WTA and a group of healthcare entities filed amicus briefs at the U.S. Supreme Court urging the court to overturn the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ 9-7 en banc decision invalidating part of the USF program. The briefs supported arguments of the FCC (see 2501090045), the telecom industry and public interest groups (see 2501100057). Consumer group Public Citizen warned of negative effects beyond the FCC if SCOTUS upholds the 5th Circuit decision. Consumers' Research challenged the contribution factor in the 5th Circuit and other courts.
President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed Department of Government Efficiency may struggle to make the deep cuts in the federal workforce it seeks, experts said during a discussion at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs late Monday. Moreover, Trump would face legal challenges implementing Schedule F, which would strip federal employees of civil service protections and facilitate replacing them with Trump loyalists, they said (see 2407110054).
President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed an executive order aimed at fast-tracking the buildout of large-scale AI infrastructure in the U.S. Meanwhile, during an Analysys Mason webinar, industry officials said the telecom industry remains in the very early stages of figuring out how it will use AI.
The FCC defended its 3-2 April decision (see 2404290044) to fine T-Mobile $80 million for allegedly not safeguarding data on customers' real-time locations, filing a brief Friday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. T-Mobile was also fined $12.2 million for violations by Sprint, which it later acquired. Whether the government will continue fighting T-Mobile and the other major carriers is in doubt following the start of Donald Trump's presidency next week, industry lawyers said. Republican Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington dissented on the April order, even though the FCC approved the initial notices of apparent liability under Republican Chair Ajit Pai with Carr’s approval (see 2002280065). Simington wasn’t a commissioner at that time. Verizon challenged the FCC’s fine in the 2nd Circuit, AT&T in the 5th Circuit (see 2411060008). The 5th Circuit is slated to hear oral argument the week of Feb. 3.
The company challenging Hobbs Act limits on lower court review of an FCC decision in a Telephone Consumer Protection Act case told the U.S. Supreme Court the government and its supporters are seeking “a strikingly broad reading” of the act. SCOTUS is scheduled to hear McLaughlin Chiropractic Associates v. McKesson Jan. 21, a case from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
T-Mobile and UScellular countered opposition filed against their deal that has T-Mobile acquiring “substantially all” of the smaller provider’s wireless operations, including about 30% of its licensed spectrum. Numerous commercially sensitive details were redacted from the filing posted Friday in docket 24-286. In December, the Rural Wireless Association, EchoStar and Communications Workers of America asked the FCC to reject the deal (see 2412100044), which was announced in May. In the filing, T-Mobile and UScellular pointed to the transaction's economic benefits, laid out (see 2409160029) in a September public interest statement (PIS). “Unsurprisingly, the petitioners and commenters questioning the consumer benefits described in the PIS fail to provide any credible evidence or technical analysis to support their allegations,” the filing said. “Instead, these parties baselessly assert that the Transaction will harm competition among mobile wireless providers and result in higher prices for consumers.”
The telecom industry and public interest groups supported government arguments asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ 9-7 en banc decision invalidating part of the USF program (see 2501090045). In a decision that sent shock waves through the telecom industry, judges on the conservative circuit agreed with Consumers' Research that USF violates the Constitution by improperly delegating Congress’ power to the FCC and the agency's power to a private company, the Universal Service Administrative Co. (see 2412100060).
Several additional groups filed at the FCC this week urging that it approve T-Mobile’s proposed purchase of "substantially all” of UScellular’s wireless operations (see 2501080071). The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation told the FCC the deal promotes wireless competition. The FCC “should be guided by the fact that the public interest is best served by maximizing the productivity of spectrum,” ITIF said: The proposed transaction “would transfer spectrum from the hands of a struggling company, UScellular, to a major carrier with the economies of scale to provide more consumer benefits at a lower per-unit cost of production.” TechFreedom said the public interest statement and other documents the companies submitted “paint a bleak future for UScellular, and more importantly, for UScellular customers, without approval” of the deal. “Far from being a ‘maverick’ that can disrupt even local markets, UScellular is losing the economic battle to remain solvent and relevant,” TechFreedom said. UScellular is a “regional carrier lacking the necessary subscriber and financial resources to fund the full deployment of 5G services,” the group said. The U.S. Black Chambers and U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce jointly urged approval. “For Black and Hispanic business owners, expanded network infrastructure ensures equitable access to essential tools such as e-commerce platforms, cloud-based solutions, and digital marketing strategies that drive growth,” they said. The League of United Latin American Citizens said integrating UScellular’s assets into T-Mobile’s network “will significantly enhance network capacity, deliver faster speeds, and reduce congestion, providing substantial benefits to consumers in underserved areas.” Some 40% of UScellular’s coverage “serves rural populations, where access to robust and reliable wireless services is essential,” the league said.
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.”