Matt Daneman

The HTML5 101 document that NCTA and AT&T gave the FCC should help spell out why the pay-TV backed set-top box plan "offers a more productive path forward ... when it comes to competition, content diversity, copyright protection, and consumer welfare" than the NPRM before the agency, NCTA said in a blog post Friday. The apps proposal will obviate the need for set-tops, but "what it will not and should not do is to permit third parties to ignore copyright law and the decision of content creators as to how their content is packaged and presented to consumers," NCTA said. It also lashed out at unnamed critics as taking an "extreme position ... that the FCC must go further to 'unbundle the app.'" The HTML5 explainer -- posted Friday in docket 16-42 -- says what HTML5 is: the latest version of World Wide Web Consortium standards. Along with the 33-page primer, NCTA/AT&T provided an index of questions the FCC asked about the plan (see 1607110042 and 1607210044) and referred to various sections in the document that address them. For example, on the question of whether such HTML5 apps would be free and usable without additional multichannel video programming distributor-provided equipment, the index pointed to page 24 of the filing, where NCTA/AT&T said MVPDs "would license the HTML5 apps without charge to manufacturers of third-party navigation devices for their app stores, provided that the device manufactures and stores do not impose any fee or surcharge on MVPDs or consumers for providing or using the app or for transactions enabled through the MVPD service." On page 13, it said consumers would download the app from an app store associated with whatever device they're using and not require any new cable gateway device. Other questions in the index include whether the functions of an MVPD set-top and of the described app be identical and whether license terms will let a device's universal search include third-party apps on an equal and non-discriminatory basis alongside MVPDs' apps. The filing directly answers some questions, but other answers were left vague, such as whether all the content available via a set-top will be equally available to consumers in an app regime, Public Knowledge Senior Staff Attorney John Bergmayer told us. The HTML5 approach still raises some concerns such as that such universal apps often are "lowest common denominator" and don't take advantage of the full functionality of devices, Bergmayer said. Meanwhile, pay-TV programmers continue to push back against the FCC's original set-top proposal. The plan "concerns programmers because of the lack of sufficient mechanisms to respect and enforce the myriad provisions of the contractual agreements between programmers and MVPDs," said an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 16-42 on a meeting between programmers and FCC staff. Because of that contractual provision concern, the programmers said they "would continue to have concerns with any proposal (app-based or otherwise) that would not honor this threshold element." Meeting were Viacom Senior Vice President-Government Relations and Regulatory Counsel Keith Murphy, 21st Century Fox Senior Vice President Jared Sher, Time Warner Vice President-Public Policy Kyle Dixon, Disney Vice President-Government Relations Susan Fox, Scripps Networks Vice President-Legal and Government Affairs Kimberly Hulsey, CBS Senior Vice President-Regulatory Policy Anne Lucey and FCC staffers including Gigi Sohn, Louisa Terrell and Jessica Almond from Chairman Tom Wheeler's office.

Charter Communications, facing a pair of programmer legal challenges to its affiliation practices after its buys of Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable, could see others, cable industry insiders and watchers told us. One cable programmer said there are “rumblings” that other such lawsuits against Charter may be forthcoming.

The FCC spectrum frontiers order ended up giving satellite operators more flexibility in siting future earth stations than they had feared they would receive, though the industry also hoped the agency would apply a heavier regulatory touch to aggregate interference, industry officials tell us. The aggregate interference wording in the 278-page order and Further NPRM voted on Thursday (see 1607140052) "is not action oriented" because it set up a route for gathering information and urges more study and cooperative data gathering, one satellite company lawyer told us.

