The FCC’s unanimous order Tuesday allowing radio stations to use FM boosters to offer geotargeted ads and announcements comes over the objections of the nation’s largest radio broadcasters and NAB's years-long campaign against FCC authorization (see 2209230070. Although Tuesday’s order allows broadcasters to receive only temporary authorization for geotargeted content and seeks comment on procedures for a more permanent process, advocates for the ZoneCast technology pushed by GeoBroadcast Solutions (GBS) see the order as a win and the accompanying Further NPRM as mostly ministerial. “Today marks a monumental victory for small- and minority-owned FM radio stations,” said Roberts Radio CEO Steve Roberts, a longtime proponent of the technology. NAB “is pleased that the Commission is only authorizing the use of GeoBroadcast Solutions’ troubling technology on an experimental basis at this time,” the trade group said.
FCC commissioners will vote on restoring net neutrality rules during the agency's April 25 meeting, Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced Wednesday (see 2403290057). Commissioners will consider a declaratory ruling, order, report and order, and order on reconsideration. "A return to the FCC’s overwhelmingly popular and court-approved standard of net neutrality will allow the agency to serve once again as a strong consumer advocate of an open internet," Rosenworcel said. Also on April's agenda is a draft NPRM about georouting 988 calls (see 2404030051).
Xplore hopes to launch an Xcube-1 remote sensing small satellite on a SpaceX rideshare between Q4 this year and Q2 2025, the company told the FCC Space Bureau in an application posted Tuesday seeking permission to launch and operate the satellite. The company said it plans a low earth orbit constellation that will provide remote sensing data products and edge computing on multiple payload computers.
The FCC's supplemental coverage from space (SCS) framework adopted at the March open meeting (see 2403140050) gives AST SpaceMobile a path to more than 200 Mhz of spectrum for direct-to-device services, CEO Abel Avellan said Monday evening as the company announced Q4 results. He said the framework also should facilitate AST's pending applications with the FCC. AST expects that many regulatory agencies globally will follow the U.S. SCS regime, he said, offering Brazil's proposed SCS framework as an example. He said its five Block I Bluebird satellites should launch in July or August, with the first of its Block II satellites launching between December 2024 and March 2025. The investment of AT&T, Google and Vodafone announced in January (see 2401180068) gives AST funding to launch the Block I satellites and the initial Block IIs, Avellan said. He added the Google agreement also includes collaboration on product development. "It’s super strategic for us" and will "create value on the Android ecosystem for our customers and end users," he said. Startup AST reported no revenue for the quarter.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court granted the unopposed motions of four network affiliates associations (see 2403220041) and six radio group owners (see 2403260001) to intervene in support of the four consolidated petitions for review that challenge the FCC’s Dec. 26 quadrennial review order for allegedly violating Section 202(h) of the Telecommunications Act, said a clerk’s order Tuesday. The 8th Circuit also granted NCTA’s motion to intervene to defend the FCC’s order against those Section 202(h) challenges (see 2403250064). The court denied without prejudice the network affiliates associations’ request to be deemed intervenors in any petitions that may be consolidated with the existing four in the future. The consolidated petitions pending in the 8th Circuit are from Zimmer Radio (docket 24-1380), Beasley Media Group (docket 24-1480), NAB (docket 24-1493) and Nexstar Media Group (docket 24-1516).
The FCC unanimously approved an order allowing broadcasters to use FM boosters to originate geotargeted radio content (see 2402090044). The order lets broadcasters apply for an experimental license to carry geotargeted content for a maximum of three minutes per broadcast hour. Such content is expected to be mostly advertisements, and the push for geotargeted radio has faced heavy opposition from NAB and larger broadcasters over concerns about ad rates and interference (see 2210210050). The item includes a further NPRM that seeks comment on establishing a more permanent process to replace the experimental license. In comments included with the order, FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said the order would help minority and small- market broadcasters. “No fewer than 21 civil rights organizations also urged us to make this change,” he said. “They believe geotargeting has the power to diversify media ownership, while giving small businesses and community organizations more of an opportunity to get their message on the air.” The FCC has for years “ensured that various technologies from cable to 5G to next-gen broadcast TV have the freedom to target their content to specific geographies,” said Commissioner Brendan Carr in his statement with the order. “Except the FCC has never allowed radio broadcasters that same opportunity. It has artificially limited broadcasters’ business models,” he said. The order said: “Weighing the competing interests in this proceeding, we find that program origination over boosters will advance the public interest with benefits that outweigh the concerns.”
