The California Public Utilities Commission released NTIA curing instructions for volume one of California’s initial proposal for the broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program. The CPUC gave parties until Thursday at 5 p.m. PST to comment on the Tuesday notice in docket R.23-02-016. The record for volume one will stand submitted at the same time and date, said Administrative Law Judge Thomas Glegola. “A proposed decision may be issued anytime thereafter.” The CPUC attached NTIA’s curing instructions from Feb. 6 and March 8, plus the CPUC Feb. 23 response and a Jan. 13 letter to the FCC about the state’s challenge to the national broadband map. In California’s cured volume one, the CPUC added information from the FCC’s Jan. 6 broadband report showing that “advertised or claimed DSL speeds rarely meet or exceed actual speeds delivered to customers,” the agency said. That and other “sources of objective data provide ample evidentiary basis to substantiate” a CPUC modification to NTIA’s model that presumes “locations for which providers have claimed to deliver speeds only slightly above the ‘unserved’ threshold, up to [30 Mbps download and 5 Mbps upload], are actually receiving speeds below the ‘unserved’ threshold of 25/3 Mbps,” the commission said. “This modification is consistent with the CPUC’s and NTIA’s longstanding efforts to phase out legacy copper network infrastructure, and it does not seek to modify in any way the unserved threshold established in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.”
The Wireless ISP Association met with an aide to FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez on an NPRM proposing a ban on bulk billing arrangements in apartments, condos, public housing and other multi-unit buildings (see 2403050069). “Bulk billing agreements with a competitive carrier can provide a valuable consumer benefit by offering broadband service at up to 60% off retail rates to all multi-tenant environment residents, especially in low-income or public housing developments,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 17-142: “Competitive providers, especially small providers, benefit from securing a stable and steady customer base in an MTE at a significant reduction in transactional costs.”
T-Mobile answered three series of questions that FCC staff posed about the company’s proposed acquisition of Mint Mobile (see 2303150032), a low-cost prepaid wireless brand, and other assets from Ka’ena. Among the questions: “What are your top 3 risks? Who owns those risks? Who owns the risk management process?” and how will T-Mobile protect customer data as the assets are integrated? The answers were almost completely redacted in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 23-171.
The FCC's April open meeting will see commissioners voting on a draft NPRM about georouting calls to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel wrote Wednesday. Also on the agenda is reinstatement of net neutrality rules (see 2404030043). More than 80% of calls to 988 come from wireless numbers, and network design makes it "challenging to receive help from close by," she wrote. The NPRM, which circulated on the 10th floor last month (see 2403210033), proposes routing calls to the crisis call center closest to where the call is made.
A school bus is neither a classroom nor a library and that “makes short work of this case under basic principles of administrative law,” the opening brief said Tuesday (docket 23-60641) in support of a 5th U.S. Circuit Appeals petition to defeat the FCC’s Oct. 25 declaratory ruling authorizing E-rate funding for Wi-Fi on school buses (see 2312200040).
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).