Anyone who needs to know what time it is, and does not have a clock, or a watch, or any sort of computer, can still find out. The U.S. Naval Observatory still maintains a phone number, 202-762-1401, where anyone can call and hear the exact time. The Navy has several other time numbers, some just for modems. And Jock Elliott reports in the SWLing Blog that there are several shortwave radio stations also set up with only the time of day, repeating endlessly, as content. "The National Institute of Standards and Technology (part of the U.S. Department of Commerce) maintains a couple of stations devoted to broadcasting time announcements, standard time intervals, standard frequencies, UT1 time corrections, a BCD time code, and geophysical alerts 24 hours a day, 7 days a week," Elliott writes. WWV in Fort Collins, Colorado, is one station, radiating 10,000 watts on 5 MHz, 10 MHz, and 15 MHz; and 2500 watts on 2.5 MHz and 20 MHz. WWVH, based in Kekaha, Hawaii, transmits 10,000 watts on 10 MHz and 15 MHz, and 5000 watts on 2.5 MHz. "WWV uses a male voice; WWVH, a female voice. They are staggered in time so that they don’t talk over each other. While doing research for this blog, one afternoon on 5 MHz and 10 MHz, I could hear the female voice, followed by the male voice, so I was hearing both Hawaii and Colorado," Elliott writes. There is also a Canadian time station, CHU, transmitting 3000 watts on 3.33 and 14.67 MHz, and a 5000 watts on 7.85 MHz in English and French from Barrhaven, Ontario. And there is also a time station beaming from Moscow, Russia that transmits on 9996 and 14996 kHz. Read more about this story at the SWLing Post..

Radio World reports that at its May 19 meeting the Federal Communications Commission is set to allow FM broadcasters to use computer modeling software for their directional antennas. Currently, FM radio stations using directional antennas must provide physical measurements to verify their directional pattern. So stations, or more often antenna manufacturers have to build a full-size mockup of the antenna or a scale model, which is very expensive. WGXC, for instance, needs a directional antenna for a signal that is sandwiched between the Christian station WPGL north of Schenectady, and New York City's WFUV, and hemmed in by the Catskill and Berkshire mountains. But technology has improved since WGXC first went on the air in 2011, and after this proposal is approved stations can instead submit computer-generated proofs of FM directional antenna patterns instead of the more expensive models. FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said that this draft order would, “decrease regulatory costs and bring our FM regulations in line with other broadcast services.” Read more about this story at Radio World.

Randy J. Stine at Radio World breaks down the results from the TechSurvey from Jacobs Media showing the COVID-19 pandemic lowering the amount of radio listening. The 12 percent drop in radio listening in the past year is mainly due, the survey reports, to less time spent in cars. “Since COVID, listening less in the car and lifestyle changes are the top reasons people are listening less to the radio,” said Fred Jacobs, president of Jacobs Media. Many people now work from home, who did not before, and others have changed jobs or professions since the pandemic began. While some are listening to the radio less, others surveyed said they now had a stronger bond with their favorite local station. “In a strange sort of way, some radio stations have actually benefitted from COVID in terms of making that closer connection to their audience when they needed it most,” Jacobs said. Folks surveyed felt a stronger bond, mostly, to local stations. “Overall, the local piece turns out to be a very important factor here,” Jacobs says. Read more about this story at Radio World.

On May 15, Swiss voters approved a four percent tax levy on international streaming services there, to be invested in local film production, with 58.42 percent of voters favoring the measure. Switzerland is the latest European country to support local TV and film production and boost locally-produced content by taxing the international streaming services, such as Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, and others. "This result underlines the cultural importance of film-making in Switzerland," Swiss Interior Minister Alain Berset told a press conference on May 15. The international companies can buy locally-made shows, make programmes themselves in the country, or put the money into an investment fund. "We believe that good stories can come from anywhere, and we have already invested in content from Switzerland in the past," a Netflix spokesperson said. Portugal already passed a similar law, with streaming service providers paying one percent of their income to the Institute of Cinema and Audiovisuals. France and Italy also already make streaming services invest a proportion of their revenues in European content in local languages, while Denmark and Spain are considering similar proposals, Reuters reports.

