FCC Chairman Brendan Carr on Friday confirmed a report that the FCC is investigating participants in its voluntary cyber trust mark program for possible ties to China. Carr and all the other commissioners voted for the launch of the program in March 2024 (see 2403140034). It has been championed, in particular, by the Consumer Technology Association, which didn’t comment Friday.
The U.S. Supreme Court handed down a ruling Friday that likely means less certainty for FCC actions and those of other federal agencies under the Hobbs Act. The decision comes a year after SCOTUS overruled the Chevron doctrine, which had required courts to give deference to agency decisions, in the Loper Bright case (see 2406280043). The latest from the court was Friday's 6-3 decision in McLaughlin Chiropractic Associates v. McKesson, a much-watched case on the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (see 2506200011).
The FCC has an important but still limited role to play in cybersecurity, said Joshua Levine, a research fellow at the Foundation for American Innovation, during a Broadband Breakfast webinar Wednesday. The agency is rightly attempting to crack down on the authorization and use of unsecure telecom equipment in the U.S., including through its recent "bad labs" order (see 2505220056), he said. While the commission is well positioned to oversee the security of devices and the supply chain, he argued that it probably shouldn’t serve as the lead agency on cybersecurity.
The implications of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision requiring judicial deference to agency environmental reviews of infrastructure projects remain unclear, experts said Wednesday, weeks after the ruling in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, Colorado. While the decision was unanimous, it had many twists and turns that make it difficult to know what its effect will be, panelists said during a Washington Legal Foundation webinar.
The World Radiocommunication Conference in 2027 appears increasingly likely to be held in Shanghai, WRC watchers told us. The ITU Council is meeting this week in Geneva, where a decision will be made on the location and timing of the next WRC. China has made a strong bid to serve as host (see 2505090039), which could complicate U.S. participation. The only other country to offer to host the WRC is Rwanda.
In a 6-3 ruling Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in a key Telephone Consumer Protection Act case that lower courts aren’t bound by FCC and other agency decisions. The Hobbs Act gives the appeals courts general jurisdiction to enjoin, set aside, suspend or determine the validity of some agency orders, including most FCC orders, according to the decision in McLaughlin Chiropractic Associates v. McKesson. Major telecom trade groups have urged SCOTUS to reject arguments that a lower court can review an FCC decision, saying industry needs the certainty provided by the Hobbs Act (see 2412260037).
Regulators worldwide are still struggling with how they should treat rich communication services (RCS), speakers said Tuesday during a Mobile World Live webinar. RCS is an advanced communications protocol standard for instant messaging, primarily used on mobile phones and promoted by GSMA as a replacement for SMS and MMS messaging.
Most comments appeared to support proposals in a January NPRM on a voluntary, negotiation-based process to transition 10 MHz in the 900 MHz band to broadband. But some commenters continued to raise concerns about the interference risk for the current band incumbent (see 2505190025). Reply comments were due this week in docket 24-99. In 2020, the FCC approved use of 3/3 MHz channels in the band for broadband while retaining 4 MHz for narrowband operations (see 2005130057).
Public interest groups defended most parts of the FCC’s July order implementing the Martha Wright-Reed Act of 2022 (see 2501280053) in a brief filed Monday at the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (24-8028). Incarcerated people’s communications services (IPCS) providers and the National Sheriffs’ Association argued to the court why the order should be overturned. Last week, the government also defended the order (see 2506120078).
The Trump Organization announced Monday that later this year, it will launch Trump Mobile, a mobile virtual network operator, and a gold-colored smartphone, which it said will eventually be made in the U.S. The launch would create ethics concerns regardless, but even more so given the Trump administration's pressure for the FCC to answer directly to the White House, public interest groups said.