Mitchell Lazarus

Mitchell Lazarus has 35 years’ experience representing clients at the Federal Communications Commission and other federal agencies. Schooled in both law and electrical engineering, Lazarus specializes in the regulation of new telecommunications technologies. He has helped dozens of manufacturers and service providers win FCC authorizations for innovative products and services.

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FCC Shutdown Becomes a Little Less Shut Down

By Mitchell Lazarus on January 19, 2019 Posted in FCC, Unlicensed Operations and Emerging Technologies

One downside of a government shutdown—or the present partial shutdown that includes the FCC—is the inability of technology companies to obtain the FCC certifications they need to market certain kinds of new products. Good news: the FCC has reopened a website that makes it possible for most (not all) new devices to obtain their certifications.… Continue Reading

FCC Advances Toward 5G

By Mitchell Lazarus on June 13, 2018 Posted in Cellular, Enforcement, FCC, Telecommunications, Wireless

Not long from now, your new phone will come with 5G mobile data service: dizzyingly fast with near-zero latency (delay). But don’t expect service everywhere. 5G needs high frequencies for its high data capacity; but the physics of those frequencies means the range will be short, a few hundred meters at most. This will require … Continue Reading

FCC Enforces Against Drone Radios

By Mitchell Lazarus on June 8, 2018 Posted in Enforcement, FCC, Satellite, Telecommunications

We amateur drone pilots are well schooled in the dangers. We don’t fly close to airports, near power lines, or anywhere in the no-drone-zone that stretches across the entirety of the Washington D.C. region (including, sadly, our own CommLawBlog rooftop deck, which would otherwise be a great place to fly). But we don’t worry much … Continue Reading

FCC Enforces Regulations Against LED Signs

By Mitchell Lazarus on May 18, 2018 Posted in Enforcement, FCC, Telecommunications

Those bright, colorful LED signs are up everywhere. They advertise gasoline prices, announce church services, and promote specials at the dry-cleaner. You can program them to say anything you want, with eye-catching animation. And sometimes they cause interference to radio communications. Wait — LED signs? CommLawBlog readers know all about radio interference from well pumps and fluorescent lights and (of course) bitcoin … Continue Reading

Changes Are Coming for the Key Frequency Band at 4 GHz

By Mitchell Lazarus on May 3, 2018 Posted in Enforcement, FCC, Telecommunications

Radio spectrum and real estate have a lot in common. They’re not making any more of either; and for both, location really does matter. “Location,” for spectrum, means frequency. Much as different real estate locations best serve different purposes, different technological applications work best in different frequency ranges. Like prime downtown addresses, though, all the … Continue Reading

The FCC Moves to Accommodate Small Satellites

By Mitchell Lazarus on April 23, 2018 Posted in Deadlines, Enforcement, FCC, Satellite, Telecommunications

Satellites – even small ones – need radio spectrum. Without radios to communicate, a satellite is just a hunk of metal and plastic in the sky. The first man-made satellite, the Russian Sputnik in 1957, carried nothing but a radio transmitter. It sent a sequence of beeps that said: I am here. Early communications satellites … Continue Reading

Even REALLY Small Satellites Need FCC Licenses

By Mitchell Lazarus on March 16, 2018 Posted in Enforcement, FCC, Satellite

Satellites? What Satellites? Oh, Those Satellites! We all have our “Oops!” moments – locking ourselves out of the house, losing the passport, missing a stop sign with the police right there… so we know how the folks at Swarm Technologies may have felt after their launch partner put into orbit a multiple-satellite payload, including four … Continue Reading

FCC Challenges Bitcoin Miner (But Not for Mining Bitcoins)

By Mitchell Lazarus on February 16, 2018 Posted in Enforcement, FCC, Telecommunications

You know how bitcoins work. Not yet? We’re still coming up to speed. But we do get the part where bitcoins are created by people doing a lot of intensive computation called “mining.” It reminds us of the old Warner Brothers cartoon where a character turns a crank on a machine and dollar bills fly … Continue Reading

FCC Fines Maker of Light Fixtures. Really.

By Mitchell Lazarus on November 29, 2017 Posted in Enforcement, FCC, Telecommunications, Uncategorized

The FCC proposed a fine of $25,000 against a manufacturer of fluorescent lighting fixtures. Wait a minute. Lighting fixtures? Well, sure, the FCC regulates radio transmitters. And digital devices, which produce radio waves as a by-product that can interfere with communications. But lighting fixtures? Will the bathroom plumbing be next? In fact fluorescent fixtures are … Continue Reading

The FCC Rethinks Citizens Broadband at the Eleventh Hour

By Mitchell Lazarus on October 25, 2017 Posted in Cable, FCC, Wireless

The FCC is having second thoughts about the auctioned “middle layer” of the planned Citizens Broadband Radio Service at 3550-3700 MHz. You may remember how this is all supposed to work, with three categories of users. The “Incumbent Access” (IA) users, already in place in the band, will have interference protection from all the others. … Continue Reading

Last of Citizens Broadband Radio Service Rules Become Final

By Mitchell Lazarus on August 22, 2017 Posted in Internet, Unlicensed Operations and Emerging Technologies, Wireless

The FCC’s rules for Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) have become final, after many years in the works. No, it’s not your grandfather’s “Ten-four, good buddy” citizens band, but a high-end, super-Wi-Fi-type service that someday will serve your portable devices with fast digital signals. But don’t run down to Best Buy quite yet. The engineers are … Continue Reading

