Vexus Fiber will pay $100,000 for violating the FCC's affordable connectivity program rules. An Enforcement Bureau order Friday said Vexus admitted it violated the program's rule prohibiting downselling broadband services to ACP-eligible households by "preventing customers from applying the ACP benefit to any residential broadband internet access service plan they selected."
The FCC's Q2 USF contribution factor will be 32.8%, said an Office of Managing Director public notice Thursday in docket 96-45. That's a decrease from Q1, which was 34.6%.
The Industry Council for Emergency Response Technologies (iCERT) opposed a wave of filings by public safety groups urging that the FCC consider giving FirstNet control of the 4.9 GHz band (see 2402150058), as promoted by the Public Safety Spectrum Alliance (see 2401190067). “Many of these filings are form letters that were, presumably, encouraged by the PSSA, FirstNet, AT&T, and their supporters,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 07-100. FirstNet’s network is “fully owned by AT&T and integrated into its commercial network,” iCERT said. “AT&T’s contract with FirstNet requires it to provide priority access to the spectrum for public safety users but allows AT&T to use the band to serve commercial users as well.” Turning over the band to FirstNet would also be anticompetitive, iCERT contended: “AT&T competes with a variety of national, regional, and local wireless providers to serve both public safety and commercial users. A grant of the PSSA proposal is, effectively, a grant of free spectrum to AT&T.”
EchoStar notified the FCC that Dish Wireless met the drive test component of its 5G build-out requirements, certifying that the company offers speeds of 35 Mbps or greater to more than 70% of U.S. POPs. Meeting the drive test metric fulfills one of the commitments Dish Network made in 2019 when it asked the FCC to extend the construction deadlines for with its AWS-4, AWS H block and lower 700 MHz E block licenses and committed to an accelerated deployment of its 600 MHz licenses (see 2009110054), said a filing posted Thursday in docket 22-212.
The Wireless ISP Association threw its support behind the FCC's updated broadband speed standard of 100/20 Mbps that the commissioners approved Thursday (see 2403140050). “Though current average use falls below that number, especially on the upload side, it provides a sound standard to accord with actual growth in broadband demand for the foreseeable future,” said Louis Peraertz, WISPA vice president-policy. It “lays a consistent and achievable benchmark for government support pegged to that standard -- one which allows all types of ISPs to meaningfully access such programs where desired,” Peraertz said.
CTIA representatives “discussed the value of supporting broadband access, including through Wi-Fi hot spots and wireless internet services” in a meeting with FCC Wireline Bureau staff. The commission recently sought comment on a proposal to use E-rate to support hot spots (see 2311090028). “Consider lessons learned from the Emergency Connectivity Fund” and its approach to usage monitoring, said a filing posted Friday in docket 21-31. “CTIA agrees that requiring participants to take ‘reasonable actions’ to monitor the usage of supported equipment and services strikes a fair balance between the burdens to track usage and the need to avoid wasteful spending,” the group said: “As an applicant driven program, the obligation to monitor usage should rest with applicants, who are able to set usage expectations for students and patrons, periodically access and review usage, identify and understand usage trends, and communicate any necessary adjustments to service providers.”
The National Multifamily Housing Council and National Apartment Association raised issues with the FCC's NPRM concerning broadband in apartment buildings in separate meetings with commission aides (see 2403050069). The "regulation of bulk billing agreements between property owners and broadband providers is not only unnecessary, but would raise broadband prices for consumers who belong to the nation’s most vulnerable populations," the groups said, adding it would "hamper deployment of advanced technology by innovative broadband providers" and "limit competition by favoring the large incumbent providers." The groups met with an aide to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, Commissioners Brendan Carr, Nathan Simington, and Geoffrey Starks, and Wireline Bureau staff, said an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 17-142.
