Blog

• Focus: Exploring Spectrum Needs
• Committee: Senate Commerce
• Webcast: Wed, July 25, 2018 at 10:00 am ET — view webcast

The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee will hold a hearing on July 25, 2018 at 10:00 am ET in 253 Russell Senate Office Building on “The Race to 5G: Exploring Spectrum Needs to Maintain U.S. Global Leadership.” The committee webcasts its hearings on its website — the hearing starts at 31:35 in the video.

Senator John Thune (R-SD):

"There is much more to do. We will address ways to reduce barriers to [4G/5G densification] deployment in the near future. Senator Schatz and I introduced the STREAMLINE Small Cell Deployment Act a few weeks ago that reflects many months of hard work of meetings with stakeholders from across the country and of negotiation. It is still a work in progress, as we try to bring the benefits of [4G/5G densification] to American consumers, reap the benefits of 5G leadership of America and respect the important role that state and local governments play in deployment decisions."

Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL):

"I want to say something about infrastructure. It’s true that 5G networks are designed around denser wireless infrastructure, made up of many small cell facilities. The Chairman has a bill, [S.3157], on this siting process. We’ve all received passionate feedback on this [bill] and I want us to have a
robust conversation about the bill at a future hearing that must include participation by local government and all the interested stakeholders. "

Really, Sen. Thune . . . how does Senate Bill 3157, as written, actually “respect the important role that state and local governments play in deployment decisions?”

Watch the video carefully . . . Senator Thune’s nose grew when he read these words handed to him by ALEC/Verizon/AT&T.

Continue reading “Senate Hearing On The Race to 5G”

By Bruce Kushnick, July 19,2018; Original article here.

Fiber Optics to Underserved Areas; Repairs of the State Utility Networks

New Networks Institute (NNI) & the IRREGULATORS just helped to get 32,000 fiber optic lines installed by Verizon-New York in underserved areas as well as have the state utility be required to do long needed repairs of the copper networks  that are still in use. The State claims that there are still 2.14 million ‘voice-only’ access lines in service. We estimate that this settlement is valued at $300 million to $1/2 billion in additional spending by Verizon in New York State over time.

Note: This claim of the number of copper-based access lines is low for many solid reasons.

In state after state, Verizon decided to simply use the State Telecom Utility companies as a cash cow to fund its other subsidiary companies and other lines of business and let the copper networks deteriorate  —  while charging customers billions for upgraded fiber networks that they never got. While Verizon started to do ‘FiOS’ fiber-to-the-home, they stopped in 2010. Verizon transferred the funds to construct fiber optic lines from the the State Telecom Utility companies to their private, Wireless subsidiaries, in order to build cell towers for the 4G/LTE Wireless network. All of these cross-subsidies resulted in massive artificial losses for State Telecom Utility companies, resulting in more landline rate increases and an excuse to ‘shut off the copper’.

Continue reading “2018 Verizon-NY Settlement”

by Dr. Cindy L. Russell | https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0013935118300161
Environmental Research, Volume 165, August 2018, Pages 484-495

I am highlighting the excellent paper, above, and am encouraging everyone to read it. I have written the following building on the ideas introduced in the paper’s abstract and conclusions. I added a section on Biologically-Based Electromagnetic Fields and Radio-frequency Electromagnetic Microwave Radiation Exposure Guidelines

Abstract | EMF/RF-EMR Exposure Guidelines | Conclusions

Adapted from the paper’s abstract

The popularity, widespread use and increasing dependency on wireless broadband technologies has spawned a telecommunications revolution with increasing public exposure to pulsed, data-modulated, Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Microwave Radiation (RF-EMR) at more and higher frequencies (and broader bandwidth on those frequencies) for longer periods of time — approaching constant exposures — 24/7. Using the public’s electromagnetic spectrum, private Telecom companies are being allowed to build a massive infrastructure in our public rights-of-way — a network of powerful antennas, radios and power supplies that will invade our neighborhoods and public spaces, and continually burn through terawatts of electricity — in order to unnecessarily spray large data-payloads, such as HD/4k videos, through-the-air from infrastructure antennas to a variety of devices and back again.

