The date of the November FCC meeting was changed from Nov. 18 to Nov. 17, said a Friday notice. The agency didn’t comment Monday, but meetings are most often rescheduled to accommodate commissioner schedules. The meeting will be in person at FCC headquarters.

The FCC disaster information reporting system showed 503,664 cable and wireline subscribers without service in Puerto Rico Monday due to Hurricane Fiona, a slight improvement from 504,730 Sunday. “This includes the loss of telephone, television, and/or Internet services,” the report said. 17.7% of cellsites are down in the affected area, along with five FM stations and two AM stations. No public safety access points were reported down.

The FCC “is assessing the impact on communications services and infrastructure” of Hurricane Fiona and is “issuing daily public reports to keep people informed,” said Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in a release Tuesday. “We will work closely with government partners and communications providers to support restoration efforts as families and residents all over the island begin to rebuild, once again.” The FCC disaster information reporting system showed 741,451 cable and wireline subscribers without service in Puerto Rico Wednesday due to Hurricane Fiona, an improvement from 795,289 in Tuesday’s report. The newest report shows five FM stations and four AM stations out of service, and 29.9% of cellsites down. No public safety access points were reported down during the storm, the DIRS release said. The agency is “deploying staff to the affected areas to perform post-landfall, on-site surveys of communications services and infrastructure as well as to assist with coordination and oversight of communications restoration,” the release said. The FCC has been coordinating with FEMA, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and government officials both before the storm and now, the release said. The agency has also been surveying spectrum usage in targeted areas and extending regulatory fee deadlines, public file deadlines, and other FCC dates for broadcasters and other affected communications providers.

President Joe Biden endorsed U.S.-backed ITU secretary-general candidate Doreen Bogdan-Martin Tuesday, spotlighting her contest against Russian nominee Rashid Ismailov less than two weeks before the vote at the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Bucharest (see 2209190059). Bogdan-Martin “possesses the integrity, experience, and vision necessary to transform the digital landscape,” Biden said in a statement: “She understands the importance of connecting every school to the Internet and making sure every student can access virtual learning, providing women and girls the digital tools they need to succeed, and extending the benefits of online health and educational resources.” It’s “hard to believe that in today’s digital world, 2.9 billion people globally have no access to the Internet and its many benefits,” he said: The next ITU secretary-general “will play an important role in making our digital future inclusive and accessible for everyone, especially in the developing world.” The U.S. Council for International Business also supported the candidacy. “By virtue of her current leadership of the ITU Development Bureau, we believe that Ms. Bogdan-Martin possesses both substantive knowledge and leadership skills that would make her a superb ITU Secretary General,” the group said. Headed into the conference, USCIB “opposes the ITU assuming a role in managing, coordinating, overseeing, or otherwise regulating the use of the Internet on grounds that this is beyond the ITU’s authority and expertise.”

Former FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn will keynote the Communications Equity and Diversity Council Digital Skills Gap Symposium and Town Hall Thursday (see 2209120046), said an agenda released Tuesday. The event is to “examine the issues and challenges that states and localities face in addressing the need for greater adoption of digital skills training,” the agenda said. The event also will include a town hall discussion and a panel on efforts to increase broadband access such as the Digital Equity Act and the Affordable Connectivity Program.

The FCC deactivated the disaster information reporting system for the U.S. Virgin Islands, but the system remains in effect for all of Puerto Rico due to damage from Hurricane Fiona, said a public notice Monday. A Wireline Bureau order Tuesday also temporarily waived the agency’s phone number aging rule, to allow quick reassignment of numbers in Puerto Rico. “We also encourage all service providers in the areas affected by Hurricane Fiona to waive call forwarding, message center, and voicemail service charges for affected customers, to the extent lawfully permitted, until the customers’ service is restored,” the PN said. The agency established a website prior to landfall as a centralized location for all FCC information related to Hurricane Fiona, including emergency communications tips in English and Spanish, and communication status reports, Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a release Tuesday.

