Public Knowledge became the first group to note meetings on a draft FCC notice seeking comment on uniform, industrywide handset unlocking requirements, teed up for a July 18 commissioner vote (see 2406260058). Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld spoke with aides to Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Nathan Simington, according to filings last week in docket 24-186. The group “enthusiastically supports” the proposed notice, PK said. “Consumers have benefited from the Verizon unlocking condition and the overall agreement by carriers to unlock cell phones that are fully paid for.” But PK also asked that the FCC seek comment on whether carrier practices on number porting “either accidentally or by intent -- create barriers to switching.” The group noted the agency hasn’t “systemically examined” number porting practices for 15 years: “Despite the establishment of basic standards, we have heard anecdotal evidence that different carriers require different types of documentation or pin numbers for security purposes, and may have inconsistent practices regarding wait times for assistance that discourage subscribers from transferring their phone contracts.”
Competitive Carriers Association representatives, including President Tim Donovan, met with aides to FCC Commissioners Brendan Carr and Anna Gomez on the group’s concerns about a proposed 5G Fund. Issues still exist within the broadband data collection mobile challenge process “that make it difficult for smaller providers to submit challenges,” a filing posted Friday in docket 19-195 said. The BDC “requires mobile challenges to be based on outdoor stationary measurements, rather than in-vehicle measurements” and members have reported “the significant burden and potential impossibility” of comprehensive outdoor stationary measurements of mobile service areas compared with drive testing, which “more realistically reflects the mobile nature of mobile service,” CCA said. The exclusive use of outdoor stationary data “would significantly overstate covered areas” leaving “many areas in need excluded from the program,” CCA said. The group said the low proposed funding level is “a significant issue threatening the overall success of the program” and stressed the importance of coordination with the broadband equity, access and deployment program. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel circulated in March an order that would launch a 5G Fund Phase I multi-round reverse auction, making $9 billion available to target 14 million homes and businesses lacking mobile 5G coverage (see 2403200071).
Former President Donald Trump denounced the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 -- some of which FCC Republican Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington wrote -- in a post on Truth Social Friday. “I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal,” Trump wrote. “Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.” Carr is listed as principal author of the FCC chapter in Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, the book outlining Project 2025’s 180-day plan for a second Trump administration. Simington is credited as a contributor. Neither Simington nor Carr commented.
The FCC Wireline Bureau gave carriers part of the relief they sought on rules addressing SIM swapping and port-out fraud, delaying Monday's compliance deadline. The reprieve, though, isn't as long as CTIA, NCTA and the Competitive Carriers Association wanted (see 2406270028). The bureau found that delay of the rules until March 10, as the groups asked, “would not serve the public interest,” a Friday order said. But the bureau said the requirement won’t kick in until OMB completes its review of the information collection requirements in the rules and the FCC publishes a notice in the Federal Register announcing the compliance date. “This will effectively result in a single synchronized timeframe,” the order said. The review is expected to be completed no earlier than November, the order said. The FCC “gave the industry a half a loaf, which is better than giving them the whole loaf,” Margot Saunders, senior counsel at the National Consumer Law Center, told us. Saunders said “it’s too bad” the requirements aren’t already in place. “SIM swap and port out frauds cause devastating losses to consumers, especially to low-income consumers who are using prepaid phones, which are more vulnerable,” she said: Consumers often don’t “have the means to launch expensive litigation to recoup their funds. The new regulations impose relatively modest requirements -- which do not seem to be overly complex, or need radical new systems to be developed.” The commission "is not unaware of the complexities of implementing the requirements,” but “we do not find the complexities outlined by Petitioners persuasive to overcome the Commission’s stated concerns regarding the urgency of addressing these types of pernicious fraudulent schemes,” the order said.
Officials with the 12 GHz for 5G Coalition remain hopeful that FCC action in coming months will allow use of the lower 12 GHz band for fixed-wireless deployments, they said in interviews. In addition, should the FCC act soon, the band could still play a part in some state proposals under the broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program, the officials said. The coalition had hoped for action early in 2024 (see 2312270045).
The FCC’s Space Bureau and Office of International Affairs (OIA) will hold 8 public previews of the new, cloud-based International Communications Filing System (ICFS) beginning July 17. The ICFS is scheduled for deployment in August, said a Wednesday public notice. Each preview session concerns a different type of filing in ICFS and “will provide a guided tour of the enhanced look and functionality,” the PN said. Participants must register for sessions. The Space Bureau and the Office of International Affairs will release another public notice “in the next few weeks” providing additional details about the transition to the cloud-based ICFS, the PN said.
The creator of an automatic speech recognition (ASR) app criticized the long period he and other small providers have endured waiting for FCC approval before they could begin offering IP captioned telephone services supported by the Telecom Relay Services Fund. Rogervoice founder-CEO Olivier Jeannel spoke with an aide to Commissioner Nathan Simington about the need for an “emergent rate” for small providers of IP CTS service. The company applied for certification in March 2022 and the FCC acted in January, said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 03-123. “The nearly two-year wait for Commission action on their applications has made it all the more challenging to break into the IP CTS market, where established providers have had that much more lead time to develop and market their ASR-based captioning services,” Rogervoice said.
The FCC sought comment Wednesday on Inland Cellular’s proposed acquisition of Commnet’s rural digital opportunity fund support obligations in parts of Washington and Montana. Comments are due July 17, replies July 24, in docket 24-134. “Applicants state that Inland and its affiliates have deployed wireless and broadband networks and served customers since 1989 in rural areas of Washington and Idaho,” said a Wireline Bureau notice: “They further assert that Inland is uniquely situated to efficiently deploy RDOF-supported voice and broadband service in the Assigned Census Blocks.”
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.