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.
Direct broadcast satellite and cable interests, which clashed over DBS regulatory fees in FY 2015 and 16 (see 1507080013 and 1607060023) are doing so again with the FCC FY 2017 fee proposal, as expected (see 1706050038). wireline interests -- saying they bear a disproportionate regulatory fee burden compared with other industries -- are backing FCC plans for reallocation of Wireline Bureau full-time equivalents (FTE), though the satellite industry is opposing. Comments on the fee proposals were due Thursday, replies July 7. The FCC Received support for its plan to hike the de minimis regulatory fee threshold and pushback on hiking the submarine cable regulatory fee.
The FCC is proposing a $120 million fine against the Florida operator of what Enforcement Bureau acting Chief Michael Carowitz called "one of the most disruptive robocallers we've come across." It said Adrian Abramovich's Miami operation made more than 96.7 million spoofed robocalls in Q3 and ultimately made hundreds of millions of such calls. It said the fine was for violations of the Truth in Caller ID Act, with Abramovich using "neighbor spoofing" -- making it appear they were coming from phone numbers in the same area code and the first three digits of the recipient's phone number -- and purportedly selling vacation deals from travel and hospitality companies such as TripAdvisor, Expedia and Marriott. People who answered the calls were apparently transferred to foreign call centers that often tried to instead sell vacation packages involving time shares. The agency said the hospitality and travel companies weren't affiliated with the call centers. It said TripAdvisor contacted the FCC last year after receiving complaints. It said medical paging service Spok complained in 2015 about a major robocalling event disrupting its emergency paging service -- an event that was traced to Abramovich's Marketing Strategy Leaders. The bureau said the fine is based on 80,000 calls it reviewed. Chairman Ajit Pai said it was the first FCC large-scale spoofing enforcement action under the act. The enforcement action was approved Thursday 3-0, and multiple robocall items are on the July commissioners' meeting agenda, announced Thursday (see 1706220050). The bureau said Abramovich has 30 days to respond. The agency Thursday issued a citation to Abramovich for apparent violations of Telephone Consumer Protection Act robocall limits and federal wire fraud statute. He couldn't be reached for comment. Commissioner Mike O'Rielly, concurring, said Abramovich had an intent to defraud, likely not an intent to harm. He defended some manifestations of neighborhood spoofing: "There are positive aspects of VoIP that allow a consumer to use a local telephone number and I don't want to see that wiped out. It's not all bad."
The non-geostationary orbit satellite boom might require some regulatory changes both at the FCC and globally, Commissioner Mike O'Rielly said Thursday after an expected 3-0 approval of OneWeb's application for U.S. market access for its 720-satellite NGSO constellation (see 1706120036). He didn't say what changes might be needed but said OneWeb and other NGSO applications pointed out issues needing addressing on orbital debris and in-line interference. International Bureau Chief Tom Sullivan said beyond the agency's current Part 2 and 25 rules update proceeding, it's looking to the 11 NGSO applications triggered by the broadband satellite constellation's processing round (see 1611160010) to also drive possible future regulatory changes.
The FCC's July tentative agenda has a consumer protection focus, with items dealing with robocalls, rural call completion and "slamming and cramming." Noting it's Consumer Protection Month, Chairman Ajit Pai in a blog post Thursday announcing the July 13 agenda said the agency is "extend[ing] our efforts to address the problems Americans confront in the communications marketplace and to crack down on those who prey upon the vulnerable for their own financial gain." The agenda also has items on rural call completion, Part 2 equipment authorization rules, allocation of spectrum for vehicular radar, wireless mic technical and operational rules and video description.
Pointing to SNL Kagan projections that retransmission consent fees are expected to hit $9.3 billion this year and nearly $12.8 billion by 2023, up from $7.9 billion in 2016, the American TV Alliance is renewing its push for FCC intervention. In a news release Tuesday, ATVA urged the agency to "take a hard look at the ancient rules on retransmission consent, must carry, and government-backed exclusivity." It said such rules "are directly responsible for skyrocketing fees and the record pace of blackouts this year. These troubling trends should erase any doubts about the necessity for strong Commission oversight during the proposed NextGenTV transition." ATVA has pushed repeatedly for retrans reforms as well as FCC and congressional action (see 1701090039 and 1704040062). NAB in a statement said, "Despite tired rhetoric from ATVA, broadcast programming deserves fair compensation for providing by far the most valuable content taken and re-sold by pay TV companies. Local TV stations look forward to Next Gen TV upgrades, understanding that giant pay TV companies will fight our innovation for anti-competitive reasons." Kagan said Monday that despite those higher retrans fees, station owners' margins are shrinking due to affiliation renewal contracts including bigger network programming expense increases. Kagan said its reverse retrans projections point to major affiliate station group owners paying major broadcast networks $2.9 billion this year, up 34 percent from an estimated $2.2 billion last year.