This is unnecessary because sending HD/4k videos (and Internet data) is accomplished much more directly, securely, reliably and energy-efficiently by installing fiber optic cables to the premises (FTTP) — an upgrade for which Californians already paid $16 Billion to our State Telecom Public Utility (AT&T California), which took the billions of dollars, but never completed the job. Instead, AT&T Corporate fraudulently transferred the balance of these public funds to its separate, private subsidiary, AT&T Moblilty, to build out its 4G/LTE Wireless network. No surprise, Verizon did the same in New York; Verizon was investigated and sued over this fraud — leading to a multi-billion dollar settlement in New York.

The FCC and the CPUC are of no help here because they are both captured agencies — they are both dominated by the industries that they presumably regulate, and operate more like branches of the Telecom companies than agencies that protect the public good.

Continue reading “4G/5G Wireless Telecommunications Expansion: Public Health and Environmental Implications”

by Angelina Panettieri, Natrional League of Cityies, 202-626-3196, panettieri@nlc.org | Original article here.

The National League of Cities urges its members to immediately contact their Members of Congress, particularly Senators who sit on the Senate Commerce Committee, and URGE STRONG OPPOSITION to S.3157.

• Link to S.3157 bill text
• Link to S.3157 actions
• Link to side-by-side comparison of proposed changes to 1996 TCA — Section 704
• Link to roster of Senate Commerce Committee
• Link to NLC form to send letters to your elected Senators and Representatives; please substitute your own letter text before clicking send.

On June 28, Senators John Thune (R-SD) and Brian Schatz (D-HI) introduced the Streamlining The Rapid Evolution And Modernization of Leading-Edge Infrastructure Necessary to Enhance Small Cell Deployment Act or STREAMLINE Small Cell Deployment Act (S.3157). The bill is focused, much like the recent FCC rulemaking efforts, on limiting the actions local governments can take on small cell wireless facility siting in an effort to make deployments cheaper, faster, and more consistent across jurisdictions.

While the FCC’s statutory authority to take these actions is questionable and can be easily challenged in court, congressional action to limit local authority would be permanently damaging. The bill would severely limit the ability of local governments in states without preemptive state small cell laws to govern wireless siting and would complicate implementation of new small cell laws in states that have passed them.

Continue reading “Sen. Thune Introduces Discriminatory and Preemptive Small Cell Bill”

Why does the Media dismiss claims about mobiles being bad for our health? Is that because studies showing a link to cancer have been cast into doubt by the industry?

by Mark Hertsgaard and Mark Dowie; Sat July 14, 2018 | Original “The Guardian” article here.

On 28 March this year, the scientific peer review of a landmark United States government study concluded that there is “clear evidence” that radiation from mobile phones causes cancer, specifically, a heart tissue cancer in rats that is too rare to be explained as random occurrence.

Eleven independent scientists spent three days at Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, discussing the study, which was done by the National Toxicology Program of the US Department of Health and Human Services and ranks among the largest conducted of the health effects of mobile phone radiation. NTP scientists had exposed thousands of rats and mice (whose biological similarities to humans make them useful indicators of human health hazards) to doses of radiation equivalent to an average mobile user’s lifetime exposure.

The peer review scientists repeatedly upgraded the confidence levels that the NTP’s scientists and staff had attached to the study, fueling critics’ suspicions that the NTP’s leadership had tried to downplay the findings. Thus the peer review also found “some evidence” – one step below “clear evidence” – of cancer in the brain and adrenal glands.

Not one major news organization in the US or Europe reported this scientific news. But then, news coverage of mobile phone safety has long reflected the outlook of the wireless industry.

Continue reading “The Inconvenient Truth About Cancer and Mobile Phones”

By Kaitlyn Mensing, Legal Intern and David Andrews, Ph.D., Senior Scientist
July 9, 2018 | Original article here.

The wireless communications industry is rushing to blanket the nation with next-generation networks (marketed as 4G/5G densification, which will use a panoply of frequencies from 600 MHz to 90,000 MHz). Despite studies linking radiation from existing networks to cancer in lab animals, the Federal Communications Commission and many state legislatures are bowing to industry lobbyists and clearing the way for the 4G/5G densification.

The FCC recently voted to exclude 4G/5G Wireless Telecommunications Facilities (WTFs) from review under federal environmental and historic preservation laws, but the FCC was promptly sued by the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and four Native American tribes. Meanwhile, almost two dozen states have passed laws, pushed by wireless lobby groups, to override local ordinances that would regulate the siting of these new base stations, which could be installed on nearly every telephone pole in the U.S. Some states are considering similar legislation, while others, such as California, have vetoed bills designed to remove local rights in order to streamline the installation of Close Proximity Microwave Radiation Antenna – Wireless Telecommunications Facilities (CPMRA-WTFs).