Ars Technica reports that President Joe Biden heaped praise this week on the opponents of his nominee for the Federal Communications Commission, Gigi Sohn. Technology policy, though, is not Biden's priority right now, as raging inflation and Russia's invasion of Ukraine are taking up much of the president's time. Biden announced that Comcast, Charter Spectrum, AT&T, Verizon, and 16 other ISPs, "committed to offer all Affordable Connectivity Program-eligible families at least one high-speed plan [with download speeds of at least 100Mbps] for $30/month or less, with no additional fees and no data caps." the White House said, crowing about a policy to help consumers through inflation. The Affordable Connectivity Program provides eligible households with discounts of $30 a month, so many consumers will get free plans. "You're really changing people's lives. You really are," the president said to the big broadband providers. Instead of short-term announcements such as this, Biden could be passing long term solutions at the FCC if Sohn was confirmed to give Democrats a majority of the FCC commissioners. "Some of the Internet service providers appearing at this White House event are sabotaging President Biden's FCC even as they pose for today's photo op," Free Press VP of Policy and General Counsel Matt Wood said yesterday. "These voluntary commitments form a strange juxtaposition to the aggressive delay efforts orchestrated by the very same broadband providers, wireless carriers, and broadcasters the FCC regulates to stall the confirmation of Gigi Sohn, a strong consumer champion, to the agency," Public Knowledge said. Biden waited almost a year to even nominate Sohn, on October 26, 2021. The Senate Commerce Committee sent the nomination to the full Senate on March 3, but Democratic leaders have not brought the nomination to a vote. "The Biden administration took a painfully long time to nominate the most obvious candidate for the position—Gigi Sohn—and has done precious little to have her confirmed in a reasonable time frame. Though it would be easy to blame Republican opposition, the truth is that it simply does not appear to be a priority for the administration," said Community Broadband Networks Program Director Christopher Mitchell. Ars Technica also reports that Biden, in March 2021, promised to prioritize municipally owned networks, nonprofits, and co-operatives in a $100 billion broadband plan. Congress eventually only voted for $65 billion, and did not give municipal networks priority.

Radio Insight reports that since President Donald Trump signed the 2020 PIRATE Act, the Federal Communications Commission's Enforcement Bureau has begun to send warning letters not just to folks they believe are operating pirate radio stations, but also to the owners of the properties the FCC believes are hosting the broadcasts. Four real estate owners getting the letters now have ten days to respond to the FCC that they are addressing the issue. Edwin and Joyce Pitt of Baltimore, MD; Maria V. Hernandez of Kissimmee, FL; Richard Manson of Philadelphia, PA; and Kent and Deanna Coppinger of the Jefferson RV Park in Summerville, OR got the letters that read, in part, “You are hereby notified and warned that the FCC may issue a fine of up to $2,000,000 if ... we determine that you have continued to permit any individual or entity to engage in pirate radio broadcasting the property that you own or manage." The new law Trump signed includes draconian $2 million fines for pirate radio operators, or property owners. It was co-sponsored by Rep. Paul Tonko, who represents Albany County and much of the Capitol District, where there has not been any pirate radio activity reported in many years. While there has not been any local pirate radio activity to get Tonko's attention, he did receive $7,000 in donations during the 2016 campaign from the National Association of Broadcasters, a virulent anti-pirate radio organization. But Inside Radio reports that the new law so far is toothless. The COVID-19 pandemic limited field work by FCC agents, and the FCC says it does not have the manpower to fully implement all of the 2020 PIRATE Act's mandates. And they also say they don't have the money to hire new agents. "President Biden’s proposed spending plan for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 would increase the FCC’s budget by 4.3 percent in the coming year.... Under the Biden proposal, the Enforcement Bureau would receive an increase of $5 million to implement the new law and to hire the 15 new employees," Inside Radio reports. David Goren, a pirate radio expert who runs pirateradiomap.com, says that the FCC's new giant fines may be working, or pirates may be changing channels and locations. Goren told Columbia Journalism Review last year that, "Recently the FCC sent notices to three stations in Queens, to landlords. There is a station in Queens that I’m able to hear in Brooklyn, probably six miles away, this Ecuadorean station. They were on the air when the notices came out, and they were on the air for several days after, but now they’re no longer on that frequency, so they may have felt some pressure to shut down and move."

