The House approved the Future Uses of Technology Upholding Reliable and Enhancing Networks Act (HR-1513) Wednesday on a lopsided 393-22 vote. The measure would direct the FCC to establish a 6G task force that provides recommendations about ensuring U.S. leadership in developing that technology’s standards. The House originally intended to consider HR-1513 last week (see 2409060053). HR-1513 lead sponsor House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Doris Matsui, D-Calif., hailed approval of the measure. “We stand at a crossroads for the future of global innovation leadership” and the “economic and national security stakes in the race to 6G couldn’t be higher,” she said in a statement. “For the [U.S.] to stay the gold standard in wireless communications technology, we need to look forward and convene our best and brightest innovators to map the road ahead.” HR-1513 “will accelerate us down this path, making a crucial down payment on American leadership by taking steps forward as this technology evolves.” The House approved the Senate-passed Launch Communications Act (S-1648) Tuesday night on a voice vote (see 2409160056). The measure, which the Senate passed in October, and House-approved companion HR-682 would require that the FCC streamline the authorization process for commercial launches’ access to spectrum (see 2307260037).
Scott Jordan, FCC chief technologist when the commission approved the 2015 net neutrality rules, defended the latest version in an amicus brief filed Tuesday at the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in docket 24-7000. Petitioners “consistently conflate” three different kinds of internet access service -- dial-up, cable modem and broadband, Jordan said: “Petitioners use this conflation as the basis for their assertions that all forms of Internet access service were classified as information services prior to 2015. These assertions are incorrect as a matter of fact.” Now a computer science professor at the University of California, Irvine, Jordan was an advocate of the 2023 rules (see 2404160055). Capabilities listed in the definition of information service aren't offered by broadband internet access service, Jordan said. “They are offered by applications (information services) that utilize broadband Internet access service to transmit and receive data.” Jordan drew a comparison with the era when Netflix offered movies on DVD, sent through the mail. “Petitioners’ analogies would have the Court believe that not only was Netflix an information service, but that the US Postal Service was also an information service, and that the US Postal Service offered movies ‘in conjunction with’ Netflix.”
Communications Daily is tracking the lawsuits below involving appeals of FCC actions. Lawsuits added since the last update are marked with an *.
Consumer advocates said the California Public Utilities Commission should move ahead with service quality rule changes that the telecom industry says would be illegal. “The Commission has the authority and supporting precedent to impose meaningful enforcement mechanisms for its customer protection and service quality rules,” The Utility Reform Network (TURN) and Center for Accessible Technology (CforAT) said in reply comments the CPUC received Tuesday. However, telecom industry commenters said a CPUC staff proposal and consumer groups' proposed additions aren’t supported by facts, the law or policy reasons.
The Media and Democracy Project petition against Fox’s station WTXF-TV Philadelphia isn’t “remotely similar to the occasional complaints by politicians about the political slant of a particular network or channel,” said former telecom lobbyist Preston Padden in an informal filing Tuesday responding to a recent statement from FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington (see 2409130062). “There is nothing political about the MAD Petition,” Padden said, adding that Simington was "mistaken" when he implied MAD's challenge of WTXF-TV’s license renewal wasn’t in line with the First Amendment. The petition “is not about speech,” Padden said. “It is about Fox’s conduct -- its business decision -- to knowingly and repeatedly choose to present false news, rather than the truth, in order to protect its profits.” Simington and Fox didn’t comment.
