The Media Bureau on Tuesday granted a waiver of the top four prohibition to allow Gray Media to buy Fox affiliate KXLT-TV Rochester, Minnesota, even though it already owns NBC affiliate KTTC-TV Rochester in the same market, said a letter from Video Division Chief Barbara Kreisman. While FCC rules have allowed for top four waivers on a case-by-case basis for several years, they have rarely been granted. “Today’s action represents the first FCC approval of a new combination of two full-power, top-four ranked, same-market television stations in over five years,” said Gray in a news release. “Importantly, the FCC’s Media Bureau’s grant and written decision come just two months after the parties applied for approval of the transaction, which appears to represent the shortest processing time for a duopoly waiver in Commission history.” Gray’s proposed purchase of a top four combo in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, sat stalled at the FCC for 11 months before being abruptly granted in 2019, shortly after the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the agency’s 2014 quadrennial review order (see 1909250064).
The FCC's February 2024 robocall and robotext order (see 2402160048) that stops consumers from receiving unwanted messages seems overly broad, going even beyond what consumers want, according to financial organizations. In a docket 02-278 filing Wednesday recapping a meeting with FCC Chairman Brendan Carr's office, the institutions said that under the order, a consumer who replies "stop" to revoke consent for a type of message from a financial institution will stop all other phone or text communications from it. In addition, the order's requirements about processing revocations sent to one business unit so that all business units must stop calling or texting is "substantial work," especially for big institutions with numerous business units and separate calling systems. And they said the effective date for this provision of the order -- April 4 -- was set in October, giving only six months for implementation. The agency should waive revocation rules for one year, to April 11, 2026, they said. Meeting with Carr's office were representatives of the American Bankers Association, America’s Credit Unions, American Financial Services Association, ACA International -- formerly the American Collectors Association -- and Mortgage Bankers Association.
The FCC is asking for comments March 31, replies April 14, on the AWS-3 NPRM that commissioners approved 4-0 last month (see 2502270042), according to a notice for Thursday’s Federal Register. Comments are due April 10, replies April 25, on the bidding procedures notice (see 2503110061). New Street’s Blair Levin told us in an email that it makes sense for the FCC to release the AWS-3 notice while an NPRM on the auction is in progress. “The AWS-3 proceeding will be one of the easiest FCC auction proceedings ever,” Levin said. “After all, pretty much all the issues have been addressed before. So there is little need to wait for the NPRM,” and “there is a congressional clock ticking.” Comments should be filed in dockets 25-70, 25-71 or 13-185.
AT&T is in pursuit of additional spectrum, CFO Pascal Desroches said at a Deutsche Bank financial conference Tuesday, the same day the FCC released a notice seeking comment on the procedures for an AWS-3 auction (see 2503110061). “If you're in the wireless business, you're always interested in acquiring spectrum because it's the best, most cost-effective way to provide coverage and capacity, and the returns on it are proven and true,” Desroches said. “We would always be interested if more spectrum became available.”
The 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Wednesday scheduled oral argument for April 27 on Verizon’s challenge of a $46.9 million penalty from the FCC for not adequately protecting subscribers’ real-time location information. Commissioners approved the fine on a 3-2 vote last year, along with fines against AT&T and T-Mobile (see 2404290044). All the carriers are challenging the penalties. In February, the 5th Circuit heard oral argument in AT&T’s challenge of a $57 million fine (see 2502030050). The government defended the order in the 5th Circuit even though current FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and Republican Commissioner Nathan Simington had dissented.
The Wireless Infrastructure Association on Wednesday praised the CTIA's choice of former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai as the group’s president and CEO, effective April 1 (see 2503120036). He was picked following an executive search by Korn Ferry International. Pai is “an effective leader with the right mix of government and industry experience to help propel the wireless industry forward,” said Patrick Halley, WIA president and CEO. “WIA looks forward to working with him and the CTIA team to ensure every consumer and enterprise in America benefits from the power of wireless connectivity.” Pai “brings a wealth of knowledge and perspective from his years of public and private sector experience,” said Rhonda Johnson, AT&T executive vice president-regulatory relations.
Comments are due April 14 on FCC-proposed changes to its submarine cable rules, said a notice for Thursday's Federal Register. Replies in the docket 24-523 proceeding are due May 12. The subsea cable NPRM was adopted unanimously by the FCC commissioners in November (see 2411210006) and proposes rules changes that address national security and law enforcement threats to cables, including a three-year periodic reporting requirement for submarine cable landing licenses.
The FCC’s notice of apparent liability against Telnyx is an abuse of power and should be rescinded, said Free State Foundation’s Seth Cooper in a blog post Wednesday. The Feb. 4 Telnyx NAL (see 2503050026) amounts to “regulation by enforcement,” where an agency imposes new requirements on regulatees in enforcement proceedings instead of through a rulemaking, Cooper wrote. Regulation by enforcement “deprives regulated entities of the ability to know and follow the law, so it is contrary to the requirement of fair notice and the prohibition of unfair surprise that are recognized in Supreme Court's Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause jurisprudence.”
The current FCC is likely to support calls by USTelecom and its members for policies that allow carriers to more easily retire copper facilities in their networks (see 2501270047), New Street’s Blair Levin said Wednesday. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr “has always been in favor of assisting [incumbent local exchange carriers] in this transition,” he said in a note to investors.
Law firm Perkins Coie sued the U.S. government over a White House executive order aimed at the firm, and the lawsuit names the FCC and Chairman Brendan Carr as defendants, along with a host of agencies and agency leaders. A federal judge reportedly temporarily blocked the executive order in a ruling Wednesday. No order was yet visible in the docket Wednesday evening. The order, which accuses Perkins Coie of “undermining democratic elections” and committing racial discrimination through its diversity policies, limits the firm’s attorneys from accessing federal buildings and requires federal contractors to disclose relationships with it, among other things. It targets the firm over its past representation of former Secretary of State and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and its work with George Soros. “The Order is an affront to the Constitution and our adversarial system of justice,” said the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. “Its plain purpose is to bully those who advocate points of view that the President perceives as adverse to the views of his Administration.”