How to Find Renewal – For Wireless Licenses

By Mitchell Lazarus on August 4, 2017 Posted in Wireless

The FCC has rewritten the rules on renewing wireless radio licenses. Unlike renewing, say, a car registration, these require more than an application form and a check. The FCC also wants assurance that you have been using the license. Because if you haven’t, they want to let it expire and make room for somebody else. … Continue Reading

The FCC Re-Tweaks the Equipment Authorization Rules

By Mitchell Lazarus on July 17, 2017 Posted in Unlicensed Operations and Emerging Technologies

Some FCC regulations are carved in stone, changing about as often as the rules of chess. But not the equipment authorization rules, which lay out the procedures manufacturers and importers must follow to market devices having potential to cause interference to radio communications. The FCC likes to revise and update these every few years. This … Continue Reading

The FCC is Now Granting Program Experimental Licenses (Finally!)

By Mitchell Lazarus on April 14, 2017 Posted in Media, Unlicensed Operations and Emerging Technologies, Wireless

The FCC has always been kind to people who tinker with radio equipment, whether teenagers blowing out their parents’ fuses (that was us) or manufacturers’ research labs (maybe you). Licenses in the Experimental Radio Service allow work with radio transmitters that don’t otherwise meet FCC standards. The problem with these experimental licenses was that most … Continue Reading

Wi-Fi Holds its Breath as FCC OKs LTE-U

By Mitchell Lazarus on February 23, 2017 Posted in Cellular, Deadlines, Unlicensed Operations and Emerging Technologies, Wireless

Wi-Fi is one of the great technological successes of our age. It gives fast, reliable data transmission by anyone for any purpose. No FCC license is needed. No single provider controls the technology. The equipment is inexpensive and available in a large, competitive marketplace. It almost always works. Was it too good to last? We … Continue Reading

Better Legal Protection for Emails?—My Fault That It’s Needed

By Mitchell Lazarus on February 13, 2017 Posted in Internet, Privacy

A bill moving through Congress would require a warrant to access the contents of an email, even an email more than six months old. Wait—what? You read that right. Today’s law says the police need a warrant to read your newer emails. But as soon as one has been on the server for 180 days, … Continue Reading

FCC Names Spectrum Access Administrators

By Mitchell Lazarus on December 27, 2016 Posted in Unlicensed Operations and Emerging Technologies

Seven companies will simultaneously control multiple users across three priority levels in the Citizens Broadband Radio Service. The FCC hopes to launch new spectrum management techniques with the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS), in which large numbers of users will share the spectrum with each other and with incumbents through a three-tiered access model. Each … Continue Reading

Microwave Group Seeks Access to Reserved but Unused Spectrum

By Mitchell Lazarus on December 14, 2016 Posted in Deadlines, Wireless

Rulemaking petition objects to satellite earth stations’ setting aside frequencies they may never need. Managing the radio spectrum is one of the FCC’s toughest, least appreciated jobs. The goal is to squeeze in as many users as possible, with the least interference among them. Often the FCC can get more out of a frequency band … Continue Reading

Some 5G Rules Take Effect Soon

By Mitchell Lazarus and FHH Law on November 10, 2016 Posted in Unlicensed Operations and Emerging Technologies

(More rules recently went through public comment and are still pending) Last July we reported on the FCC’s progress toward future wireless “5G” technologies, which promise blindingly fast data speeds. The rules adopted then are now slated to take effect on December 14, except for those on satellite earth stations in the 27.5-28.35 and … Continue Reading

FCC Approves (Very Late) Application to be a 70/80/90 GHz Database Manager

By Mitchell Lazarus on August 30, 2016 Posted in Unlicensed Operations and Emerging Technologies

But success will be limited if the FCC approves mobile usage in the 70/80 GHz segments. The FCC rules mandate a lot of different techniques to keep radio communications from interfering with each other. One of the more unusual applies to the “nosebleed spectrum” way up at 71-76, 81-86, and 92-95 GHz – the highest … Continue Reading

FCC Works its Will on the WISP, Part II: Sentence Suspended, Somewhat

By Mitchell Lazarus on July 31, 2016 Posted in Enforcement, Internet, Unlicensed Operations and Emerging Technologies

$202k fine reduced to $40k … but there’s a catch. Three years ago – doesn’t the time just fly? – we told you about Towerstream, a wireless Internet service provider (WISP) whose transmitters had caused interference to airport weather radars. The FCC proposed a fine of $202,000, apparently in keeping with its rumored policy of … Continue Reading

10+ GHz for 5G: FCC Expands Spectrum Frontiers for Fifth Generation Connectivity

By Mitchell Lazarus and FHH Law on July 24, 2016 Posted in Unlicensed Operations and Emerging Technologies

U.S. aims to get ahead of the rest of the world in advanced wireless technology. As we’ve reported, the FCC has been hard at work on the regulatory regime for future wireless “5G” technologies, which promise blindingly fast data speeds. Would-be 5G wireless providers and device manufacturers particularly want wide swaths of millimeter wave (mmWave) … Continue Reading

FCC Un-Restricts Restricted Bands for More Experimental Licenses

By Mitchell Lazarus on July 4, 2016 Posted in Unlicensed Operations and Emerging Technologies

Sensitive frequencies now available to companies developing medical devices. A small fraction of frequency bands need extraordinary protection from radio interference. Some, like those used for radio astronomy, depend on extremely sensitive receivers. Others carry signals essential to safety, like search-and rescue bands and GPS, which helps to land airplanes as well as to find … Continue Reading