FCC commissioners approved a Further NPRM seeking comment on steps the agency can take to assist survivors of domestic violence access safe and affordable connected car services under the Safe Connections Act. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel circulated the proposal in February (see 2402280053). Comments are due 30 days after Federal Register publication, 60 days for replies, in docket 22-238. "Having access to a car is also a lifeline," Rosenworcel said: "That is why in this rulemaking we propose that survivors should be able to separate lines that connect their cars."

The FCC's digital discrimination rules might inadvertently bar ISPs from offering discounted service to low-income subscribers, Phoenix Center co-founder/Chief Economist George Ford wrote Wednesday for the Yale Journal on Regulation. He said Congress in response needs to drop or rewrite the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) Section 60506, which prohibits digital discrimination of broadband access "based on the protected classes limited to income level," including requiring services to be offered on “comparable terms and conditions." Section 60506 seeks to prevent any differentiation in price based on income, so a lower price offered only to lower-income households "could be legitimately argued to be prohibited discriminatory conduct under the FCC’s rules," he said. The affordable connectivity program plans offered today, the low-cost plans offered by ISPs prior to ACP, and the low-cost offerings required by the broadband equity, access and deployment program seem "to constitute a prima facia case of prohibited discrimination under the plain terms of the IIJA and the FCC's rules," he said.

NTIA said it will follow FirstNet’s National Environmental Policy Act procedures on an interim basis and establish 33 categorical exclusions in compliance with NEPA, the Council on Environmental Quality regulations and other related authorities, as it awards funds under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). NTIA proposed that step a year ago (see 2303290035). The ruling is effective immediately, said a notice for Tuesday’s Federal Register. “Following the FirstNet Authority’s procedures will facilitate the IIJA’s large-scale investment in NTIA programs and the need for NTIA to fulfill the mandates of the IIJA in a timely manner, by ensuring NTIA make[s] the most efficient use of time and available funding and resources to fulfill its environmental analysis and decision-making responsibilities,” the notice said.

LTD Broadband’s opening brief is due May 8 in its petition to review the FCC’s rejection of the company's long-form application for Rural Digital Opportunity Fund support (see 2402070081), said a clerk’s order Friday (docket 24-1017) at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The FCC’s respondent brief is due June 24, and LTD’s reply brief July 24, the order said. LTD is challenging the FCC’s Dec. 4 order denying LTD’s application for review of the Wireline Bureau’s decision to reject the company’s application. LTD is asking the D.C. Circuit to hold the order unlawful and set it aside.

Viavi Solutions Friday slammed the deal that has rival Keysight Technologies acquiring Spirent Communications for $1.46 billion in cash. Keysight bid 15% more for Spirent than Viavi did. U.K.-based Spirent provides automated test and assurance solutions for networks. Spirent’s business is "aligned with Keysight’s long-term software-centric solutions strategy,” Keysight said Thursday in announcing the purchase. However, Viavi cited "strategic synergy" between itself and Spirent. Moreover, the two companies' "respective complementary products will help customers address their complex engineering challenges,” Viavi added, saying it “believes that the proposed combination of Keysight and Spirent would further entrench Keysight’s leading position in many product segments, which would limit customer choice.”

More than a dozen state broadband associations asked the FCC for a "rural broadband provider exemption" from its proposed digital discrimination affirmative reporting obligations (see 2403050036). Such obligations would "impose additional costs and burdens without any evidence that rural providers are engaged in practices resulting in discriminatory impacts," the associations said in a filing posted Friday in docket 22-69. The record is "void of any hard data or even soft anecdotal comment to support imposition of additional reporting obligations on rural providers," the coalition said, citing the lack of evidence that smaller or rural providers engage in discriminatory practices.

NTIA accepted Connecticut's digital equity plan, making the state eligible for $18 million in Digital Equity Act capacity grant funding, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) said Thursday (see 2403080037). Minnesota's Department of Employment and Economic Development also announced it received NTIA approval of its plan, making nearly $882,000 in funding available. NTIA announced earlier this week it accepted plans from Washington, North Dakota, Montana, Florida, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Hawaii.

Consumer advocacy organizations urged the FCC Thursday to "clarify ambiguities that ISPs could exploit" in its proposed net neutrality rules. The American Civil Liberties Union, Electronic Frontier Foundation, New America's Open Technology Institute, Public Knowledge, Fight for the Future, and United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry said in a letter posted Thursday in docket 23-320 that ISPs could circumvent the proposed no-throttling rule because it "does not explicitly say that an ISP can’t pick out particular apps or categories of apps in order to speed them up." The coalition asked the commission to "ensure that reasonable network management can’t be used to single out an app or kind of app," warning that ISPs could "distort competition" by throttling certain applications. In addition, it asked the commission to bar ISPs from "using interconnection to circumvent net neutrality."

Intrado representatives met with an aide to FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr to discuss moving to next-generation 911, said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 21-479. “The most important elements for accelerating NG911 deployment” include the commission adopting a “nationwide NG911 framework that accommodates current and already-planned deployments and creates the conditions to accelerate others” and “increased and faster direct” wireless and VoIP connections through basic session IP to emergency services IP networks, which “would support the delivery of 911 traffic in IP and reduce or eliminate the need for provider protocol translation workarounds,” Intrado said: “The majority of the nation’s current 911 traffic (wireless/VoIP) is ready for the Commission’s regulatory framework for NG911 delivery based on a State 911 Authority’s valid request demonstrating readiness and designation of a point of interconnection.”

Customers expect that carriers use the same kinds of technologies for robocalls and robotexts that are used to filter suspected scam and spam emails, Microsoft told the FCC in a filing posted Monday in docket 23-362. “Recent advances” in AI and large-language models “create the opportunity to combat fraudulent communications based on content analysis, and with the right guardrails in place, this analysis can be done at scale while preserving the privacy of the communications,” Microsoft said. The FCC should make clear that “when communications service providers choose to offer AI-enabled fraud detection features with sufficient safeguards in place, those tools are considered a necessary incident to the provision of voice communications,” the company said. Microsoft representatives spoke with aides to Commissioners Brendan Carr and Anna Gomez and Consumer and with Governmental Affairs Bureau staff.