The FCC expanded its list of "covered" equipment suppliers -- deemed to present security concerns -- adding Chinese companies PacNet/ComNet and China Unicom (Americas) Tuesday. That brings the number on the list to 10, all Chinese except for Russia’s AO Kaspersky Lab. Additions were last made in March (see 2203250067). Both companies “have been determined by Executive Branch interagency bodies to pose an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States or the security and safety of United States persons,” said a Public Safety Bureau notice. The Chinese government’s “majority ownership and control of PacNet and its wholly-owned subsidiary ComNet … combined with Chinese intelligence and cybersecurity laws, raise concerns that PacNet/ComNet will be forced to comply with Chinese government requests for communications intercepts, without the ability to challenge such requests,” the bureau said: “The Executive Branch entities have determined that services provided by China Unicom associated with its international section 214 authorization pose a substantial and unacceptable risks to the national security of the United States and its people.”

FCC data shows 767,858 cable and wireline subscribers are without service in Puerto Rico due to Tropical Storm Fiona, said the FCC’s disaster information reporting service news release Monday. That’s an increase from 122,358 subscribers reported down Sunday. The report shows 23.5% of cellsites and two FM stations down. No public safety access points were reported down during the storm, DIRS reported. The reports are dependent on licensee submissions for information, and Puerto Rico communications industry officials said in 2020 about Hurricane Maria that reporting outages can be difficult without access to phones or internet (see 2002130056). Puerto Rico was reportedly having an island-wide power outage from the storm. The agency activated DIRS Friday, and also issued public notices on emergency contact information for licensees that need special temporary authority, and on 24-hour availability of FCC staff.

The FCC International Bureau asked for comment by Sept. 26 on various positions adopted Sept. 12 by the World Radiocommunication Conference Advisory Committee, NTIA draft preliminary proposals and a proposal by Lockheed Martin for a future agenda item on lunar and cislunar communications (see 2209120047). “Based upon an initial review of the draft recommendations forwarded to the Commission, the International Bureau, in coordination with other Commission Bureaus and Offices, tentatively concludes that we can generally support most of the content found in attachment in the WRC-23 Advisory Committee draft recommendation,” said a Friday notice. The bureau noted the lunar proposal isn’t a WAC recommendation, though the group asked the FCC to seek comment.

Ahead of an NTIA spectrum policy symposium Monday, the Aspen Institute released a paper Thursday urging the U.S. government to “issue a 10-year plan with clear national goals to release more spectrum into the commercial marketplace.” The paper follows a May meeting at the institute, which included FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson and is seen as a possible precursor to a long-awaited strategy (see 2208150035). “The National Spectrum Strategy should make a clear statement of national spectrum goals -- agreed to by the FCC and the Administration -- that sets a roadmap for rulemaking and administrative actions over the next decade,” the paper said: “Clear, quantifiable goals provide a lodestar for whole-of-government action. They also help various stakeholders plan for the future and can influence technology development and resource allocation by private actors.” The strategy should plan for the allocation of three of four bands, below 15 GHz, each offering approximately 400 MHz of bandwidth, Aspen said: “Realizing this goal would enable multiple network operators to use 400 MHz channels in lower, better propagating bands as a foundation for multi-gigabit 6G.” The paper proposed making the highest bands, above 95 GHz, unlicensed by default. “Although the FCC recently authorized use of bands above 95 GHz, technology is still in early stages and the band is only sparsely used,” the paper said. “Given the inherent limited and highly directional signal propagation at these frequencies along with the super abundance of bandwidth, any concerns raised regarding interference in these bands should take a back seat to maximizing spectrum access and innovation.” Aspen suggested the White House “could set out the country’s overall spectrum goals through an Executive Order.” The group supports revising congressional budgeting to be “spectrum policy neutral.” Current scoring rules “consider inflows of auction revenues but do not account for economic benefits of other spectrum authorization approaches,’ Aspen said. “As a result, spectrum auction directives are often legislated as a ‘pay for’ to offset some Congressional spending priority. Congress should consider revising the rules to level the legislative playing field for other ways of making spectrum available into the commercial market, such as unlicensed or shared uses.” CTIA appreciates "the report’s focus on ensuring a balanced spectrum policy and its recognition of the need for additional licensed spectrum to meet growing demand and support the development of next-generation wireless networks,” a spokesperson emailed. “We must not lose focus on the pressing need for a pipeline of exclusive-use, licensed commercial spectrum, especially mid-band spectrum, in order to maintain America’s leadership of the emerging 5G economy.”