Community health experts and consumer advocates encouraged increased investment in broadband access and devices that can be used for telehealth during a Broadband Breakfast webinar on Wednesday. In addition, panelists discussed the benefits of community or public investment in broadband as a way of improving health outcomes. They also noted potential steps regulators could consider for protecting patient data.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency should narrow the scope of its proposed cyber incident reporting rules to ease the regulatory burden on industries already facing a multitude of state and federal mandates, USTelecom, NTCA and Microsoft said in comments that were due Wednesday in docket CISA-2022-0010 (see 2403270070).

California state senators pushed back on two digital equity bills Tuesday. Multiple Communications Committee members during a livestreamed hearing raised concerns about the Assembly-passed AB-2239, which would ban digital discrimination as the FCC defines it. Also, the committee scaled back the Assembly-approved AB-1588, which had proposed to update the California LifeLine subsidy program to support broadband for low-income households. The committee directed the LifeLine bill’s sponsor to find a compromise with industry opponents and other stakeholders over the summer recess that runs from July 3 to Aug. 5.

The FCC proposed extending for an additional six years its freeze on federal-state jurisdictional separations of telecom costs and revenue. The current freeze is set to expire Dec. 31 (see 1812170049). The proposed extension would let the commission continue working with the joint board on jurisdictional separations to "determine next steps" in amending the rules "in light of sweeping technological and regulatory changes since these rules were initially adopted," according to an NPRM Monday. Comments are due 30 days after Federal Register publication, replies 45 days after, in docket 80-286.

The three major U.S. wireless carriers, AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon, told the FCC it’s too early for rules on using supplemental coverage from space (SCS) to improve calling to 911. Their message was contained in reply comments posted through Tuesday in docket 23-65. The FCC's SCS framework order approved in March (see 2403140050) included a Further NPRM asking about 911 and radio astronomy issues. Specifically, the FNPRM looks at whether the FCC should mandate location-based routing requirements for SCS emergency communications.

A Mississippi social media law requiring age verification may not be enforced while litigation continues, the U.S. District Court for Southern Mississippi decided Monday. The state law requiring parental consent for minors younger than 18 (HB-1126) was to take effect that day. But the court said NetChoice showed a high likelihood of success in its complaint (see 2406070059) against Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch (R).

The First Amendment protects social media platforms’ ability to moderate content, the U.S. Supreme Court said Monday, sending the tech industry’s lawsuits against Florida and Texas laws back to the lower courts (see 2402270072). All nine justices agreed on remanding, but Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch disagreed with First Amendment-related aspects of the majority opinion, which Justice Elena Kagan wrote (dockets 22-555 and 22-277).

Industry lawyers continue to assess the potentially seismic implications of Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and the other Chevron case decided last week (see 2406280043). Yet the after-effects are being seen already. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday directed parties in the net neutrality challenge to file not later than July 8 supplemental briefing material addressing the effect of the Chevron decision “on our analysis” of a motion to stay the order (see 2406280060).

The statute authorizing the federal TikTok ban -- the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act -- is unconstitutional, and it isn’t even “a close case,” four professors’ amicus brief said Thursday (docket 24-1113), urging that the U.S. Appeals Court for the D.C. Circuit reject it.

The commercial space industry widely objects to the FCC's proposed "object-years" approach for space safety, with numerous operators in comments last week calling it ineffective and more than one deriding it as "simplistic" (docket 18-313). Those comments were part of a record refresh in the FCC's orbital debris mitigation docket (see 2405020048). The FCC's object-years proposal would cap at 100 the number of years failed satellites in a constellation could remain in orbit. It has placed 100 object-years conditions on several non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) constellations in the past year (see 2406120006).