Radio Today reports that London's Resonance FM celebrates 20 years of broadcasting this month as one of the world's most creative radio stations. Around the world Resonance FM is known for its radio art, and in England it is known one of the first stations in an experimental program to allow community radio there. “Resonance delivers Arts and Culture on-air through performance, audio arts projects and the wildest cultural conversation anywhere on radio,” said Helen Boaden, former Director of BBC Radio. The station has aired shows such as "Shut Your Eyes to Art" which was a talk show broadcasting from the Tate Modern museum with blindfolded participants who have never met, and are given no topic of conversation. Resonance FM also airs several shows that are also on WGXC, including the field-recordings-as-composition show "Framework," and "Radia," where a show from one of a network of art-interested radio stations around the world contribute an episode each week. Resonance FM has been called “The best radio station in London” by The Guardian and “The UK’s most creative independent radio station” by the Daily Telegraph.

Progressive activists and proponents of net neutrality are now openly questioning why the Joe Biden administration is doing so little to support its nominee to the Federal Communcations Commission, Gigi Sohn, Common Dreams reports. The digital rights group Fight for the Future tweeted May 5 that, "Joe Biden and Sen. [Chuck] Schumer promised to restore net neutrality. But instead they're sitting on the sidelines while Big Telecom mounts a massive dark money funded smear campaign against their nominee to the FCC, Gigi Sohn." Net neutrality is creating an even playing field for the internet, not a place where the companies with the most money get the fasted speeds. Fight for the Future director Evan Greer said May 5 said the Trump administration's FCC, "repealed it, Dems promised to restore it, and they've so far failed to do so by caving to industry pressure and slow-walking" Sohn's nomination. "The only reason for this is corruption. Plain and simple," Greer said, adding that it is a "good time to remember that Comcast, AT&T, Verizon etc. are huge donors to Democratic leadership and candidates. They've got their hands all up in there." The Obama administration passed net neutrality in 2015, and Sohn was largely the author of those rules. Now she's being attacked by the the Fraternal Order of Police, who claim her, "forceful advocacy of end-to-end encryption and 'user-only-access'" and employment history, public policy stances, and social media activity "indicated serious animus towards law enforcement officers and the rule of law." Techdirt founder Mike Masnick says that, "The smear campaign against [Sohn] has been beyond ridiculous.... Everyone who knows anything about her knows that it's pure nonsense, that she's beyond qualified, and that she will do an amazing job. The smear merchants are doing it because they know she'll do a good job." Karl Bode, writing in Techdirt, blamed the Democrats. "It took the Biden administration nine months to even nominate Sohn, giving the telecom industry… ample time to galvanize opposition." The Biden administration also isn't defending Sohn publicly, or pushing to move the Senate confirmation voting process forward. "The phony appeal of authoritarianism can only be defeated if the [Democratic National Committee] shakes off corruption and truly represents the public interest," Bode added. "You don't accomplish this by letting a hugely popular media and telecom reformer drown under unopposed GOP/telecom propaganda attacks."

On May 6, 1937 one of radio's most famous broadcasts was recorded. The hydrogen in the German passenger airship LZ 129 Hindenburg burst into flames as the new airship attempted to land in Manchester Township, New Jersey, killing 36 people. Herbert Morrison's eyewitness report for radio station WLS in Chicago of the Hindenburg disaster was not broadcast live, but recorded for a report that was broadcast the next day, and has lived through the ages. It aired on other radio stations, and the audio was dubbed onto newsreel footage and shown in theaters. While the scale of the sinking of the Titanic was slightly larger, this was the first major disaster with a narrator calling the play-by-play, with a visual recording synched. Few people at the time had ever witnessed or listened to 36 people die at once in a terrifying scene that rivals today's Hollywood special effects. And Morrison's radio narration was the first time listeners heard someone in real time explaining what was happening during a deadly disaster, not explaining it afterwards. Watching the Challenger space shuttle disaster, or the World Trade Center fall, are modern day broadcast comparisons. While today's anchors and correspondents can keep calm in most any circumstance, Morrison's call of the accident is more human, as he is clearly overwhelmed by what he is seeing, making the "oh the humanity" phrase ring through the years.

