The FCC Enforcement Bureau wants letters of intent by May 29 from entities interested in leading the industry consortium for robocall traceback efforts, said a public notice Friday. USTelecom's Industry Traceback Group currently holds the position (see 2308180041). Comments on submitted letters of intent are due by June 12, replies by June 19, in docket 20-22.
The 9th U.S. Court of Appeals agreed with a lower court that denied preliminary injunction against the California Public Utilities Commission shifting to a per line surcharge for the state Universal Service Fund. T-Mobile’s Assurance Wireless had argued that the state must align with the FCC’s revenue-based method for federal USF. But on March 31 last year, the U.S. District Court for Northern California decided not to block the CPUC’s April 1 change. The 9th Circuit heard arguments on an appeal in October (see 2310170042). "The carriers have failed to show a likelihood of success on their claim that the access line rule is 'inconsistent with' the FCC rule,” Judge Ryan Nelson wrote in Friday’s opinion, which Judges Jacqueline Nguyen and Eugene Siler joined (case 23-15490). The court referred to the Communications Act's Section 254(f), which prohibits USF rules that are "inconsistent" with FCC rules. Inconsistent doesn’t mean different, Nelson wrote. "The access line rule differs from the FCC’s rule funding interstate universal service programs. But the carriers have not shown that it burdens those programs, and they have thus failed to show that they are likely to succeed on their claim that it is inconsistent with those rules." Also, the court rejected T-Mobile’s claim that the surcharge rule is preempted because it's inequitable and discriminatory. "The carriers argue that they are harmed more than local exchange carriers,” but the CPUC rule treats all telecom technologies “the same and, if anything, is more equitable than the prior rule, under which most of the surcharges came only from ever-dwindling landline services,” Nelson said. The CPUC’s "course correction" is "a fair response to a real problem,” he added. “In a world of ever-evolving telecommunications technologies, competitive neutrality must allow some play in the joints. To hold otherwise would hamstring California’s ability to satisfy its statutory mandate of providing universal service." T-Mobile also argued the change was discriminatory because the CPUC rule treats providers who get federal affordable connectivity program (ACP) support differently from those in the state LifeLine program. But the court found differences between the programs and noted that companies in ACP have the option of joining LifeLine. The decision "affirms that the CPUC's surcharge rule is consistent with federal law," said a commission spokesperson. "The CPUC will continue to utilize the surcharge to ensure consumers have safe, reliable, affordable, and universal access to telecommunications services." T-Mobile didn’t immediately comment.
CTIA representatives met with FCC Public Safety Bureau staff to express general support for commission efforts that will make IoT products more secure through the Cyber Mark program. “CTIA also discussed administration of the Program, including the roles and responsibilities of the Lead Administrator, Cybersecurity Label Administrators, CyberLABs, and the Commission,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 23-239. Commissioners approved the program in March (see 2403140034).
CTIA and member company representatives spoke with aides to FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, asking that a 5G Fund auction occur only after funding is released for the broadband access, equity and deployment program. This has been a recurring concern for wireless companies (see 2403260052). “Although the wireless industry is making record investments to deploy 5G nationwide, there are some areas where difficult geography or sparse population mean that subsidies will be necessary to support mobile broadband,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 20-32. "While the BEAD program will not directly fund mobile broadband deployment, it is likely to result in the deployment of fiber broadband backhaul facilities and fixed wireless services that will facilitate the expansion of unsubsidized 5G coverage in rural areas."
Samsung Electronics America representatives met with FCC Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology staff 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, said a filing posted Friday in docket 22-93. “Samsung respectfully again urges the Commission to expeditiously grant Samsung’s waiver request based on sound engineering and clear public interest benefits,” the company said. Samsung representatives also met last week with aides for Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel (see 2404240036).
