Verizon told the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals the $47 million fine the FCC levied on it in April (see 2404290044) for allegedly not safeguarding data on customers' real-time locations is arbitrary and capricious and that the court should reject it. “The agency ignored the limits of its authority in these multiple ways, in an effort to show force against a large company that did nothing wrong,” the provider said. Verizon said it would appeal the fine at the time the FCC approved it 3-2, with Republican Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington dissenting. The fine was approved four years after Republican Chairman Ajit Pai proposed it. Verizon’s location-based service (LBS) program “used device-location information, and device-location information is not” customer proprietary network information, Verizon said this week in a brief in docket 24-1733. By the time the FCC proposed the fine, “Verizon had shut down its LBS program nearly one year earlier, eliminating any potential current or going-forward liability,” it added. Verizon noted that the FCC got involved following a New York Times report that Securus “misused many carriers’ LBS programs and that a sheriff in Missouri took advantage of Securus’s actions to track wireless carriers’ customers without their consent.” But the agency found that the statute of limitations had expired in both cases, Verizon said. The FCC then “adopted a novel approach to generate an eye-popping penalty amount,” the brief said: The agency “punished Verizon for not terminating every other service provider from the LBS program on a faster timeline” imposing “a forfeiture penalty for each day -- starting 30 days after the New York Times article -- that each of the 63 service providers remained able to use the LBS program, despite not being involved in any wrongdoing.” Verizon also argued the order should be overturned given the U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision in SEC v. Jarkesy (see 2406270063). “The Constitution guarantees Verizon a jury trial -- not an administrative adjudication -- before it faces an order compelling it to pay a forfeiture.” AT&T, meanwhile, made similar arguments in its challenge filed in the 5th Circuit against the FCC’s $57 million fine, approved the same time as Verizon's. “The Commission itself has acknowledged that Securus’s misdeeds took place long before the statute-of-limitations period,” AT&T said: “The Commission cites no evidence that Securus ever unlawfully accessed a single AT&T customer’s location information.” AT&T said the FCC accused it of carelessness. “AT&T gave access only to providers with an approved use case; conducted daily audits of consent records and broader programmatic audits; and responded to Securus’s misdeeds promptly and prudently, weighing the costs and benefits at every turn,” AT&T said. “That is far more than the Commission can say for itself, having taken no action (failing even to inform the major wireless carriers) after learning of Securus’s malfeasance nearly a year before AT&T did.”

The launch of mobile devices by Apple, Samsung Electronics and Google “sparked intense promotional competition among the US carriers” during Q3, GlobalData said in a report Tuesday. “Telecom giants targeted both new and existing customers with aggressive preorder trade-in offers, switcher deals, and new line promotions aimed at upgraders, seeking to capitalize on demand for high-end smartphones and drive customer retention,” GlobalData said. “Attractive trade in offers featuring up to $1900 off high value flagship devices such as the Galaxy Z Flip6 and Z Fold6 dominated the landscape.” In addition to those two Samsung phones, the report also cited Apple’s iPhone 16 series, Google’s Pixel 9 series and the Motorola Razr series as among the top handsets during the quarter.

CTIA and other commenters urged the FCC to proceed slowly when finalizing rules for a program that would allow schools and libraries to use E-rate support for off-premises Wi-Fi hot spots and wireless internet services. Reply comments were due Monday in docket 21-31 on a Further NPRM, which was approved as part of the hot spot item in July (see 2407180024). Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington dissented. “Wireless providers are significant contributors to the universal service fund, and CTIA strongly supports the efficient and effective use of all universal service support, including E-Rate funding,” CTIA said. “Stakeholders will be better able to comment on the controls in the program once they have gained experience with them” and “program requirements should not impose burdens that outweigh the program’s benefits, as that could deter participation,” the group said. The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition said the FCC shouldn’t set "overly burdensome administrative requirements or punitive solutions that diminish a school or library’s flexibility to structure its lending practices.” Don’t mandate defined hot spot lending periods, SHLB advised: “Schools and libraries should be able to style their lending practices to better meet users’ educational endeavors.” SHLB also opposed “a data use threshold higher than zero to consider a line ‘used.'” Such thresholds would introduce “assumptions about acceptable and unacceptable broadband use that ignore variables in connectivity needs,” the group said. The North American Catholic Educational Programming Foundation and Mobile Beacon jointly called on the FCC to refrain from imposing new rules at this moment. “Adding burdensome new requirements, in the absence of any compelling need, will unnecessarily burden schools, libraries, and other program participants, and make it harder for students to connect,” they said: “The Commission should increase, not restrict, applicant flexibility.” The American Library Association earlier said final rules would be premature (see 2410040033).

SpaceX and Japanese telecom operator KDDI expect to launch supplemental coverage from space commercial service in Japan by year's end, representatives of the companies told FCC Space Bureau staffers, according to a docket 23-135 filing posted Tuesday. They said the necessary regulatory arrangements for offering the service are being finalized with Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. As such, they urged the FCC to authorize commercial SCS service in the U.S.

