FCC commissioners on Thursday approved an order expanding the range of accessibility features that must be included in videoconferencing platforms (see 2409040053). In addition, multiple commissioners at the open meeting said allowing non-geostationary orbit fixed satellite service downlinks in the 17.2-17.8 GHz bandwidth should be a sizable boon to U.S. competitiveness in commercial space.
Gabriella Novello
Gabriella Novello, Assistant Editor, is a journalist for Communications Daily covering telecommunications and the Federal Communications Commission. She joined the Warren Communications News staff in 2020, after covering election integrity and the 2020 presidential election at WhoWhatWhy. She received her bachelor's degree in journalism with a minor in health promotion at American University. You can follow Novello on Twitter: @NOVELLOGAB.
Industry experts expect the FCC will petition the U.S. Supreme Court for a writ of certiori following the split rulings between the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the 6th and 11th circuits on the Universal Service Fund contribution mechanism, they said during a Schools, Health, Libraries & Broadband Coalition webinar Wednesday. The 5th Circuit sided with Consumers' Research in its challenge of the contribution mechanism and agreed to stay its ruling pending the commission's petition (see 2408270030).
The FCC Consumer Advisory Committee voted unanimously Tuesday to adopt recommendations on using AI to protect vulnerable populations from unwanted and illegal calls. CTIA abstained from the vote, held during CAC's final meeting of its current chapter (see 2408130057). The recommendations included nine from Working Group 1, which focused on technical issues. Working Group 2, which focused on outreach and consumer education, offered seven recommendations.
Commenters largely showed support for NTIA's proposed guidance that would allow the use of alternative technologies for broadband, equity, access and deployment program projects in locations where fiber may not be the most suitable option (see 2408260048). Comments were due Tuesday. Additional comments will be made public after an initial review, an NTIA spokesperson told us.
The FCC defended its decision to reclassify broadband as a Title II telecom service under the Communications Act in a reply brief to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday (docket 24-7000). It argued the court's decision staying the order pending review was done "without showing adequate statutory support." Moreover, the motions panel lacked "the benefit of the full briefing presented here" (see 2408130001).
Verizon will purchase Frontier in a $20 billion all-cash valued transaction, the companies announced Thursday. The deal is expected to close in 18 months, subject to regulatory and Frontier shareholder approval. Verizon will gain 2.2 million fiber subscribers, extending the company's network reach to 25 million locations across 31 states and Washington, D.C., as a result. Frontier also renewed a commitment to build out an additional 2.8 million fiber locations by the end of 2026.
Some IP-captioned telephone service (IP CTS) providers welcomed an accessibility coalition's petition asking the FCC to require that all IP CTS providers using automated speech recognition (ASR) as the sole means of transcribing speech also provide users the option of requesting a communications assistant (CA) at the start or any point during an IP CTS call (see 2408010057). The coalition also sought quality metrics for the service and asked that the commission not certify new IP CTS providers until its petition is addressed.
The White House Office of the National Cyber Director released guidance Tuesday, dubbing it a "roadmap," addressing "key vulnerabilities" in border gateway protocol (BGP) security. ONCD urged "every network operator use a risk-based approach to address BGP vulnerabilities" through the adoption of resource public key infrastructure (RPKI), which includes route origin authorization and origination, calling it a "mature, ready-to-implement approach to mitigate BGP’s vulnerabilities."
State broadband officials and digital equity leaders are optimistic that NTIA will soon announce additional awards in its $1.44 billion state digital equity capacity grant program that the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funds (see 2403290039). During a visit Wednesday to Michigan, which already received its award amount, NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson said the agency is "working with each state on their plans for how they're going to spend that money." He also noted NTIA is accepting applications for its $910 million digital equity competitive grant program.
NTIA sought comment Monday on proposed guidance about entities participating in the broadband, equity, access and deployment program using alternative technologies (see 2205130054). Comments are due by 11:59 p.m. ET on Sept. 10 and should be sent to BEAD@NTIA.gov. "Connecting everyone in America will require a variety of technologies," BEAD Program Director Evan Feinman wrote in a blog. Fiber is "the gold standard," but where it's not "economically feasible, states and territories have other options."