LAS VEGAS, January 12, 2024 – A senior National Telecommunications and Information Administration advisor and the chief lawyers for both Democratic and Republican sides of the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology talked about their spectrum policy priorities on Thursday at CES.

The group touted U.S. wins at the World Radiocommunication Conference in Dubai, as well as lawmakers’ goals for spectrum auction authority heading into 2024.

World Radio Congress

Going into the conference, in which representatives from around the world meet to coordinate spectrum usage, “the 6 GigaHertz (GHz) issue was the top priority of the U.S. government,” said Phil Murphy, a senior advisor at the NTIA.

The band was set aside in 2020 by the Federal Communications Commission for unlicensed use in the United States, but some countries like China wanted to see some of the band tapped for 5G mobile use, Murphy said.

The U.S. delegation was ultimately able to deliver in December: the conference decision set aside 700 MegaHertz (MHz) for mobile, but left the door open for regulatory agencies to approve unlicensed use throughout the band.

That’s a win for the American Wi-Fi industry: the Wi-Fi alliance announced its official Wi-Fi 7 certification on Monday ahead of the tech conference. The new generation supports wider spectrum channels and multi-link operation, both of which will make use of the 1,200 MHz of real estate in the 6 GHz band.

“We’re really excited by the results,” Murphy said. “We’re really excited to see 6 GHz moving forward, not just here in the United States, but in other parts of the world as well.”

Auction authority

The Federal Communications Commission’s authority to auction and issue licenses for the commercial use of electromagnetic spectrum expired for the first time in March 2023. That’s not an issue for technologies like Wi-Fi, which don’t require such licenses to operate in bands set aside for unlicensed use, but it is important for ever-expanding 5G networks and wireless broadband.

“The Chair’s number one priority is to reauthorize the FCC spectrum auction authority that expired in March,” said Kate O’Connor, chief counsel for the Republican majority on the communications and technology subcommittee. “Even if it hasn’t been public, there’s been a lot going on behind the scenes.”

Jennifer Epperson, chief counsel for the Democratic side of the subcommittee, and Murphy, the NTIA advisor, agreed on the importance of the issue. 

“I think reauthorizing the FCC’s spectrum auction authority is a priority for the administration as well,” he said. “There’s probably spectrum that the FCC has available to auction right now, but they can’t because they don’t have the authority to do so.”

At a House oversight hearing in November, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said “I have a bunch of bands sitting in the closet at the FCC,” pointing to 550 MHz in the 12.7-13.25 GHz band as spectrum the agency could go to auction with “relatively quickly.”

Efforts at blanket reauthorization have stalled publicly since a bill cleared the House Energy and Commerce Committee in May, but a stopgap measure allowing the Commission to issue licenses that had been purchased before the lapse was signed into law in December.

“With the funding bills coming up, we’re taking a look and hoping that we can turn this on as soon as possible,” O’Connor said.

WASHINGTON, January 12, 2024 – The Federal Communications Commission announced on Thursday that starting February 8 it will no longer accept new enrollments for the Affordable Connectivity Program, barring Congressional approval of additional funding for the low-income program.

The commission issued a 15-page order detailing its timeline and requirements to gradually phase out the program. The first in a series of deadlines is set for January 25, when providers must notify participants of the program’s anticipated end for the first time.

The FCC’s order came the day after bipartisan legislation was introduced in both the Senate and the House, proposing an additional $7 billion for the ACP program.

If passed, this funding would enable the FCC to extend the ACP until the year’s end, potentially negating some of the wind-down steps detailed in the recent FCC order.

Introduced in January 2022 to replace the Emergency Connectivity Fund that arose during the COVID-19 pandemic, the ACP offers monthly stipends of $30-75 for internet service to qualifying U.S. households.

In the recent order, the commission notes that with the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Congress enacted several changes to the ECF Program to transform it from an emergency COVID-19 program to a longer-term broadband affordability program. 

The FCC continues to change the program to address participant needs. Most recently, the commission raised the monthly ACP benefit to $75 for high-cost rural areas and directed the Universal Service Administrative Company to accept applications from interested providers.

Yet, due to concerns about potential confusion, the commission canceled the plans for USAC to process applications in a recent order. 

Absent Congressional intervention, the FCC’s Bureau will announce the last fully funded month of the program in late February, currently projected to be April 2024.

Fifteen days after that announcement, providers will be required to send a second notice to ACP participants about the program’s end. The third notice issued will coincide with the last billing cycle that the full ACP benefit is applied to. 

Providers must secure a household’s explicit agreement to continue to receive broadband services after the end of the ACP.

In the order, the commission said it will begin to inform organizations that received outreach grants to cease outreach work focused on enrollment.

On Friday, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, alongside four community partner organizations representing the 240 outreach coordinators for the ACP, filed a letter to the FCC asking that ACP outreach grantees be able to redirect their funded work toward program wind-down activities, including “raising awareness about the potential end of the ACP.”            

LAS VEGAS, January 11, 2024 – The United States has entered an agreement with the European Union on a “joint roadmap” for standardized cybersecurity labels, a Biden Administration official announced at CES on Thursday.

“We want companies to know when they test their product once to meet the cybersecurity standards, they can sell anywhere,” said Anne Neuberger, the White House’s deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technologies. “They can sell in Paris, Texas, or Paris, France.”

Neuberger said the White House is aiming to get its U.S. Cyber Trust Mark, a voluntary certification for internet of things devices, on consumer products by the end of the year. The effort to mark products like routers, baby monitors, and thermostats as safe from hacking was first announced in October 2022.

The Federal Communications Commission voted in August to seek comment on how to implement various parts of the program, including how to develop and ensure compliance with its cybersecurity standards.

What exactly those standards will be is not yet decided, but the Commission has said it will base the program on criteria developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Those  include encrypting both stored and communicated data and the ability to receive software updates.

The measure is not on the FCC’s tentative January meeting agenda, but Neuberger said the agency is “working toward next steps.”