A draft order on collecting broadcaster and cable workforce diversity data using form 395-B is off the FCC’s circulation list. Removing an item is usually an indication that it was voted on and will be released soon. The item was circulated at the end of December and quickly received three votes -- likely from the agency’s Democrats -- but then was held up under the agency’s must-vote procedures, waiting for the remaining two votes. FCC Republicans Nathan Simington and Brendan Carr were expected to oppose the item. The draft order would reinstate form 395-B and require broadcasters to upload diversity data forms to online public files. It's accompanied by a Further NPRM that seeks comment on expanding the same rules to cable, FCC and industry officials told us (see 2401260075). The FCC declined to comment.
The FCC released an updated user guide for carriers seeking funding through the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program. The program is intended to partially support removal of Chinese gear from U.S. networks. The guide was posted in Monday’s Daily Digest. The document “provides informal guidance intended to assist Recipients as they proceed with this Reimbursement Program process and does not constitute legal advice,” it notes.
The FCC and DOJ seek a six-day extension, to Feb. 22, to reply to Maurine and Matthew Molaks’ Friday opposition to the commission’s motion to dismiss their petition for review to vacate the agency’s declaratory ruling authorizing E-rate funding for Wi-Fi on school buses (see 2402090048), said the government’s motion Monday (docket 23-60641) at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The extension is necessary "to allow coordination of the reply between the agencies," it said. Counsel for the Molaks have “represented” that they won’t oppose the extension, it said. The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition, an intervenor on behalf of the FCC, supports the extension, it said.
The recipient of a similar waiver in July, Midland supported Garmin International’s request for a waiver of FCC rules to allow certification of hand-held general mobile radio service (GMRS) devices (see 2310060031). Midland said its GMRS customers include off-roading and outdoors enthusiasts “who often rely on GMRS radios for communications in remote areas.” Relaxing the restriction on digital data transmissions "enhances the ability of these users to connect with each other and track their respective locations, leading to a better outdoors or off-roads experience,” Midland said in a filing posted Monday in docket 24-7. Allowing more frequent data transmissions also “increases the public safety benefits of GMRS,” the company said.
The Fraternal Order of Police supported a proposal assigning the 4.9 GHz band to FirstNet (see 2401190067). “In recent months, there has been a concerted effort by organizations -- many of which are not public safety -- to sow doubt about public safety’s vision for how to reform the 4.9 GHz band,” the group said in a Friday letter to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. These groups “shrouded their mission under the false banner of ‘local control’ and falsely claim incumbent licensees would lose access to the band if it is operationalized for nationwide 5G,” the letter said: Under their plan, a “fractured, decentralized approach would continue -- thus limiting the utilization of the band for the benefit of public safety.” Some of the strongest opposition has come from the recently formed Coalition for Emergency Response and Critical Infrastructure (see 2402060078). Members include the Major Cities Chiefs Association, the National Sheriffs’ Association, the Edison Electric Institute, T-Mobile, UScellular, Verizon and the Competitive Carriers Association.
CTA representatives met with FCC Public Safety Bureau staff about the proposed launch of a voluntary cyber-trust mark for consumer devices. CTA discussed “outstanding questions” and its draft approach that would enable evaluation of “a third-party Cybersecurity Label Scheme or manufacturer’s self-attestation process” in keeping with NISTIR 8425, the National Institute for Standards and Technology’s IoT core baseline. “The Draft Framework defines assessment outcomes, scheme requirements for assessment and manufacturer evidence, and component model implications for each of the technical requirements as well as manufacturer evidence needed for each of the non-technical requirements in NISTIR 8425,” said a filing last week in docket 23-239.
FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks traveled to Nevada with Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., to push for continuing the affordable connectivity program (see 2402120068). "The harms that millions of Americans will face in the absence of ACP are real," Starks said in a statement following the Friday event: "For them, and for a brighter future for our country, we must act." Starks met families and local officials at the Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority, hearing "what ACP meant to them" and "the challenges that Nevadan families will face in maintaining connectivity if ACP sunsets."
Initial testing of its supplemental coverage from space service with T-Mobile was "extraordinarily successful," SpaceX said Monday in docket 23-135. SpaceX said it will "soon" submit to the FCC detailed information about how its SCS operations would protect out-of-band terrestrial operations. It said that forthcoming information "will only add to the significant evidence that SpaceX’s direct-to-cell operations in the PCS G Block will not cause harmful interference to any adjacent band users." SpaceX urged that other satellite operators supply such information, such as aggregate interference analyses.
A coalition of 21 Republican state attorneys general urged the U.S. Supreme Court to hear Consumers' Research's challenge of the FCC's quarterly USF contribution factor and methodology in an amicus brief posted Thursday (docket 23-743). "Agencies are finding all kinds of creative new ways to grab money and power for themselves lately," the coalition, led by West Virginia AG Patrick Morrisey (R), said. The FCC "extracts billions from American consumers based on a vague statute" and "doesn’t even do the work of setting these rates itself," they argued (see 2401100044). The AGs called the FCC's use of the Universal Service Administrative Co. unconstitutional and a violation of the nondelegation doctrine. "Those that would warn the Court away from reaching these issues are wrong," the group said: "The benefits of the present state of play are overstated." The FCC declined to comment Monday. The agency on Monday petitioned the court to extend until April 3 the March 4 deadline for responding to Consumers' Research's petition, citing a parallel case pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.
The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, in an order Friday, randomly picked the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals as the venue in which to consolidate 10 multicircuit petitions for review filed in six appellate courts challenging the FCC’s Nov. 20 digital divide order (see 2402070058), the agency told those courts in notifications Monday, under Panel Rule 25.6. The FCC notified the panel of those 10 petitions Wednesday (see 2402070058). Virtually all the petitioners -- mostly state broadband and television associations, but also the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, are challenging the order on grounds that it gives the FCC unprecedented authority to regulate the broadband internet economy.