Continue reading “Despite Health Hazards, FCC and (Uninformed States) Promote 4G/5G Densification”

. . . and Senate Democrats should sue to enforce it.

By Ken Levy, opinion contributor — 07/08/18 | Original The Hill article here.

Ken Levy is the Holt B. Harrison Professor of Law at Louisiana State University’s Paul M. Hebert Law Center. Follow him on Twitter @tardigrade18.

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This week, President Trump will announce his nominee to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy on the United States Supreme Court. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has promised to schedule the nominee’s confirmation hearings for this fall, before the midterm elections.

If and when McConnell carries through on this promise, Senate Democrats should immediately file a federal lawsuit against him for violating the so-called “McConnell Rule.” (According to this rule, as McConnell himself stated on Feb. 13, 2016, “The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice.”) The issue — whether the McConnell Rule is now binding precedent — would not be political (and therefore “nonjusticiable”) but rather fundamentally legal (and therefore “justiciable”).

The minority party needs to have some remedy, some legal recourse, when the majority leader is completely immune to considerations of fairness and consistency in his exercise of the Senate’s substantial constitutional powers. Imagine, for example, that McConnell suddenly stipulated that only 40 instead of 51 votes were necessary to confirm a Supreme Court nominee. Clearly, the validity of this rule change would be a constitutional question, rather than a political question, because it implicates a fundamental democratic principle: majority rule.

Continue reading “The McConnell Rule is Law”

by By Gary Baley | Cedar St. Times; Original article here.

In a 7-hour marathon Planning Commission meeting Thursday evening, commissioners overruled staff and voted 7-0 to deny telecom giant Verizon’s application for a small cell tower in the Monte Vista neighborhood of Monterey. The meeting, held in City Council chambers, lasted from 6 pm Thursday to 1 am Friday morning.

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One can view the presentations, comments and decisions at the Monterey Planning Commission Meeting video here:

00:03:38 for General Public Comment  |  00:35:45 for Lee Afflerbach  |  
02:53:00 for Public Comment on Agendized Item  |  04:49:15 for the Vote/Applause

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Continue reading “Small Cell Towers Nixed at Monterey Planning Commission”

By Paul Schrodt | July 5, 2018 1:43 p.m. ET | Original article here.

Once thought doomed, landline phones are answering the call of people who are sick of mobiles’ spotty service—and the constant pinging distractions of texts and alerts.

THE PIERCING RING of a home phone used to command respect. “That’s how I was raised: When the phone rings, you hop to it,” I heard my mom say recently as we chatted on my new landline phone. She finally got rid of her hard-wired phone because she couldn’t stop herself from answering it, even after it had primarily become a conduit for robotic telemarketing and fraud.

Despite its demotion to a means of harassment, though, the landline refuses to die. According to a 2017 U.S. government survey, about 44% of households still own traditional phones, down from 53% three years before—but still much higher than, say, the share of those buying vinyl records, another cultish throwback.

Continue reading “Why the Landline Phone Will Never Go Away”

by Adam Lidgett, Law360, July 3, 2018; additional reporting by Bryan Koenig, Kelcee Griffis and Andrew Westney. Editing by Adam LoBelia. | Original article here.

The Federal Communications Commission asked the D.C. Circuit to put on hold combined challenges from Native American tribes and environmentalists to an agency rule exempting from environmental and historic reviews small-cell fixtures necessary for building up next-generation or 5G networks.

The FCC on Monday asked the court to hold in abeyance the consolidated cases challenging a decision to exclude various small wireless fixtures from reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act and National Historic Preservation Act. The agency said it received petitions from various entities asking it to administratively rethink the decision at issue, and that an action on reconsideration might be able to “narrow or further crystallize the scope of the issues that the court will need to review.”

“With the exception of one petition, all of these pending petitions for reconsideration raise at least one of the two principal questions presented by the petitions for review by this court, namely, whether the commission erred in concluding that small wireless facility deployments are exempt from NHPA and NEPA review, and whether the commission adequately consulted with Indian tribes,” the FCC said. “(Some of the petitions also ask the commission to address other issues, such as whether harms associated with radio frequency radiation provide a basis for the agency to reconsider its decision.)”

Continue reading “FCC Asks DC Circuit To Pause Small Cell Rule Challenges”