Matt Daneman

Smart city applications are joining the list of factors driving the need for more licensed and unlicensed spectrum, spectrum and smart city experts said Wednesday during a Broadband Breakfast panel discussion. Beyond more spectrum, smart cities will require a lot of spectrum sharing and maximized use of existing allocations, they said. There isn't one route to smart cities, and the spectrum isn't needed for a single purpose, said Richard Bernhardt, Wireless ISP Association vice president-spectrum and industry. Cities rely particularly heavily on unlicensed spectrum for smart city applications, said Ryan Johnston, Next Century Cities senior policy counsel. He said municipal governments are often left out of spectrum strategy and policy discussions, even though they are becoming big consumers of spectrum. He said they should be at the table for spectrum sharing and allocation discussions.

The commercial space launch industry should not be sanguine about SpaceX's forthcoming Starship heavy launch rocket's impact on competition, though changes won't be immediate, Arianespace Chief Commercial Officer Steven Rutgers said Tuesday at the Washington Space Business Roundtable. Meanwhile, a notable shakeout in the ranks of new and emerging launch providers is coming, launch executives predicted.

While the cable industry invests heavily in the groundwork for DOCSIS 4.0 and the greater speeds it will bring, existing DOCSIS 3.1 broadband delivery specifications and technology will be in use for years to come, cablers said Thursday. During an SCTE webinar, some said DOCSIS 4.0 could open the door to cable operators shifting from "best efforts" service standards to service level agreements (SLA), letting them guarantee specific speed tiers and latency.

Expanding the reach of the citizens broadband radio service band via reworking the aggregate interference model (see 2406120027) opens the door to further significant CBRS operational changes, wireless and spectrum experts said Tuesday. They spoke during a CBRS seminar that the New America's Open Technology Institute sponsored. Preston Marshall, chairman of the OnGo Alliance, which promotes spectrum sharing, said that while the "CBRS 2.0" operational changes announced this month were uniformly beneficial to users, future "CBRS 3.0" discussions could start edging into areas, such as power levels, where there would be winners and losers. He said industry needs to come to a coherent, cohesive position to present to regulators rather than the government having to "arbitrate a food fight."

The FCC is increasingly leaning toward an "object-years" regulatory approach to space safety, experts say. But some warn of flaws in the approach. The agency is seeking input, due June 27, on its orbital debris open proceeding about using a 100 object-years benchmark -- a cap on the total cumulative time to deorbit failed satellites -- for assessing the risk of a constellation's derelict satellites (see 2405240005).

Big mainstream demand for ATSC 3.0-enabled TVs is coming, but it's a couple of years out, with a lack of widespread consumer familiarity causing the delay, CTA Senior Director-Business Intelligence Richard Kowalski said Friday during the NextGen Broadcast Conference in Washington. CTA anticipates a big leap in set availability, starting in 2026. Meanwhile, broadcast and emergency alert system advocates talked about integrating ATSC 3.0 into the emergency alerts ecosphere.

The U.S. needs to move toward a firm date for the end of mandatory simulcast of ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 signals and fully transition to ATSC 3.0, but it's too early to say when that date should be, NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt said Thursday at the NextGen Broadcast Conference in Washington. Conference-goers applauded the call for a transition deadline, and FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr echoed it, saying he would support a proceeding about the issue. Carr also suggested gauging broadcast and wireless industry interest in an "incentive auction 2.0" for low-band spectrum.

The FCC's proposed crackdown on video carriage agreements' most-favored nation (MFN) and alternative distribution method (ADM) provisions is being met with huzzahs from independent programmers and allies. But docket 24-115 comments last week saw multichannel video programming distributors (MVPD) argue that the more-pressing problem is big programmers forcing contractual terms. The agency's commissioners in April approved 3-2 an indie-programmer NPRM that proposed restrictions on carriage agreement terms and sought comment on bundling practices broadly (see 2404190063).

Expect cable operators to roll out plenty of mobile wireless services in coming months, wireless and cable industry watchers tell us. However, mid-tier and regional cable operators are facing a steeper uphill climb in making such services profitable. Breezeline began offering mobile service this spring, joining the likes of Comcast, Charter Communications, Altice and Cox Communications. Mediacom said it plans a roll out of mobile service this month (see 2405210068).

Increased lunar activity is revealing a host of unanswered spectrum and other regulatory questions, space law experts said Tuesday at an American Bar Association space law symposium in Washington. In addition, legal liability questions about space mishaps are another area with more uncertainty than definitive answers, speakers said.