Numerous groups with an interest in 5G are applauding the FCC for opening up high-frequency bands for 5G in its spectrum frontiers proceeding. Intel said Thursday's 5-0 vote (see 1607140052) is "ensuring that the U.S. remains a world leader in mobile broadband." It said 5G access to the 28 and 37/39 GHz bands and unlicensed use in the 64-71 GHz bands "in an investment-friendly manner will spur development ... in the U.S. and other countries." CEO Brian Krzanich in a statement said, "Consumers and businesses are going to start benefiting from 5G much faster than generally expected and the FCC’s bi-partisan decision ... is crucial to accelerating this phenomenon." Commissioners' "proactive leadership [is] helping pave the way to make 5G networks a reality in the United States," said National Association of Tower Erectors Executive Director Todd Schlekeway. NATE said member companies "have developed and maintained every generation of communications networks and will be on the front lines again in order to help make 5G networks a reality in the future." The Telecommunications Industry Association in a statement said the FCC vote "frees a significant amount of new spectrum for mobile use, and does so without attaching strings or taking a wait-and-see approach. ... Spectrum Frontiers provides both the fuel that will be demanded by next-generation networks, and the predictability that is needed by technology companies." TIA said implementation of the 5G rules must be done "in ways that deliver on the FCC’s promise of a flexible approach, and we must continue to find new and creative ways to address our insatiable demand for more bandwidth." Information Technology Industry Council Vice President-Government Affairs Vince Jesaitis in a blog post Thursday called the spectrum frontiers decision "a historic one, and one that will cement U.S. leadership in 5G connectivity and next generation WiFi technology commonly known as WiGig" by making the U.S. the first country to map out 5G spectrum and identify additional spectrum bands for 5G and other wireless technologies. "This puts the United States well ahead of foreign counterparts by allowing American entrepreneurs and consumers to be the first in the world to have the tools needed to innovate in the new era of the of the internet: the Internet of Things," Jesaitis wrote. "Cars, buildings, infrastructure like highways and bridges, industrial systems, streetlights, and countless other objects will be using wireless connections to transfer data as well. To accommodate the 30 billion devices that will be connected to the internet by 2020, and fully realize the $11.1 trillion boost to the economy that the IoT will bring, we need to build on current wireless technologies by adopting policies like the 5G initiative that will spur investment in next generation wireless technologies." Friday, the White House and agencies unveiled a wireless research effort that includes 5G (see 1607150035).

The Air Force expects to launch a wideband analysis of alternatives (AoA) this fall that could see DOD increasingly turn to commercial communications satellite providers for a much bigger slice of the military’s communications needs. But satcom operators said in interviews that commercial satcom capabilities could be a secondary issue to the challenge in changing military procurement procedures. "The number one issue is cultural," said Myland Pride, Intelsat director-government and regulatory affairs. DOD and other government agencies increasingly recognize commercial capability improvements in satcom and other mission areas, Pride said, but "to switch from how they have done business for many, many years is difficult."

The Air Force's Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC) almost certainly will get out of the business of space traffic management, said Benjamin Roberts, assistant director-civil and commercial space at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. With the Federal Aviation Administration almost surely picking up the space traffic cop job, the key issue is how all that will shake out, he said Thursday at Future Space 2016 during a series of talks about the state of space debris management. The new oversight should come with new technologies and capabilities built in and not just a transfer of the status quo from one body to another, Roberts said.

MVPDs and allies were dismayed Thursday as Chairman Tom Wheeler said the FCC was wrapping up its look at possible changes to the totality of circumstances test in good-faith retransmission negotiations without making any rules changes. Multichannel video programming distributors had assumed the agency would end up making some meaningful rules changes. They were tentatively expected as soon as August's agenda, one cable industry lawyer told us, saying the decision came as complete surprise.

The future of Globalstar's broadband terrestrial low-power broadband system plans remains hazy, with Commissioners Mike O'Rielly and Mignon Clyburn still not having decided on the draft order circulated by Chairman Tom Wheeler. "As soon as I come to a conclusion, we'll see how it goes," O'Rielly said Thursday at the agency's meeting. An FCC official told us Clyburn hasn't voted. Commissioners Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel had voted no (see 1606030041). Globalstar didn't comment.

A public notice on OneWeb's planned 720-satellite constellation could be issued as soon as this month, an FCC official told us, with the agency also working on a variety of satellite rulemaking that could follow later this year and in 2017. Satellite Industry Association President Tom Stroup said he had heard similarly from the agency, though nothing in recent weeks.

The debate over 5G and fixed satellite service sharing of the 28 GHz band increasingly involves power flux density (PFD) and proposed limits on that measure of signal power level at the receiver. "As long as you will be sharing spectrum between satellite and terrestrial systems, this is the issue," Farooq Khan, CEO of 5G technology company Phazr, told us. "The back and forth over precise technical limits on power is entirely normal," satellite industry consultant Tim Farrar told us in an email, pointing to such issues as the Globalstar/Wi-Fi in 5 GHz or the GPS industry's past challenges to Ligado. "I'd expect the FCC to be leaning in favor of terrestrial interests because that is the political priority."