The FCC is getting set to launch a new website by the end of September, said Chief Information Officer David Bray Monday in a blog post. More changes are also on the way, he said. By the end of May, the agency will offer a new search application aggregating results for both FCC.gov and the FCC’s Electronic Document Management System, he said. By Sept. 30, the commission will “launch an improved FCC.gov featuring the new design, information architecture and search application,” Bray said. “The initial site launch will include website content approximately three levels deep into the new site. Work will continue after launch to integrate the more complex content and data not originally included at site launch. This content and data is currently being assessed and prioritized for integration into the new website.” Bray emphasized that the site is tailored to smartphone and tablet use. The FCC last made major changes to the website in 2011, to widespread complaints from industry (see 1106060097). Bray said the new website was developed based on interviews and other research. It recognizes the site isn't used the same way by all users, he said. “We learned typical website users do not come to FCC.gov to browse content; they want to get the information they are looking for quickly and in as few clicks as possible,” he said. “Practitioners use the website daily and prefer ‘cut and dry’ information. General consumers prefer informational content on a broad range of topics.” The FCC has already put a version of the prototype online, complete with a Twitter feed on the agency's main webpage.

While 82.5 percent of homes with school-age children have broadband access, 5 million such households don't, Pew Research Center said in a report released Monday. “Low-income households -- and especially black and Hispanic ones -- make up a disproportionate share of that 5 million,” Pew said. “Roughly one-third (31.4 percent) of households whose incomes fall below $50,000 and with children ages 6 to 17 do not have a high-speed internet connection at home.” FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel flagged the report in a statement released Monday. “There was a time when doing basic schoolwork required no more than a little bit of quiet, a clear workspace, and a pencil,” she said. "No more. Today, 7 in 10 teachers assign homework that requires Internet access. Kids may be connected in the classroom, but if they are disconnected at home getting basic schoolwork done is hard.”

The eighth meeting of the Advisory Committee for the 2015 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-15) will be May 20 at 11 a.m. in the Commission Meeting Room, the FCC said in a public notice Thursday in docket 04-286. The WRC-15 Advisory Committee will review status reports and recommendations from Informal Working Groups, the commission said. Comments can be sent in advance of the meeting by emailing WRC-15@fcc.gov.

On April 19, 1965, three years before co-founding Intel, Gordon Moore put forward what became Moore’s Law, predicting that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit would double roughly every 24 months. In recognition of the 50-year anniversary of Moore’s Law, Intel Product Evangelist Ryan Tabrah said in a blog post that Moore’s projection became a layman’s explanation of the "exponential" introduction of new devices and technology over the past 50 years. Putting Moore’s comment into historical perspective, Tabrah noted that at the time the computer mouse was still a prototype; DRAM hadn’t yet been invented; development of Arpanet, forerunner to the Internet, hadn’t begun and no one had received a Ph.D. in computer science. Moore said the theory wasn’t about technical hurdles but about the associated economics, and Tabrah reminded engineers and developers that economics should inform the way the industry views the IoT market and “the eventuality of technology.” Competition, advancements in technology, and scale will automatically provide more affordable and smaller computing devices, he said. Those devices will continue to become less about “nice to have” and “more of a vehicle, forcefully driving human advancement and raising the standard of living for everyone on earth,” Tabrah said. Recalling the anniversary of Moore’s Law, Tabrah urged tech society “to think about how we use these economies of scale.” With the much-anticipated Apple Watch on pre-sale, Tabrah referred to “everyday technology enthusiasts struggling to get the latest digital watch that costs more than most people in the world make in a week.” He urged enthusiasts to “take some time to pause and think about the rest of the world: how are most going to get clean water tomorrow, or survive tomorrow’s traffic as millions of people stress overloaded transportation infrastructures.” He said we should all try together to “create and extend computing technology to connect and enrich the lives of every person on earth,” which he called the “truly amazing legacy of Moore’s law.”

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said he expected the “big dogs” to appeal the commission’s net neutrality order. It is “no surprise,” he said, during the press conference following the Friday FCC meeting. Allegations in the legal challenges that the FCC violated federal process also are no surprise, Wheeler said. “We feel very confident on both the processes that were followed and the conclusions that were reached,” he said. Wheeler also announced Friday that Gigi Sohn, who was a key player on net neutrality, is now counselor to the chairman. “Ms. Sohn will serve as the Chairman’s representative at a variety of public forums across the country,” the FCC said. “She will also continue her role as an advisor to the Chairman and a principal contact for third-party stakeholders in the Office of the Chairman.” Sohn was CEO of Public Knowledge 2001-2013. Also joining the chairman’s office is Emmaka Porchea-Veneszee, as special and confidential assistant. She was formerly executive assistant to the executive director of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board. Wheeler was on that board before becoming chairman of the FCC.

