The Senate Commerce Committee is eyeing additional changes to the Spectrum and National Security Act (S-4207) in hopes of jump-starting its prospects as a viable vehicle for resurrecting the FCC’s expired affordable connectivity program, lobbyists said in interviews. Committee leaders are hoping further revisions will allow them to raise S-4207 during a potential mid-June meeting, lobbyists told us. Senate Commerce pulled S-4207 from consideration twice last month, including fully postponing a May 16 executive meeting (see 2405160066). The Biden administration and FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel made a final call Friday for Congress to keep ACP running as the program’s time expired.
Jonathan Blake, a retired Covington partner and prominent communications lawyer, died May 21 of complications of Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia, a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, his wife, Elizabeth Shriver, told The Washington Post. He was 85 and retired in 2013. Blake headed the firm’s communications and media practice. He successfully represented the Post when allies of President Richard Nixon were trying to prevent the FCC from renewing the license of two Florida TV stations the Post owned. He was involved in advocating for the transition to digital high-definition TV, winning an Emmy in 2011 for his efforts, according to Covington. Blake was a past president of the FCBA. In addition to his wife, survivors include five children and a brother.
The FCC shouldn’t give AT&T and FirstNet control of the 4.9 GHz band, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley told the FCC in the latest filing on the contested band. Giving FirstNet control “would strip today’s 4.9 GHz public safety licensees’ right to expand their systems by forcing incumbent licensees to surrender the spectrum they are not using” and “runs counter to a 2023 FCC order and its commitment to locally controlled public safety in the 4.9 GHz band,” said a filing Wednesday in docket 07-100. It would also allow AT&T “to use the band for commercial purposes, which runs counter to the mission of this public safety band,” Crowley said.
Shure and the Aerospace & Flight Test Radio Coordinating Council (AFTRCC) notified the FCC they are making progress on technologies that support wireless microphone operations on a shared basis in the 1435-1525 MHz band “and the related continuing collaboration between Shure and AFTRCC in developing coordination and registration procedures.” They said discussions were “very productive” and “substantive.” The FCC’s Part 74 rules require protections for aeronautical mobile telemetry frequencies in the band, used for “flight testing of crewed and uncrewed military and civilian aircraft,” a filing posted Thursday in docket 14-166 said.
The FCC on Thursday approved environmental sensing capability sensor deployments and coverage plans for Federated Wireless in Hawaii in the citizens broadband radio service band. The Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology in coordination with NTIA and the DOD made the approval. Federated has satisfied the sensor coverage requirements to protect DOD operations in nine dynamic protection areas in the state and Pearl Harbor, the notice said. Federated on Wednesday asked for an extra six months, from June 30 to Dec. 31, to launch operations. The extension “is necessary to allow Federated Wireless sufficient time to complete construction of its ESC network in Hawaii, which… is taking longer than anticipated due to circumstances beyond the company’s control.”
NTCA asked the FCC to make changes in its broadband data collection process. Stronger reporting verification and "greater use of performance and subscription data" are needed to ensure proper challenges to the national broadband map, NTCA said in an ex parte filing Thursday in docket 19-195. The group met with an aide to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel (see 2405200065). It also asked the FCC to "consider changes to reporting standards to reflect proven technological capabilities on an objective engineering basis in lieu of accepting advertising claims."
Comments on Wednesday by Diana Eisner, USTelecom vice president-policy and advocacy, that only 1.3% of ‘landline only’ Americans” use “expensive-to-maintain legacy copper networks" show the need for change, the Free State Foundation said Thursday on X, formerly Twitter. The group cited our report (see 2405290061). “It's wrong that, in such a radically changed market, @FCC is so slow to eliminate outdated regs!” FSF said. It would be “helpful to understand how much federal and state USF $$ is being expended to keep the copper going for the 1.3%, plus all the other households not using the copper for voice,” Lukas LaFuria’s David LaFuria responded.
Fifty state-level broadcasters’ groups urged congressional leaders Thursday to move forward on the Broadcast Varied Ownership Incentives for Community Expanded Service Act (HR-8072/S-4158), which would restore the minority ownership tax certificate (see 2404230057). HR-8072/S-4158, like previous iterations (see 2108120054), would also direct that the FCC make recommendations on improving ownership diversity. Broadcasters’ “strength is in our ability to cover diverse community experiences and tell stories from an authentic perspective,” the broadcasters said in a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and the chambers’ minority leaders. “The tax certificate program will help us build a local media landscape that reflects our communities on the air, both in the control booth and boardroom.” HR-8072/S-4158 will also “help with building a pipeline for a new generation of broadcast station owners that is inclusive of women, people of color and other underrepresented individuals,” the group said.
The FCC Wireline Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics released a summary of data associated with the affordable connectivity program (see 2405200010). A Thursday public notice in docket 21-450 included data on the "price, subscription rates, and plan characteristics" of the service offerings of ACP providers. The data released was a "snapshot" of the services nearly 20 million households were receiving as of Aug. 1. The bureaus said that 1,600 providers submitted plan and subscription data at the ZIP code level. The FCC made the data available at the nationwide level on "plan characteristics across all ACP households." State level data shows the average base monthly prices of plans for households "enrolled within designated download speed tiers and data on the number of subscribers of plans within those tiers." County and ZIP code level data included the average base monthly price and subscription rates for fixed and mobile service.
The FCC will host a private celebration of the agency’s 90th anniversary Tuesday, an agency spokesperson confirmed. The event will involve staff and guests but is closed to the public and media, the spokesperson said. The agency was formed June 19, 1934.