Trump Administration Will Likely Revise Biden Spectrum Policies: CTA
CTA is optimistic it can work with the new Trump administration on tech issues, two of the group's top policy officials told us. The outlook on spectrum policy and other issues isn’t completely clear, they added.
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President-elect Donald Trump's first administration "had a very effective technology team,” said Michael Petricone, CTA senior vice president-government affairs. “I expect we’re going to have significant overlaps with the new administration and the new Trump team.”
Spectrum is an important issue for CTA, said David Grossman, the group’s vice president-policy and regulatory affairs. It favors “an all-of-the-above approach,” recognizing the benefits of licensed, unlicensed and shared use, he said. Spectrum policy has historically been bipartisan, Grossman noted.
The Biden administration’s national spectrum strategy was a target for Republican criticism (see 2411150041), Grossman acknowledged. The new administration will take “a very deep look at what has been done before” and “whether they start entirely from scratch or take aspects of it time will tell,” he predicted. “It’s very clear that there are different views” on what a strategy “should look like.”
Engineers' technical studies should be preserved and used in the next administration, Grossman said.
There’s a “strong sense” on Capitol Hill that Congress needs to restore FCC auction authority, Petricone said: “It’s a competitiveness issue. China and other nations are allocating new spectrum for high-value activities.”
Petricone hopes for quick action next year on autonomous vehicles, a key wireless use case that has long been featured at CES each January in Las Vegas. “We certainly hope the administration enthusiastically puts its shoulder behind self-driving,” he said. “It’s important and leadership would be appreciated.”
The U.S. is one of only a few industrial nations without a national framework for testing and deployment of self-driving vehicles, Petricone said. Other nations like China “are passing us by.”
Grossman said CTA is seeking Trump administration support for a national privacy bill that includes preemption without a private right of action. “We got very close in the most recent Congress -- it’s a topic that’s been debated for over a decade,” he said: “The reality is that a patchwork of state privacy laws is not sustainable.”
Another CTA priority is moving forward on the voluntary cyber trust mark program, which the FCC adopted unanimously in March (see 2403140034), Grossman said. “This is a program that provides consumers with more information about the cybersecurity protections of their connected devices.”
CTA hopes the Trump administration will support a push to get rid of a mandate for AM receivers in new vehicles, Grossman said. The group doesn't oppose AM radio, “we are simply saying there should not be a technology mandate and let market forces make those decisions.”
“The people who love AM let them continue to love AM radio,” Petricone said: “But the people who don’t care shouldn’t be forced to pay for it in their car.” Broadcasters support a mandate (see 2409180047).