Wireless Telecommunications

By this Public Notice, the Federal Communications Commission announces the topics and chairs of the six working groups that will assist the Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) VII. 

On June 12, 2019, all five commissioners from the Federal Communications Commission testified at an oversight hearing held by the Senate Commerce Committee. Recently, FCC Chairman Pai followed up on some questions raised during the hearing. His responses to written questions touch on the following topics:

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, International Bureau, Office of Engineering and Technology, and Office of Economics and Analytics invite interested parties to supplement the record to address issues raised by commenters in response to the FCC's July 2018 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in GN Docket No. 18-122. The FCC sought comment on several approaches, including auction-based approaches, for making some or all of the 3.7-4.2 GHz band (C-Band) available for terrestrial, flexible use.

The White House is pushing Commerce policy director Earl Comstock out of the Trump administration -- the first round of house-cleaning after the 2020 census debacle and clashes over tech policy.

The House Communications Subcommittee held a hearing on spectrum management and House leadership was not pleased with the infighting between the Federal Communications Commission and National Telecommunications & Information Administration over spectrum policy. The most prominent falling-out is over the FCC's recent auction of high band spectrum in the 24 GHz band for 5G and concerns by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of "out-of-band emissions" affecting satellite weather sensing.

Microsoft, Google and the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA) are urging the Federal Communications Commission to allow co-channel spectrum sharing in the C-band. The proposal would allow fixed wireless operators to use the same spectrum band as incumbent users, who are comprised largely of satellite operators that use the spectrum for their earth stations. The FCC is currently pondering how it might best make a portion of the C-band, comprised of spectrum between 3700 and 4200 MHz, available for wireless services.

Gov Ned Lamont (D-CT) went to Stamford (CT) to sign a bill he had pushed for all session long. The new law cuts the red tape in locating the 5G transmitters on state-owned facilities.  The need for 5G antennas to be closer to the ground like on a utility poll presents a technologically difficult problem in downtown areas like in Stamford and other cities where the utilities are underground and along the Metro-North railroad line.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Pierce Bainbridge Beck Price & Hecht LLP filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of AT&T customers in CA to stop the telecommunication company and two data location aggregators from allowing numerous entities—including bounty hunters, car dealerships, landlords, and stalkers—to access wireless customers’ real-time locations without authorization. An investigation by Motherboard earlier in 2019 revealed that any cellphone user’s precise, real-time location could be bought for just $300.

SensTom Cotton (R-AR) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), along with Sens Marco Rubio (R-FL), Mark Warner (D-VA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Mitt Romney (R-UT), introduced legislation to reinforce the Trump administration's efforts to prevent the Chinese-owned telecommunication company Huawei from threatening America's national security. The Defending America's 5G Future Act would codify President Donald Trump's recent Executive Order and would prohibit the removal of Huawei from the Commerce Department Entity List without an act of Congress.

Rep Michael McChaul (R-TX) introduced legislation to boost the presence of US firms in global industry standards bodies to combat China’s rising influence in next-generation 5G cellular network technology. The bill presses the Secretary of State to boost the “representation and leadership” of the US at international telecommunication organizations that create standards for the 5G cellular network.