The FCC on Thursday posted the three items set for votes at the commission’s June 26 meeting, all of which are aimed at cutting regulations. It will consider cutting cable TV rules and an engineering requirement tied to the agency’s broadband data collection, as well as addressing text telephone-based telecom relay service rules.
If the U.S. wants to win on AI, it must focus on telecom regulatory issues like permitting, Incompas CEO Chip Pickering told the House Communications Subcommittee on Wednesday. Pickering spoke during a hearing on how U.S. communications networks can support AI.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said Wednesday that the FCC will consider three items during its June 26 open meeting, though he acknowledged in his blog the uncertainty about whether any votes could occur. Leading the proposed items is an order that would eliminate a “dated and reticulated” group of cable TV rate regulations, consistent with the FCC’s “Delete” proceeding.
A decision by the U.S. Supreme Court is expected in a matter of weeks in the Consumers' Research case challenging the USF contribution factor and the USF generally, even as SCOTUS wades through numerous emergency petitions from the Trump administration, industry experts said Wednesday during a Broadband Breakfast webinar. USF likely needs an overhaul, they added, but that could be difficult if the FCC loses at SCOTUS, which typically issues several high-profile decisions in June.
Making cloud services pay into the USF would increase the price of the services, drive down adoption and negatively affect the economy, according to a new study from the Computer & Communications Industry Association. The study was written by Raul Katz, director-business strategy research at the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information at Columbia Business School and funded by Amazon Web Services. Ruiz discussed the results Tuesday on a webcast with Trevor Wagener, CCIA's research center director and chief economist.
The Phoenix Center said Tuesday that President Donald Trump's administration is proving to be more focused on regulating industry than he promised during his campaign last year. “A disturbing number” of Trump appointees “are refusing to heed his message, targeting technology firms with aggressive antitrust enforcements, regulations, and even the sorts of jawboning coercion used during the Biden Administration to curtail constitutionally protected private speech,” the center's new report said.
AI will mean “fundamental changes” to the way carriers build and operate their networks, Deutsche Telekom’s Franz Seiser said Tuesday during a TelecomTV digital signal processing forum, streamed live from Windsor, U.K. Seiser and other speakers agreed that most carriers are making their first, still-tentative steps to embrace AI.
Airlines for America (A4A) and Aviation Spectrum Resources Inc. (ASRI) jointly urged caution if the FCC moves forward on an auction of upper C-band spectrum. But CTIA and wireless interests called for the agency to take the next steps toward an auction, building on the record-setting C-band auction, which ended in early 2021 (see 2102180041) and reshaped carriers’ midband portfolios. Replies were due last week in docket 25-59 on a notice of inquiry approved by commissioners 4-0 in February (see 2502270042).
The FCC defended its 50% upward adjustment of a fine it imposed on Verizon for data violations, bringing the total penalty to $46.9 million, in a brief filed Wednesday at the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. The court heard Verizon’s challenge of the fine in April (docket 24-1733), with judges appearing skeptical of the carrier’s arguments (see 2504290060). This week, they asked both sides about the adjustment as they near a decision. The FCC defended the fine even though now-Chairman Brendan Carr and Commissioner Nathan Simington had opposed it (see 2504250062).
The FCC’s “bad labs” order and Further NPRM, approved by commissioners 4-0 last week and posted this week, contains a lengthy cost-of-benefit analysis weighing the costs and risks of not moving forward with the rules. FCC officials noted last week that this was the only major change from the draft (see 2505220056), though the agency also added a paragraph on DOJ's concerns. Other changes were mostly cosmetic, based on a side-by-side comparison.