Beyond dropping the proposed $4.5 million fine against Telnyx, the FCC should halt altogether its "effective measures" rule on blocking illegal calls, Free State Foundation President Randolph May wrote Thursday. The Telnyx notice of apparent liability (NAL) for allegedly violating the effective measures rule would ultimately create unspecified requirements that are at the same time more stringent than anything the FCC previously established in notice-and-comment rulemakings, May said. The proposed fine "smacks of 'regulation by enforcement' ... because regulated entities are deprived of the ability to know and follow the law." FSF previously called for rescinding the Telnyx NAL (see 2503120071).
The FCC Wireline Bureau released a notice Thursday reminding eligible telecommunications carriers of the requirements of the Communications Act. The public notice reiterates “the Lifeline compliance plan requirement for non-facilities-based providers that qualify for forbearance from the statutory requirement that they offer supported services using their own facilities, and actions the Bureau may take if a provider does not.”
The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials supported creation of an independent public safety message classification as part of updated wireless emergency alert (WEA) rules. Comments were due Thursday on a Further NPRM on WEAs that commissioners approved 4-0 in February (see 2502270042). APCO acknowledged concerns that expanding the types of alerts “could contribute to alert fatigue.” But a new public safety message classification is “unlikely to result in a surge of alerts that would lead the public to opt out.”
NTIA supports the FCC's proposals to change its rules for the 24.45-24.65 GHz band that would provide more spectrum for drones, the agency said in comments posted Thursday in docket 24-629. Other comments also supported the changes proposed in a January NPRM (see 2504160017). NTIA, which filed on behalf of the administration, said it's still developing comments on the other bands being studied to provide spectrum for uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS).
U.S. Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya is recommending granting the federal government's request to drop its suit against Dish Network and designated entities (DEs) Northstar Wireless and SNR Wireless (see 2403040052). In a 38-page report and recommendation submitted to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (docket 15-cv-728), Upadhyaya said that even if Vermont National Telephone arguments against dismissal are credible, they don't outweigh the reasonable arguments the government put forward about why the litigation should be dropped. The U.S. and relator VTel sued, alleging fraud by Dish and the DEs in the FCC's 2015 AWS-3 auction. The U.S. now argues that there's not enough evidence to support VTel's claims, it's unclear VTel can provide damages since Dish and the DEs never received any bidding credits in the auction, and continuing the 10-year-old suit would be a drain on government resources.
The FCC on Thursday suspended the comment deadlines on a petition by Talton seeking a waiver of the commission’s rules capping the rates for audio and video for incarcerated people provided to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “We find good cause to suspend the deadlines to file comments and reply comments addressing Talton’s Petition pending Commission review of the merits of Talton’s request for confidential treatment,” the Wireline Bureau said (docket 23-62).
The FCC is granting some official travel requests, Commissioner Nathan Simington’s office told us Thursday. A pause on official travel led to Simington’s last-minute cancellation of plans to speak at the NAB Show 2025 in Las Vegas earlier this month. Commissioner Anna Gomez paid her own way to attend (see 2504080036). Simington is set to go to Boston to speak Saturday at the Harvard Business School Infrastructure Summit. His staff said the FCC chairman’s office approved the trip, and they were told FCC employees could now travel to events. Gomez’s office told us Thursday that it was unaware travel was again being approved and that she had also self-funded a visit to Philadelphia last week (see 2504160046). FCC Space Bureau Chief Jay Schwarz traveled to Colorado Springs to speak at the Space Foundation’s Space Symposium the same day Gomez spoke at the NAB event, but it wasn’t clear if the FCC paid for his trip (see 2504100038). The agency didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Google has willfully acquired and maintained monopoly power over online ads in violation of antitrust measures, ruled a U.S. District Court Judge in the Eastern District of Virginia on Thursday.
The Trump administration’s growing list of executive orders targeting law firms may have only limited implications for the FCC, industry lawyers told us. Nonetheless, observers said they see the growing list of targeted firms as an unprecedented assault aimed at chilling opposition to the administration.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned the FCC's $57 million fine imposed on AT&T, agreeing with the wireless carrier that the agency's in-house adjudication was unconstitutional. In its docket 24-60223 decision Thursday, the three-judge 5th Circuit panel said its analysis is governed by the U.S. Supreme Court's Jarkesy decision. And the court pointed to Jarkesy as it said the FCC was incorrect that its enforcement proceeding against AT&T falls under the "public rights" exception that lets Congress assign some matters to an agency instead of an Article III court. Common law suits presumptively concern "private rights" and must be adjudicated by Article III courts, they said. The judges said an in-house FCC proceeding "amputates the carrier’s ability to challenge the legality of the forfeiture order." "No one denies the Commission’s authority to enforce laws requiring telecommunications companies like AT&T to protect sensitive customer data," the judges said. "But the Commission must do so consistent with our Constitution’s guarantees of an Article III decisionmaker and a jury trial." Hearing the case were Judges Catrina Haynes, Stuart Duncan and Cory Wilson, with Duncan penning the decision. T-Mobile and Verizon are similarly challenging fines brought against them in the same April 2024 enforcement action accusing the three wireless carriers of failing to safeguard data on customers' real-time locations.