Here is the transcript from Wikipedia:
"It's practically standing still now they've dropped ropes out of the nose of the ship; and (uh) they've been taken ahold of down on the field by a number of men. It's starting to rain again; it's... the rain had (uh) slacked up a little bit. The back motors of the ship are just holding it (uh) just enough to keep it from...It's burst into flames! Get this, Charlie; get this, Charlie! It's fire... and it's crashing! It's crashing terrible! Oh, my! Get out of the way, please! It's burning and bursting into flames and the... and it's falling on the mooring mast and all the folks between it. This is terrible; this is one of the worst of the worst catastrophes in the world. Oh it's... [unintelligible] its flames... Crashing, oh! oh, four or five hundred feet into the sky, and it's a terrific crash, ladies and gentlemen. There's smoke, and there's flames, now, and the frame is crashing to the ground, not quite to the mooring mast. Oh, the humanity, and all the passengers screaming around here! I told you; it – I can't even talk to people, their friends are on there! Ah! It's... it... it's a... ah! I... I can't talk, ladies and gentlemen. Honest: it's just laying there, a mass of smoking wreckage. Ah! And everybody can hardly breathe and talk and the screaming. I... I... I'm sorry. Honest: I... I can hardly breathe. I... I'm going to step inside, where I cannot see it. Charlie, that's terrible. Ah, ah... I can't. Listen, folks; I... I'm gonna have to stop for a minute because I've lost my voice. This is the worst thing I've ever witnessed."
— Herbert Morrison, Transcription of WLS radio broadcast describing the Hindenburg disaster.

Motorola’s $130 car radio in 1930 for a Model A Deluxe coupe cost $540 and was the first commercially successful car radio, according to Car and Driver magazine. Inside Radio reports that many radio business officials continue to worry about the threat to the dominance of AM and FM signals in those vehicles. “What's driving a lot of these threats is the fact that you have 12 large global technology audio companies coming into the dash very aggressively to steal your listeners,” said Joe D’Angelo, Senior VP of Broadcast at Xperi, a company working with broadcasters to maintain radio's dashboard dominance. Apps such as Apple CarPlay and Android Auto on a dashboard screen look like what consumers see on their smartphones. There's also Android Automotive, an operating system which gives Google control, and, of course, any Bluetooth connection gets listeners any sound those phones can also receive. Currently AM/FM radio continues to lead in-car listening with 56 percent of audio time there tuned in over the air, and, increasingly, through Bluetooth radio signals. Of course, 56 percent is a lot smaller then the old days when singing was radio's only competition in a car. Xperi is asking what information people in cars listening to the radio want on their dashboards. Emergency weather information, song information, game scores, and the name of the host all scored high. Xperi CEO Steve Newberry said, “We are in the process of embracing the screen-ification of radio, helping the industry move from being an audio medium to being a medium that can compete with Spotify, Pandora, and SiriusXM and all of our other competitors that we have on the dashboard.”

James Careless reports for Radio World that the British Broadcasting Corporation's World Service has turned 90 years old. It began as the “BBC Empire Service” in 1932, sending shortwave signals around the globe. “Created 10 years after the BBC itself was founded, the BBC World Service was there to send ‘voices out of the air,’ which sounds like a poem by Keats but are actually the words of King George V,” said Stephen Titherington, senior head of content for BBC World Service English. “Since the collapse of the Berlin Wall it has had a different relevancy to people in terms of sharing what is happening within the world, with also a chance for people to add their voice to what needs to be heard.” The BBC World Service provided alternative information to people in fascist countries in the 1930s and 1940s, then pivoted as a Cold War broadcaster, and now beams in signals to conflict zones in Ukraine, Yemen, Palestine, and Afghanistan. Lately it has focused on local broadcasts and streaming media while cutting back on shortwave, and ending shortwave service to North America. “One thing that has been consistent over the years is the BBC’s commitment to independent news,” said Dr. Kim Andrew Elliott, retired Voice of America audience research analyst/radio host and now producer/presenter of “Shortwave Radiogram,” heard on shortwave stations WINB and WRMI. The Voice of America, a similar radio service from the United States, always seemed more like a propagandists than the BBC. “To be sure, the BBC European services had partisan commentaries during World War II, but the news remained factual, mostly. Since World II, BBC World Service has been the de facto standard for comprehensive and objective news,” Elliot says. As of late 2021 the BBC broadcasts in 40 languages including Amharic, Gujarati, Igbo, Korean, Marathi, Pidgin, Punjabi, Serbian, Telugu, Tigrinya, and Yoruba. In March, after Russia invaded Ukraine, the BBC World Service announced it is broadcasting, "four hours of English news daily on two shortwave frequencies, both of which “can be received clearly in Kyiv and parts of Russia,” said a BBC media release. The shortwave frequencies are 15735 kHz operating from 1400 to 1600 UTC and on 5875 kHz from 2000 to 2200 UTC. “The audience for the BBC’s Russian language news website more than tripled its year-to-date weekly average, with a record reach of 10.7 million people in the last week (compared to 3.1 million). In English, bbc.com visitors in Russia were up 252% to 423,000 last week," a BBC press release said when the war was two weeks old. Elliot agrees that the service is often most needed where it is least wanted by the local government. “We have seen, in more and more countries, censorship and blocking of the internet. Shortwave can deliver information across national boundaries independent of the internet. Satellite television also sidesteps the internet, but satellite dishes are conspicuous. Shortwave reception is simpler, cheaper … and more discreet. (And) My ‘Shortwave Radiogram’ project shows that text and images can be transmitted by old analog shortwave transmitters, and received on any shortwave radio, with decoding by an app on a PC or mobile device,” Elliot says. Read more about this story at Radio World.

