CTIA representatives met with aides to FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks and advocated against any proposal to use the 5G Fund to promote cybersecurity risk management planning. Instead, CTIA advised following the cybersecurity framework (CSF) that the National Institute of Standards and Technology is developing, CTIA said in a filing posted Monday (docket 20-32). Accordingly, 5G Fund recipients should "align their cybersecurity risk management plans with Tier 2 of the CSF, [which] accomplishes the Commission’s goal of incorporating appropriate best practices, while avoiding introducing inconsistency that could undermine the Administration’s efforts to ‘harmonize baseline cybersecurity requirements for critical infrastructure,’” CTIA said. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel circulated an order on the fund in March (see 2403260052).
The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology on Monday approved a request from Broadcom, Wi-Fi Alliance Services and the Wireless Broadband Alliance to modify their open automated frequency coordination (AFC) code, which determines available power spectral density for 6 GHz standard power devices. The three sought the change in March (see 2404150050). OET acknowledged the Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition's concerns (see 2404150050). FWCC argues that a complete report detailing the proposed changes would “ensure transparency and without said report, incumbent licensees and other interested parties cannot fully consider an AFC’s proposed changes,” OET said: “Given that the modifications were minor corrections, and OET’s internal analysis found no discrepancies, we find that additional testing is not needed.”
T-Mobile told the FCC it has made “significant progress” on meeting its nationwide 5G network deployment milestones. It's a regulatory requirement of T-Mobile's acquisition of Sprint that the milestones are within six years of the deal's closing date. T-Mobile completed the buy four years ago (see 2004010069). “Since the third anniversary of the merger closing, T-Mobile has continued to deploy 5G service over its low-band and mid-band spectrum to the benefit of consumers across the country, resulting in extensive and nearly nationwide 5G coverage of the vast majority of Americans,” a filing Friday said (docket 22-211). T-Mobile reported an increase in its low-band 5G coverage area by approximately 0.6% since the last report and said it’s within 0.8% of meeting the 6-year milestone requirement of 99% of POPs nationwide. In addition, the carrier said its mid-band 5G coverage is at 94.1% of U.S. POPs, already besting the milestone requirement of 88%. T-Mobile reported it has met requirements for 5G sites nationwide and low-band/mid-band 5G spectrum averaged over all sites. But the data on both of these milestones was redacted from the report. The provider said it has also met all its rural 5G network deployment milestones and is well on the way to satisfying requirements for in-home broadband service. In a second filing, T-Mobile also requested keeping the redacted data from public disclosure. "The identified information is extremely sensitive, proprietary information about how T-Mobile is deploying its 5G network -- its most important competitive asset -- including how it is prioritizing deployment of its network infrastructure and bands of spectrum, the extent of its network coverage, the performance of its network, as well as how T-Mobile is deploying and marketing its In-Home Broadband Service," T-Mobile said.
The National Association of the Deaf, Hearing Loss Association of America, and TDIforAccess asked the FCC to require that IP-captioned telephone service providers give users the option to select a live communications assistant "whenever the user finds [automatic speech recognition] performance to be unsatisfactory." The groups said in a petition for rulemaking filed Monday in docket 03-123 that the FCC shouldn't certify additional ASR-only providers of IP CTS "until a new rule requiring providers to give users the option to select CAs is adopted." The groups also asked the FCC to "expeditiously" complete its proceeding "on the establishment of clear, technology-neutral performance goals and metrics for IP CTS."
The FCC's World Radiocommunication Conference Advisory Committee has a particularly heavy load of 16 space-related agenda items on its plate in advance of WRC-27, Co-Chairwoman Kimberly Baum said Monday at WRC's first meeting. The meeting was largely housekeeping, including discussions of the informal working group structure and logistics of WAC and IWG meetings, as well as issues such as meeting procedures and records keeping. NTIA has a preparatory process through the Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee (IRAC), FCC Office of International Affairs lawyer Greg Baker said. Proposals that are reconciled between the FCC and NTIA are forwarded to State, he said. Charles Glass, NTIA international spectrum policy division chief, said IRAC has two groups dealing with WRC issues: one an ad hoc committee working on recommendations to send to the FCC regarding implementation of WRC-23 outcomes, and another dealing with preliminary proposals for WRC-27. Glass said there is one preliminary view that will go before IRAC this week for approval, with several more considered during IRAC's meeting next month. Baum said WAC's aim is to have preliminary views and even preliminary proposals prepared before September's Inter-American Telecommunication Commission meeting.
A coalition of industry groups on Friday challenged the FCC's net neutrality order and declaratory ruling reclassifying broadband as a Communications Act Title II telecom service (see 2405310074). The coalition asked the FCC to stay the effective date of its order and declaratory ruling pending judicial review. Coalition members included USTelecom, NCTA, CTIA, ACA Connects and several state broadband associations.
SightLine Applications, video processing solutions company, taps Jonathan Atwood, ex-Trillium Engineering, also former L3 Harris, as CEO ... National OnDemand, communications and utilities infrastructure provider, hires Richard Jordan, ex-Mears Broadband, as executive vice president-operations ... National Content & Technology Cooperative adds former Vyve Broadband CEO Phil Spencer to its board ... Truepic, provider of secure content transparency infrastructure, adds former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler to industry board of advisers … Hovr, marketing software company for delivering video content to website visitors, adds former Remington Hotels President Chris Green to its advisory board.
As part of SES' proposed $3.1 billion purchase of Intelsat (see 2404300048), the two are asking the FCC Space Bureau to transfer all of Intelsat's FCC authorizations to SES. In a series of applications posted Friday, the two said the proposed deal would result in "a more dynamic multi-orbit satellite operator with the ability to offer innovative and enhanced services to commercial and U.S. Government customers," and greater competition as New SES "will be better positioned to vigorously compete" with legacy geostationary orbit operators and emerging low earth orbit players.
The one-year window for qualified low-power TV stations to apply for Class A status under the provisions of the Low-Power Protection Act opened Friday, and will stretch until May 30, a Media Bureau public notice said Friday in docket 23-126. The window is open to stations that broadcast a minimum of 18 hours daily, carry three hours per week of local programming, are located in markets of 95,000 households or fewer, and met all those requirements 90 days before the LPPA’s approval on Jan. 5, 2023. Fewer than 30 rural stations are expected to qualify. LPTV broadcaster Radio Communication Corporation is challenging the FCC order implementing the LPPA in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (see 2405230040).
The FCC should treat public TV stations differently from commercial stations in its locally originated content proceeding (see 2403120071), America’s Public Television Stations and PBS said during a call with an aide to Commissioner Geoffrey Starks Thursday, according to an ex parte filing in docket 24-14. The proposal prioritizing applications from broadcasters that originate local content “should not shift the long-standing understanding of localism as ‘issue-responsive’ programming,” the filing said. The NPRM proposes defining locally originated content as created within or very close to a station’s market, and that would exclude much public TV content, the filing said. The proposed definitions “do not align with the inherently local, community-responsive programming of public television stations, especially the programming of state and regional networks and local stations that engage in station collaborations,” the filing said. “Public television stations, which are locally owned and locally operated, are inherently local.” The FCC’s local content proceeding could have implications for what content is considered local in future proceedings, PBS and APTS said.