The FCC received 2,734 applications from schools, libraries and consortia seeking $3.7 billion from its $200 million cybersecurity pilot program, the FCC said Friday. It is reviewing the applications, but the program may not survive the start of the second Trump administration, industry officials warned.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk could be a big beneficiary of Donald Trump's election, with some seeing his SpaceX reaping rewards from changes to NTIA's broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program and the next FCC offering a warmer reception to SpaceX requests. Yet government ethics experts believe Musk and his businesses could face a particularly big challenge if he becomes leader of a government efficiency effort, as Trump promised during the campaign. "He's like a walking potential conflict of interest," said Virginia Canter, chief ethics counsel for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).
The Nebraska Public Service Commission sought additional feedback on Nebraska Universal Service Fund (NUSF) distribution (docket NUSF-139). Commissioners voted 5-0 at their livestreamed session Tuesday to approve an order seeking comments by Nov. 25 and schedule a hearing for Dec. 4 at 10 a.m. CST. The commission hopes to “further refine” a proposed mechanism for distributing high-cost support next year, the order said. The PSC considers the 2025 support mechanism “transitional” as it moves through remaining issues in the docket. “The Commission emphasizes that more work will need to be done to transition the high-cost distribution support mechanism to account for federal and state infrastructure programs, the sustainability of broadband networks, and to ensure that the affordability goals of the NUSF Act will be met.” Under the PSC proposal, released for comment, the commission would keep providing high-cost support to wireline ILECs offering 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload speeds in areas without wireline competitors providing service at that speed. It would also continue supporting ILECs offering 25/3 Mbps speeds, provided it’s in a location that’s “subject to a federally enforceable commitment to provide service at speeds of at least 100/20 Mbps” and that lacks wireline competitors with 25/3 Mbps speeds.
Rural and high-cost areas throughout Alaska remain "some of the hardest and most costly to serve in the country," the FCC acknowledged in a Monday order establishing the Alaska Connect Fund (ACF), complementing the 2016 Alaska Plan (see 2410150048). The order will take effect 30 days after Federal Register publication. Also adopted on Monday was a Further NPRM seeking comment on implementation of the fund.
The USF contribution factor for Q1 2025 will likely rise from 35.8% during Q4 2024 to 38.8%, emailed analyst Billy Jack Gregg on Saturday. Gregg noted that demand will also increase by $124.5 million from the previous quarter. "If revenues for the first quarter of 2025 are the same as revenues for the fourth quarter 2024, the USF assessment factor for the first quarter of 2025 will increase to 38.8%," he said: "However, if the trend of declining quarterly revenues continues, the USF assessment factor for the first quarter will be higher than 38.8%."
A panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court on Monday gave little indication how it would rule as its three judges heard arguments on overturning the agency's Oct. 25 declaratory ruling authorizing E-rate funding for Wi-Fi on school buses (see 2312200040). Maurine and Matthew Molak of Texas brought the case, arguing that the ruling went beyond the commission’s authority to act under the Communications Act.
U.S. Supreme Court justices Monday appeared divided on telecom industry arguments that reimbursement requests submitted to the Universal Service Administrative Co.-administered E-rate program can’t be considered “claims” under the False Claims Act (FCA). Justices peppered lawyers for both sides with questions during oral argument as they heard Wisconsin Bell v. U.S., a case from the 7th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court (see 2410070047).
The outcome of Tuesday's Senate elections could scramble Senate Commerce Committee Republicans’ leadership structure given the competitive contest between ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Rep. Colin Allred, his Democratic challenger. Four other panel members also face tough or competitive reelection fights (see 2411040051). Democratic leaders on the House and Senate Commerce committees indicated they intend to stay in those roles in the upcoming 119th Congress regardless of the election’s outcome.
The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) backed the FCC's petition to the U.S. Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari regarding the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling on the Universal Service Fund contribution mechanism. SIIA said in an amicus brief Wednesday (No. 24-354) that it's "incumbent upon the Court to tread lightly, and to fully account for the consequences, before disrupting that massively important (and enormously beneficial) status quo" (see 2410180007). The group cited the USF-funded E-rate program's importance, saying a "downstream consequence" of affirming or declining to review the decision would include a "sharp reduction in funding" and "exacerbate the very inequities that the Universal Service Fund in general ... was meant to redress."
Grover Norquist, Americans for Tax Reform president, and James Erwin, executive director-ATF subsidiary Digital Liberty, led a Tuesday letter with 24 other mostly conservative-leaning leaders urging that congressional lawmakers “oppose any attempts to impose new taxes on broadband service, including by assessing broadband for contributions to the Universal Service Fund.” A bipartisan congressional working group has been eyeing a potential USF revamp, while Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, wants Congress to make the program subject to the federal appropriations process (see 2403060090). “While USF faces fiscal challenges, these should ideally be addressed through distribution reform,” Norquist and the other leaders said in the letter, which we obtained before its public release. “If the contribution base for USF is expanded to include mass-market broadband providers, it will be American households that foot the bill to keep this program on life support.”