Howard Buskirk

Addressing tribal issues is important, but it shouldn’t slow the rollout of the $9 billion 5G Fund that FCC commissioners approved in August, the Competitive Carriers Association said in comments posted Friday in docket 20-32. Commissioner Brendan Carr dissented on the 5G Fund item, which included a Further NPRM on tribal issues (see 2408290022). Tribes and their associations commented on the importance of cooperation with tribal governments (see 2410170045).

Elon Musk has emerged as among the most enthusiastic supporters of former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, giving nearly $75 million in three months to his pro-Trump America PAC. Musk has danced at a Trump rally wearing a “dark MAGA” hat and announced Wednesday he would support Trump in a series of appearances throughout Pennsylvania.

The FCC’s Disability Advisory Committee met for the last time Friday under its current charter, approving reports from its three working groups (WGs), none of which was immediately available. The next DAC is slated for December, FCC officials said. A report from the WG on Best Practices for Quality Telecom Relay Service for Individuals with Multiple Disabilities emphasized that “functional equivalence does not mean the same thing to two people,” said co-Chair Cristina Duarte, InnoCaption director-regulatory affairs. “It is highly unique and what one person needs for accessibility in telecommunications is not necessarily what another person needs.” The report underlined the importance of offering flexible features, which can work with other app-based solutions. It also noted the need for education and outreach about services that are available and the importance of security, Duarte added. Another report, from the WG on the Use of AI to Caption Live Video Programming, examines the state of automatic speech recognition (ASR) and potential use of evolving technologies, said co-Chair Shadi Abou-Zahra, Amazon principal accessibility standards and policy manager. It considers cloud-based and on-premises ASR, examining “the pros and cons” of ASR based on the principles of accuracy, synchronicity, program completeness and placement, he added. A third report reviews online gaming accessibility for people who are blind or have low vision. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel told the DAC an order that commissioners approved Thursday mandating 100% hearing-aid compatibility for phones sold in the U.S. (see 2410170030) is “a big deal” and “historic.” The HAC order “means that in the not too distant future hearing aid users will be able to consider any handset model for purchase rather than just a limited number of phones.” Rosenworcel noted she has backed the mandate for nearly 10 years. Change takes longer than the two-year term of any DAC, she said: It requires "a special level of patience and special kind of perseverance.” Technological innovation, said FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, potentially can “close the digital divide ... implement creative spectrum solutions ... improve public safety systems and ... foster a vibrant media ecosystem.” Everyone must feel these benefits, "including the disability community.” Gomez stressed the importance of “accessibility by design” for communications products and noted the HAC order. “This is a big deal, and it’s a crucial way that the FCC acted to make communications services accessible to all.” DAC last met in May (see 2405160051).

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to grant certiorari earlier this month in a case from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, McLaughlin Chiropractic Associates v. McKesson, could have implications beyond the FCC’s legal interpretation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, legal experts told us. SCOTUS began its current term Oct. 7.

FCC commissioners on Thursday approved 5-0 a draft hearing-aid compatibility order providing details on how the U.S. will reach 100% compatibility. FCC officials said the order included a few tweaks, accommodating commissioners' concerns and those of CTIA (see 2410090051) and disability advocates (see 2410150024). Commissioners voted at their monthly open meeting (see 2410170026), which was focused on consumer items. It was the last before the Nov. 5 election.

Q Link Wireless CEO Issa Asad faces years in prison and a fine of more than $100 million after pleading guilty to fraud tied to the FCC’s Lifeline program. Asad also pleaded guilty to money laundering through the COVID-19-era Paycheck Protection Program. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel on Wednesday welcomed the guilty pleas. Dania Beach, Florida-based Q Link offers coverage throughout the U.S. Asad and Q Link “engaged in multiple tricks designed to mislead the FCC about how many people were actually using Q Link’s Lifeline phones, and to prevent customers who did not want the phones from ending their relationship with Q Link (which would have prevented Q Link from billing the program for them),” said a DOJ news release: “The Defendants manufactured non-existent cellphone activity and engaged in coercive marketing techniques to get people to remain Q Link customers.” Asad admitted that he received approximately $15 million from Q Link as a result of the fraud. Asad’s plea agreement includes a joint recommendation that he serve the statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison on the fraud charge, the DOJ said. The statutory maximum sentence on the money laundering charge is 10 years. “Asad’s exact sentence will be determined by the Court after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors,” DOJ said. U.S. District Judge Rodolfo Ruiz set a sentencing hearing for Jan. 15. “Deceptive schemes that exploit at-risk communities and manipulate federal support for phone and broadband services should not go unpunished,” Rosenworcel said. Asad and Q Link “purposefully defrauded two critical federal programs helping individuals and businesses suffering financial hardship, unlawfully taking hundreds of millions of dollars for their own use and profit, while obstructing the United States’ ability to help people who, unlike the Defendants, needed it,” said Markenzy Lapointe, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida.

