DOD could object to reallocation of C-band spectrum for terrestrial use, given its plans to rely increasingly on commercial satcom services that employ that band, said Satellite Industry Association President Tom Stroup Tuesday, as SIA released its annual state of the satellite industry report. FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly blogged with support Monday for alternative uses of the “underutilized” 3.7-4.2 GHz band mainly used by fixed satellite services operators (see 1707100049). DOD didn't comment Tuesday.
The FCC offers no valid reason for its application of the mixed-use rule to stop local franchising authorities regulating the provision of non-telco services by incumbent cable TV operators, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled (in Pacer) Wednesday. Montgomery and Anne Arundel counties, Maryland, and Dubuque, Iowa, challenged 2007 and 2015 agency orders on video franchising rules on several bases. The three-judge panel -- David McKeague, Richard Griffin and Raymond Kethledge, with the decision penned by Kethledge -- granted in part the appeal and denied it in other areas, such as by finding the agency didn't create a regulatory gap and didn't unduly burden small entities.
DirecTV and Dish Network objections to a proposed hike in direct broadcast satellite regulatory fees lack merit since consumers won't be harmed, the American Cable Association said in an FCC docket 17-134 filing posted Monday. ACA said the Media Bureau's MVPD activities involve DBS providers and cable and IPTV providers equally, and all see equivalent benefits. That justifies the proposed hike and supports full parity among MVPD payers, it said. Dish and DirecTV didn't comment Monday. CTIA, meanwhile, said non-high cost USF full-time equivalent employees who get reallocated should be reallocated as indirect FTEs, and there's no reason for reclassifying FTEs from the Wireline Bureau who work on high-cost USF or other agency-wide issues. It urged rejection of combining commercial mobile radio service and interstate telecommunications service provider regulatory fee categories and of a flat per-license fee on Communications Act international Section 214 authorizations. Level 3 backed AT&T's call for regulatory fees on both common carrier and non-common carrier terrestrial international bearer circuits, saying the FCC should seek further comment on eliminating the IBC fee category in favor of an assessment on each international 214 authorization or each holder of an international 214 authorization.
Companies with non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) constellation plans are pushing back at last month's petitions to deny and suggested conditions in the OneWeb processing round (see 1706270014). Friday was the deadline for oppositions to petitions, with replies due July 14.
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.