Alstom Transport Holding US agreed to pay a $30,000 fine and implement a compliance plan for the transfer of private wireless licenses without FCC authorization. Alstom got nine licenses from three subsidiaries of Bombardier when it purchased the businesses in January 2021, the Enforcement Bureau said Friday. In February 2022, Alstom sought consent for the transfers. The FCC approved the transfers in July 2023. The Wireless Bureau also referred the matter to the Enforcement Bureau, which launched an investigation, the order said.
T-Mobile and the Competitive Carriers Association last week said the FCC should make FirstNet subject to the agency’s network outage and disaster information reporting systems. The comments were filed in docket 21-341 as the FCC took reply comments on a January Further NPRM, which raised the matter (see 2406130023). "Every other commenter -- except FirstNet -- addressing this issue also supported the extension of outage reporting requirements to FirstNet,” T-Mobile said. The carrier cited AT&T’s February outage, which also affected FirstNet (see 2402220058). “The record demonstrates support for the FCC’s proposal to extend resiliency reporting to FirstNet and similarly notes the benefits FirstNet reporting would provide,” said CCA. In addition, the group raised competition issues: “Some wireless providers compete with FirstNet, and parity in terms of FCC reporting requirements along with increased transparency in terms of network outages and resiliency will put wireless providers on a more competitively neutral footing.” In initial comments, the FirstNet Authority argued against the proposed requirement. “Information about FirstNet’s network status, infrastructure, and assets is already included as part of AT&T’s DIRS and NORS reporting and therefore available to the FCC,” the authority said. Expanding the rules to “explicitly apply to FirstNet would be duplicative.”
The FCC on Friday proposed a $367,436 fine for ASUSTeK Computer for marketing a Wi-Fi adapter and router that allegedly were modified to operate in excess of their previously authorized power limits. The FCC also said it’s considering changing how it addresses such rules violations. ASUSTeK Computer is a Taiwanese company selling gear in the U.S. through Asus Computer, a wholly owned U.S. affiliate. RF equipment that operates at excess power “risks causing harmful interference” to other devices and “may give the violator an unfair competitive advantage,” the order said. Commissioners approved it 5-0 Thursday. The commission said it’s considering making its rules tougher. “We are concerned that in equipment marketing enforcement cases like this one -- with a small number of noncompliant equipment models, but a large volume of units sold -- our existing ‘per-model’ forfeiture calculation, even with substantial upward adjustments, may fail to yield an appropriate forfeiture amount,” the FCC said: “In future equipment marketing cases we may change our methodology for calculating forfeitures in a way that better aligns forfeitures with the harms caused by the underlying violations, including, where appropriate, increased forfeitures.” Commissioner Brendan Carr issued a statement clarifying his stance. “I do not read this item as determining whether the FCC’s upward adjustment factor applies based on the line of business relevant to the FCC’s enforcement action or based on a company’s entire operations,” he said: “I am open to the FCC considering reasonable changes in the context of an appropriate Commission proceeding.”
The House Appropriations Committee advanced the Financial Services Subcommittee’s FY 2025 funding bill, which includes annual funding for the FCC and FTC. Lawmakers approved the measure on a 33-24 party-line vote Thursday night. The legislation increases the FCC’s annual allocation to $416 million and decreases the FTC’s yearly money to $388.7 million (see 2406050067). Committee Democrats ultimately didn’t seek amendments aimed at removing riders from the funding bill that bar the FCC from using its allocation to implement its net neutrality and digital discrimination orders, as some lobbyists thought possible (see 2406130064). House Appropriations also voted 33-24 to advance the Legislative Branch Subcommittee’s FY25 funding bill, which includes $59.7 million for the Copyright Office.