Verizon and Frontier this week filed an application at the FCC that would transfer control of the domestic and international Section 214 authority held by wholly owned subsidiaries of Frontier to the acquiring company. As part of the filing, the companies provided a public interest statement, a key document as regulators plow through details of the proposed transaction. The deal faces potential investor headwinds.

Carriers can't rely on technology vendors or other companies to find a path forward on AI, Danielle Rios, acting CEO of software company Totogi, said Tuesday during a TelecomTV forum on the AI-native telco. Vendors themselves are still figuring out AI, Rios said. Other speakers agreed that companies must collaborate to make AI in telecom a success.

The Biden administration is moving forward on the national spectrum strategy, in some cases more quickly than is widely recognized, Shiva Goel, NTIA senior spectrum adviser, told the Mobile World Congress in Las Vegas last week. Goel’s comments build on the remarks of NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson at MWC (see 2410090045). “We're hard at work already on lower 3 and 7 and 8 [GHz],” Goel said. “We're bringing lower 37 [GHz] to a close” and “18 GHz is in full swing already, and then there's everything else.” Goel said DOD, which is working with NTIA on the lower 3 GHz study, hasn’t been “secretive” about its “preference for a … solution” based on dynamic spectrum sharing. “We're supporting” DOD “in building a demo of that capability,” but “that doesn't mean we can't also collaborate on other options for the band.” The strategy’s research and development plan is in its final stages, he said. On staffing, “we're getting the agencies together to spot gaps and ways to fill them to make sure we have people in government able to do this work far into the future.” Goel continued: “Our spectrum problems aren't getting any easier.” The relationship between NTIA and the FCC “is as good as I've ever seen it,” said Ira Keltz, the commission’s new acting chief engineer. The No. 1 priority is the proposed spectrum pipeline and the FCC’s Spectrum Steering Team, which he co-chairs, is hard at work, Keltz said. “We've got plenty of staff at the commission completely engaged in all the activities that are going on.” The top priorities are the lower 3 and 7.8 GHz studies, but the FCC is also focused on 37 GHz, he said. “There's still a ways to go” on the strategy, said Will Johnson, Verizon senior vice president-federal regulatory and legal affairs, “but there [are] also things to celebrate.” The wireless industry knows it will need about 1,500 MHz of mid-band spectrum over the next 10 years, and the pipeline “still remains fairly uncertain,” Johnson said: “We know some bands that are being studied. … But in terms of knowing which bands are actually going to make their way all the way through to commercial use, to auction, we're pretty far from having that kind of clarity at this point.” Luciana Camargos, GSMA head of spectrum, called for more leadership from the U.S. During the World Radiocommunication Conference last year, the U.S. message was that it didn’t want international mobile telecommunications in the 6 GHz band, but it failed to offer alternatives, Camargos said. The U.S. “didn't even support the new agenda item” looking at 4, 7 and 15 GHz, she said: “To me, that's very relevant. … If you don't support looking forward, how can you lead on this?” Keltz said the FCC understands wireless industry concerns about a spectrum pipeline. "We need high-powered dedicated spectrum," he said: "I think we need a little of everything. ... We need to make sure that our unlicensed industry has spectrum they can use." CTIA and GSMA co-sponsor MWC.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said the FCC should avoid taking the steps proposed in an AI NPRM. Commissioners approved the NPRM 5-0 in August. Conversely, consumer groups supported the proposed rules. Comments were due last week and posted Thursday and Friday in docket 23-362.