too slow to respond. Some state officials feel that Washington bears some of the blame for the tech industry’s string of scandals in the first place. Lawmakers in Congress long have struggled to adopt a national law targeting tech giants’ data-collection practices, while federal agencies have allowed many of the headline-grabbing mishaps at Facebook and Google to go unpunished. In response, states like Arizona and Mississippi now are taking aim at Google for the way it collects and monetizes web users’ data. The District of Columbia, meanwhile, is challenging Facebook’s business practices in court. And there are “numerous bipartisan discussions” among Democrats and Republicans about other areas where attorneys general can coordinate their attention on big tech. “We are in a moment where the federal government’s level of effectiveness and engagement on a range of issues, on technology, consumer protection and privacy, is limited,” said Phil Weiser, the Democratic attorney general of Colorado. Absent federal intervention, he said, “states in general or state AGs are able to act.”

It’s been almost exactly a year since news broke that Facebook had allowed the personal data of tens of millions of users to be shared with Cambridge Analytica, a consulting company affiliated with Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. That revelation sparked an investigation by the Justice Department into the company's data-sharing practices, which has broadened to include a grand jury. Privacy breaches are hardly as serious as ethnic violence, but the ordeal did mark a palpable shift in public awareness about Facebook’s immense influence. Plus, it followed a familiar pattern: Facebook knew about the slip-up, ignored it for years, and, when exposed, tried to downplay it with a handy phrase that Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg repeated ad nauseam in his April congressional hearings: “We are taking a broader view of our responsibility.” He struck a similar note with a 3,000-word blog post in early March that promised the company would focus on private communications, attempting to solve Facebook’s trust problem while acknowledging that the company’s apps still contain “terrible things like child exploitation, terrorism, and extortion.” If Facebook wants to stop those things, it will have to get a better handle on its 2.7 billion users, whose content powers its wildly profitable advertising engine.

President Donald Trump threatened “Saturday Night Live” and other late-night shows with a federal investigation for poking fun of him. He said, “It’s truly incredible that shows like Saturday Night Live, not funny/no talent, can spend all of their time knocking the same person (me), over & over, without so much of a mention of ‘the other side.’ Like an advertisement without consequences. Same with Late Night Shows." “Should Federal Election Commission and/or [Federal Communications Commission] look into this?” he added. “There must be Collusion with the Democrats and, of course, Russia! Such one sided media coverage, most of it Fake News. Hard to believe I won and am winning. Approval Rating 52%, 93% with Republicans. Sorry! #MAGA”