The FCC continues getting pressure to provide an exemption for 5G network slicing under proposed net neutrality rules, expected to be unveiled this week (see 2403290057). “The debate surrounding ‘network slicing’ is welcome because it rather convincingly demonstrates the inherently problematic nature of the proposal to impose public utility regulation on Internet service providers in a technologically dynamic marketplace,” Free State Foundation said in a comment Tuesday. Slicing will “help enable more efficient use of wireless networks, while also enabling capabilities and services that will support investment to deploy and add capacity to next-generation wireless networks,” Verizon said in a filing posted Tuesday in docket 23-320: “Placing unnecessary restrictions on this technology could stifle it in its infancy, to the detriment of consumers and our nation’s leadership position in the mobile economy.” Verizon representatives spoke with aides to Commissioner Geoffrey Starks.
The FCC Wireless Bureau sought comments due May 2, replies May 18, on a February petition seeking launch of a rulemaking that authorizes 5/5 MHz broadband deployments in the 900 MHz band. Petitioners argue that “expanded 5/5 megahertz broadband will support growing demand for wide-area, private, and secure wireless broadband networks for utilities, critical infrastructure, and business enterprise entities, among other benefits,” the bureau said Tuesday. The Enterprise Wireless Alliance, Anterix and electric utilities filed the petition (see 2402290064). “We seek comment generally on the Petition and its request that the Commission provide an option for 5/5 megahertz broadband networks in the 900 MHz band through a voluntary transition process,” the bureau said: “In particular, we seek comment on whether existing rules would be sufficient to protect incumbent narrowband operations from interference, as well as whether those rules would be sufficient to protect operations in adjacent spectrum bands.” Comments should be filed in docket 24-99.
Summit Ridge, which serves as the 3.45 GHz Clearinghouse, updated the FCC on its progress, in a report posted Tuesday in docket 19-348. “Clearinghouse costs, including both accepted hard and soft incumbent clearing expenses and Clearinghouse operating expenses, are as a whole, running close to its initial budget,” the report said. The clearing timeline is delayed some three months “because NBCUniversal has yet to complete its clearing operations and submit its final costs,” the report said. Summit Ridge said there were no disputes so far from new licensees or incumbents.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel re-emphasized the potential impact of affordable connectivity program funding exhaustion in letters Tuesday to Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., Senate Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee Chairman Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and other congressional leaders. Cantwell and other lawmakers are eyeing ways they can allocate stopgap funding that would keep ACP running through the rest of FY 2024. Congress approved the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act minibus spending bill last month without that money (see 2403280001). Rosenworcel warned lawmakers Tuesday that notices from the Universal Service Administrative Co. and ISPs warning participants that April would be the last month of a full ACP subsidy may be sent when many committee members "are at home in their districts and hearing from their constituents about the benefits of the ACP.” She attached data to each letter outlining “the number of enrolled ACP households in each state, territory, and congressional district.” Press reports about ACP participants’ reactions to the program’s potential end “echo" what the commission has heard "from ACP households directly, with many writing the agency to express their distress and fear that ending this program could lead them to lose access to the internet at home,” Rosenworcel said. “In what is perverse, both rural and Tribal communities will likely see new broadband deployment in remote areas” via funding from the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, “but persistent challenges with cost -- absent the ACP -- may limit the ability of this investment to close the digital divide.” The FCC “remains ready to keep this program running, should Congress provide additional funding,” she said: “We have come too far to allow this successful effort to promote internet access for all to end.”