Indian Peak Properties believes the FCC erred when it denied its petitions for declaratory ruling in an order on the agency’s over-the-air reception device (OTARD) rules, the company said in a brief this week filed at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (see 2405060035). The FCC told the court its rules require a regular human presence at an antenna's location, and the agency had plenty of evidence that Indian Peak failed to argue its antenna fell within the rule's scope (see 2410210001). In a reply brief, the company said, “This case could have turned out differently had the Commission given notice of its secret procedure and new ‘human presence’ standard.” The FCC claims it “reasonably dismissed Indian’s petitions without starting a proceeding,” Indian Peak said: “Even if the Commission’s actions were reasonable as claimed by the FCC Brief … the agency’s failure to give fair notice of its interpretation of the Rule prejudiced Indian and warrants reversal of the Order.” The D.C. Circuit has not scheduled oral argument in the case (docket 24-1108).

NTIA officials met with staff from across the FCC to urge the agency to move forward on handset unlocking rules similar to those proposed in an NPRM commissioners approved 5-0 in July (see 2407180037). NTIA “supports reducing the burden on consumers by requiring automatic unlocking of devices whenever feasible,” said a filing posted this week in docket 24-186: “NTIA has been working to empower consumers and promote competition in this space for a long time, and we provided the Commission with some background on our experiences to date.” NTIA doesn’t oppose the 60-day waiting period proposed in the NPRM, “and we appreciate the anti-fraud goals that drive this proposal,” the filing said. “We also maintain that there should be no distinction in the rules between devices sold with prepaid and postpaid plans and are unconvinced by arguments that the prepaid subsidy model only works with locked devices.” NTIA noted that Verizon is required to unlock prepaid devices the same as postpaid devices, yet still offers “subsidized devices for use with prepaid services.” The rules should also cover tablets and other devices and not just handsets, NTIA said. Representatives of Public Knowledge, Consumer Reports and New America’s Open Technology Institute, meanwhile, said they spoke with an aide to Commissioner Geoffrey Starks about unlocking rules. “A policy of automatically unlocking of all phones, both pre- and post-paid, 60 days after purchase would promote … goals of promoting competition in the handset and wireless markets, while preserving the ability of carriers to detect and prevent fraud and to offer low-cost handsets,” the groups said.

The American Consumer Institute (ACI) questioned whether the FCC has legal authority to impose handset unlocking rules on carriers, as proposed in an NPRM that commissioners approved 5-0 in July (see 2407180037). “The FCC relies on dubious legal authority to justify unsupported economic assertions, which threaten to undermine the pro-competitive consumer benefits the Commission seeks to achieve,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 24-186. “Instead of empirically validating its claims with a cost-benefit analysis about pro-competitive market conditions from the rule, it simply asserts its conclusions as fact and then works backward from preordained outcomes to justify its decision,” ACI said.

NextNav countered a recent International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA) study on the interference risk of the company’s proposal to reconfigure the 902-928 MHz band “to enable a high-quality, terrestrial complement” to GPS for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services (see 2404160043). IBTTA’s assertion “that the 5G base stations NextNav’s proposal contemplates will operate at more than 600 times the power level of current operations is accurate only if one disregards the limits of base station equipment, commercial incentives, and urban power limits, and then assumes operations at the extreme outer limits of the Commission’s rules for rural areas,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 24-240. “While NextNav requested a three-watt power limit for user equipment, the vast majority of devices, including all devices that can operate inside vehicles, will have 200-milliwatt maximum conducted output power with even lower [equivalent isotropic radiated power] due to negative antenna gain,” NextNav said. The IBTTA study was filed last month at the FCC by a coalition led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Industry groups repeated in reply comments their earlier arguments that addressing tribal issues shouldn’t slow the awarding of funds through the $9 billion 5G Fund that FCC commissioners approved in August (see 2410180036). Replies were posted on Monday in docket 20-32. Commissioner Brendan Carr dissented on the 5G Fund item, which included a Further NPRM on tribal issues (see 2408290022). Tribes and their associations have stressed the importance of collaboration with tribal governments (see 2410170045). The record shows “that any 5G Fund Tribal consent requirements need to account for the time and uncertainties involved in obtaining Tribal consent,” CTIA said. The commission “should also consider whether Tribal entities’ consent may be presumed after a certain period of good-faith efforts by the 5G Fund applicant,” the group said: “In no event, … should a winning bidder be placed in default or otherwise subject to penalties if the winning bidder demonstrates good-faith efforts to obtain consent in accordance with the rules.” The Rural Wireless Association said the rules should mirror the tribal land bidding credit framework used in other FCC programs. “Obtaining Tribal consent during the long-form application process can be unduly burdensome,” RWA said: “It is also unnecessary for the Tribal consent to be obtained prior to the filing of the long-form application as such consent can still be obtained and provided to the FCC before funding is received."

The C-band relocation payment clearinghouse is in the final phase of its claims review, following the July 1 deadline for claims submission, it said in a docket 18-122 filing posted Monday. As of Sept. 30, it had finished reviewing all lump sum claims, all surrogate claims and most non-lump sum claims from earth station operators, as well as almost all claims from satellite operators, it said. Cumulatively through Sept. 30, it had received 4,518 claims with a total dollar value of $3.55 billion, and it's moving to its next phase: reconciliation of satellite operators' claims. The clearinghouse said after that, it will start final operations, including the final accounting and audit, with the expectation it ceases operations by June.