In popular culture, the wireless, untethered charger for a phone is like a hovercraft, something long promised, but never delivered. Last week, though, Wi-Charge founder and chief business officer Ori Mor gave an interview to TechCrunch where he claimed that Belkin would release a specific, “center-stage consumer product” to charge phones remotely later this year. But the next day, however, Belkin spokesperson Jen Wei said nothing is imminent. "Currently, our agreement with Wi-Charge only commits us to R&D on some product concepts, so it’s too early to comment on the timing of viable consumer products," Wei told Ars Technica. "The Belkin method is to thoroughly investigate technology viability and perform deep user testing before committing to a product concept. Here at Belkin, we only launch products when we confirm technical feasibility backed by deep consumer insights." What we do know about that research and development is that Wi-Charge's technology has a small, mounted transmitter plugged into an AC or DC outlet to "convert electricity into safe infrared beams," the company's website says. The transmitter sends up to one watt of power to devices holding a Wi-Charge receiver within a 40-foot range and line of sight. The radio wave receivers then turn that light into power to charge phones and computer notebooks. Infrared waves are electromagnetic waves that have frequency range around 300 GHz, and can only travel a short distance. A Belkin official makes clear this cable- and pad-free wireless charging technology is coming soon, just not right away. "We are excited to uncover the full potential of Wi-Charge’s unparalleled over-the-air wireless charging technology,” said Brian Van Harlingen, the CTO at Belkin. “The future of charging has been transitioning from wired to wireless for years now and we anticipate over the air wireless charging to accelerate this evolution."

Aaron Mak reports for Slate about spam robocalls. Do you remember the National Do Not Call Registry beginning in 2003? Do you remember the last time you received an automated phone message? Do you remember the last time you read about some robocall scam targeting local seniors? The federal government has definitely not eliminated the scourge of robocalls. In March, there were 4.3 billion robocalls made in the United States, according to the spam-blocking company YouMail. There has been a lot of online finger-pointing lately at Ajit Pai, the industry-friendly chair of the Federal Communications Commission during the Trump administration. Pai did not support a 2015 anti-robocalling rule from the Obama-era FCC that would have expanded the definition of an “autodialer” to include any device that had the capacity to make robocalls, even if they weren't modified to do so. The plan passed without Pai's support, but in 2018 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit struck it down, saying it was too broad. Pai did not appeal the decision, but celebrated, describing the 2015 rule as “yet another example of the prior FCC’s disregard for the law and regulatory overreach.” But Margot Saunders, senior counsel at the National Consumer Law Center, argues the court decision did not lead to record numbers of robocalls. At play, she said, “were very esoteric issues that had much more to do with the legality of non-scammers like debt collectors.... Chairman Pai wasn’t particularly aggressive, but you can’t lay the problem at his door,” said Saunders. “There is no proceeding that he failed to appeal that would have made the difference in this, in my opinion.” Saunders instead says phone calls now go through multiple providers, instead of just one, which makes stopping phone scams more difficult. Mak ends the story asking Saunders if there is any one person who could be blamed for so many robocalls now, and she replied, “Alexander Graham Bell.” Read more about this story in Slate.

