The 6th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court Friday rejected an FCC motion to move the net neutrality appeal to the D.C. Circuit (see 2406240027). “When considering a motion to transfer a multi-circuit petition, we give considerable weight to our selection in the lottery,” the court said in docket 24-7000. “That lottery system would not mean much if a party disappointed by the luck of the draw could transfer the case to its preferred forum.” The case doesn’t present any of the “unusual circumstances requiring transfer,” the order said. Eleven petitions for review were filed in seven circuits, the court said. “All but one of the petitioners oppose transfer,” it said: “The D.C. Circuit has some familiarity with the legal classification of broadband through its consideration of prior FCC orders. But the FCC’s vacillating positions on the proper classification of broadband demonstrate that the prior orders do not represent the staggered implementation of a single undertaking.”

The 2026 ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Policy Forum (WTPF) will have a sizable agenda and likely serve as an important precursor to the ITU's 2026 Plenipotentiary Conference (PP-26), held later that year, Access Partnership blogged Friday. The WTPF agenda includes space connectivity and telecommunications/information and communications technology resilience, it said. WTPF opinions could portend potential compromises on contentious issues at PP-26, it said.

ISP groups will voluntarily dismiss their lawsuit against Vermont’s net neutrality law, a Friday notice at the U.S. District Court of Vermont said. The groups are ACA Connects, CTIA, NCTA, USTelecom and the New England Cable & Telecommunications Association (case 2:18-cv-00167-CR). Vermont’s law seemed in good shape following significant, late-April decisions by the FCC and the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (see 2405030057).

The FCC Public Safety Bureau said in a report Thursday the Oct. 4 test of wireless emergency alerts and the broadcast emergency alert system appeared to be mostly a success, though there’s room for improvement. The report called for further FCC action addressing some of the problems uncovered. At the time of the tests, a Federal Emergency Management Agency official described (see 2310040071) them as “extremely successful." Based on survey data shared with the commission, “most respondents reported successful receipt of the WEA test message,” the report said: “The test also highlighted areas where WEA delivery can be improved, such as ensuring more consistent delivery and resolving issues concerning alert message audio tone and vibration cadence.” Meanwhile, “the large majority” of EAS participants “reported successful receipt and retransmission of the nationwide test” and “demonstrated that the national EAS distribution architecture is largely effective as designed.” The bureau found signs of progress compared with a similar test two years earlier. The message was received by 96.6% of EAS participants, compared with 89.3% in 2021, and the overall retransmission success rate was 93.6%, compared to 87.1%. The improvement is likely due to initiation of the 2023 test alert using common alerting protocol, “which introduced additional resiliency that was not available during the over-the-air-only 2021 nationwide test,” the bureau said. One negative was that more test participants reported equipment configuration issues and equipment failures than in 2021, the report said: “At the time of the test, approximately 23% of EAS equipment units, representing over 4,500 EAS Participants, were either using outdated software or were using equipment that no longer supported regular software updates.” Fully up-to-date gear had the highest receipt and retransmission rates. The Northern Mariana Islands, with a 20% retransmission success, and Guam, at 33.3%, had the worst success rates in the U.S. The bureau urged the FCC to consider rules “to improve the operational readiness of EAS Participants and Participating [wireless carriers], as well as ensure that EAS Participants are installing software updates in a timely manner and have plans for replacing equipment that is no longer supported by the manufacturer.” The bureau called on Congress to require all wireless carriers to support WEA and said industry can also take steps to make alerting more effective.

Internet service providers' hidden fees have frustrated 41% of Americans, according to a survey by internet and tech reviews site Reviews.org. It said 19% don't know how much they pay for internet, 45% are unaware of what speed plan they have, 47.3% never switched providers, and 40.1% never shopped around for the best speeds. Reviews.org said it surveyed 1,000 Americans in April.

