Back and forth arguments to the FCC on whether the FirstNet Authority should have effective control of the 4.9 GHz band appear to be heating up. Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg met with FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel last week to oppose a proposal that "wrest[s] control of the 4.9 GHz band from local public safety agencies and give[s] it to FirstNet and, in turn, AT&T,” a filing posted Monday in docket 07-100 said. This “proposed spectrum giveaway would disrupt the competitive marketplace for public safety and commercial wireless use,” Verizon said. It would give AT&T access to 50 MHz of mid-band spectrum “valued at over $14 billion and available for commercial use” and “would result in a substantial windfall, particularly at a time when the Commission and other policymakers are working to develop a pipeline for mid-band spectrum,” the carrier said. In a filing posted Monday, the National Sheriffs’ Association shared with the FCC its CEO Jonathan Thompson's recent blog that opposed giving the spectrum to FirstNet. “For more than two decades, we in public safety have been able to use the 4.9 GHz band to serve our local needs,” Thompson wrote: “It’s available for us to use as we need and see fit, and not part of a nationalized process controlled by a central authority that can only provide a limited set of basic, quasi-commercial AT&T products to choose from.” The National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) supported giving FirstNet use of the band. “Public safety has spoken loud and clear in the 4.9 GHz proceeding … calling for FirstNet to have unfettered access to the band,” said a letter from Executive Director Dwayne Crawford. NOBLE wants “to be clear that organizations that claim to represent thousands of law enforcement CEO’s across the United States and do not support our commitment to fully incorporating the 4.9 GHz band into the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network do not represent our organization.”
Advocates of expanding the use of very-low-power devices without coordination in other parts of the 6 GHz band filed a report at the FCC on a “comprehensive Monte Carlo analysis” of interference risks to broadcast auxiliary service TV pickup (TP). “The large majority (95%) of TP links had no exceedance over 100,000 simulation iterations,” a filing posted Monday in docket 18-295 said: “The risk of harmful interference from VLP devices to TP links was exceedingly small with a 0.0001% average probability of an exceedance across all TP links.” Representatives of Apple, Broadcom, Google, Meta Platforms and Qualcomm met with Office of Engineering and Technology staff to discuss the RKF Engineering Solutions report.
Eligible telecom carriers (ETC) may file their Form 481 submissions until July 10, an FCC Wireline Bureau order Friday in docket 14-58 said. In extending the deadline from July 1, the bureau cited technical difficulties in the Universal Service Administrative Co.'s filing portal in its waiver of the program year 2025 filing deadline.
Former FCC Chairmen Ajit Pai and Tom Wheeler on Sunday repeated their call that lawmakers consider repurposing “appropriated but unspent COVID-19-era funding” and future spectrum auction revenue as alternative ways of paying for next-generation 911 technology upgrades. “A one-time infusion of Federal funding is desperately needed to accelerate nationwide NG9-1-1 implementation,” the two wrote in a Seattle Times opinion piece. “Without it, lives will be lost, especially in lower-income and rural communities that may lag in the NG9-1-1 transition.” Congress “must make NG9-1-1 a top priority and pass legislation that empowers all levels of government to make ubiquitous NG9-1-1 a reality,” the ex-FCC chairs said. Pai and Wheeler were among nine ex-FCC chairs who wrote congressional leaders in February in favor of using either future spectrum proceeds or COVID-19 funding to pay for NG-911 (see 2402210073). Leaders of the House and Senate Commerce committees have repeatedly proposed using spectrum revenue to fund as much as $15 billion in NG-911 upgrades, including a $2 billion allocation in the stalled Spectrum and National Security Act (S-4207) (see 2406180067). The Public Safety Next Generation 911 Coalition complained in April that S-4207’s $2 billion NG-911 appropriation is insufficient (see 2404300052).
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday issued another decision concerning regulatory law, Corner Post v. Board of Governors, which is expected to also add to the number of challenges against regulatory agencies filed in court. But the effect for the FCC is expected to be zero, unlike last week’s decision in cases challenging the Chevron doctrine (see 2406280043), because the Communications Act, not the six-year statute of limitations in the Administrative Procedure Act, governs appeals of FCC decisions. In Corner Post, SCOTUS, in a 6-3 decision along ideological lines, revived a North Dakota convenience store's challenge of a Federal Reserve regulation covering debit card "swipe fees." Businesses pay banks these fees when customers use debit cards to make purchases. Corner Post argued that it shouldn’t be bound by the six-year statute of limitations to challenge a 2011 regulation because it opened for business in 2018. SCOTUS held that an APA claim doesn’t accrue for purposes of the six-year statute of limitations “until the plaintiff is injured by final agency action.” The administration, representing the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, had argued that adopting Corner Post's legal position "would substantially expand the class of potential challengers" to government regulations and "increase the burdens on agencies and courts." Industry lawyers noted that under Section 402(a) of the Communications Act, petitions for review of FCC orders, except those involving licenses, must be filed within 60 days. The deadline for appealing license decisions in Section 402(b) is 30 days. The APA deadline has never applied, lawyers said.
Industry lawyers continue to assess the potentially seismic implications of Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and the other Chevron case decided last week (see 2406280043). Yet the after-effects are being seen already. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday directed parties in the net neutrality challenge to file not later than July 8 supplemental briefing material addressing the effect of the Chevron decision “on our analysis” of a motion to stay the order (see 2406280060).
Comments are due July 31, replies Aug. 30, on ways of expanding federal use of the bands used by commercial satellite networks that aren't currently allocated for the federal fixed satellite service and mobile satellite service, said a notice for Monday's Federal Register. The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology said it was especially seeking input on ways of providing federal earth stations with interference protection when they are communicating with commercial satellites in bands not allocated for federal FSS and MSS. OET said it also wanted to refresh the record concerning the addition of co-primary federal FSS or MSS allocations to several bands. The filing is in docket 24-121.
The FCC should stay the collection of broadcast workforce diversity data using Form 395-B until legal challenges against the FCC’s equal employment opportunity order are resolved, a joint request for stay posted Friday in docket 98-204 said. The National Religious Broadcasters, the American Family Association, and the Texas Association of Broadcasters made the request. The three groups have challenged the EEO order in court (see 2405130041), arguing that it violates the First Amendment by compelling controversial speech and the Fifth Amendment by “unlawfully pressuring broadcasters to engage in race- and sex-conscious employment practices.” The associations “will incur unrecoverable costs” by “spending time and resources to categorize their employees by race and sex,” and having to “endure and respond to the trolling and harassment, online and elsewhere, the publication of the data will bring,” the joint filing said. “By contrast, no party would be substantially harmed by a stay,” the groups said. “The FCC has not collected or published Form 395-B data for over two decades,” making it “implausible third parties would be substantially harmed by maintaining the status quo,” the joint filing said.
Data submissions for the FCC's fifth broadband data collection are due Sept. 3, an FCC public notice said Thursday in docket 19-195. Submissions should include broadband availability as of Sunday.
Utilities Technology Council President Rusty Williams met with FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's aides to discuss 6 GHz interference concerns, a filing posted Friday in docket 18-295 said. UTC cited “numerous studies on the record finding that interference from unlicensed devices is certain to occur to utility licensed microwave systems in the band,” the filing said. UTC said automated frequency coordination systems operators don’t “provide sufficient processes for responding to and resolving interference complaints.” UTC noted that the North American Electric Reliability Corp. issued “a Level 2 Alert regarding the potential for interference from 6 GHz unlicensed devices, which underscores the heightened level of concern about the impact of interference on the bulk electric system.”