Susan Ashworth from Radio World talks with Jim George, the nation's number one expert on low-power FM stations around the country. Until 2001, the Federal Communications Commission did not license FM stations under 100 watts. But in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, countless pirate radio stations showed there were plenty of spaces small FM signals could serve community interests by filling the airwaves with local voices. Congress eventually relented to the pressure from the pirates, and allowed low-power FM stations to be licensed. George began tracking the stations in 2001 with his LPFM Database website. He reports the number of LPFM stations is shrinking. "There has definitely been an uptick in cancelled LPFMs in recent years. Some can be attributed to the ongoing pandemic, but a lot of it is simply a lack of funding," George said. "Without the support of listeners and underwriting from local businesses, LPFMs cannot survive." Eight stations have shuttered just in the past month, to bring the total in the United States to 1,992. Alaska's KAQU-LP 88.1 in Sitka that featured nothing but an underwater microphone picking up whale sounds is one of the station's that has shuttered since low-power radio was made legal. In New York, George's database lists 50 stations on air currently. Locally, they include Palenvill'es WLPP-LP (102.9-FM) from the Maetreum Of Cybele, Magna Mater Inc.; Albany's WOOA-LP (106.9-FM) from the Green Education And Legal Fund Inc.; and WCAA-LP (107.3-FM) from the Grand Street Community Arts Inc.; Troy's WOOC-LP (105.3-FM) run by The Sanctuary for Independent Media; Ellenville's WELV-LP (107.9-FM) run by the Ellenville Central School District; Woodstock's WIOF-LP (104.1-FM) from Birds Of A Feather Media Ltd.; and Pawling's WPWL-LP (103.7-FM) from Pawling Public Radio Inc. George says he believes the FCC will soon accept new applications to allow more citizens access to their own airwaves. "I think the FCC is planning on opening a new LPFM filing window at some point [soon], so those of you out there who are interested in applying for a station should be on the lookout for a press release from the FCC," George said. NOTE: WGXC is a full-power station, broadcasting 3,300 watts. Read more about this story in Radio World.

Dan Goddin reports for Ars Technica about a report published April 27 by Microsoft that says Russian hackers in six groups have launched no fewer than 237 operations in concert with the country's physical attacks on Ukraine. “As today’s report details, Russia’s use of cyberattacks appears to be strongly correlated and sometimes directly timed with its kinetic military operations targeting services and institutions crucial for civilians,” Tom Burt, Microsoft corporate vice president for customer security, wrote. Almost 40 of the hacking incidents targeted hundreds of systems using wiper malware, which deletes essential files stored on hard drives so the machines can’t boot. The wiper malware dubbed WhisperGate was used against Ukrainian government and IT sector networks in January before the invasion. Then there were DDoS attacks against Ukrainian financial institutions in February. There was another coordinated attack on February 23, the day before the invasion. On March 2 Russian hackers attacked the network of a Ukrainian nuclear power company. The report suggested Ukrainian computer users could turn on a feature called controlled folders designed to protect data in specific folders from destruction from ransomware, wipers, and other types of destructive malware. Read more about this story at Ars Technica.

Susan Ashworth reports for Radio World that a new study by Nielsen shows many people listening to AM or FM stations in the United States are tuning in webstreams, rather than terrestrial signals. Streaming now represents 12 percent of total AM/FM radio listening of individuals aged 25-54, up from 9.2 percent in August 2021. In the pre-internet age, only people who lived near a radio station could listen, but now anyone in the world can hear a streaming station. But the Nielsen report showed that the majority of the AM/FM radio streaming audience resides in the home market. “Marketers can purchase time on AM/FM radio station streams knowing most of the audience is from that home market,” said Pierre Bouvard, chief insights officer at Cumulus Media | Westwood One. At 83 percent, sports radio had the lowest percentage of streaming listeners who lived away from the station's tower site, perhaps as fans of the local team who now live elsewhere. Radio listeners in the northeastern United States are more likely to listen to their hometown station's online than western residents, the survey also showed.