Amateur radio operators were the most prolific commenters to an FCC Public Safety Bureau request for comment on the effects of the May 7-11 geomagnetic storm. Responses were due Monday in docket 24-161 (see 2405240046). Amateurs submitted most of the 17 comments. “Developing an ability to better predict storms such as the … 2024 geomagnetic storm is essential to prevent serious disruptions to our nation’s communications services as well as to the electric grids that power them,” the American Radio Relay League said. The storm “affected amateur radio communications as expected, with radio black outs between many areas of the world and signals with substantially reduced strength between other areas of the world, depending upon frequency and time,” ARRL said. NOAA said the storm touched some of its systems. “With the growing interdependence on spectrum across critical infrastructure systems, there is increased potential vulnerability to space weather,” NOAA said. The agency said “several specific examples can be seen of systems operating erratically due to the geomagnetic storms,” including farm equipment running in circles “due to loss of navigational signals.” SpaceX satellites “measured two-to-three times more drag than normal in orbits at 300 km and as much as five times more drag in orbits at 550 km,” it said. SpaceX was “fortunately able to maintain service throughout the May solar storm,” and on the day the storm peaked, “the average Starlink user saw less than one minute of disruption.” Iridium’s second-generation constellation “experienced an instantaneous, but short lived, increase in the atmospheric drag up to 10 times greater than normal” during the storm, the company reported. Iridium said it continuously monitors its system and was able to address the storm's issues: “The monitoring for this storm was not new, although more engineers were required to be engaged because each of the six planes in the constellation has a different angle from the sun, and experienced different impacts from the storm.”

Communications outages from wildfires in New Mexico’s Lincoln and Otero counties have declined, a disaster information reporting system update Monday said. Just seven of the area’s 113 cellsites were reported down, as compared with 22 on Friday. Cable and wireline customers have had their service restored with aerial cables and generators, the report said. Two TV stations and two radio stations remain off the air, it added.

The FCC’s motion that would transfer the consolidated challenges of the commission’s net neutrality order to the U.S. Appeals Court for the D.C. Circuit (see 2406100044) is part of a trend of federal agencies that attempt to use venue-transfer motions “to steer major regulatory challenges out of the regional circuits,” the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said in a 6th Circuit amicus brief Friday in opposition (dockets 24-7000, 24-3449, 24-3450, 24-3497, 24-3504, 24-3507, 24-3508, 24-3510, 24-3511, 24-3517, 24-3519, 24-3538). This trend harms litigants and courts as it saddles them with “burdensome threshold litigation” in cases that often already involve “fast-paced litigation over stays and other interim relief,” the chamber said. In addition, the trend harms the regulated public, “impairing its right to hold agencies accountable for unlawful conduct in the jurisdictions where that conduct harms the public.” The FCC’s transfer motion is “especially inappropriate” because it would “undermine” the judicial lottery system, “reintroducing through the back door of transfer motions the forum shopping that Congress sought to eliminate when it established the current system of random selection in 1988,” it said. But the FCC stands firm in its support of the transfer, its reply said Friday. This latest round of “follow-on litigation” involves essentially the same parties, legal landscape, and issues that the D.C. Circuit “has been grappling with” through each successive net neutrality case and order, the FCC said. Should the litigation proceed in the 6th Circuit instead of the D.C. Circuit, the 6th Circuit and the parties “would need to expend considerable resources to walk the same ground already traveled during the previous years of litigation in the D.C. Circuit,” it said.

SpaceX will provide satellite-delivered connectivity to Comcast's enterprise customers under a partnership Comcast announced Friday. It said the arrangement is focused on enterprises operating in multiple, disparate locations that can be beyond the reach of traditional networks.

The number of cable, wireline and cellular customers without service due to the wildfires in New Mexico’s Lincoln and Otero counties is largely unchanged from Thursday, said a disaster information reporting system update Friday. The report shows nine more cable and wireline customers without service in addition to the 2,877 reported Thursday, and 22 downed cellular sites. There were 29 previously, the report said. In addition, the report shows that all public safety answering points in the counties are operational, but two TV stations and two FM transmitters are off the air. AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless have deployed 14 mobile assets to the affected area, the report said. The agency has also released public notices on 24/7 contact information for the agency during the fires, the availability of priority communication services and a reminder to repair crews to avoid damaging communications infrastructure.