FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks announces Flynn Rico-Johnson, former deputy chief of staff to Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., as policy adviser-wireless, space, and international issues … Project Liberty Institute names former Taiwan Minister of Digital Affairs Audrey Tang as senior fellow … Manatt Phelps adds Mike Katz as a partner in its financial services practice; based in Manatt’s New York office, Katz will help lead the expansion of the firm’s blockchain capabilities ... Evolution Equity Partners, cybersecurity venture capital firm, promotes Aron Khurana to partner, in addition to his continuing role as head-investor relations.
The popularity of Fox's WTXF Philadelphia TV station is immaterial to whether the license applicants, Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch and Fox, have shown the character required of broadcast licensees, Fox critics said in docket 23-293 this week. The filers backed the Media and Democracy Project's request for nonpublic evidence submitted in court cases against Fox by voting machine companies (see 2403040080). Signatories to the filing include former FCC Chairman Alfred Sikes, former Weekly Standard editor William Kristol and William Reyner, former regulatory counsel for News Corp. and Fox. The filing was in response to filings by the Philadelphia Phillies professional baseball team, 76ers professional basketball team and Flyers professional hockey team in support of the Fox affiliate station.
The FCC Media Bureau reaffirmed its dismissal of a petition from Alabama's Athens State University for a construction permit for a new low-power FM station. In a letter Thursday, the bureau said its staff correctly dismissed the application for not meeting co-channel and first-adjacent channel spacing requirements. It also rejected ASU's request for a waiver based on typographical errors in the application. "We agree that providing new locally-originated service is a laudable goal, however, the loss of LPFM service to Athens, unfortunately, was caused by Petitioner’s mistake, not by an erroneous or harsh Bureau approach to its Application," the bureau said.
Railroads face a growing need for spectrum in light of requests from the National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Railroad Administration but have had difficulty identifying additional spectrum to use, the Association of American Railroads said in a meeting with FCC Wireless Bureau Chief Joel Taubenblatt and staff. AAR explained “the railroads’ current use of spectrum in the 160-161 MHz, 219.5-222 MHz, 450 MHz, 900 MHz, and 6 GHz bands,” a filing posted Thursday in docket 24-99 said. The group discussed “how the railroads continue to improve their technology and use their existing spectrum more efficiently.”
Liberty Latin America agreed to pay a $100,000 fine and implement a compliance plan to settle an investigation of FCC rule violations by subsidiaries Liberty Mobile in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The fine was tied to a 2023 data breach, the FCC Enforcement Bureau said Thursday. The affiliates failed to “reasonably protect the confidentiality of customer information,” file in a timely way a report in the FCC’s data breach reporting portal and “abide by the conditions of a Commission order, in connection with a data breach of a third-party vendor,” the bureau said.
NCTA and its members urged the FCC to make more spectrum, including 7/8 GHz, available for unlicensed use and discussed the importance of sharing in the citizens broadband radio service band during a meeting with Office of Economics and Analytics staff. NCTA warned against an overreliance on high-power, exclusive use licenses covering large geographic areas. “NCTA highlighted the need for additional unlicensed spectrum to keep pace with burgeoning demand for Wi-Fi,” a filing posted Thursday in docket 18-295 said: “By the end of 2024, there will be 21.1 billion Wi-Fi devices in use globally, ranging from smart locks and thermostats in homes to devices enabling cloud computing and rich telepresence in enterprise settings, to factory monitoring devices in industrial settings.” Among those represented at the meeting were Comcast, Cox Enterprises, Charter Communications and CableLabs.
The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society supported the FCC’s request that the 6th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court move a challenge to the FCC’s net neutrality order to the D.C. Circuit (see 2406100044). A lottery chose the 6th Circuit to hear the case. Yet Benton said the law governing random selection by the Joint Panel on Multidistrict Litigation “merely provides a means for determining which court will initially administer the proceeding, including determining the appropriate venue for its ultimate disposition.” Benton argued that “few cases are as deeply tied” to a particular circuit as net neutrality is to the D.C. Circuit: “Since 2008, the core legal issues presented here have been presented to the D.C. Circuit in five successive cases.” Benton noted that a 2020 FCC order responding to a remand of the 2018 net neutrality order remains before the D.C. Circuit. Groups that brought the challenge say it should remain before the 6th Circuit (see 2406110073).
The House Appropriations Committee continued debating Thursday afternoon the Financial Services Subcommittee’s FY 2025 funding bill, which increases the FCC’s annual allocation to $416 million and decreases the FTC’s annual funding to $388.7 million (see 2406050067). Communications policy lobbyists said panel Democrats might attempt removing riders from the measure that bar the FCC from using funding for implementing its net neutrality and digital discrimination orders, but they hadn’t sought votes on such amendments at our deadline.
Federal and industry officials raised concerns about the impact of pole attachments and replacements as states prepare for NTIA's broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program. In addition, make-ready processes and economic incentives can complicate efforts to expand high-speed internet -- and rules aren’t always enough, a panel of state officials said during a Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition symposium Thursday.
The U.S. needs to move toward a firm date for the end of mandatory simulcast of ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 signals and fully transition to ATSC 3.0, but it's too early to say when that date should be, NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt said Thursday at the NextGen Broadcast Conference in Washington. Conference-goers applauded the call for a transition deadline, and FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr echoed it, saying he would support a proceeding about the issue. Carr also suggested gauging broadcast and wireless industry interest in an "incentive auction 2.0" for low-band spectrum.