The FCC Wireless Bureau on Tuesday announced the grant of two long-form applications and issuance of nine licenses to Quick Current purchased in the 2.5 GHz auction. The licenses are in Iowa and Nebraska.
While the wireless industry largely supported recommendations in an FCC NPRM on implementing a 100% hearing-aid compatibility (HAC) requirement for wireless handset models, groups representing the deaf and hard of hearing urged tweaks. Commissioners approved the NPRM in December (see 2312130019) and comments were posted this week in docket 23-388. The Hearing Loss Association of America led other groups in urging that the FCC adopt “a forward-looking, flexible definition of hearing aid compatibility that reflects changing technologies.” The FCC should adopt a definition of Bluetooth connectivity “that rests on a set of functional requirements” ensuring HAC compatibility “via Bluetooth … designed to achieve effective HAC use in the widest number of scenarios possible,” the groups said. They called for “an expanded definition of hearing aid compatibility to include Bluetooth connectivity along with telecoil connectivity,” which “does not rely solely on market conditions to ensure that telecoil coupling will continue to be included in handsets.” The FCC should take “a hybrid approach to grandfathering in handsets as outlined by the Commission, with the ultimate goal of 100% of handset models meeting the ANSI C63.19-2019 standard and newer ANSI standards as they are developed,” they said. Signing the filing were the National Association of the Deaf, TDIforAccess, Communication Service for the Deaf and the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Technology for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing at Gallaudet University. The HAC Task Force urged the FCC to align rules with its December 2022 recommendations (see 2212160063). The task force included both consumer and industry groups, and it adopted a unanimous report based on work that started in 2020. “The HAC Task Force recommendations embrace innovation and future trends while ensuring no consumer will be ‘left behind,’” the task force said: “All … participants support the goal of 100% HAC deployment, and they were proud to present the Commission with a concrete, achievable, consensus path to 100% HAC.” CTIA endorsed the 2022 report. “The recommendations are the fruits of a years-long, consensus-based process designed to answer the very question of whether and how 100% HAC can be achieved to benefit consumers with hearing loss,” CTIA said. Samsung Electronics America also endorsed the task force report. “Samsung’s own experience with Bluetooth demonstrates its importance as a hearing technology that is easily accessible to consumers throughout the United States,” the company said: “As a mainstream and growing technology, Bluetooth holds significant promise for consumers with hearing loss.” CTA said recent research supports the task force’s approach to HAC. “The interlocking recommendations in the Report encourage innovation by setting forth a flexible definition for HAC while ensuring testing to objective standards for compliance with deployment benchmarks,” CTA said. For the first time, the rules “incorporate Bluetooth into deployment benchmarks,” CTA said.
The FCC on Tuesday denied AT&T’s request that the agency not award 2.5 GHz licenses to T-Mobile, and said the licenses will be processed. AT&T challenged the awards in November 2022, noting T-Mobile’s already huge position in the band (see 2211100066). “We find that the grant of T-Mobile’s license application -- subject to its voluntary divestiture commitment in parts of Hawaii that we impose as a condition -- will promote the public interest by facilitating access to and use of the spectrum, particularly in rural areas where this band has been underutilized,” said the opinion and order by the Wireless Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics: “Accordingly, we deny AT&T’s petition to deny and will process T-Mobile’s application consistent with this Order and the Commission’s rules.” T-Mobile dominated the 2022 auction but required action from Congress before obtaining the licenses following expiration a year ago of the FCC’s auction authority (see 2312200061). T-Mobile recently committed to voluntarily divest, “either by sale or spectrum swap,” licenses it holds in two Hawaii markets, the FCC said.
Don't adopt a "model carrier" approach for determining rates for incarcerated people's communications services, Securus parent Aventiv told the FCC. The company met separately with Commissioner Anna Gomez and staff, aides to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and aides to Commissioner Brendan Carr. The FCC "must take into account the increased costs of labor and services resulting from inflationary pressures in recent years" when setting permanent rate and ancillary service charge caps, Aventiv said in a filing posted Tuesday in docket 23-62 (see 2205240056). It also urged the commission to allow "alternative pricing structures" and "experimentation with bundling arrangements."