Responses are due Monday at the 6th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court on the FCC's motion transferring the consolidated challenges to the commission's net neutrality order to the D.C. Circuit (see 2406100044|), a case manager’s letter said Thursday (dockets 24-3449, 24-3450, 24-3497, 24-3507, 24-3508). Responses to ISPs’ motion to stay agency judgment (see 2406110073) are due Tuesday, the letter said. Friday is the deadline for replies to the responses to either motion, it said.
The Justice Department is trying to avoid public attention to and judicial scrutiny of its conduct, Vermont National Telephone (VTEL) told the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia last week as it argued for an oral hearing on DOJ's motion to dismiss. In a reply in support of its motion for an oral hearing (docket 1:15-cv-00728), VTEL said the court can't follow DOJ's argument that the issue can be decided based on the parties' written submissions, since DOJ hasn't submitted evidence supporting its dismissal decision. DOJ is seeking dismissal of relator VTEL's litigation against Dish Network designated entities (DE) Northstar Wireless and SNR Wireless over allegations of fraud in the FCC's 2015 AWS-3 auction (see 2403040052). In a reply in support of its motion to dismiss this month, DOJ said there's a lack of evidence Dish and the DEs failed to make a material disclosure to the FCC as well as a lack of damages. It said VTEL hasn't contested that Dish and the DEs paid full price for every license they received as they were never awarded any bidding credits. "Given the extensive written submissions by the parties (with Relator filing hundreds of pages on this issue), the United States respectfully submits that such a hearing is not necessary here," DOJ said. In a statement, EchoStar's Dish said VTEL's fraud claim case "has always been frivolous, and the DOJ was absolutely justified in moving to dismiss it." It said VTEL's allegations of political interference "are false and baseless."
A revised substitute version of the Spectrum and National Security Act (S-4207) circulating Friday jettisons the bill’s mandate for the FCC to sell licenses on the 12.7-13.25 GHz band by the end of 2027, as some lobbyists expected (see 2406120058). The revisions, filed as a substitute amendment to S-4207, reflect changes the Commerce Department, DOD and Joint Chiefs of Staff sought in exchange for their endorsement of the measure last week. S-4207’s supporters hope the changes will help ease the bill’s path forward after Senate Commerce postponed three past markups of the measure since early May (see 2405010051). The amount of future auction proceeds S-4207 to be allocated to a range of telecom projects remains the same in the substitute amendment, including lending the FCC $7 billion to fund the expired affordable connectivity program in FY 2024 and $3.08 billion for the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program. The substitute amendment would reapportion $700 million in additional Chips and Science Act money that S-4207 previously allocated to National Institute of Standards and Technology research programs. Instead, it will go to the National Science Foundation for science, technology, engineering and mathematics education grants and other research. Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., will seek a vote on the substitute amendment as part of a Tuesday markup session on S-4207. That meeting will begin at 10 a.m. in 253 Russell.
State lawmakers may be more inclined to pursue broadband affordability policies in the wake of recent FCC and court rulings as well as last month's ending of the federal affordable connectivity program (ACP), multiple telecom experts said last week. Connecticut Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff (D) told Communications Daily he hopes “these developments will lead to stronger support in 2025” for an affordable broadband proposal that failed this year. However, some anticipate ISPs will likely object, and fiscal constraints could limit states' efforts.
CTIA and other commenters raised concerns about an FCC notice seeking comment on rules for implementing multilingual wireless emergency alerts. Comments were due last week in dockets 15-91 and 15-94 on a notice from the FCC Public Safety Bureau (see 2405130047).
The Senate Commerce Committee is again postponing a planned markup of the Spectrum and National Security Act (S-4207), a spokesperson confirmed Monday night. The Tuesday meeting would have been Senate Commerce’s fourth attempt to vote on S-4207, which in a revised form unveiled last week would renew the FCC’s lapsed spectrum auction authority for five years but mandated no sales of specific bands. S-4207’s prospects of getting bipartisan support had appeared doubtful Monday, but the bill’s backers were continuing that afternoon to court a handful of Republican holdouts to back it.