The Senate Commerce Committee confirmed plans Friday for a March 21 spectrum policy-focused hearing, as expected (see 2403140044). Ahead of the hearing, panel chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., was eyeing a set of slimmed-down spectrum legislative proposals the Congressional Budget Office evaluated at her request, including a potential five-to-seven-year reauthorization of the FCC’s auction authority (see 2403140066). Cantwell was doubtful Thursday those proposals would be ready for inclusion in a coming FY 2024 “minibus” appropriations package to provide additional money for the FCC’s affordable connectivity program and Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program (see 2403150063). The March 21 hearing “will focus on how a coordinated and comprehensive approach to domestic spectrum policy is critical to U.S. national security,” Senate Commerce said. “A unified approach will enable the [U.S.] to lead internationally, which will help counter threats like those from Huawei and ZTE.” Renewing the FCC’s mandate, “engaging in fact-based spectrum decision-making, and investing in dynamic spectrum sharing and other technologies will ensure the [U.S.] leads in spectrum use policy that protects the nation’s critical national security and economic competitiveness missions,” the panel said. Open Radio Access Network Coalition Executive Director Diane Rinaldo, a former acting NTIA administrator, is among those set to testify. Also on the docket: WifiForward Executive Director Mary Brown; Hudson Institute Center for the Economics of the Internet Director Harold Furchtgott-Roth, a Republican former FCC commissioner; University of Notre Dame professor Monisha Ghosh; and Center for Strategic Studies senior fellow Clete Johnson. The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in 253 Russell. CTIA praised plans for the hearing. The group is “committed to working with Congress to incorporate the key missing piece to successful legislation and that is the inclusion of specific targets for auctioned spectrum. Every prior multi-year extension of FCC authority -- in 1997, 2006 and 2012 -- included specific amounts of spectrum for auction that now power our world-leading networks. Failing to include specific direction now risks setting us back half a decade or more and foreclosing critical opportunities to make new 5G spectrum available, which is critical to our national and economic security.”
The FCC’s motion to dismiss the Feb. 14 petition for review of Essential Network Technologies and MetComm.net for lack of jurisdiction (see 2403140002) is based on the “faulty premise” that this case doesn’t seek review of an FCC order, said the petitioners’ opposition Friday (docket 24-1027) in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The petition for review challenges the authority of the FCC and the Universal Service Administrative Co. (USAC) to stop processing the reimbursement of discounts for IT and broadband services that MetComm and Essential provided to schools under Section 254 of the Communications Act (see 2402200044). The petition “requests judicial review of the regulations and the final orders of the FCC promulgating those rules,” which purport to authorize the USAC “to stop statutorily mandated reimbursement of discounts provided to elementary and secondary schools,” said the opposition. USAC’s conformity to those FCC rules “is causing irreparable injury to schools, students, and petitioners cognizable by a court of equity,” it said. The FCC “incorrectly suggests” this case is an appeal of USAC’s investigations, “where an FCC order concluding those investigations has been unreasonably delayed for years,” contrary to the Administrative Procedure Act, said the opposition. “This is not an appeal seeking review of the merits, if any, of USAC’s investigations,” it said. Rather the petition for review in this case asks the D.C. Circuit “to determine the legality of the FCC’s regulations promulgated by FCC orders purporting to authorize USAC to stop for years, if not indefinitely, the discount reimbursement” mandated by Section 254, said the opposition. The FCC's position in its motion to dismiss “has no reasonable basis in the law,” it said. The D.C. Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court have determined that the D.C. Circuit “has jurisdiction under the Hobbs Act to review the application of FCC rules promulgated by final FCC orders exercising the FCC's rulemaking power,” it said.
FCC commissioners appeared to make limited changes to the supplemental coverage from space (SCS) framework, approved 5-0 Thursday (see 2403140050). Officials said there were “changes to the margins” but no major revisions. The FCC posted the final order and Further NPRM Friday. The order addresses concerns raised in recent ex parte filings. For example, an added paragraph dismisses concerns of T-Mobile and SpaceX that an aggregate out-of-band power flux density limit of -120 dBW/m²/MHz is too strict (see 2403060055). The companies asked the FCC to instead take additional comment. The proposed limit “strikes the appropriate balance and will provide clarity for stakeholders interested in enabling SCS while protecting adjacent terrestrial operations,” the order says. AT&T suggests that “[r]ather than drawing a bright line at this stage, the Commission should not prohibit SCS service from satisfying wireless buildout requirements, so long as the Commission evaluates SCS service performance on a case-by-case basis,” the order says, addressing another recent filing: “We reiterate that we do not believe that it is appropriate to allow a terrestrial licensee to rely on SCS provided by its satellite operator partners/lessees to satisfy the terrestrial licensee’s buildout or performance requirements at this time.” Among other tweaks, the final order says the FCC declines to add the 1.4 GHz band to the SCS bands “at this time,” leaving open the possibility for change. The further notice was largely the same as that proposed by Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. She and Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Anna Gomez attached written statements.