NTIA has given all states and territories 90 additional days to submit their final BEAD proposals, the Colorado Broadband Office said Tuesday. NTIA originally set a 12-month deadline for submitting final proposals, with the clock starting after the initial proposal is approved. In its waiver announcement, the Commerce Department said the additional time is "to implement the forthcoming programmatic improvements" to BEAD. West Virginia and Maine have both paused their BEAD processes in anticipation of program changes that are expected from NTIA and Commerce (see 2504180003).
CTIA and other industry commenters urged the FCC to proceed with caution as it considers changes to wireless emergency alerts (WEAs) that were proposed in a February Further NPRM. Comments were due last week in dockets 15-94 and 15-91. The FNPRM proposed allowing more flexibility in sending out alerts using a “Public Safety Message” classification (see 2502270042).
The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials supported creation of an independent public safety message classification as part of updated wireless emergency alert (WEA) rules. Comments were due Thursday on a Further NPRM on WEAs that commissioners approved 4-0 in February (see 2502270042). APCO acknowledged concerns that expanding the types of alerts “could contribute to alert fatigue.” But a new public safety message classification is “unlikely to result in a surge of alerts that would lead the public to opt out.”
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Approved by Congress last year (see 2412180027), the Spectrum and Secure Technology and Innovation Act makes clear that the FCC must auction all AWS-3 licenses remaining in its inventory, CTIA said in reply comments about an auction procedures NPRM. Whether the FCC should create a tribal licensing window (TLW), which could allow tribes to obtain spectrum for some of the least-connected communities in the U.S., remains a contentious issue (see 2504010055). Comments were posted Tuesday in docket 25-70.
Broadcasters called for the FCC to “delete” nearly every reporting and filing obligation the agency imposes on them in scores of comments posted in docket 25-133 Monday, but the agency should roll back ownership rules first, NAB said. Multichannel video programming distribution (MVPD) interests and allies repeatedly argued that the highly competitive video distribution marketplace necessitates doing away with rules they claim tip the competitive scales. The docket also received many comments from space interests and the telecom industry (see 2504140037 and 2504140046).
Major providers discussed what they saw as the key technical rules for the upcoming AWS-3 auction in comments on a March public notice on its bidding procedures. Initial comments are already in on a separate NPRM looking more generally at changes to auction rules (see 2504010055). Replies on the NPRM are due next week. The auction will offer licenses that affiliates of Dish Network returned to the FCC in 2023, as well as unsold licenses from the initial AWS-3 auction 10 years ago.
The National Weather Service (NWS) warned the FCC that changing wireless emergency alert (WEA) rules to reduce alert fatigue and opt-outs won’t be easy given the nature of WEAs. “The problem is that there is no way to suppress WEA attention getting signals (audible or vibration cadence) when the WEA recipient was already presented with attention getting signals in the original alert or a previous alert update,” the NWA said this week in docket 15-91. “This is a problem for the NWS and will be exacerbated as alert originator capabilities advance.”
Communications Daily is tracking the lawsuits below involving appeals of FCC actions.
The Senate Commerce Committee advanced NTIA administrator nominee Arielle Roth on a nearly party-line vote of 16-12 Wednesday, as expected (see 2504080059). Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the only Democrat to buck his party by supporting her move forward. Panel Democrats gave Republican FCC nominee Olivia Trusty a more positive reception during her Wednesday confirmation hearing, even as they used some of their questions to hammer commission Chairman Brendan Carr’s actions since he took the gavel Jan. 20 and renew their concerns about the loss of agency independence during the Trump administration (see 2504090060).