The Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the United States Telecommunications Services Sector has no objections to Google's proposed Taihai submarine cable system as long as it meets various national security commitments, NTIA told the FCC Wednesday. Taihai is a 7,000-km line to run between the Ibaraki Prefecture in Japan and the Hawaiian island of Oahu. The committee is also called Team Telecom.
Lumos representatives spoke with FCC Wireline Bureau staff about a waiver the company is seeking to avoid a penalty after encountering difficulties attempting to “properly upload and certify performance testing data” for Q1 2023. Lumos sought a waiver in May. “Representatives explained that Lumos has been a ‘model citizen,’ with the lone exception of not certifying performance testing data for the first quarter of 2023,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 10-90. Lumos partially uploaded data for that quarter “and timely uploaded and certified data” for all other quarters starting in 2021, the filing said.
Both big infrastructure items teed up for votes on Thursday were approved 3-0, without dissent from Democratic Commissioner Anna Gomez. The items were laid out in advance of their circulation (see 2507020036) in a speech by Chairman Brendan Carr on his "Build America Agenda.” More infrastructure items are on their way at the Aug. 6 meeting, Carr noted during a news conference.
An FCC order couched as being about deleting outdated rules but outlining a new agency process that does away with notice-and-comment drew Anna Gomez’s first dissent as a commissioner. The direct final rule (DFR) order was approved at the agency’s open meeting Thursday over her objections, 2-1. The commissioners also approved items on auctioning AWS-3 spectrum, georouting 988 texts, and slamming rules. “The way we do things matters,” Gomez said. “The fact that the process adopted today effectively evades review by an informed public is a feature not a bug.”
AST SpaceMobile is underestimating the collision risk its proposed BlueBird satellites pose when it assumes its dead satellites will remain in their optimal orientation even when the company loses control of them, SpaceX said in a filing posted Wednesday (docket 25-201). SpaceX added AST is "massively" undercounting the number of objects it will need to avoid in orbit, which raises the question about the company's readiness to prevent collisions. The FCC must require AST -- the same way it did for SpaceX -- to complete actual coordination with the National Science Foundation, including steps to mitigate its satellites' impact on optical astronomy, before it can conduct launches, according to SpaceX. The company also urged that AST commit to complying with the performance-based space sustainability requirements. AST is seeking approval to operate an additional 243 satellites in addition to the five already authorized (see 2506200061).
Skydance has no diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in place today and won't establish any, General Counsel Stephanie Kyoko McKinnon pledged to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. In a pair of letters dated Tuesday and posted Wednesday (docket 24-275), McKinnon said Paramount Global under Skydance also would do "a comprehensive review" of CBS and "make any necessary changes" to comply with its public interest obligations. McKinnon said new Paramount management would "ensure the company's array of news and entertainment programming embodies a diversity of viewpoints across the political and ideological spectrum." She said Skydance remained committed to localism. New Paramount committed to employing for at least two years an ombudsman who would report to the president of New Paramount and would receive and evaluate complaints of bias at CBS, according to the letters. McKinnon said New Paramount would no longer set numerical goals related to job applicants' or employees' gender, race or ethnicity. She said it would not have any leadership or development programs limited by race, gender or other demographics, nor would it consider DEI objectives in compensation plans. McKinnon said New Paramount would no longer set minimum spend requirements for diverse suppliers. Carr has repeatedly said the agency won't approve acquisitions involving companies practicing "invidious forms of DEI discrimination" (see 2503210049).
The FCC should investigate broadcast network late-night shows “to ascertain whether late-night shows on broadcast channels are violating broadcasters’ public interest obligations by advancing private agendas,” said the Center for American Rights in a complaint letter Wednesday. A previous complaint from CAR led to the FCC’s news distortion proceeding against CBS. Wednesday’s letter references CBS’ announcement that it was canceling The Late Show with host Stephen Colbert because it was losing money, and argues that this is evidence of a political agenda among broadcast networks. Colbert and ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel are both public supporters of former President Joe Biden, the letter said. Late night shows lean left, and “up until today, it could be justified as a profitable (mis)use of the airwaves, indicating some critical mass of consumers wanted it,” CAR said. “Now that myth is busted as well.” The CAR letter cited a 1975 proceeding against a station over slanted news broadcasts, the same precedent CAR cited in a previous complaint calling for the agency to take action against ABC over a reporter’s social media post (see 2506110053). Attorneys have told us that that proceeding doesn’t provide much of a precedent for punishing stations for slanted news, because the station owner in that case, Indiana broadcaster Star Stations, was accused of a host of other violations including witness intimidation, false financial reporting and lying to the commission. The FCC voted then not to renew Star’s licenses because of the licensee's broad misconduct, not its news reports. The FCC has “an appropriate role to ask how things got so bad at CBS -- and whether things are equally bad at ABC and NBC,” CAR said. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s Robert Corn-Revere, a former FCC chief of staff, said CAR’s complaint Wednesday “doesn’t rise to the level of frivolous” and amounts to a “fairness doctrine for late night talk shows.” However, “that doesn't mean this FCC under Chairman [Brendan] Carr won't entertain the idea,” Corn-Revere said.
The FCC during the past 12 months hasn't updated “the list of communications equipment and services that have been determined to pose an unacceptable risk to the national security” of the U.S., the FCC Public Safety Bureau noted on Wednesday. The notice mentioned an FCC proposal to update the “covered list” of unsecure companies to reflect a January finding by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security on connected vehicles. Many commenters opposed expanding the list to include connected vehicle hardware or software (see 2506300052).
The FCC on Wednesday sought comment on a New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) proposal to use the 4.9 GHz band for train safety communications. Comments are due Aug. 22, replies Sept. 8, in universal licensing system file number 0011366120. MTA seeks to license “wayside” transmitters as temporary fixed stations but requests a waiver of certain technical rules to operate them at permanent locations,” said a notice by the Public Safety and Wireless bureaus. MTA also seeks “a waiver of the 4.9 GHz application freeze on new deployments so it can continue expanding its operations in the future,” the notice said.
Three top House Commerce Committee Democrats said Wednesday they're opening an investigation into reports that mobile virtual network operator Trump Mobile (see 2506160040) would operate on T-Mobile’s network, claiming that “raises the appearance of a quid pro quo between [the carrier] and President [Donald] Trump regarding the direction of our country’s spectrum policies.” Word of the probe came as T-Mobile announced it once again was the U.S. wireless industry leader on subscriber growth in Q2 (see 2507230066)