FCC Tweaks Mic Rules, Microsoft Launches Spectrum Fight

By |2017-07-18T10:26:29-05:00July 18th, 2017|Legal News|

In late 2015, major wireless microphone manufacturers requested that the FCC “reconsider” various mostly-technical rules that it had adopted as part of a wide-ranging strategy to reallocate spectrum for wireless microphones. (We’ve written about recent regulatory changes for wireless mics here, here and here.) The Commission now has responded via an Order aimed at fine-tuning...… Continue Reading

The FCC Re-Tweaks the Equipment Authorization Rules

By |2017-07-17T11:19:38-05:00July 17th, 2017|Legal News|

Some FCC regulations are carved in stone, changing about as often as the rules of chess. But not the equipment authorization rules, which lay out the procedures manufacturers and importers must follow to market devices having potential to cause interference to radio communications. The FCC likes to revise and update these every few years. This...… Continue Reading

Major Changes Sought in Nascent Citizens Broadband Radio Service

By |2017-06-23T14:02:52-05:00June 23rd, 2017|Legal News|

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 FCC a couple of years ago as a broadband service for locally-focused businesses.  The regulatory paradigm included both a large swathe...… Continue Reading

NTIA Seeks Comments on Cybersecurity Threats

By |2017-06-22T13:23:40-05:00June 22nd, 2017|Legal News|

We’ve previously reported on a drone-related multistakeholder process convened by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which is part of the Department of Commerce and is responsible for telecommunications and technology policy. For several years, NTIA has considered important policy issues related to emerging technologies through these “multistakeholder processes,” which bring together industry, public...… Continue Reading

The FCC is Now Granting Program Experimental Licenses (Finally!)

By |2017-04-14T14:19:12-05:00April 14th, 2017|Legal News|

The FCC has always been kind to people who tinker with radio equipment, whether teenagers blowing out their parents’ fuses (that was us) or manufacturers’ research labs (maybe you). Licenses in the Experimental Radio Service allow work with radio transmitters that don’t otherwise meet FCC standards. The problem with these experimental licenses was that most … Continue Reading

5G is Coming! Wait – What’s 5G?

By |2016-04-03T08:15:14-05:00April 1st, 2016|Legal News|

New services promise exceptional performance. Just not everywhere. And not soon. After the successes of 3G and 4G mobile services, something called 5G was inevitable. It’s still a ways off, but the outlines are taking shape. The hallmark of 5G mobile service will be blindingly fast data speeds, possibly in the gigabit-per-second range, faster than … Continue Reading

Amber Waives of Grain? FCC OK’s TVWS Down on the Farm

By |2016-03-30T10:11:13-05:00March 30th, 2016|Legal News|

Companies granted waiver to deploy TV white space gear on farm equipment, farmhouses It happened again. Just when the lawyers thought they finally had a regulatory scheme that works, the engineers came up with a new idea that doesn’t fit. We recently wrote about this phenomenon in ultra-wideband technology, in an agricultural context. This time it’s … Continue Reading

New Math, Enforcement Bureau Style

By |2016-03-25T07:22:31-05:00March 25th, 2016|Legal News|

In two similar cases (with markedly different results), the Bureau demonstrates that the calculation of fines is not art, and certainly not science. Maybe we’re just not very smart, but we can’t figure out the FCC’s rationale for penalizing certain categories of wrongdoers. Take, for example, the case of Taylor Oilfield Manufacturing, Inc., located in … Continue Reading

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