Matt Daneman

The FCC, by putting a call authentication framework notice of inquiry on Thursday's agenda (see 1706220050), may be signaling to the telco industry that if it doesn't move faster on voluntary solutions to robocalls over IP networks, the agency will step in with regulatory ones, iconectiv Chief Technology Officer Chris Drake told us. The industry wants a voluntary system, with the FCC consulted "but not running it," he said. The FCC, knowing that, is signaling "there will be regulation if nothing happens," said Drake, a board member of the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS).

The cable industry was cheering Friday as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the FCC's 2015 order declaring the cable industry effectively competitive -- a move that largely ended basic rate regulation by local and state franchise authorities (see 1506020060). A petition for writ of certiorari before the Supreme Court seems unlikely given the unanimous ruling by the ideologically diverse panel of appellate court judges, cable lawyers told us.

The FCC might start being pressed to extend some of the requirements for traditional MVPDs -- particularly rules on public, educational and governmental programming obligations -- to the burgeoning virtual MVPD sector, PEG advocates and allies said. But many FCC watchers said the agency under Chairman Ajit Pai might not be hospitable to such calls, given its deregulatory bent. The FCC didn't comment.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has shot down a petition by NAB, NATOA and the Northern Dakota County Cable Communications Commission seeking a review of the FCC's 2015 order finding the cable industry is effectively competitive. Judges Karen Henderson, Cornelia Pillard and Douglas Ginsburg agreed on the opinion (in Pacer) issued Friday and written by Ginsburg. The court supported the FCC contention that its effective competition finding doesn't rely just on nationwide data since it gave each franchising authority the opportunity to rebut the effective competition presumption -- a procedure that meets the requirement that the agency make the determination of effective competition on the basis of franchise area.

The notice of inquiry on the FCC's July agenda on creating a database of reassigned phone numbers (see 1706220050) comes as the FCC awaits a U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruling on ACA International v. FCC that could put the agency's reassigned numbers rules back in its lap anyway, experts said. The FCC may anticipate that the ACA challenge of the agency's 2015 Telephone Consumer Protection Act declaratory ruling (see 1507200058) could go against the agency, with it knowing it still needs to address the problem of legitimate telemarketers with consent to call ending up with TCPA violations for calling numbers that since have been reassigned, said a lawyer with telemarketing and TCPA experience.

Ligado's plans within the 1526-1536 MHz band for its terrestrial broadband service are an "existential threat to GPS," according to a Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing Advisory Board (PNTAB) presentation during the board's semiannual meeting Wednesday. Much of that meeting involved potential interference from GPS-adjacent bands. "It's discouraging to have to spend so much time on this issue when it's clear there is a genuine threat to GPS," First Vice Chair Bradford Parkinson told us Thursday.

FCC rules that pre-empt state laws requiring municipal broadband networks have a business plan, plus state and local barriers that hinder private network deployment, are in the agency's crosshairs, Commissioner Mike O'Rielly said Wednesday at a Small Business & Entrepreneurship (SBE) Council-organized symposium on startup entrepreneurship policy issues. He said the FCC is looking negatively at local, state and tribal governments treating small-cell networks the same as macro tower deployments, since per-tower regulatory fees for dense small-cell deployments would be onerously expensive.

Proposed non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellite constellations face opposition from geostationary orbit (GSO) operators, terrestrial interests and each other. Monday was the deadline for comments and petitions in the NGSO processing round triggered by OneWeb's application (see 1611160010). Constellations attracted petitions to deny or calls for conditions. Replies to oppositions are due July 14.

Satellite insiders warn the U.S. could be losing a space regulatory race, as other nations increasingly try to lure emerging space industries with favorable regulatory regimes. At least partially in response, the 2017 American Space Commerce Free Enterprise Act (ASCFEA), passed by the House Science, Space and Technology Committee earlier this month, would charge the Commerce Department's Office of Space Commerce (OSC) with oversight of such activity, and hugely revamp the regulatory approval process for remote sensing operations, moving that oversight from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to OSC. "It's pretty radical," said space lawyer Jim Dunstan of Mobius Legal Group.

FCC officials on Friday repeatedly and vociferously criticized a story by The Washington Post quoting critics who claimed Chairman Ajit Pai, as head of an independent agency, was inappropriately close to the Trump administration. FCC Chief of Staff Matthew Berry in tweets said the incorrect assertion Trump and Pai spent time together at the president's meeting with tech companies this week (see 1706220054) amounted to a "fake meeting," was "sloppy journalism" and "disgraceful" and gave it "4 Pinocchios," referring to the way the Post's fact-checking columnists rate inaccurate statements (see here, here, here and here). Pai policy adviser Nathan Leamer tweeted that the assertion about a Pai/Trump meeting was a "complete fabrication" and, after a Post correction online, tweeted it was "still baseless" (here and here). According to the FCC, Pai took part in the tech companies event but was in a separate breakout session from Trump in a different building. Reporter Brian Fung emailed us that the Post "promptly corrected the story after being notified of the mistake, which was unintentional." He said Consumer Watchdog advocate John Simpson, whom he quoted in the story, "continued to say the FCC chairman's involvement in the White House event was problematic in the first place, from his perspective." Commissioner Mike O'Rielly tweeted the story was "a nothingburger that fails to point out last Admin took wrecking ball to norm on interactions." And Leamer liked a tweet by Mercatus Center fellow Joe Kane saying: "I hear @AjitPaiFCC and @POTUS work in the SAME CITY!" The FCC didn't comment further.