Alison Neplokh was named the FCC’s deputy chief technologist, said an agency news release Thursday. Neplokh will be based in the Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis, working on “complex and cross-cutting technical issues,” the release said. She’ll remain chief engineer with the Media Bureau and manage the Downloadable Security Technology Advisory Committee, according to the agency. Neplokh has been with the FCC since 2002, primarily working in the Media Bureau on issues like the incentive auction, open Internet and the DTV transition. She also was an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, the agency said. Rosenworcel in a separate release said Neplokh’s “institutional knowledge, technical know-how, and background in both electrical and computer engineering make her an excellent choice.”

That NAB regularly has communicated with regulators its concerns about the low rate of FM chip activations in smartphones doesn’t mean NAB has changed its position and is now seeking FM chip mandates, Skip Pizzi, NAB senior director-new media technologies, told us at the NAB Show. Rather than seeking mandates, NAB’s aim is to convince the FCC to use “its good offices” to encourage wireless carriers to activate the FM chips already embedded in most new smartphones and to endorse the NextRadio FM smartphone app, Pizzi told us. A just-completed NAB analysis released at the NAB Show found roughly two-thirds of the smartphones sold in the U.S. in 2014 with FM chips embedded weren't activated, and of those, 75 percent were iPhones (see 1504120004). NAB previously stated its policy of not seeking a mandate on FM chips in smartphones last month when it said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler erred in House testimony when he suggested broadcasters were seeking such mandates (see 1503200031). Pizzi's denial that NAB was now seeking mandates came amid several references he made in his NAB Show talk that NAB has conferred regularly with regulators over the FM smartphone chip activations issue. Moreover, NAB President Gordon Smith, in his NAB Show opening keynote, juxtaposed expressions of NAB support for the NextRadio campaign on landing more FM chip activations in smartphones with the promise that "winning our legislative and regulatory battles on Capitol Hill and at the FCC ensures broadcasters will be able to capitalize on these innovations."

FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly questioned what he said is a growing practice of calling in guest speakers at agency meetings, in a Friday blog post. O’Rielly doesn’t cite examples. At the FCC February meeting, at which the net neutrality order was approved, Chairman Tom Wheeler invited net neutrality supporters Chad Dickerson, CEO of Etsy, and TV producer Veena Sud, whose show The Killing survived with the help of Netflix, to address the meeting before commissioners started their lengthy discussion (see 1502260043). “I am not convinced that adding guest speakers is beneficial or appropriate,” O’Rielly said. “While witnesses may provide valuable insight into issues the Commission is considering, these presentations come far too late in the process to inform the outcome of an item. Indeed, they fall within a no-mans-land where they are practically too late to be ex partes but technically too early to be congratulatory.” The main propose of inviting witnesses seems to be to “further promote the viewpoint championed in the item about to be adopted,” he said. “The more controversial the item, the more likely we are to receive such presentations.” If speakers are still allowed at meetings, as a matter of fairness they should have to provide their testimony at least 48 hours in advance, O’Rielly said. Currently, no text is provided before the meeting, he said. Witnesses also should be subject to questioning if they join FCC staff at the presentation table, he said. O’Rielly also said he will no longer provide questions that he may ask staff to the various offices bureaus and offices before an item is presented. “I suggest that we can improve the discourse and relevance of an Open Meeting by allowing unscripted questions and answers,” O’Rielly said. “Accordingly, I serve notice that I no longer plan to provide questions to staff in advance of an Open Meeting. I promise that I have no intention of blindsiding or embarrassing staff by asking questions. There should be no gotcha moments.”

Correction: The Intelsat satellite network is composed of geostationary satellites that can be used for both mobile and fixed services (see 1504030043).

NAB expects to sell its current building and the land it sits on to partially finance its new headquarters planned for 2018, an NAB spokesman told us Wednesday. The current N Street NW building was “gutted and completely renovated in 1995” and NAB has been advised it will receive “top dollar offers” for both building and land, the spokesman said. NAB expects the building to be attractive to “embassies, think tanks and other trade associations.”