Wireless Telecommunications

The Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) has not even been born yet, but already major industry players want to change its basic character. CBRS, as its name implies, was conceived and approved by the Federal Communications Commission a couple of years ago as a broadband service for locally-focused businesses. The regulatory paradigm included both a large swathe of generally authorized access (also termed “licensed by rule”) channels that would be made available opportunistically to any entity and licensed channels made available on a census-tract basis for generally non-renewable three year terms. This generated quite a bit of opposition from larger carriers who insisted that the small license areas and short, non-renewable terms would make the band unsuitable for significant investment.

Yet the FCC stuck to its vision for this “citizen”-oriented service and adopted rules which are now effective, though users cannot be up and operating until the spectrum managers begin administering access to the spectrum.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai says he did not discuss his proposal to roll back Title II classification of Internet service providers at a meeting at the White House but did talk about the building blocks of a wireless future—spectrum and infrastructure. Asked about the meeting by a reporter following the FCC's public meeting—particularly given Chairman Pai's criticism of what he thought as too close ties between the White House and Tom Wheeler on that issue—the chairman said they had an "excellent conversation" with tech and telecom leaders and his input was sought on the rollout of 5G and the Internet of Things.He called it a "very fruitful" conversation about spectrum and infrastructure and the like and that he looked forward to working with all interested parties.

As to FCC independence, he said the FCC was still an independent agency, but there were ways to collaborate with others in the Administration, before launching into a string of nautical references to make his point. He said he wanted to make sure "we are steering in the right direction," calling them "all sailors in the same boat" and saying that it was an "all hands on deck effort" to make sure wireless innovators have the necessary tools.

[Commentary] The week of June 12, the European Union Directorate-General for Competition released a report on the effects of zero-rating practices on competition in broadband markets, commissioned from consultants DotEcon, Aetha, and Oswald & Vahida. The report reviewed both the theoretical arguments regarding zero-rating and competition (including work by myself and Roslyn Layton) and actual experiences with the practice from European Union countries.

The report’s findings are extremely informative, given the extent to which the purported harms from zero-rating alarmed a large number of United States advocates in the past. Notably, this resulted in the February 2015 Open Internet Order requiring case-by-case analysis of alleged breaches of a zero-rating general conduct standard in agreements between broadband internet access service operators and end consumers.

[Bronwyn Howell is a faculty member at the School of Management, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.]

[Commentary] In order for us to expand prosperity and extend economic opportunity to more Americans, we must remain on the cutting edge. This means that government at all levels must focus on removing barriers to innovation and ensuring that technological advances aren’t strangled by bureaucratic red tape.

For starters, we’re taking aggressive action to speed the roll-out of next-generation wireless networks. But to get to the 5G future that will make the Internet of Things fully possible, we’ll need much more infrastructure than what today’s networks demand. If America is to lead the world in 5G, we need to modernize our regulations so that infrastructure can be deployed promptly and at scale. Another Federal Communications Commission priority has been making the agency more agile and responsive.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced that the following items are tentatively on the agenda for the July Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday, July 13, 2017:

1. Call Authentication Trust Anchor – The Commission will consider a Notice of Inquiry that seeks comment on methods to authenticate telephone calls to further secure our telephone networks against illegal robocallers. The Notice seeks comment on implementing authentication standards for telephone calls, as well as the Commission’s role in this process and other public policy considerations. (WC Docket No. 17-97)
2. Advanced Methods to Target and Eliminate Unlawful Robocalls – The Commission will consider a Notice of Inquiry that explores methods by which reassigned telephone number data could be made available to callers to avoid making unwanted calls to consumers. (CG Docket No. 17-59)
3. Protecting Consumers from Unauthorized Carrier Changes and Related Unauthorized Charges – The Commission will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking outlining steps to further curtail slamming and cramming. (CG Docket No. 17-169)
4. Rural Call Completion - The Commission will consider a Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that proposes rule changes to better address ongoing problems in the completion of long-distance telephone calls to rural areas. The Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposes to (1) adopt new rural call completion requirements for covered providers, and (2) eliminate the Commission’s existing rural call completion recording, retention, and reporting rules. (WC Docket No. 13-39)
5. Video Description – The Commission will consider a Report and Order which increases the required hours of video described programming that covered broadcast stations and MVPDs must provide to consumers. (MB Docket No. 11-43)
6. Updating the Part 2 Equipment Authorization Program – The Commission will consider a First Report and Order that would update and amend its equipment authorization program by replacing two certification procedures with a new Supplier’s Declaration of Conformity process, codifying procedures for the electronic labeling of devices, modernizing the requirements related to the importation of electronic equipment, and incorporating up-to-date methods for equipment compliance measurements into the rules. (ET Docket No. 15-170)
7. Radar Services in the 76-81 GHz Band – The Commission will consider a Report and Order that would address use of the 76-81 GHz band under the Part 95 rules to support a broad range of vehicular radar uses, such as collision avoidance and adaptive cruise control systems, as well as to expand the types of fixed and mobile radar operations permitted within airport environments. (ET Docket No. 15-26)
8. Wireless Microphone Operations – The Commission will consider an Order on Reconsideration and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would address licensed and unlicensed wireless microphone operations in the TV bands and various other frequency bands. (GN Docket No. 14-166; ET Docket No. 14-165)

The Federal Communications Commission took action to support the deployment of a nationwide network for use by first responders. The decision, consistent with duties entrusted to the FCC by Congress, will help ensure that state-built portions of the network are interoperable with the core network so that public safety officials can communicate seamlessly with each other during emergencies.

