Collecting regulatory fees from tech companies and users of unlicensed spectrum would be a huge task, outside FCC authority, and hamper broadband adoption, said trade associations and others in comments posted to docket 21-190 by Thursday’s deadline. Comments about establishing a small satellite regulatory fee also had multiple calls in the commercial space sector for creating new fee categories for other types of space operations.
Telcos’ Texas USF lawsuit against the Public Utility Commission “is precisely the type of suit that sovereign immunity is designed to prevent,” said the PUC and the Texas attorney general office in a Thursday brief at the Texas Appeals Court for the 3rd Judicial District in Austin. Appellants seek to control how the PUC exercises discretionary authority from the legislature, effectively asking the court “to compel the PUC to nearly double the assessment rate imposed on Texans to fund the TUSF,” they said in a brief provided by plaintiff Texas Statewide Telephone Cooperative. The state appellees asked the court to affirm a lower court’s ruling to dismiss the rural LECs' complaint about the PUC not fully funding state USF (see 2106210048). TSTCI is reviewing the brief, CEO Weldon Gray said Thursday.
Commissioner Brendan Carr urged the FCC Tuesday to “immediately start the process” of adding China-based DJI, which has more than half the U.S. drone market, to the agency’s covered list. “The need for quick FCC action on this is very clear,” he told a virtual program sponsored by China Tech Threat. “What we’re seeing … is the potential for Huawei on wings.”
The law doesn’t support charging tech companies regulatory fees for the benefits they receive from unlicensed devices operating in the TV white spaces, said Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld in calls with aides to FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks and acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel this week, said filings posted Thursday in docket 21-190. NAB argues the FCC should expand the payer base for reg fees. Microsoft and other companies “at best” benefit from white spaces indirectly through third-party networks and third-party devices, said Feld. “This benefit is far too attenuated to pass constitutional muster, and nothing in the RAY BAUM’s Act supports assessing fees for such an indirect benefit.” If the FCC did use that benefit as a reason to charge fees, it would have to do the same to broadcaster-owned over-the-top services such as Hulu and Paramount+, Feld said. “These entities, and any commercial broadcast licensee that streams internet content, enjoy a similar benefit from Project Airband as Microsoft in being able to reach new rural customers.” The issue would be "better resolved as part of the USF contribution reform discussions rather than as part of this proceeding,” Feld said.
Cable operators need to be vigilant about threats of being overbuilt as tens of billions of federal dollars are poised to be directed toward broadband projects in coming years, said cable lawyer Tom Cohen of Kelley Drye Wednesday at the SCTE Cable-Tec Expo 2021. The broadband infrastructure funding in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, if passed, would take a year or so to be implemented and could start flowing in 2022 (see 2110120038), he said. That could give incumbents time to get ahead of competition and also think about what unserved areas nearby that could be grabbed, he said.
A Thursday Senate Communications Subcommittee hearing showed there is bipartisan support for a “strong telehealth initiative” that the Commerce and Health committees could together advance to the Senate floor this year, said subpanel Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., in an interview. Lawmakers noted interest in advancing the Temporary Reciprocity to Ensure Access to Treatment Act (HR-708/S-168) and Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies for Health Act (HR-2903/S-1512), among other telehealth measures. Lujan and others also used the hearing as a venue to promote the need for further broadband money and air grievances about President Joe Biden’s delay in announcing nominees to the FCC and NTIA.
FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has been “very aggressive” working with other countries to reach agreements on robocall enforcement, and the Enforcement Bureau is paying more attention to accessibility issues, a virtual FCBA CLE heard Wednesday. Such agreements “come up routinely,” when the agency meets with foreign regulators, said her aide David Strickland. “A lot of these robocalls are coming from overseas.”
Tower companies view 5G as just getting started, with years of big spending by carriers ahead, panelists told the Wireless Infrastructure Association conference Wednesday, streamed from Orlando. CEOs said their work didn’t slow during the pandemic.
House Communications Subcommittee Republicans used a Wednesday hearing ostensibly aimed at highlighting bipartisan cooperation on a dozen communications bills to criticize subpanel Democrats’ legislative and oversight process. Democrats appeared interested in moving at least some of the dozen bills before year's end, including the Spectrum Innovation Act (HR-5378). Republicans’ targets for criticism, as expected (see 2110050072), included the Senate-passed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (HR-3684) and a pending reconciliation package, both in legislative limbo.
Witnesses praise a dozen communications-focused bills set to be the focus of a Wednesday House Communications Subcommittee hearing, in written testimony. The subpanel intends the dozen bills, including the Spectrum Coordination Act (HR-2501) and Spectrum Innovation Act (HR-5378), to highlight bipartisan cooperation on the House Commerce Committee, lobbyists said. At least one witness backs the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (HR-3684) and parts of the Democratic-sought budget reconciliation package, which could inject talk of the fracas over the timeline for considering those measures into the hearing, lobbyists said.