ISPs and industry groups told the FCC that while competition and access remain strong in the broadband marketplace, additional regulation could harm future investment and deployment. Those views were included in feedback the FCC sought about its biannual State of Competition in the Communications Marketplace report to Congress (see 2404220050). In comments, some wireless groups urged making additional spectrum available. MVPDs and broadcasters said the FCC should recognize the increasing competition they face from streaming video and accordingly relax regulations. Comments were posted Thursday and Friday in docket 24-119.
Selection of the 6th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court to hear industry challenges to the net neutrality order may bode well for industry. Still, many questions remain, including which judges will hear the case and whether arguments are ultimately held in the Ohio-based court, industry experts said Friday.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announces retirements of Mark Nadel, attorney-adviser, Wireline Bureau, and Diane Burstein, deputy chief, Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau … C Spire promotes President Suzy Hays to CEO, effective July 1, succeeding Hu Meena, who will step up to chairman of Telapex, holding company for C Spire and Franklin Telephone … Sprinklr, unified customer experience management platform, elevates interim Chief Operating Officer Trac Pham to co-CEO alongside current CEO Ragy Thomas; Pham previously was Synopsys chief financial officer ... Celestial AI, optical interconnect technology provider, taps former Siprocal and Astra Space executive Kelyn Brannon as chief financial officer ... HG Insights, data analytics platform for tech companies, appoints former SolarWinds Chief Product Officer Rohini Kasturi as CEO and board member ... Clari, AI-powered revenue platform, hires former Envoy and Skybox Security executive Claire Darling as chief marketing officer.
Amazon's Kuiper and SpaceX are clashing over SpaceX's request that the FCC Space Bureau impose an object-years condition on the Kuiper system. In an application for review, SpaceX said the bureau's granting a license modification for Kuiper in April "unreasonably deviated" from commission policy because it failed to impose the object-years condition, though it has been applied to multiple other non-geostationary orbit systems. In its opposition last month to the review application, Kuiper called the AFR "meritless." Kuiper said a 100 object-years condition -- that being a cap on the total cumulative time to deorbit failed Kuiper satellites -- isn't appropriate due to orbital characteristics, and the proposed Kuiper system is very different from SpaceX's proposed, much-larger, second-generation constellation, which had a 100 object-years condition on it. Kuiper's arguments against the AFR are "an Orwellian spin on the facts," SpaceX told the bureau this week. The bureau has applied the object-years condition numerous times, it said. The FCC can't wait for a rulemaking to address the reliability risk Kuiper presents, it said.
The FCC should deny Sateliot's petition for providing mobile satellite service in the 2 GHz band as it rejected a similar request from SpaceX, EchoStar told the agency's Space Bureau this week. EchoStar said Sateliot's proposed uplinks and downlinks in the band would interfere with its 5G broadband network. In addition, it said Sateliot's application makes "no practical sense," as Sateliot supposedly wants to use the 2 GHz band for narrowband IoT service for mobile network operators, but EchoStar, the only mobile network operator in the band, "does not want this service." In its April petition, Sateliot said its planned 10 smallsats and blanket-licensed terminals would minimally affect the band's other users. Sateliot said that while EchoStar's Dish Network is the sole licensee of the terrestrial AWS-4 service in the band, creation of that service and Dish's license were "never intended to transform the 2 GHz MSS band into primarily terrestrial spectrum."
NAB filed a petition for partial reconsideration of the FCC’s equal employment opportunity data collection order and Catholic broadcasters refiled and expanded their existing petition (see 2405010070), according to filings in docket 98-204 this week. The EEO order also was challenged in court (see 2405060057). NAB’s petition calls for the agency to reconsider making the broadcaster workforce diversity data publicly available and station specific and to reconsider changes to Form 395-B to allow for reporting of nonbinary genders. Making the data public violates the First and Fifth amendments and could threaten employee privacy, NAB said. “Given the Commission’s new categorization concerning non-binary employees, a number of broadcasters also have expressed concern on behalf of their employees who would be identified as such that they could be harassed,” NAB said. The FCC’s position that Congress requires it to regulate broadcaster EEO is wrong, and disclosing the data “will deliberately unleash pressure on stations to engage in preferential hiring practices,” NAB said. “The FCC effectively invites third-party activist groups to use the data for such inappropriate purposes.” The joint filing from Catholic broadcasters and groups including the Catholic Radio Association and the Sanctus Josephus Society has added another broadcaster to the 19 previously included in the petition. Jackson Lansing Catholic Radio has joined Archangel Communications, Holy Family Communications and others in calling on the FCC to reconsider the recognition of nonbinary gender in Form 395-B. The new filing also expands the Catholic broadcasters' First Amendment arguments. Speaking on a podcast Wednesday, an attorney representing one of the organizations pursuing a legal challenge to the EEO order condemned it as an attempt to control broadcasters and collect employee personal information. “They want to use this regulation to force organizations to use hiring practices for people of the LGBTQ persuasion that they prefer,” said Abraham Hamilton, general counsel of the American Family Association. Hamilton compared the public listing of the EEO data to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s listing of hate groups and said the FCC wants to force broadcasters to “capitulate” to “the Biden administration’s obsession with the LGBTQIAP+ sexual deviancy sociopolitical agenda.”
Summit Ridge Group “achieved more than $500 million in approved reimbursements for its clients” through multiple FCC programs, it said. That includes through the TV broadcast repack, C-band clearance and Secure and Trusted Communications Program, a Wednesday news release said. Summit Ridge’s “success in reaching the $500 million reimbursement mark reflects its expertise and dedication to understanding and efficiently navigating the intricate landscape of FCC compliance regulations,” the company added.
Milwaukee and Lima, Ohio, opposed giving FirstNet and AT&T control of the 4.9 GHz band in the latest filings on the hotly contested spectrum (see 2406040018). The Public Safety Spectrum Alliance's proposal “would strip today’s 4.9 GHz public safety licensees’ right to expand their systems by forcing incumbent licensees to surrender spectrum they are not using,” Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson (D) said: “It would move the band to AT&T’s FirstNet network, which runs counter to a 2023 FCC order and its commitment to locally controlled public safety in the 4.9 GHz band.” Lima Mayor Sharetta Smith (D) warned the city “may lose rights to access the band and the vital resiliency it provides for emergency communications.”
The Senate Commerce Committee said Wednesday night it will mark up the Spectrum and National Security Act (S-4207) June 12, as expected (see 2406050056). S-4207 would restore the FCC’s spectrum auction authority through Sept. 30, 2029, lend the commission more than $10 billion in FY 2024 funding for the expired affordable connectivity program and fully fund the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program. The Wednesday meeting would be Senate Commerce’s third attempt at marking up S-4207 after pulling it from consideration on two previous occasions (see 2405160066). The meeting will begin at 10 a.m. in 253 Russell. Republican FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr appeared to oppose S-4207 during a Thursday news conference. It’s “not clear to me that” S-4207 “gets the job done,” Carr told reporters. It “largely aligns with the Biden administration’s approach on spectrum” highlighted in its national spectrum strategy. Carr has repeatedly criticized the Biden spectrum strategy since its November release (see 2311130048). “I don’t think it is going to get us back to moving on spectrum with the same pace and cadence that we had” under former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, Carr said: “We need to start clearing more spectrum, including high-power licensed exclusive use” and license sales should go toward clearing “the national debt.”
The FCC’s Consumer Advisory Committee will meet virtually June 26, starting at 11 a.m. EDT, the FCC said Thursday. CAC last met in April (see [Ref:2404040040).