State and local interests continue to press for repeal of the cable mixed-use rules. According to a filing Friday in docket 05-311 recapping a meeting with FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks' office, the state and local interests also advocated for a ruling that cable franchise obligation compensation must be for marginal cost, not fair market value. The local and state interests -- including Boston, Dallas, Los Angeles County, Hawaii and the National League of Cities -- this month had a similar meeting with Commissioner Anna Gomez's office (see [Re:2401080032]).
The rule requiring covered 988 service providers and originating service providers to report outages that potentially affect the 988 suicide and crisis Lifeline becomes effective Feb. 15, according to a notice for Tuesday's Federal Register. Notifications must go to the FCC network outage reporting system, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the 988 Lifeline administrator. The FCC approved a 988 outage reporting order 4-0 in July (see 2307200041).
The FCC Wireless Bureau sought comment on Trace-Tek’s application to provide contraband interdiction system services in correctional facilities. The bureau said Friday it reviewed the application and found it complete. Comments are due Feb. 12 in docket 13-111. In July 2021, the FCC established a two-phase process for authorizing the systems and a “rule-based process” for disabling contraband devices (see 2107130029).
The FCC Wireless Bureau sought comment Friday on a request from Garmin International (see 2310060031) for a waiver of rules concerning certification of the hand-held general mobile radio service (GMRS) devices it manufactures. Comments are due Feb. 12, replies Feb. 27, in docket 24-7. “Garmin alleges that its request builds on, but is narrower than, the recent waiver granted by the Mobility Division to Midland Radio,” the bureau said: Garmin claims “a waiver would serve the public interest by guaranteeing ‘that critical communications and location information are automatically available with sufficient time and information to’ locate individuals both in emergency and non-emergency situations.”
Aeronet representatives met with aides to all FCC commissioners except Commissioner Anna Gomez seeking technical changes to the draft 70 and 80 GHz band order revising rules for the spectrum, set for a vote at the FCC’s Jan. 25 meeting (see 2401040064). The company is among the biggest supporters of rules changes (see 2311080055). Aeronet expressed “appreciation for the significant efforts of the FCC staff as well as staff at the federal agencies involved in evaluating the technical issues raised by Aeronet’s proposed use of the 70/80 GHz bands to provide high-speed, ‘in-home’ equivalent broadband experiences to consumers in planes and on ships,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 20-133. Aeronet sought tweaks to provisions on proposed elevation angles for aviation ground and maritime stations and on coordination requirements, among other parts of the draft.
Securus met with FCC staff last week to highlight its pilot subscription programs for incarcerated people’s communication services, according to an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 23-62 (see 2203090035). The provider gave Wireline and Office of Economics and Analytics details about its programs’ “utilization, effective rates, and the extent of usage required to save money compared to making calls rated on a per minute basis.” Securus said its data “demonstrates that consumers achieve savings from the pilot subscription programs at relatively low levels of usage compared to then-existing intrastate rates.”
As the FCC works on rules governing supplemental coverage from space, the agency needs to be sure efforts to provide direct-to-handset service aren't meanwhile delayed, according to T-Mobile. A docket 23-65 filing Friday recapped SCS discussions between company representative and Wireless and Space Bureau staffers. T-Mobile said SCS rules should be based on the idea the service supplements terrestrial coverage, and thus there's no need to modify the terrestrial spectrum allocation that will support SCS. It said making terrestrial operators obtain a license covering subscribers' devices for when those devices are receiving service from satellites is impractical. T-Mobile said there's no regulatory purpose for requiring blanket earth station authorization for mobile handsets and such an authorization would be difficult to enforce. If the commission opts to require a mobile handset authorization, the satellite operator and not the terrestrial licensee should have to obtain that authorization through its satellite license or get a separate user authorization, T-Mobile said.
Two FCC commissioners say social media companies' embrace of U.S. Supreme Court precedent is misplaced when it comes to their arguments in the challenges before SCOTUS of Texas and Florida social media laws (see 2309290020) that such platforms have a First Amendment right to censor users' speech. Writing last week in the Yale Journal on Regulation, Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington said SCOTUS has never held that the First Amendment gives dominant companies like big social media "a freewheeling right to censor others’ speech." Pointing to such SCOTUS precedent as its Turner decision, requiring cable systems to carry broadcast TV channels, the Republican commissioners said the high court has allowed the government to apply anti-discrimination requirements to corporations in ways consistent with the First Amendment. The commissioners said social media regulations like Texas' House Bill 20 "are easily distinguished" from regulations struck down on First Amendment grounds in decisions such as Tornillo, which involved a Florida law requiring newspapers to run partisan editorial content. "Indeed, HB20 touches none of the First Amendment third rails that were at play in those cases," they said. When considering such issues as market power and the degree to which the regulated entity makes individualized decisions about speech rather than being a common carrier of speech, "it is clear that the government can, in the appropriate case, apply anti-discrimination rules to social media platforms," they said. "Texas’s HB20 is one of those cases."
The U.S. scored an important win for Wi-Fi at the recent World Radiocommunication Conference, beating back a move to harmonize the upper 6 GHz band for 5G, speakers said during a CES discussion of unlicensed spectrum late Thursday. Officials said restoration of FCC auction authority is critical, but when Congress will act remains uncertain.
Industry lawyers and analysts expect a busy start for the FCC in 2024, with the 3-2 Democratic majority able to approve items without the FCC’s two Republicans, and Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel eager to address priorities before the usual freeze in the months before and after a presidential election.