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By Angelina Panettieri Nov 4, 2019 | Original article here.

The National League of Cities (NLC) is continuing the fight against Telecom preemption. We have joined a number of local governments and municipal organizations throughout the country in opposition to recent proposals from the Wireless Industry Association (WIA) and the Communications Technology Industry Association (CTIA). These proposals aim to further limit local oversight of wireless towers and pole attachments.

The FCC requested feedback on the proposals and whether they should expand the scope of Section 6409 of the Middle-Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012, which covers existing federal regulations preempting local governance of wireless towers. If enacted, the proposals from WIA and CTIA would substantially limit current authority local governments have to manage changes made to large wireless towers in their communities, as well as further limiting the control pole owners, such as local governments or utilities, have over pole attachments.

The petitions requested of the FCC seek to expand coverage of the 2014 FCC rules to preempt local government oversight of modifications to existing wireless facilities (known as Section 6409 eligible facilities requests). Among the changes requested were:

Continue reading “NLC, Local Allies Oppose Wireless Petitions Before FCC”

​By Jon Brodkin Oct 29, 2019 | Original Ars Technica here.

This may require ripping out existing network gear; ban on Chinese vendors would affect recipients of Universal Service funding.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai is moving ahead with a ban on equipment from Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE in US-funded telecom projects. The FCC will vote on Pai’s proposal at its November 19 meeting, the commission said in an announcement and fact sheet released yesterday.

Pai’s proposal "would bar communications companies from using any support they receive from the FCC’s Universal Service Fund (USF) to purchase equipment or services from companies posing a national security threat, like the Chinese companies Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp.," the announcement said.

Continue reading “FCC plans Huawei and ZTE Ban”

By Jon Brodkin Oct 25, 2019 | Original Ars Technica article here.

Comcast makes privacy pledge as it fights Google plan to encrypt DNS in Chrome and Android Mobile Operating System.

Comcast has gone on the record to say that it does not track its broadband users’ Web browsing histories, even though the company is lobbying against a Google plan that could make it harder for ISPs to track their users.

Comcast yesterday released a statement titled "The Facts about Privacy with Comcast’s Xfinity Internet Service." Comcast said:

Where you go on the Internet is your business, not ours. As your Internet Service Provider, we do not track the websites you visit or apps you use through your broadband connection. Because we don’t track that information, we don’t use it to build a profile about you and we have never sold that information to anyone.

Comcast further said that it does not and has never sold "information that identifies who you are to anyone," and the company claims it has never sold location data gathered from Comcast’s mobile service. Comcast also said it deletes DNS queries generated by its Internet customers every 24 hours "except in very specific cases where we need to research a security or network performance issue, protect against security threats, or comply with a valid legal request."

Continue reading “Comcast Fights Google Encrypted-DNS Plan”

By Joel M. Moskowitz on Oct 17, 2019 | Original Scientific American Opinion piece here.

Densified 4G + 5G technology is coming, but contrary to what some people say, there could be health risks.

The telecommunications industry and their experts have accused many scientists who have researched the negative health consequences of cell phone radiation of "fear mongering" over the advent of wireless industry’s push for Densified 4G + 5G. Since much of our research is publicly-funded, we believe it is our ethical responsibility to inform the public about what the peer-reviewed scientific literature tells us about the health risks from pulsed, data-modulated, Radio-frequency Electromagnetic Microwave Radiation (RF-EMR) exposures.

The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently announced through a press release that the commission will soon reaffirm the RF-EMR exposure limits that the FCC adopted in the late 1990s. These limits are based upon a behavioral change in rats exposed to microwave radiation and were designed to protect us from short-term heating risks due to acute RF-EMR exposures.

The FCC adopted these RF-EMR exposure limits based largely on research from the 1980s. Since then, the preponderance of peer-reviewed research, more than 500 studies, have found harmful biologic or negative health consequences from RF-EMR exposures at intensities are too low to cause heating of tissue.

Citing this large body of research, more than 240 scientists who have published peer-reviewed research on the biologic and health effects of nonionizing electromagnetic fields (EMF) [and RF-EMR exposures] signed the International EMF Scientist Appeal, which calls for stronger exposure limits. The appeal makes the following assertions:

“Numerous recent scientific publications have shown that EMF affects living organisms at levels well below most international and national guidelines. Effects include increased cancer risk, cellular stress, increase in harmful free radicals, genetic damages, structural and functional changes of the reproductive system, learning and memory deficits, neurological disorders, and negative impacts on general well-being in humans. Damage goes well beyond the human race, as there is growing evidence of harmful effects to both plant and animal life.”

Continue reading “We Have No Reason to Believe That Densified 4G + 5G Is Safe”

By Priyanka Bandara and David O Carpenter | Original Lancet here.

As the Planetary Health Alliance moves forward after a productive second annual meeting, a discussion on the rapid global proliferation of artificial electromagnetic fields would now be apt. The most notable is the blanket of radio-frequency electromagnetic radiation, largely microwave radiation generated for wireless communication and surveillance technologies, as mounting scientific evidence suggests that prolonged exposure to radio-frequency electromagnetic radiation has serious biological and health effects.

