The FCC lacks statutory authority to require that most broadcasters gather and report data about their employees' race, ethnicity and gender, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday, backing a petition from the National Religious Broadcasters, Texas Association of Broadcasters and American Family Association challenging the agency order. "While its authority to act in the public interest is broad, the FCC cannot invoke public interest to expand the scope of its authority to act in ways Congress has not authorized it to act," Judges Jennifer Walker Elrod, Edith Jones and Carl Stewart said in a 19-page decision (docket 24-18) written by Elrod. The judges said that since the agency lacked the authority, the court wouldn't decide on the petitioners' arguments that the agency was violating broadcasters' First and Fifth Amendment rights or that the FCC was acting in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.
NTCA promotes Jeff Nourse to general counsel … Telecom registry firm Somos taps Sanford Williams, formerly FCC, as deputy general counsel and vice president-strategic initiatives, and Heather Hendrickson, also ex-FCC, as senior director-number administration strategy.
SpaceX -- which has petitioned the FCC for greater access to the 2 GHz band (see 2402230027) -- is now seeking agency approval to use parts of the band in its second-generation satellites. In an FCC Space Bureau application posted Thursday, SpaceX said its previous request for 2 GHz access was rejected on the basis of EchoStar providing a 2 GHz mobile satellite service (MSS) in the U.S., yet EchoStar's plans "never happened." SpaceX said EchoStar is using at most 5% of the band clustered in a few densely populated areas. Moreover, it said, EchoStar management has told Wall Street it doesn't have plans to launch additional satellites in the near term. "Since EchoStar has no satellite operations in the 2 GHz band and no meaningful terrestrial network, the fundamental premise underlying the Commission’s expectation that it would dismiss new MSS applications no longer holds true," SpaceX said. "EchoStar has squatted on its spectrum rights for a decade with little to show for it."
The National Emergency Number Association urged that the FCC require carriers to continue to support time-division multiplexing (TDM) as they move to IP-based services. NENA said the transition is “occurring unevenly.” NENA “wants to ensure that all calls to 9-1-1 are completed” and there is a “need to support TDM delivery of 9-1-1 traffic to selective routers for the immediately foreseeable future,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 21-17.
Telecommunications Industry Association representatives met with aides to all four FCC commissioners about the “bad labs” order and Further NPRM, set for a vote May 22 (see 2505010037). “TIA raised potential steps the Commission could take to ensure that trusted vendors and allied governments are aware of FCC actions regarding certification facilities that pose a national security threat to ensure a harmonized, global approach to ICT testing and certification,” said a filing Wednesday in docket 24-136.
Wi-Fi advocates urged the FCC to reject an NAB petition for reconsideration of an order expanding the parts of the 6 GHz band where new very-low-power devices are permitted to operate without coordination (see 2504070062). The FCC declined to set aside 55 MHz as a “safe haven” for electronic newsgathering operations, as NAB requested (see 2410290052). Commissioners approved the order 5-0 in December.
Verizon told the FCC it’s working with NATE, which represents infrastructure builders, on concerns the group has raised about pricing and other issues as the agency considers the carrier’s proposed $20 billion acquisition of Frontier (see 2409050010). “Verizon agrees to include line items in its pricing matrix that allow for site specific conditions to be added, including explanations as to what they represent,” said a filing Thursday in docket 24-445.
The Senate Commerce Committee said Wednesday night it plans a May 21 vote on the Network Equipment Transparency Act (S-503). The measure would direct the FCC to report every two years on the impact of gear availability on the deployment of broadband and other communications services as part of the commission’s assessment of the state of the communications marketplace. The panel will also consider advancing Commerce Department general counsel nominee Pierre Gentin, who faced heat from Democratic senators Tuesday over President Donald Trump’s move to block Digital Equity Act funding (see 2505090051). Senate Commerce’s meeting will begin at 10 a.m. in 253 Russell.
ARRL, which represents amateur radio operators, opposed NextNav’s proposal to use lower 900 MHz spectrum for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) in reply comments on an FCC notice of inquiry (see 2505140017). Comments were posted this week in docket 25-110. “Many billions of unlicensed devices are in use to provide hundreds of applications and functionalities to the American public," and the numbers continue to grow, ARRL said: “These devices coexist with amateur radio operations in the 902-928 MHz band but they as well as amateur radio operations would be displaced if a 5G-like PNT service was authorized to use this spectrum.”
The White House’s pattern of removing dissenting officials from independent agencies is “vividly illustrative” of the administration’s fear and weakness, said FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez in a speech for The Media Institute Thursday. “Even when this administration holds so much power, it cannot tolerate disagreement or dissent,” Gomez said. “And if I’m removed from my seat on the commission, let it be said plainly: It wasn’t because I failed to do my job. It’s because I insisted on doing it." Congress has always intended for the FCC to be independent, she noted. During the creation of the FCC's predecessor Federal Radio Commission, Congress considered giving power over the airwaves to the commerce secretary, she said. That idea was struck down “specifically because Congress feared that a single individual, subject to political will, would possess too much control” over radio.