NTIA “is hard at work” implementing the national spectrum strategy, the agency said as it offered details on its progress. Derek Khlopin, deputy associate administrator-spectrum planning and policy in the Office of Spectrum Management, is now in charge of implementing the plan for NTIA, the agency said: “First up: initiating technical studies of spectrum bands -- including a process to streamline funding to federal agencies -- and kicking off the exploration and demonstration of advanced spectrum management techniques including Dynamic Spectrum Sharing.” NTIA is working with other federal agencies on “streamlining” the process for receiving money from the spectrum relocation fund (SRF) and anticipates distributing funds in October. “We expect that more than 10 federal agencies will seek funding, and our hope is this streamlined process will make the application process easier and quicker for these agencies,” it said. Under a three-step process, each agency must submit an application for funding, which is reviewed by a Technical Panel, chaired by NTIA, with representatives from the Office of Management and Budget and the FCC, which considers the request. “If approved by the Technical Panel, OMB notifies Congress and, after a mandatory 60-day waiting period, disperses the funds to each requesting agency,” NTIA said. It noted the presentation DOD made at CTIA this month on dynamic spectrum sharing (see 2404080063) but said it was “separate and apart” from a study that’s getting underway on the lower 3 GHz band's future. NTIA released the implementation plan for the strategy in March (see 2403120056).
Charter Communications surrendered dozens of census block groups (CBG) that it was awarded funding for through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction. In a letter to the FCC posted Thursday in docket 19-126 (see 2402020006), Charter said it was returning the CBGs in Michigan, Missouri and Wisconsin representing "less than 2%" of its winning bids. "Due largely to unforeseeable costs, primarily costs associated with the need for extensive utility pole replacements, deploying broadband in these few specific CBGs has become uneconomical," the company said. Citing pole replacement costs, Charter said utilities "generally have not been willing to share cost responsibility."
Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts and four other Senate Democrat caucus members wrote CTIA President Meredith Baker and NCTA CEO Michael Powell Friday urging their member companies to voluntarily cover a $16-per-household affordable connectivity program subsidy shortfall for participants in May. The FCC indicated earlier this month that the remaining ACP funds will be enough to pay only $14 of the usual $30 subsidy per participating household in May (see 2404100082). Committing to closing the $16-per-household shortfall “would help maintain subscribers in May, who might otherwise leave the program when faced with even the smallest price increase, while Congress continues to work on a legislative solution to this problem,” the Democrats said in a letter to Baker and Powell. “With both the Senate and House of Representatives in sessions for four weeks in May, this extra time would give lawmakers a critical window to work on and pass a legislative solution. Additionally, if Congress is able to extend the ACP, it would be devastating for ACP households that drop internet service during the period of lapsed funding, forcing them to re-enroll in the ACP, a process that can require significant time and expense.” Pro-ACP lawmakers are eyeing several potential vehicles for providing ACP with stopgap funding for FY 2024, including a proposed $5 billion loan via the draft Spectrum and National Security Act. The Senate Commerce Committee is set to mark up the measure Wednesday (see 2404250061).
A joint proposal from NCTA and several consumer groups representing the hearing impaired “does not solve all technical issues” involved in improving closed caption display settings accessibility, but is enough for the FCC to move forward, NCTA said in reply comments posted Friday in docket 12-108. The Joint Proposal “at least provides a mechanism to deliver device-level caption display settings to applications hosted on the device” and could “provide a path” for eventually tackling “more complex issues.” Responding to CTA concerns about the proposal (see 2404170061), NCTA said that each entity in the video production chain would be responsible for its products and that cable operators will consult with consumers and train customer care and support employees to help subscribers adjust their caption displays. In their own joint reply comments, several consumer groups representing the hearing impaired said FCC action is the only way to get better caption display accessibility. “Market forces have simply failed our constituency – not now, nor ever over the past twenty years” since the FCC adopted rules on digital TV closed captioning display settings “have these settings been readily accessible to television viewers,” said the filing from the National Association of the Deaf, the Hearing Loss Association of America, Communication Service for the Deaf, and TDIforAccess. The groups also called for the FCC to apply similar accessibility requirements to other entities beyond the cable companies covered in the joint proposal and to give any new rules an implementation deadline no longer than two years.
A new law seeking Chinese divestment of TikTok is unlikely to survive scrutiny if challenged for reasons similar to those that blocked Montana’s ban against the app, free speech experts tell us.