However, public exposure regulations in most countries continue to be based on the guidelines of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection¹ and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.² which were established in the 1990’s on the belief that only acute thermal effects are hazardous. Prevention of tissue heating by radio-frequency electromagnetic radiation is now proven to be ineffective in preventing biochemical and physiological interference. For example, acute non-thermal exposure has been shown to alter human brain metabolism by NIH scientists,³ electrical activity in the brain,⁴ and systemic immune responses.⁵

Continue reading “Planetary Electromagnetic Pollution: It is Time to Assess its Impact”

By Andrew Pardiac, Managing Editor, Andrew@sonomawest.com Oct 16, 2019 | Original Sonoma West Times article here.

Cell tower near Petaluma Avenue Homes has been the focus of health allegations from residents.

Cell Tower Controversy

The Palm Drive Health Care District heard from a slew of residents of Petaluma Avenue Homes, a complex located adjacent to Sonoma Specialty Hospital (SSH). Their grievance: electromagnetic frequencies (EMF) coming from a cell tower owned by Crown Castle and used by AT&T, on the hospital’s campus.

The residents lined up during public comment on non-agenda items at the district’s Oct. 7 meeting at SSH.

Those who spoke wanted the tower either removed or raised. Raising the tower was a suggestion to keep the second- and third-story homes out of the direct line of EMF radiation as they claimed it currently is.

The residents said the tower was responsible for a number of health issues in the complex, from child depression to a 16-pound tumor associated with ovarian cancer.

Continue reading “Palm Drive Hospital District Residents Claim Tower Outputs Too Much Power”

By Jon Brodkin, Oct 15, 2019 | Original Ars Technica article here.

FCC failure to preempt States keeps the Washington State net neutrality law on the books.

   

Although the Federal Communications Commission abandoned its regulation of net neutrality, it wouldn’t be accurate to say there are no net neutrality laws anywhere in the United States.

No one enforces net neutrality in Washington, DC, but on the opposite coast, the state of Washington imposed a net neutrality law in June 2018 that remains in effect today. The Washington State law prohibits home and mobile Internet providers from blocking or throttling lawful Internet traffic and from charging online services for prioritization.

Continue reading “Washington State Enforces Net Neutrality After FCC Court Loss”

Adapted from a press release by Mark Cooper, Oct. 10, 2019 | Original Consumer Federation of America, Press Release here.

Washington D.C. — In a major analysis published almost three years ago, Consumer Federation of America (CFA) showed that consumers are being overcharged over $70 billion a year for their broadband, wireless and television services.¹ One of the key factors behind this overcharging is the decision of the FCC to freeze the collection of network costs, parking two-third of the total at the local (intrastate) level, even though today two-thirds of communications revenue is collected in the interstate jurisdiction.² Today the IRREGULATORS filed their reply brief to the FCC’s decision to continue its fraudulent accounting rules for another six years.³

Dr. Mark Cooper, CFA’s Director of Research⁴ says:

“CFA applauds the court case, and looks forward to participating in the new rulemakings that will force the FCC and state commissions to adopt a more realistic, pro-competitive and pro-consumer allocation of costs."

Today, CFA is releasing an issue brief explaining the history of the issue and the huge stake the public has in the case. Here is a link to Why the Case of “The Irregulators V. The FCC” is So Important to Consumers: 20-Years of Broken Accounting Rules Have Caused Immense Pocketbook Harm to Consumers and Undermined Competition and Universal Service.

Continue reading “Overturning The FCC’s Fraudulent Accounting Rules Will Save Consumers Billions and Establish True Competition in Digital Communications”

By Karl Bode Oct 10 2019 | Original motherboard article here.

Wireless carriers are fighting back against efforts to better map 5G wireless availability, worried that better data could deflate their 5G marketing hype.

To hear wireless carriers tell it, 5G is just short of magic. As the faster network standard is quickly and broadly deployed, carriers say 5G will result in a “fourth industrial revolution” that will change absolutely everything, resulting in smart cities and even smarter cancer cures.

In reality, carriers have faced widespread criticism for overhyping not only what 5G can do, but where it’s actually available. Verizon’s early 5G launches have been criticized for being fast but barely available. AT&T has been ridiculed for overstating 5G availability by using bogus 5G phone icons. And while 5G coverage will improve over time, it will take many years to do so.

Because it’s been so overhyped, having an accurate map of actual 5G availability is going to be important. But for years, both industry and government broadband availability maps have been criticized for massively overstating real world broadband availability. Carriers have historically lobbied against better broadband mapping, worried that better public data would only highlight America’s significant broadband and competition shortcomings.

Continue reading “AT&T and Verizon Don’t Want You To Know Where 5G Really Is”

​By Jon Brodkin – Oct 10, 2019, 2:17 PM | here

As FCC requires more accurate broadband maps, Wireless Carriers want 5G Coverage to be left out.

AT&T and other mobile carriers are trying to hide detailed 5G maps from the public despite constantly touting the supposed pace and breadth of their 5G rollouts.

With the Federal Communications Commission planning to require carriers to submit more accurate data about broadband deployment, AT&T and the mobile industry’s top lobby group are urging the FCC to exclude 5G from the upgraded data collection.

"There is broad agreement that it is not yet time to require reporting on 5G coverage," AT&T told the FCC in a filing this week.

As evidence of that "broad agreement," AT&T cited comments by CTIA — the mobile industry lobby group that represents AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint. "[A]s CTIA points out, service standards for 5G are still emerging, precluding reporting of service-level coverage for 5G networks (other than the 5G-NR submissions already required)," AT&T wrote.

Continue reading “AT&T and Other Carriers Wish to Hide Detailed 5G Coverage Maps from FCC and Public”