Do you remember a few months ago, the airline industry was up in arms about 5G cell service? The Brookings Institution had a headline in November saying, "Will 5G mean airplanes falling from the sky?" The Federal Aviation Administration objected to the Federal Communications Commission’s authorization of 5G networks on planes. Their concern was that the 5G radio signals would interfere with the radio altimeters used in automated aircraft landings. The airline industry also mimicked the broadcast industry, who have been saying for years that pirate radio stations would bring down planes by interfering with the radio reception in the controls. Anyone who listened to the radio might have been justified in scoffing at this argument, since there never has been a proven case of a pirate radio station bringing down an aircraft, nor did the expansion of 5G cell service onto planes in the United States this year cause any accidents. But, with more study, there might be something to this argument. It turns out that airplanes have been using really bad radio receivers. Poorly designed receivers were meant for an age before 5G, as the altimeters on some passenger planes fail to filter out signals from nearby spectrum, Politico reports. And there are poor radio receivers in all types of equipment in many industries, not just on planes. As new technologies such as driverless cars and telemedicine use additional bandwidth, the old timey radio receivers in the new technology can't cope. As a result, “large amounts of valuable spectrum lie fallow, spectrum reallocations are contentious, and users of spectrum lack legal certainty,” the office of Republican FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington said in a statement. His Democratic colleague, Jessica Rosenworcel, the FCC Chair, agrees. “If we want to be efficient, we also have to think about the other end. We have to think about receiving.” Last week the FCC commissioners voted unanimously to open an inquiry into the issue. They might embrace voluntary receiver standards, to get companies to upgrade their gear, or they could impose more controversial regulatory mandates. About 20 years ago the commission explored, but decided against, setting standards for all sorts of radio receivers to withstand interference from cell phone signals. Of course, the industries' business sides do not want any regulations, and some corporations are now saying the FCC does not have the authority to regulate receivers. David Grossman, vice president of regulatory affairs at the Consumer Technology Association, says, “Congress has not ever explicitly outlined FCC authority around regulation of receivers.” The FAA, after the 5G implementation, is now also considering developing new standards for radio altimeters, according to then-Administrator Steve Dickson at a House of Representatives hearing in February. “At some point you just get more and more and more people, and more and more and more services, in this spectrum; you just can’t do it,” said former FCC official Dale Hatfield, who is now executive fellow at the Silicon Flatirons Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder. “You’ve got to begin to take up on receivers. It’s inevitable.”

Jon Brodkin reports for Ars Technica that so far, net neutrality has been a policy that depends on which way the political winds are blowing. Net neutrality is the principle that an internet service provider has to provide access to all sites, content, and applications at the same speed, under the same conditions, without blocking or giving preference to any content. The Federal Communications Commission voted for federal net neutrality rules in 2015 when Democrats had a majority of the board, and repealed the even-playing-field-for-the-internet policy in 2017, when Republicans had the majority. Now Democrats hold the presidency and Congress, but Republicans are blocking their nomination for the deciding-vote fifth FCC member. So at the national level, Democrats cannot restore net neutrality with Republicans current blocking tactics. But, after the Republicans rolled back net neutrality regulations in 2017, Democrats passed net neutrality rules in California, and Republicans have been trying ever since to reverse that vote. But the broadband industry can't find a judge among the 29 on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to take on their case to overturn net neutrality. "It is notable that not a single judge on the nation's largest court of appeals even asked for a vote on the industry's rehearing petition," Andrew Jay Schwartzman, senior counselor for the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel agreed, writing on Twitter, "This is big. Because when the FCC rolled back its open Internet policies, states stepped in. I support net neutrality and we need once again to make it the law of the land." ACA Connects (formerly the American Cable Association), CTIA-The Wireless Association, NCTA-The Internet & Television Association, and USTelecom are trying to overturn net neutrality in California, but so far have failed. The reason the industry so badly wants to get rid of net neutrality there is that California is so large, that often if a company is forced to change a policy there, they do so nationwide. AT&T, for instance, ended across the country its "sponsored data" program in which it charged online services for data cap exemptions after California instituted net neutrality. AT&T said it ended the program nationwide because "the Internet does not recognize state borders." So far, the broadband industry representatives have gotten a February 2021 oral ruling against a preliminary injunction to block net neutrality from District Judge John Mendez, who said, "I don't find that the plaintiffs have demonstrated a likelihood of success on the merits at this stage of the litigation." Read more about this story at Ars Technica.

David Shepardson reports for Yahoo Finance that the Federal Communications Commission voted April 21 4-0 to fine London-based Truphone Ltd, the owner of Montana-based iSmart Mobile phone company, $660,639 for exceeding statutory limits for foreign ownership. The fine comes, FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel says, because the commission "launched an internal assessment of Russian ownership of telecommunications interests in the United States" after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The FCC now says, "it appears that Truphone’s failure to report truthful and accurate ownership information was egregious. As a result of Truphone’s failure, control of a U.S. common carrier passed to an unvetted foreign entity and associated individuals for more than seven years." FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks says the company has been indirectly owned by "a small group of Russian oligarchs since at least 2011. ... With the importance of the internet and the shifting national security environment facing our nation, protecting our communications networks has never been more critical." “Radio Sputnik,” created by the Russian government's propaganda department, is airing programming on five AM or FM stations in the United States right now. On March 15, a new FCC rule went into effect forcing U.S. broadcasters to disclose any programming provided by foreign governmental entities.