The FCC in a U.S. Supreme Court filing defended the USF in general, and the contribution factor more specifically, as the justices prepared to hear what could be the most consequential FCC case in years (see 2412100060). SCOTUS agreed in November to review the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' 9-7 en banc decision, which sided with Consumers' Research and found that the USF contribution factor is a "misbegotten tax.”
The FCC Public Safety Bureau on Wednesday released rules for new multilingual templates for wireless emergency alerts. It sought comment in a public notice last year (see 2405130047). The order adopts templates for the 18 “most commonly issued and most time-sensitive types of alerts, which will be available in English and the next 13 most commonly spoken languages” in the U.S. “We promote the flexibility and effectiveness of these templates by requiring Participating … Providers to support the ability for alert originators to customize the alerts using event-specific information,” the order said. The order also adopts non-fillable American Sign Language (ASL) templates -- video files of the alert messages in ASL that don’t include the same elements required in other templates. “Together, these steps further the Commission’s goal of ensuring that WEA remains an essential and effective public safety tool that allows alert originators to warn their communities of danger and advise them to take protective action,” the bureau said. The alerts cover tornado emergency, tornado warning, flash flood emergency, flash flood warning, severe thunderstorm, snow squall, dust storm, hurricane, storm surge, extreme wind, test alert, fire, tsunami, earthquake, boil water, avalanche, hazardous materials and 911 outage. “We decline to adopt evacuation and shelter-in-place templates and defer consideration of other templates at this time,” the order said. The issue of whether participating providers “should be required to support additional templates, including an ‘all-clear’ template and other templates suggested by commenters in the record, is still under consideration by the Bureau at this time,” the order said in a footnote. The bureau addressed concerns CTIA and others raised about problems with preinstalled alerts (see 2406140051). “We agree that there are certain key technical issues to work through during the standards development process, but disagree insofar as commenters suggest these are barriers to adopting fillable templates that cannot be overcome,” the order said. The bureau agreed with CTIA that “dynamically translating the fillable fields would be technically infeasible at this time.” The order imposes a deadline of compliance within 30 months following publication in the Federal Register. CTIA and ATIS had questioned whether that timeline was workable. The bureau agreed with CTIA “that requiring the English message to appear alongside the multilingual template serves as an important public safety redundancy.” It agreed with ATIS “that displaying the English and multilingual versions together” is “technically feasible.” The bureau also agreed with CTIA that “fillable ASL templates are not technically feasible at this time.”
Meta's chief AI scientist warned against overoptimism about AI's role in the immediate future. During a presentation Wednesday at CES in Las Vegas, Yann LeCun said making new technology work “is always harder than we think.” Telecom carriers have invested heavily in AI, which they see as a network management tool (see 2411190057).
New Street’s Blair Levin on Wednesday slammed the $20 billion rural digital opportunity fund, calling it a huge failure, during a Broadband Breakfast webinar. Approved under former President Donald Trump, RDOF has its defenders, including FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, who has called it a bigger success than the BEAD program, which President Joe Biden approved (see 2409270032).
CTA CEO Gary Shapiro used his annual state of the industry address Tuesday to warn against the threat from tariffs expected under the administration of President-elect Donald Trump. Meanwhile, other speakers highlighted challenges consumers and industry will face as AI is added to smartphones and becomes a part of daily life.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel circulated an NPRM Monday to start auctioning AWS-3 spectrum that will fully fund the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program (see 2412240036). Congress agreed to send an additional $3.08 billion for carriers to rip and replace unsecure network equipment from Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE, though questions remain about whether that amount will suffice since the program's total is based on cost estimates filed years ago (see 2412310016). The auction would be the first since the agency’s general auction authority expired in March 2023. Rosenworcel is seeking approval of the NPRM through an electronic vote by commissioners. The NPRM “would propose updates to the service-specific competitive bidding rules to grant licenses for spectrum in the FCC’s inventory in the AWS-3 spectrum bands (generally the 1695-1710 MHz, 1755-1780 MHz, and 2155-2180 MHz bands),” said a news release. The FCC assigned the majority of AWS-3 licenses in an auction that ended Jan. 29, 2017. “Nevertheless, there remains spectrum in these bands that is not currently licensed due to various circumstances,” the release said: “Pursuant to the Congressional mandate, the Commission will now offer licenses for the unassigned AWS-3 spectrum in a new auction.” The FCC said the NPRM also would propose to update definitions of small and very small businesses “to conform with the Small Business Act’s five-year lookback period that has been used in recent spectrum auctions.” Rosenworcel cited Salt Typhoon, the Chinese government-associated effort at hacking U.S. telecom networks (see 2411190073), in seeking quick action on the NPRM. "With ‘Salt Typhoon’ and other recent incidents, we are all acutely aware of the risk posed by Chinese hackers and intelligence services to our privacy, economy, and security,” Rosenworcel said. “I am confident that the FCC’s world-leading and award-winning auction team will meet this important moment.” Rosenworcel, a Democrat, plans to leave the FCC in two weeks, when Republican Commissioner Brendan Carr is expected to replace her as chair.
CTA urged President-elect Donald Trump's administration to move with care on proposals for imposing higher tariffs on imports, warning they could result in sharp declines in the purchases of smartphones and other devices. With CES beginning in Las Vegas, CTA also projected retail revenue in the consumer tech industry of $537 billion this year, up 3.2% over 2024.
NTIA sent letters over the weekend to members of the newly reconstituted Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee saying they had been appointed to serve. The letters ask that members respond by Jan 15. CSMAC is unlikely to meet before the end of the Biden presidency in just two weeks, industry officials said Monday.
Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., slammed the ruling of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (see 2501020047) vacating the FCC’s April net neutrality order. In a statement released Thursday, the lawmakers said, “Without net neutrality, consumers, small businesses, and innovators alike will face increased costs, reduced choice, and less competition. It is a lose-lose-lose.” They added, “This ruling upends the fundamental principle that internet service providers should not act as gatekeepers, favoring certain users, content, or services over others." Markey and Wyden said the decision also shows why the U.S. Supreme Court was wrong when it overturned the Chevron doctrine. The opinion “makes basic errors about communications technologies, neatly illustrating why expert regulators, not judges, are best positioned to make complex public policy decisions.” Andrew Schwartzman, senior counsel at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, in an email wrote that the opinion “misreads” the 1996 Telecom Act “in finding that broadband internet service is not subject to the regulatory requirements of Title II of the Communications Act.” Among other concerns, “that deprives the FCC of the power to protect national security, insure that competitive broadband suppliers can have access to necessary distribution outlets and endangers wireless access programs for low-income consumers.” The “good news” was in the judges didn’t do, Schwartzman said. The three-judge panel “gave a narrow reading to the impact of the recent Supreme Court’s Loper Bright decision overruling the Chevron doctrine,” he said. The court also didn’t “rely on the carriers’ ‘major question doctrine’ arguments, so that the FCC will retain the power to regulate various aspects of broadband service without future Congressional action.” But Seth Cooper, Free State Foundation director-communications policy studies, said the court offered a “straightforward reading” of the Communications Act. The opinion was “refreshing because it shows how traditional tools of statutory interpretation can be used to resolve even seemingly technical questions like the regulatory classification of broadband,” Cooper emailed: “It’s the type of decision that eluded us so long as lower courts were subject to the ‘Chevron doctrine’ and effectively required to rationalize even far-fetched agency interpretations or re-interpretations of supposed ambiguous statutory provisions.”
NTIA’s Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee may have fallen by the wayside, with many questions about its future unanswered heading into the second Donald Trump presidency. Several CSMAC members told us they reapplied for membership but have heard little in response.