ACA Connects asked the FCC to grant smaller providers additional time to comply with certain requirements in its proposed rules reclassifying broadband as a Communications Act Title II telecom service. During a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, the group sought six months for smaller providers "to analyze the impact" of Title II and any new net neutrality rules, "as well as assess the interaction of Title II and the digital discrimination rules and state requirements." In a separate letter to the commission, CTIA and USTelecom asked the FCC to classify domain name systems (DNS) and caching as information services under the Communications Act. DNS and caching "remain integral parts of providers’ BIAS offerings, making those offerings information services under the Communications Act," the groups said.
DOJ and the FCC praised a Montana judge Friday for imposing a $9.9 million forfeiture penalty against defendant Scott Rhodes for initiating nearly 5,000 illegally spoofed calls across the U.S., in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and the Truth in Caller ID Act. “Virtually every Montanan has been the subject of unwanted and harassing robocalls, and the person responsible for such calls usually escapes accountability," said U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich for Montana said in a joint statement with FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. "But not this time. In placing thousands of harassing and malicious spoofing calls to consumers across the country, Rhodes showed a blatant disregard to caller ID and telephone consumer protection laws designed to prevent this sort of conduct.” When persistent and malicious robocallers break the law, “it takes strong partnerships like this one to bring them to justice,” said Rosenworcel. “I thank the Justice Department team, in conjunction with FCC lawyers, for vigorously pursuing this penalty.” There’s “no genuine dispute” that the forfeiture penalty of $9.9 million imposed by the FCC against Rhodes, a resident of Idaho and Montana, in its January 2021 order “is reasonable and consistent with the relevant statutory and regulatory guidelines,” said U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen for Montana in Missoula in his March 19 order. The judge denied Rhodes’ motions for reconsideration of the summary judgment order in the government’s favor and to have Christensen disqualified for bias against the defendant.
Representatives of the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition spoke with FCC Wireline Bureau staff about the agency’s November proposal allowing schools and libraries to use E-rate support for off-premises Wi-Fi hot spots and wireless internet services (see 2311090028). Also attending were officials from Colorado's Boulder Valley School District (BVSD). The district found a series of hot spots during the COVID-19 pandemic was difficult to administer and didn’t provide the connection students needed, said a filing posted Monday in docket 21-31. It next worked with a small local wireless ISP, LiveWire Networks, to build a network. “As of today, LiveWire operates a tower on almost every building across the BVSD,” SHLB said: More than 300 "… students are enrolled in the program. LiveWire operates and manages the network and performs installation and other services directly at the home.” Given the success of school-enabled networks like the Colorado district’s, “SHLB encourages the FCC to apply a broad, tech-neutral definition of ‘hotspots’ so that alternative types of network devices (like fixed wireless access points and subscriber modules) are eligible for E-rate funding,” the filing said. Last week, SHLB made similar points featuring a program at the East Moline (Ilinois) School District 37 (see 2403220030).
Public interest groups and two academics spoke with FCC Wireline Bureau staff about their request that the agency update its approach to net neutrality rules to address issues concerning new services like network slicing (see 2403130057). “We asked the Commission to clarify: how technologies such as network slicing may be used to provide innovative offers as part of [broadband Internet access service] that are consistent with the open Internet rules, and under what conditions non-BIAS data services may be provided,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 23-320. The Open Technology Institute at New America made the filing, joined by Public Knowledge; Barbara van Schewick, director of Stanford Law School’s Center for attended and Society; and Scott Jordan, computer science professor at the University of California, Irvine.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied Essential Network Technologies and MetComm.net's Feb. 26 emergency motion to expedite consideration of their Feb. 14 E-rate program petition for review, said its order Monday (docket 24-1027). The petitioners haven’t demonstrated that delay “will cause irreparable injury and that the decision under review is subject to substantial challenge, or that the public interest otherwise warrants expedition,” said the order. Their petition for review challenges the authority of the FCC and the Universal Service Administrative Co. (USAC) to stop processing the reimbursement of discounts for IT and broadband services that MetComm and Essential provided to schools under Section 254 of the Communications Act (see 2402200044). Their motion for expedited consideration argued that unless a briefing schedule is set that would allow for a D.C. Circuit decision on the appeal before the end of the court’s May sitting period, numerous elementary and secondary schools will be deprived of affordable IT infrastructure and broadband service for the new school year this fall (see 2403140002). But the FCC’s opposition said the petitioners have provided no compelling reasons for the D.C. Circuit to expedite review. “Under the circumstances, far from needing to expedite this case,” the D.C. Circuit “lacks jurisdiction to decide it,” because there is no final FCC action for the court to review, said the commission’s opposition.
President Joe Biden signed off Saturday on the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act FY 2024 minibus spending package (HR-2882), the White House said. The Senate voted 74-24 Saturday morning on the measure, which allocates $390.2 million to the FCC, $425.7 million to the FTC and $535 million in FY 2026 funds for CPB. Congressional leaders omitted stopgap funding for the FCC's affordable connectivity program and money for the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program, despite repeated calls from the initiatives' backers (see 2403210067).
NCTA is seeking to intervene in support of the FCC and against four petitions for review consolidated in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the FCC’s Dec. 26 quadrennial review order for allegedly violating Section 202(h) of the Telecommunications Act, said NCTA's unopposed motion Monday.
The FCC Enforcement Bureau fined Vero Broadband $48,000 Friday for violating commission rules on unauthorized transfers. Vero acquired Communications Act Section 214 authorizations and wireless licenses from San Isabel Telecom, Forethought.net, Brainstorm and Peak Internet without prior FCC approval, a notice of apparent liability said.
Representatives of the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition spoke with FCC Wireline Bureau staff to discuss its backing for the agency’s November proposal allowing schools and libraries to use E-rate support for off-premises Wi-Fi hot spots and wireless internet services (see 2311090028). Among those at the meeting were staff from East Moline School District 37, located in East Moline, Illinois, and SmartWAVE, a district vendor. The district found that during the COVID-19 pandemic “many families could not afford Internet service and that the vast majority of Chromebooks they handed out wouldn’t work with hot spots due to poor mobile coverage,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 21-31: The district “worked with SmartWAVE Technologies to purchase access points and placed them on top of existing infrastructure like streetlights. All students are given a Chromebook, which then automatically connects to the network wherever they are situated.” The district found “this model is akin to extending its existing school WiFi network and devices into the community, which is much easier for their six-person IT department to manage, compared with tracking the service and devices provided by traditional mobile carrier hotspots,” SHLB said.
The FCC Public Safety Bureau on Friday approved special temporary authority allowing Morgan County, Indiana, to operate its travelers’ information station for a 15-day period at higher power levels than allowed under commission rules so it can “manage the expected influx of visitors, traffic congestion, and public safety surrounding the April 8 … solar eclipse.” The county can use 100 watts of power, rather than 10, starting April 1. The county is part of the eclipse's zone of totality.