A California bill on digital discrimination will advance to the Senate Appropriations Committee after clearing two policy committees Tuesday. Sponsor Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D) vigorously defended the bill including a disparate impact standard at the Communications Committee hearing that day (see 2407020062). AB-2239 would ban digital discrimination as the FCC defines it. “This is a win for disconnected Californians,” Bonta said in an emailed news release Wednesday. “Low-income communities and communities of color are disproportionately disconnected.” The California legislature returns from summer recess Aug. 5.
Summit Ridge, the 3.45 GHz Clearinghouse, said it needs to “extend operations several months longer than planned” as it waits for NBCUniversal to complete its “relocation activity” and submit final invoices. Summit Ridge updated the FCC in a Wednesday status progress report posted in docket 19-348, its first since May (see 2405130022). While costs are “running very close” to estimates, the longer the Clearinghouse operates, “the less likely” it will stay within its initial $3.6 million budget, the filing said.
An EchoStar representative urged that the FCC approve Dish Network’s proposed transfer of spectrum licenses and other assets, including customers, to Liberty Latin America (see 2402230063). Meeting with a Wireless Bureau staffer, EchoStar discussed “the competitive benefits of the transaction, consistent with the Public Interest Statement" the parties filed, according to a filing posted Wednesday in docket 24-55. As the pleading cycle concluded March 26 without other parties filing comments, EchoStar urged expeditious FCC approval.
Comments are due Sept. 3, replies Oct. 3, on an FCC NPRM barring test labs from entities on the agency’s “covered list” of unsecure companies from participating in the equipment authorization process, a notice for Friday’s Federal Register said. Commissioners approved the NPRM 5-0 in May (see 2405230033). Filings should be made in docket 24-136.
Representatives of the Coalition for Emergency Response and Critical Infrastructure (CERCI) raised legal concerns with staff from the FCC Office of General Counsel about the Public Safety Spectrum Alliance's support for giving the FirstNet Authority (FNA) control of the 4.9 GHz band (see 2401190067). “The legal merits of the PSSA’s plan are not a close call,” a filing posted Wednesday in docket 07-100 said. The FCC “clearly lacks authority to assign" the FNA the 4.9 GHz band and the FNA “clearly lacks authority to receive it,” CERCI said.
The FCC on Wednesday authorized Federated Wireless, Google, Key Bridge, Red Technologies and Sony to change the aggregate interference model that protects federal operations in the citizens broadband radio service band. In June, the agency approved the changes (see 2406120027). "Each of these five [spectrum access system] administrators has demonstrated the ability to successfully implement the modified aggregate interference model, including system testing in a non-operational environment,” a Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology notice said. Meanwhile, Nokia filed a spectrum controller certification test report at the FCC as it seeks permission to make those changes. In addition, Nokia asked for confidential treatment of the report. The report “provides details of the self-certification testing Nokia conducted to demonstrate the capability of Nokia’s Spectrum Access System to support new methodologies for protecting federal operations in the 3.5 GHz band,” a filing this week in docket 15-319 said. Nokia asked for prompt FCC action.
The FCC is seeking comment on NPRMs dealing with updates for letter of credit (LOC) rules, the commission said Wednesday (see 2406060028) in a notice for Monday's Federal Register. The NPRMs include modifying LOC rules for the FCC's USF high-cost programs in rural communities, for Connect America Fund Phase II support recipients, and for Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) support recipients. Specifically, the FCC wants comments on changing the rules governing which U.S. banks can issue LOCs and potentially allowing certain RDOF recipients to lower the value of their LOC. Comments are due Aug. 5, replies Aug. 19.
The Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday it expects the FCC would need $4 million to implement the Foreign Adversary Communications Transparency Act (HR-820) in fiscal years 2024-2029. HR-820 would require the agency to publish a list of communications companies holding FCC licenses or other authorizations in which China and other foreign adversaries’ governments possess 10% or more ownership. The House Commerce Committee advanced the measure in March (see 2403200076). The FCC “would need five employees, at an annual cost of $200,000 per employee, for the first two years, to review existing grants of authority, and two employees after 2026 to review new applications and changes in ownership,” CBO said. “However, because the FCC is authorized to collect fees each year sufficient to offset the appropriated costs of its regulatory activities, CBO estimates that the net cost to the FCC would be negligible, assuming appropriation actions consistent with that authority.”
Following court directions, the FCC filed at the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday “a certified list of items constituting the record of Commission proceedings” related to the net neutrality order in docket 24-7000. The 6th Circuit last week declined to transfer the case to the D.C. Circuit as the FCC requested (see 2406280060). The list runs more than 1,100 pages and includes comments filed starting in 2020.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency should narrow the scope of its proposed cyber incident reporting rules to ease the regulatory burden on industries already facing a multitude of state and federal mandates, USTelecom, NTCA and Microsoft said in comments that were due Wednesday in docket CISA-2022-0010 (see 2403270070).