The FCC established the standards and procedures it will use to review state plans. The decision addresses:

• The timeline for states to provide notification of their opt-out decisions and file plans with the FCC;
• Information states should include in their plans to demonstrate compliance with the statutory criteria for interoperability with FirstNet’s network;
• Some of the technical criteria and standards that the FCC will use in evaluating state plans;
• The FCC’s review process, including participation by interested parties, treatment of confidential information, and the timing of FCC action; and
• The FCC’s process for documenting its decisions to approve or disapprove state plans.

In addition, in light of recent filings by FirstNet in the docket, the Report and Order directs the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau to issue a Public Notice seeking comment on one remaining element of the FCC’s review standard, after which the FCC will issue an order on that element.

The Federal Communications Commission proposed rules to help unmask anonymous callers who threaten and harass schools, religious institutions, and other victims.

This effort follows the FCC’s temporary waiver earlier this year of caller ID privacy rules in order to help law enforcement address threatening phone calls received by Jewish Community Centers. The FCC is seeking to help law enforcement and community institutions get from telephone providers quick access to the information they need to identify and thwart threatening callers. The FCC seeks to streamline this process so that, going forward, institutions facing harassing or threatening calls can work with law enforcement to access caller ID info of the anonymous callers more quickly than the current, case-by-case waiver process. The proposal would amend the FCC’s rules to ensure that law enforcement and threatened parties can quickly identify threatening callers without the regulatory delay of applying for and being granted a waiver of the rules. The proposal lays out a path that protects consumer privacy by ensuring that caller information only be disclosed for truly threatening calls and that only law enforcement personnel and others responsible for the safety and security of the threatened party have access to otherwise-protected caller ID information.

The White House is gathering technology leaders on June 22 to discuss how the industry aims to drive economic growth in emerging technology areas like wireless broadband and drones.

Administration officials from the Office of Science and Technology Policy will bring in leaders from 25 technology companies and venture capital firms for an event titled “American Leadership in Emerging Technology.” The meeting is part of “tech week,” an initiative aimed at bolstering the Trump administration's relationship with the technology industry — which has been contentious — and the administration’s own information technology infrastructure. The event at the White House departs from tech week’s previous focus on modernizing technology within the federal government and instead will focus on “outward facing tech policy,” and “defending America’s leadership in the technology economy.” Jared Kushner is slated to be at the event, along with other administration officials and advisers including Ivanka Trump, Director of the National Economic Council Gary Cohn and Deputy US Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios.

The tech leaders will break into three working groups to discuss drones, 5G wireless broadband and the Internet of Things (IoT), and financing emerging technology before meeting with President Trump to discuss the breakout sessions.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) in a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, urged the agency to find ways to better utilize spectrum in the mid-band range for commercial use.

Chairman Thune’s letter, sent amidst the Trump administration’s focus on tech policy this week, stresses the need to modernize spectrum policy to keep pace with innovation as the nation moves toward a 5G world: “While the U.S. has pushed ahead with efforts to free new spectrum at both low and high frequencies, we lag behind other countries in ‘mid-band spectrum’ - the range of frequencies between 3GHz and 7 GHz,” wrote Thune to Pai. “Europe, China, Japan, and South Korea are all moving ahead to allocate hundreds of megahertz of mid-band spectrum, for licensed and unlicensed uses, in anticipation of both new Internet of Things applications as well as rising demand for mobile broadband that can be met with small cell deployments.” To bolster development of next generation wireless services, Chairman Thune re-introduced the bipartisan MOBILE NOW Act in January 2017 that would help free up large swaths of spectrum for commercial use by 2020.

No matter how ready a city is to move toward advanced mobility models, municipal officials can already begin developing a vision for what integrated mobility ought to look like and how their cities might evolve accordingly. More important, they can consider how to manage the transition so that its benefits are maximized in line with local priorities for improving residents’ quality of life.

To help city leaders structure their thinking, we have created scenarios for how mobility might change in three types of cities: dense cities in developed economies, dense cities in emerging economies, and sprawling metropolitan areas in developed economies. Each scenario accounts for present-day conditions and highlights both opportunities and challenges. In this article, we lay out these visions for the future of mobility, along with ideas about how municipal officials and other urban stakeholders can help their cities navigate toward positive outcomes.