Spectrum Advanced Services notified the FCC of its intent to acquire the customer base of 2125 Cable Co., though Spectrum Advanced said it doesn’t believe the notice is necessary. “The Commission has not determined whether interconnected VoIP services are telecommunications services, nor has it yet ruled that its carrier change rules apply to interconnected VoIP services,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 00-257. Spectrum said it also complied with FCC customer notification rules “out of an abundance of caution.”
The FCC narrowed the scope of outage reporting for Hurricane Helene, said a public notice late Monday. The PN removes numerous counties in Georgia and all counties in Florida but Hamilton County from the affected area. The disaster information reporting system and the mandatory disaster response initiative are also still active for 46 counties in Georgia and portions of Tennessee, Virginia and both Carolinas.
Universal service "has been an essential component" of federal telecom policy since the FCC's creation, the agency argued in a petition for writ of certiorari before the U.S. Supreme Court. Filed Monday (docket 24-354), the FCC's petition said the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling in favor of Consumers' Research's challenge of the Universal Service Fund contribution methodology was "incorrect." Moreover, the agency said it "did not delegate governmental power" when it designated the Universal Service Administrative Co. as USF administrator (see 2407240043).
Space sustainability advocates are pessimistic about the chances that the FCC will require environmental reviews for proposed satellites and constellations anytime soon. Such reviews were a central part of the International Dark-Sky Association's (ISDA) unsuccessful legal challenge of the FCC's approval of SpaceX's second-generation satellite constellation (see 2407120031). Last month, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) launched a letter-writing campaign urging environmental reviews of satellite mega constellations (see 2408280002).
While expectations are that 6G will be commercialized by 2030, large scale deployments will likely come later, Milap Majmundar, AT&T director-advanced radio access network technology, standards and spectrum, said Tuesday at RCR Wireless’ 6G Forum. In addition, other speakers warned that finding new licensed bands for 6G could prove difficult.
The FCC has congressional authorization to collect Form 395-B data and didn’t violate broadcasters' constitutional rights in issuing its equal employment opportunity order, the agency said in a brief filed Friday in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The brief responds to challenges against the EEO order brought by the National Religious Broadcasters, the American Family Association and the Texas Association of Broadcasters. “The mere fact that a regulation takes account of race or sex does not make it suspect,” said the FCC. Adding a nonbinary option to gender choices on the form is a “minor change in terminology” for “a category of information that the Form 395-B already collected in 1992,” and thus is well within the agency’s authority, the FCC said. “Nothing about the collection or disclosure of Form 395-B data interferes with a broadcaster’s ability to communicate its own message or suggests the broadcaster agrees with the FCC’s views.” The agency said it “has a legitimate public interest” in collecting workforce diversity data “to facilitate analysis and reporting on broadcast industry workforce trends.”
The FCC Enforcement Bureau released on Monday data on traceback records requested from the Traceback Consortium on artificial or prerecorded voice calls where the consortium “identified an originating, gateway, or non-responsive provider.” The data covers April 1 to June 30 and lists hundreds of incidents. It doesn’t include records “where (1) the legality of the relevant call was disputed by the provider and resolved by the Traceback Consortium in favor of the provider; (2) the traceback was initiated in error; (3) the terminating provider could not identify the relevant call; or (4) the Traceback Consortium determined the call was untraceable,” the EB said.
The FCC Wireline Bureau on Monday gave carriers that already received six-month extensions on deadlines to remove Huawei and ZTE components from their networks additional time to comply with the rip-and-replace program. Southern Ohio Communications Services (SOCS), which recently asked for a third six-month extension, had its deadline extended from Oct. 6 to April 6. “The Bureau finds SOCS’s showing persuasive and that its situation is consistent with the situation of other recipients that have been granted extensions on similar grounds of supply chain issues, and accordingly grants the requested extension,” said a Monday order in docket 18-89. The bureau also approved a third extension for James Valley Co-op, to April 8, and for Stealth Communications, to March 29. Panhandle Telecommunication Systems got a second extension to April 18, and WorldCell Solutions a second extension, of three and a half months, to Jan. 15. Congress has considered, but not yet approved, $3.08 billion to fully fund the FCC's Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program (see 2409170066). “The lack of full funding will not necessarily be a sufficient showing for multiple extension requests, as recipients should continually make progress toward completing their projects by the end of their removal, replacement, and disposal term,” the order said.
SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell in a meeting with FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel urged that the agency authorize commercial operations of its direct-to-device service, according to a posting Monday in docket 23-135. The agency's Space Bureau signed off late last year on SpaceX conducting limited supplemental coverage from space operations for testing purposes (see 2312050029).
The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions updated the FCC on the status of a new volume control standard for handset makers to use to certify that handsets are hearing aid compatible. ATIS noted that the FCC required the update, which was provided by the Telecommunications Industry Association. TIA’s Volume Control Task Group (VCTG) has made “significant progress” in addressing concerns of the HAC Task Force, said a filing posted Monday in docket 20-3. The VCTG “expects the approval process to happen using only the minimum time required for approval of this standard by the American National Standards Institute and suggests that the Commission can provisionally incorporate the draft standard into its rules while the standard is pending ANSI approval,” ATIS said.