Welcome back to TLP’s Weekly Wireless Wrap-Up, your weekly update on the wireless telecommunications regulatory landscape, important wireless decisions, and more! Notably, this week, the FCC released its August Open Meeting Agenda and Congress released the text of its infrastructure bill, which includes over $42 Billion in broadband funding. Here’s your wrap-up:
FCC:
- Last Wednesday, July 28, 2021, the FCC published a Public Notice seeking comment on the technical requirements for the mobile challenge, verification and crowdsourcing processes required under the Broadband DATA Act. Comments are due on or before August 27, 2021 and reply comments are due on or before September 13, 2021. For more information, see our post here.
- Last Thursday, July 29, 2021, the FCC released the Agenda for the August Open Meeting, which will be held virtually tomorrow, August 5, 2021 at 10:30 am on the FCC’s webpage and YouTube channel. The Commission is set to consider six items, including a Report and Order establishing a review process of the STIR/SHAKEN Governance Authority and a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on TRS Fund compensation methodology for IP Relay service. For more information see our post here.
Congress:
- Late Sunday night, August 1, 2021, the Senate released the text of its bi-partisan infrastructure bill. The bill uses the text of H.R. 3684, which the House approved last month. The bill includes more than $42 billion for deployment of fixed broadband services, defined as any fixed service (i.e. technologically neutral) having speeds of 100 MBs up and 20 MBs down. The bill also includes funding for middle mile infrastructure, a replacement program of the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program, and more. The Senate is expected to vote on the bill quickly. For more information, see Congress’ website here.
White House:
- Last Wednesday, July 28, 2021, the White House released a memo titled “Improving Cybersecurity for Critical Infrastructure Control Systems.” As a result of the growing cybersecurity attacks, the White House has established an Industrial Control Systems Cybersecurity Initiative, which is a voluntary collaborative effort between the Federal Government and critical infrastructure industries to improve the security of their systems, identify cyber-attacks, and facilitate responses in the event that a system is attacked. The initiative will begin with a pilot effort with the electricity subsector, followed by a similar effort for natural gas pipelines. Efforts for water and waste water sector systems and chemical sector will follow later this year. It is anticipated the Telecommunications sector systems will follow next year. For more information, see the memo here.
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