The FCC’s 2018 quadrennial review order “reasonably” found that competition hasn’t diminished the need for the agency’s broadcast ownership rules. Moreover, the agency was within its authority to expand rules limiting broadcasters from owning multiple top-four network affiliates, the FCC said in a respondent's brief filed in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The agency was responding to challenges of the QR order that multiple broadcasters brought (see 2407160069). Though filed Friday, the brief wasn’t public until Monday. “The record showed that despite the proliferation of non-broadcast sources of audio and video programming, broadcast radio and television remain virtually the only providers of local programming,” the FCC said. Broadcasters “provide the lion’s share of the local news and community-oriented programming that is essential to achieving the FCC’s goals of promoting localism and viewpoint diversity,” therefore justifying the retention of limits on local radio and TV ownership, the agency said. The FCC dismissed broadcaster arguments that its approach means broadcasters could never obtain relief from agency ownership restrictions even if the industry were on the brink of death. “This doomsday scenario is purely hypothetical,” the FCC said. “Neither broadcast radio nor broadcast television is currently in such dire straits.” In future Quadrennial Review proceedings, “if non-broadcast providers of audio and video services start offering more of their own local news and community-oriented programs in competition with the local programming of broadcast stations,” the FCC could revise its market definitions, the filing said. The agency expanded the top-four prohibition to include multicast channels and low-power stations to prevent broadcasters from exploiting workarounds to limits on owning multiple top-four stations in the same market, the brief said. MVPDs “have first-hand experience of the harm caused by certain broadcasters’ end-runs around the rule,” said NCTA and the Advanced Television Broadcasting Alliance in an intervenor brief supporting the FCC position. “Those end-runs cause the same public interest harms that the Top-Four Prohibition was meant to prevent and should therefore be prohibited for the same reasons.” The court should reject broadcaster arguments that the expansion of the top-four rules regulates content and violates the First Amendment, the FCC said. The rule change “targets transactions involving network affiliations that may be used to evade the local television rule, and it applies regardless of the content of programming.”
The FCC said it has opened the window for filing applications to participate in the agency’s three-year, $200 million cybersecurity pilot program for schools and libraries. It closes Nov. 1. “School districts and libraries across the country have proven to be prime targets for cyber criminals” and “vulnerabilities in the networks are real -- and growing," FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said Tuesday. “Through this pilot program, we’ll have a chance to better understand what equipment, services, and tools will help protect school and library broadband networks from cyberthreats,” she said. Commissioners approved the program 3-2 in June with Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington dissenting (see 2406060043).
“We’re not waiting for federal leadership in privacy,” said Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser (D) during a Silicon Flatirons event Wednesday. Amid congressional inaction, Colorado was the third state to enact a comprehensive privacy bill, after California and Virginia. The AG office has sought to be transparent as it’s worked on rules for implementing the Colorado Privacy Act, said Weiser, quipping that the FCC is a “poster child [for] how not to do rulemaking.” Colorado plans to watch how state government manages data at the same time as it oversees the private sector, he said. The AG office will take the same approach with AI, he added. Also, as the AG office moves toward enforcement, it is focused on educating businesses. Weiser's “memo” for businesses: “Stop collecting so much data … Stop storing it for so long. Stop giving so many people access to it.” The AG said the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on Chevron deference doesn’t formally affect states. “Informally, it’s possible that some state supreme courts will look at it.” However, Weiser finds the decision “entirely unpersuasive,” he said. “I am confident that [Colorado’s] supreme court will continue to provide agency deference.” The Colorado AG office recently set a Nov. 7 hearing on the latest proposed amendments to the Colorado Privacy Act (see 2409160036).
Samsung Electronics America representatives met with FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel about the company’s request for a waiver on a 5G base station radio that works across citizens broadband radio service and C-band spectrum (see 2309130041). “Samsung emphasized its dedication to the success of CBRS in the United States,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 23-93. “The proposed device -- which has been before the Commission for over two years -- would simply enable operators to deploy one radio where they would otherwise deploy two radios with substantially similar performance characteristics,” Samsung said.
The FCC’s Broadband Data Task Force and Office of Engineering and Technology sought comment Tuesday on an application for approval of a Georgia Institute of Technology third-party mobile speed test app for use in the FCC’s broadband data collection mobile challenge process. Comments are due Oct. 17, replies Nov. 1, in docket 24-2. “We note that Georgia Tech has submitted only a beta version of the app, and has not made a production version of the app available for download,” said an FCC notice: “Any approval of the CellWatch v1.0 app by OET will be conditional and subject to submission of the production version of the app and review by OET to ensure that it complies with applicable technical requirements.”