Backers of stopgap funding for the FCC’s ailing affordable connectivity program and Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program believe they made progress last week toward their goal of firming up the initiatives even as a bid attaching funds to the FAA reauthorization legislation appeared all but dead. Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., emerged from the chamber Thursday night touting commitments from leaders to move forward on allocating the proposed money even as the body voted 88-4 to pass the FAA Reauthorization Act (HR-3935) without funding language he and others sought (see 2405070083).
The growing pace of space launches is prompting more conversations between the U.S. and other countries about space objects' state of register, Ryan Guglietta, lead foreign affairs officer at the State Department's Office of Space Affairs, said Thursday during an FCC Space Bureau-hosted workshop about U.S. interagency payload reviews. Establishing a payload's registering state is becoming increasingly complex, Guglietta said. For example, a payload could be built in one nation, assembled in another and have other multinational touchpoints. He said the U.S. is trying to create a shared understanding with other nations of what constitutes a payload's registering state. The FAA spearheads the Interagency payload review, and Stacey Zee, FAA operations support branch manager, said if one agency raises a concern during that review, then the agency aims to resolve it early in the process. Sabrina Jawed, FAA commercial space law team manager, said in a worst-case scenario -- there's no payload approval, even though the payload has been integrated into the launch vehicle and is ready to go -- "we have the authority to say 'hold up.' However, we do not want to do that." Space Bureau Special Counsel Karl Kensinger said integrating a payload into a launch vehicle marks a critical point, and it's tough to move backward from there. The satellite operator must have a license by then or face "significant risks," he said.
The FCC received no submissions from U.S.-based foreign media outlets for its latest semi-annual report to Congress, it said Thursday. The latest report covers Oct. 13 to April 11. The last several editions -- since May 2021 -- have listed no submissions (see 2211100055). The 2019 National Defense Authorization Act requires the reports.
The FCC Public Safety Bureau sought comment Thursday on an application and waiver request from Woodburn, Oregon, on a license for a new trunked private land mobile radio system using four VHF channels from the industrial/business pool in Marion County, Oregon. “Woodburn states that the four I/B channels [[it seeks]] to license are needed ‘for the development of a … Digital Trunking System’ which will be part of a ‘cooperative effort between’” Woodburn's Police, Public Works and Transit departments and Hubbard's Police and Public Works departments, the bureau said: “Woodburn proposes to license eight Public Safety Pool channels in addition to the four I/B channels for its trunked system but states that all additional VHF Public Safety Pool channels have been ‘exhausted in the area and no further usable channels can be located.’” Hubbard is in Marion County.
Anterix discussed the broad support for 5/5 MHz broadband deployments in the 900 MHz band (see 2405030053) during a call with an aide to FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington. “Proposed rules were endorsed by multiple parties including numerous electric utilities that detailed a compelling need for this broadband option, by multiple organizations representing a broad range of utilities and other enterprise entities, and by a major broadband equipment vendor,” said a filing Wednesday in docket 24-99. “Support for the Petition included support for voluntary relocation only from the current narrowband segments and continued interference protection for incumbents.”
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr's support of SpaceX raises doubts about whether the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America can expect the commission to treat its petition fairly, the UCCA said Thursday. The group asked the agency to yank SpaceX's licenses in light of allegations that the company allows Russia to use its Starlink satellite network to fight in Ukraine (see 2404240019). Carr last month called the UCCA filing "full of sweeping and unmoored allegations" and meritless. It was "part of a clear and repeating pattern of regulatory harassment that accelerated the moment Elon Musk stood up for free speech," he added. Pointing to Ukrainians in Russia-occupied areas enduring censorship and media control, UCCA said in its new filing that Carr was "culturally insensitive" and there was no proof the group was "some shadowy conspiracy seeking to punish Musk for his stand on free speech." Moreover, UCCA called Carr's statement "highly prejudicial" and asked for an apology. Carr's office didn't comment.
The Universal Service Administrative Co. owes Data Research Corp. (DRC) $9.9 million, plus interest, for broadband services it provided more than 20 years ago to the Puerto Rico Department of Education (PRDOE) under the federal E-rate program, DRC's complaint Wednesday alleges (docket 3:24-cv-01211) in U.S. District Court for Puerto Rico in San Juan.
LTD Broadband asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Wednesday to overturn the FCC's denial of its Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase (RDOF) I auction long-form application. It filed a partially redacted petition (docket 24-1017). LTD was the largest RDOF winner, receiving an award of roughly $1.3 billion to deploy broadband to 528,088 locations across more than a dozen states (see 2012070039).
A bipartisan bid aimed at attaching $6 billion in stopgap funding for the FCC’s affordable connectivity program and $3.08 billion for the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program to the FAA reauthorization package appeared likely to fail Thursday amid opposition from Senate leaders (see 2405080047). Amendment co-sponsor Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, conceded in an interview Thursday he and other backers appear to lack the necessary votes to hold up consideration of the FAA package. Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and amendment co-sponsor Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., separately confirmed to us that chamber leaders still resisted allowing a floor vote on the proposal because they view it as nongermane to the FAA package.
Challenges remain as companies implement a voluntary cyber-trust mark program based on National Institute of Standards and Technology criteria, speakers said during an FCBA CLE on Thursday. FCC commissioners approved the program 5-0 in March (see 2403180046), but the order has not appeared in the Federal Register and the program's timeline is unclear. The cyber mark label will appear on consumer IoT products with an accompanying QR code. It's comparable to the ENERGY STAR program, which certifies products as energy efficient.