Good afternoon from Washington, DC! Below you will find this week’s Weekly Wireless Wrap-Up, your update on the wireless telecommunications regulatory landscape, important wireless decisions, and more! Of note this week, the FCC held its January Open Meeting and released the Tentative Agenda for the February Open Meeting. Here’s your wrap-up:
FCC:
- Last Thursday, January 27, 2022, the FCC held its January Open Meeting. The FCC considered and adopted 4 items, including a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Broadband Consumer Labeling, which is discussed in greater detail below. For more information and to view a copy of the Agenda, see our post here.
- On January 27, 2022, the FCC released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”), adopted that the January Open Meeting, seeking comment on regulations requiring broadband internet access service providers (“ISP”) to display, at the point of sale, labels to disclose to consumers information regarding prices, introductory rates, data allowances, broadband speeds, and management practices, among other things, as required by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (“Infrastructure Act”). The proposed rules are largely based on the 2016 safe harbor labels the FCC previously permitted ISPs to use to comply with broadband transparency requirements. For more information and to view a copy of the NPRM, see our post here.
- On January 28, 2022, the FCC released the Tentative Agenda for the February Open Meeting, scheduled for Friday, February 18, 2022 at 10:30 AM. The Commission is tentatively scheduled to consider four items. For more information and to view a copy of the Tentative Agenda, see our post here.
- Also last Friday, the FAA announced that it had reached an agreement with AT&T and Verizon in the ongoing dispute over 5G deployments in the C-band. The agreement will permit more aircraft to use airports while permitting more towers to deploy 5G service. The FAA stated that it is collaborating with carriers to provide the agency with more precise data, which the FAA used to more thoroughly analyze how 5G C-band signals are interacting with sensitive aircraft instruments. To read more on the dispute and to view a copy of the FAA’s notice, see our post here.
Nominations:
- Today, the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee announced that it will be holding a second Nomination Hearing for Gigi Sohn next Wednesday, February 9, 2022. Sohn was originally scheduled for a nominations this morning, however, yesterday her hearing was postponed. For more information on Sohn’s nomination, see Congress’s website here.
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