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and other congressional leaders were optimistic Tuesday they can avoid a partial government shutdown that would otherwise shutter the Agriculture Department’s Rural Utilities Service and other agencies when an existing continuing resolution expires Friday night. A second CR covering the FCC, FTC, NTIA, other Commerce Department agencies and the DOJ Antitrust Division lasts through March 8 (see 2401180057). Johnson told reporters after a meeting with President Joe Biden and Capitol Hill leaders he’s “very optimistic” that Congress can keep government running. “We believe that we can get to agreement on these issues and prevent a government shutdown, and that’s our first responsibility,” he said. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., agreed. “We can’t shut the government down,” Schumer said, but to do that now “means we need CRs” rather than a “minibus” appropriations package Johnson recently floated.
SpaceX didn't comment Tuesday on FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's recent explanation that the Wireless Bureau rejected Starlink's application for Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) money in 2022 (see 2208100050) because it didn't meet “program requirements,” including “difficulty meeting the basic uplink and downlink speed standards for the program.” Republicans escalated criticism of the FCC after the commission upheld the Wireline Bureau's decision in December (see 2312130027). All RDOF applicants “were subject to the same rules -- the smallest carriers and largest carriers alike,” Rosenworcel told House Communications Subcommittee member Rep. Gus Bilirakis of Florida and 11 other Republicans in letters released Friday night. The GOP lawmakers pressed the issue in January. The Wireline Bureau's finding about Starlink's speed issues “has since been confirmed by the company’s most recent publicly available performance data,” Rosenworcel said: The bureau found Starlink “showed download speeds from 53-65 Mbps and upload speeds from 7-10 Mbps. As a result, the Commission concluded that Starlink would not be reasonably capable of meeting its performance obligations across the significantly larger customer base and service area it had committed to serving as a result of its winning RDOF bids, which would put even greater pressure on its network.” Starlink’s “proposal would have required every subscriber to purchase a $600 dish to simply start to receive the service,” she said. “No other services supported by the program included such high start-up costs on rural consumers.” The FCC's “review indicated that in more than 6,501 census blocks where Starlink sought support from the RDOF program were not unserved rural households, but actually parking lots, traffic medians, and locations that already have service like the Chicago Loop and Newark International Airport,” Rosenworcel said: “When we requested that Starlink no longer seek funding for these locations, the company refused.”
E-rate participants and advocates welcomed the FCC's proposed cybersecurity pilot program for schools and libraries in reply comments posted Tuesday in docket 23-234 (see 2311130062). A coalition of education associations and school districts from 42 states and Puerto Rico urged the FCC to move forward, saying public schools are "now the industry most targeted by ransomware attacks" because they are "data-rich environments that often lack advanced resources and technology." The FCC should update the definition of firewalls under category two services to include "industry standard firewalls that are necessary to counter the most common, yet devastating, cyberattacks," the coalition said. The group also backed the schools and libraries cybersecurity pilot program, asking the FCC to "adequately fund the pilot and to shorten its duration so that entities can immediately strengthen their cybersecurity defenses by next school year." Establish an 18-month timeline for the pilot program, said E-rate compliance consulting firm Kellogg & Sovereign. Consider an "open data model" so the public, researchers, program participants and other stakeholders can "independently analyze and use data to support informed decision-making." The American Library Association noted that smaller libraries lack staff time and expertise to apply for the program and urged the FCC to require the Universal Service Administrative Co. to conduct outreach. ALA backed a one-year timeline for the pilot, saying the proposed three-year timeline "just adds unnecessary delay in the urgent need to make cybersecurity tools eligible for E-rate support."
The FCC’s rechartered Technological Advisory Council will meet March 19, starting at 10 a.m., at FCC headquarters, the commission said Tuesday. Dean Brenner, a former executive at Qualcomm, returns as chair. The FCC announced in August TAC would be relaunched, with the first meeting then expected by the end of last year (see 2308240051). TAC last met in August (see 2308170057). “The TAC will consider and advise the Commission on topics such as continued efforts at looking beyond 5G advanced as 6G begins to develop ... to facilitate U.S. leadership; studying advanced spectrum sharing techniques, including the implementation of artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve the utilization and administration of spectrum; and other emerging technologies,” the FCC said.
Multichannel video programming distributors and broadcasters disagree on the FCC's proposed requirement of mandatory reporting of channel blackouts due to failed retransmission consent talks. MVPDs back the requirement, while broadcasters oppose it, according to docket 23-427 comments this week. The commissioners adopted the blackout reporting NPRM in December (see 2312210061).
The wireless industry disputed the need for additional requirements to block texts, including extending requirements to originating providers and requiring use of “reasonable analytics” to block texts likely to be illegal, in response to a December Further NPRM (see 2312130019). But other groups said the FCC should consider additional rules and can’t rely on the wireless industry's voluntary efforts. Comments were posted this week in docket 21-402.