Various carriers certified that they're in compliance with new mandatory disaster response initiative (MDRI) requirements the FCC approved last year (see 2207060070). The agency mandated a May 1 compliance date for all carriers, regardless of size. GCI said it “complies with the Wireless Network Resiliency Cooperative Framework’s existing provisions, and has implemented internal procedures to ensure that it remains in compliance." Other carriers, including C Spire, Vitelcom Cellular, Commnet Wireless and NTUA Wireless, also filed certifications, posted Wednesday in docket 21-346.
Competitive Carriers Association President Tim Donovan and others from the group met with aides to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Brendan Carr to discuss broadband mapping and other 5G Fund concerns. They discussed “eligibility issues such as whether eligibility is limited to areas with unsubsidized 5G defined as 7/1 Mbps and 5G Fund eligibility concerns regarding legacy support recipients using federal funds to deploy 4G and 5G networks” and “timing of the trigger to shift from legacy support to 5G Fund support,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 20-32. CCA also raised funding issues.
Charter Communications told the FCC that several census block groups (CBGs) the company "inadvertently included" were awarded funding through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction. In a letter Wednesday in docket 19-126, the company listed seven CBGs in Missouri and two in Wisconsin. Charter cited pole replacement obstacles last week in its initial letter surrendering dozens of CBGs (see 2404260059).
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr appeared on a News Nation broadcast Tuesday to opine on protests at Columbia University over the conflict in Gaza, according to a Carr X post Wednesday. On the broadcast, Carr said he was in New York for work and “thought it was important to express some appreciation for what the NYPD is doing out here,” and witness the protest. He said the First Amendment protects political speech but not violent conduct. “That includes storming buildings,” he said. “Everyone here has the right to express their viewpoints, however vile,” Carr tweeted.
FCC commissioners will vote at their May 23 open meeting on an NPRM proposing labs from companies on the agency’s “covered list” of unsecure firms be barred from participating in the equipment authorization process. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Republican Commissioner Brendan Carr announced the NPRM Wednesday. “This new proceeding would permanently prohibit Huawei and other entities on the FCC’s Covered List from playing any role in the equipment authorization program while also providing the FCC and its national security partners the necessary tools to safeguard this important process,” a news release said. “We must ensure that our equipment authorization program and those entrusted with administering it can rise to the challenge posed by persistent and ever-changing security and supply chain threats,” Rosenworcel said. The NPRM is “another significant step in the FCC’s work to advance the security of America’s communications networks,” Carr said: It proposes “to ensure that the test labs and certification bodies that review electronic devices for compliance with FCC requirements are themselves trustworthy actors that the FCC can rely on.” The NPRM builds on a 2022 order, which bans FCC authorization of gear from companies including Huawei, ZTE, Hytera Communications, Hikvision and Dahua Technology (see 2211230065). Last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit remanded part of that order to the FCC to further develop the definition of critical infrastructure (see 2404020068). Commissioners will also consider an adjudicatory matter from the Media Bureau, and four items from the Enforcement Bureau as part of the abbreviated agenda, per Rosenworcel's note. She thanked other commissioners for their work on national security issues. “Working together, we have enacted and enforced rules to safeguard our wired and wireless networks from communications equipment that has been determined to pose an unacceptable risk to national security,” she said.
Catholic broadcasters and groups filed two petitions for reconsideration against the FCC’s equal employment opportunity order in part because it updates Form 395-B to account for nonbinary employees.
TechFreedom urged the FCC not to use an “obscure provision” on digital discrimination, buried deep in the “enormous” Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, to “smuggle onerous common-carrier regulations” onto the internet. TechFreedom’s position was detailed as part of an amicus brief Tuesday (docket 24-1179) in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said Wednesday she's talking to a range of lawmakers seeking potential changes to an amended version of her draft Spectrum and National Security Act after the panel pulled Cantwell’s bill and 12 others from a planned Wednesday markup session Tuesday night (see 2404300072). The potential for the spectrum bill to make it into the bipartisan 2024 FAA Reauthorization Act “got precluded weeks ago,” Cantwell told reporters. The Senate voted 89-10 to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the FAA bill as a substitute for Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act (HR-3935). Lawmakers are still eyeing other vehicles for allocating stopgap money to keep the FCC’s ailing affordable connectivity program running through the remainder of the year. Those proposals include a bid from Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, that would attach an amendment to the FAA package appropriating ACP $7 billion (see 2405010055).
Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, a lead GOP co-sponsor of the Affordable Connectivity Program Extension Act (HR-6929/S-3565), confirmed Wednesday he will push hard for an amendment to the bipartisan 2024 FAA Reauthorization Act that would appropriate $7 billion in stopgap funding to keep the ailing FCC broadband program running through the end of the fiscal year. The Senate voted 89-10 to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the FAA bill as a substitute for Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act (HR-3935).
Policymakers, industry officials and broadband experts emphasized the demand for additional rural broadband deployment and affordability programs during an NTCA policy conference Wednesday in Washington. With uncertainty looming around the FCC's affordable connectivity program, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks urged Congress to replenish the program and keep rural communities connected (see 2405010055).