The FCC Space Bureau signed off on launch and operation of Sirius XM's planned replacement geostationary orbit satellite digital audio radio service satellites, SXM-9 and SXM-10 (see 2304070003), the agency said in a pair of approvals last week. The company said it was planning a 2024 launch of SXM-9 and 2025 for SXM-10.
DirecTV's use of early termination fees allows the company to let subscribers pay over time for the equipment necessary to receive satellite TV service and associated installation costs, company representatives told multiple 10th-floor FCC offices, according to a docket 23-405 filing Friday. Those equipment and installation costs can run $500 to $700 per subscriber, DirecTV said. Without ETFs, DirecTV might have to require those costs be paid upfront, raise monthly prices or both, the company said. Pointing to NCTA arguments for focusing solely on "unjust or unreasonable" ETFs (see 2406200031), DirecTV said ETFs that let consumers pay for upfront costs over time "should be considered at least presumptively just and reasonable." DirecTV said it spoke with the offices of Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioners Brendan Carr, Nathan Simington and Anna Gomez.
The FCC Wireless Bureau said it added “an enhancement” to the universal licensing system by adding tribal-specific “entity types” to some ULS forms. “This enhancement will improve identification of how and where Tribal Nations are directly accessing licensed wireless spectrum, and use of the new entity types will exempt applications filed by Tribal Nations and Tribally controlled business entities from related FCC Application Fees,” a notice in Friday’s Daily Digest said.
Utilities Technology Council President Rusty Williams and others from the group met with FCC Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Brendan Carr to discuss UTC concerns about 6 GHz interference and utility interest in having access to the 4.9 GHz band. “Utilities need highly reliable mission critical communications and additional licensed spectrum with sufficient capacity and coverage to meet increasing demands to meet emerging grid modernization and clean energy requirements and protect against greater and more sophisticated physical and cybersecurity threats and increasingly severe weather events, as well as wildfires,” the filing on the Starks meeting, posted Friday in docket 18-295 and other dockets, said.
NTIA proposed modifications to FCC rules that protect the Department of Commerce’s Table Mountain Field Site and Radio Quiet Zone, which is located north of Boulder, Colorado. The site is used to study the characteristics and propagation of electromagnetic radiation and spectrum coexistence in a real-world environment. “For frequencies of 15.7 GHz and above, the field strength limit should increase with frequency,” an undocketed filing posted Friday said. For those same frequencies, the field strength limit “should be defined as a spectrum density, of field strength (power) per megahertz instead of total signal power,” NTIA proposed. NTIA said it was similarly modifying its rules.
Competitive Carriers Association and Nex-Tech Wireless representatives met with an aide to FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez to discuss potential gaps in the agency’s broadband data collection, a filing posted Friday in docket 19-195 said. Nex-Tech discussed issues it saw as it collected data for the broadband maps. “In Kansas, the outdoor stationary 5G 7/1 Mbps mobile broadband layer of the most recent FCC national broadband map shows 63% of the state to be currently covered, whereas in-vehicle mobile coverage at 7/1 Mbps shows only 30% … covered,” the filing said: Even if the reported coverage were accurate, “this methodology would leave 70% of Kansas below even the 7/1 Mbps 5G bar for those using mobile phones while mobile.” The representatives warned about the implications “of overstated maps and a flawed challenge process” for “the success of the 5G Fund.”
The FCC on Friday approved waivers for equipment manufacturers Autotalks, Innowireless and Keysight Technologies, and automaker North American Subaru to launch cellular vehicle-to-everything operations in the upper 30 MHz of the 5.9 GHz band. The notice comes days after Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel circulated an order finalizing rules for C-V2X operations in the band (see 2407170042). The order imposes conditions approved for previous waiver recipients, as modified a year ago (see 2307050048). “All operations authorized pursuant to this waiver are limited to transportation and vehicle safety-related communications,” the order by the Wireless and Public Safety bureaus and Office of Engineering and Technology said.
The House Rules Committee plans a Monday meeting where it will consider whether to allow floor votes on proposed amendments to the Appropriations Committee-cleared FY 2025 FCC-FTC funding bill (HR-8773). These include proposals that would undo a ban on the FCC implementing an equity action plan and increase the FTC’s annual funding (see 2407100060). The underlying bill proposes boosting the FCC’s annual allocation to $416 million but includes riders barring the commission from implementing GOP-opposed net neutrality and digital discrimination orders (see 2406050067). Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., filed a late amendment barring the FCC from using its funding to administer or implement parts of Communications Act Section 706’s presidential war powers. Those powers let the president close any broadcast station or wireline communication facility for national security or defense reasons when “there exists war or a threat of war” or another national emergency. House Rules set a Monday deadline for lawmakers to file amendments to the Appropriations-approved Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee FY 2025 funding bill (HR-9029), which would eliminate advance CPB funding for FY 2027 (see 2406270059).
The FCC appeared to make only limited changes to an NPRM proposing industry-wide handset unlocking rules that commissioners approved 5-0 Thursday. The agency posted the NPRM Friday. The biggest change came in a paragraph on exceptions to the 60-day locking period that Commissioner Brendan Carr requested, as indicated Thursday (see 2407180037). “Should the rule permit any other exceptions to deter fraud including instances where individuals or groups illegally obtain devices and resell them to the public (i.e. handset trafficking)?” the notice now says: “For example, should lost or stolen phones also fall under an exception to the 60-day unlocking requirement?” The final order also notes concerns that Tango Networks and CS Hawthorn raised (see 2407160048). Only Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Anna Gomez issued written statements attached to the NPRM. Comment deadlines will be set in an upcoming Federal Register notice.
The FCC should proceed with caution or reconsider entirely a proposal that imposes on the nine largest ISPs specific reporting requirements on their border gateway protocol (BGP) security practices, ISPs and industry groups said in comments posted through Thursday in docket 24-146 (see 2406060028). The Biden administration "supports properly implemented and narrowly constructed" BGP reporting requirements, NTIA said. "The FCC's action should be appropriately tailored to preserve the highly successful multistakeholder model of internet governance."