Some candidates for state utility commissions promised to take on broadband and other telecom matters if they win election this year. Eight states will elect utility regulators this year: Alabama, Arizona, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota. In addition, a New Mexico ballot question will ask voters to authorize millions of dollars for upgrading public safety communications. Meanwhile, Oregon voters will consider a universal basic income that would require Comcast and other big companies to foot the bill.
The FCC’s order on collecting broadcaster workforce diversity data is outside its authority and violates the Constitution, said a reply brief from the National Religious Broadcasters, the American Family Association and the Texas Association of Broadcasters filed Friday in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (see 2410070023). “The FCC fails to identify any statutory provision or delegated function furthered by the Order,” said the filing. “Noticeably absent is any quote from statutory text. That’s because none exists,” it added. The equal employment opportunity order is “unlawful because the government requires race- and sex-based classifications, and seeks to pressure broadcasters to treat applicants differently based on race and sex,” said the groups.
The FCC should limit the scope of its lowest unit rate (LUR), applying only to political ads that are at least 50% candidate funded, said a joint letter Wednesday to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel from campaign finance groups, including End Citizens United Action Fund and Campaign Legal Center. Under LUR, candidates buying broadcast advertisements can be charged only the lowest rate that commercial advertisers paid for the same class of time. LUR applies to federal, state and local candidates but not PACs or issue advertisers. However, some campaign finance groups say Republican joint finance committees are benefiting from LUR and running TV ads where the National Republican Senatorial Committee provides the majority of funds, not the individual candidates. That's “a blatant attempt to bypass contribution limits and undermine our campaign finance system,” said a news release from the groups, which also include Public Citizen and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. The NRSC didn’t comment. Rosenworcel should “publicly confirm” that LUR applies only to ads that candidates pay for, and that a candidate must pay for at least 50% of an ad to trigger the lower rates and other FCC political ad rules, the letter said. The FCC lacks a policy on how much of an ad a candidate must fund before triggering LUR, said Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford in an interview. The agency’s long-standing stance is “even though a spot was bought by the party on a national basis, if the candidate authorized it, it would be entitled to lowest unit charge,” Oxenford said. Changing that would likely require notice and comment periods rather than a simple clarification, he said. That makes it unlikely LUR policy would change in time for the November election. There are some indications broadcasters might support such clarifications, Oxenford said. In 2023, the Florida Association of Broadcasters filed a petition for a declaratory ruling calling for a clarification on when LUR applies, but that petition was later withdrawn. The matter of when an ad should enjoy the lowest unit charge “is really a question that ... needs to [be] resolve[d],” Oxenford said. NAB didn’t comment.
A news distortion complaint filed at the FCC against CBS isn’t “facially ridiculous,” said Commissioner Nathan Simington in a Fox News segment Thursday, though he also vowed not to “prejudge” the matter. The complaint argues that editing of an interview with Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris changed her answer to a question on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, making it sound more favorable. Although the complaint was brought against CBS’ owned and operated station WCBS New York, the content it focuses on was from network programs Face the Nation and 60 Minutes. For the FCC to find that news distortion occurred, the conduct would have had to occur at the level of the licensee rather than the network, Simington said. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Thursday had reposted on Truth Social Simington's early posting about the complaint in which the commissioner wrote, “Interesting. Big if true. Will look into it.” Trump appointed Simington to the FCC in 2020, after the then-president withdrew his renomination of former Commissioner Mike O’Rielly in the wake of an O'Rielly speech critical of social media content regulation that the executive branch proposed.
High-power, two-way fixed operations in the 12.2-12.7 GHz band would cause harmful interference to DirecTV receivers 100 to 1 million times the limits in place to protect direct broadcast satellite (DBS) customers, according to DirecTV. In docket 20-443, it submitted an engineering study by consultancy Savid to counter Dish Network's submitted study by consultancy RKF that backs DBS and fixed wireless coexistence in the band (see 2311160032). The Savid study shows interference extending well beyond the intended coverage area of the base stations, contrary to RKF's "misleading depictions," and allegations of "wreak[ing] havoc" on DBS subscribers, DirecTV said in the filing posted Friday. Separately in docket 22-352, DirecTV recapped calls with aides to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioners Anna Gomez, Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington. It discussed concerns about opening the adjacent 12.7-13.25 GHz band to terrestrial wireless and the likelihood of harmful interference to DBS operations.
The FCC offered demonstrations of new and existing features of its mapping broadband health in America platform, in a letter Thursday from Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel to Senate Commerce Committee Chair Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. The agency will release the updates next month, allowing users to "delve deeper into the intersection of broadband connectivity and health" throughout the country, Rosenworcel said. Commissioners heard details about the update's inclusion of maternal health data from the Connect2Health Task Force during their open meeting Thursday (see 2410170026). The platform updates "represent a significant step forward in our work to understand the intersection of broadband connectivity and maternal health," Rosenworcel said.
Citing "unanticipated and exorbitant inflationary effects of network construction," Cable One is dropping out of the rural deployment opportunity fund program in Idaho, while Fidelity Cablevision is doing the same in Missouri, according to nearly identical docket 20-34 letters Friday. Cable One -- authorized to receive $3,225,684 in RDOF support over 10 years for 863 locations in Idaho -- said it has made "significant investment" in the state, but "the planned RDOF deployment in Idaho is no longer viable due to unforeseeable costs that have increased dramatically since the conclusion of the RDOF auction." Fidelity -- authorized to receive a total of $37,979 in RDOF support over 10 years for 39 locations in Missouri -- used identical language about its planned Missouri deployment. Both said the requested blanket amnesty relief that the FCC declined would have solved those inflationary pressures. In July, the FCC Wireline Bureau said no one had shown a need for widespread relief from RDOF and Connect America Fund Phase II default penalties, and thus it wasn't providing a blanket amnesty.
California, Colorado, Nevada, Virginia and Washington collected and distributed more than $110 million in 988 fees in 2023 for 988 Lifeline purposes, according to the FCC's latest annual 988 fee accountability report to Congress. The reports are required under the National Suicide Hotline Designation Act. Published in Friday's Daily Digest, the report said collection and distribution of 988 fees will be more prevalent in coming years. Delaware, Minnesota and Oregon reported establishing a funding mechanism but did not collect or impose 988 fees, while Maryland and Vermont recently passed legislation establishing fee-based funding mechanisms to support 988.
Noting the lower 37 GHz band's importance to Starry's fixed wireless access operations, CEO Alex Moulle-Berteaux discussed lower 37 GHz coordination regime with Commissioner Brendan Carr and other FCC staff. Moulle-Berteaux urged a two-phase coordination process modeled on the existing 70/80 GHz band and largely following the process outlined in the recent lower 37 GHz band public notice (see [Ref;2408090034]), said the docket 24-243 filing Friday. That approach would let users and services develop technologies in the band, while allowing co-equal co-primary coordination into the band, he said. Starry said tweaks could come over time, reflecting better dynamic sharing technology and allowing more intensive use. Company officials also met with the offices of the other four commissioners and staffers from the Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology.
A February FCC order allowing wireless multichannel audio system (WMAS) operations in the broadcast TV and other low-power auxiliary bands, on a licensed basis, is effective Nov. 18, said a Friday notice in the Federal Register. Commissioners unanimously approved the long-awaited order, which wireless mic companies had promoted (see 2402150037).