Free Press asking the FCC to require broadcasters to air disclosures on inaccurate COVID-19 information (see 2004170062) was a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” and a veiled attempt to reinstate the fairness doctrine, said FCC General Counsel Tom Johnson during a Federalist Society teleconference Monday. Free Press’ premise that COVID-19 White House briefings, pundit commentary and other reports are being aired without context is “demonstrably false” because of the intense scrutiny new outlets are applying to all pandemic information, he said. “People have a host of information sources,” Johnson said, saying those sources are “laser-focused” on any news item on the pandemic. The agency’s unusually fast response to the petition was because it was “styled as an emergency, in the middle of a crisis,” Johnson said. Those circumstances “made it a worthy exercise” for the agency to make a point about “policing broadcast journalism,” Johnson said. Free Press says it wasn’t seeking censorship, but Johnson said the disclosure requirements contemplated in the petition would have had a chilling effect on broadcast journalism. Requiring disclaimers for only one sort of media introduces “a regulatory thumb on the scale,” he said. Asked to compare Free Press’ request to similar comments made by President Donald Trump (see 1809040051) about pulling network “licenses,” Johnson said, “I don’t want to comment on anything that didn’t come through the door.” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has been consistent in his response to those sorts of comments and requests, Johnson said. Free Press co-CEO Jessica Gonzalez said in an interview that the petition was narrow in scope. She criticized the agency for using it as a tool to "score political points with some very extreme people." She said most broadcasters are doing a good job of airing accurate information about the virus.
T-Mobile's promised mobile virtual network operator agreement with Dish Network -- a key reason T-Mobile/Sprint was approved -- satisfies what the FCC hoped for when it approved the deal, said the Wireless Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics in a letter to T-Mobile in Friday's Daily Digest. The pricing arrangement should let Dish's New Boost and T-Mobile "be aggressive competitors," and New Boost also will get terms at least as favorable as New T-Mobile gives its Metro brand or any successor brand, they said. The seven-year MVNO is also a year longer than the agency set as a minimum, it said.
AT&T was the seller of Connecticut operations to Frontier Communications (see 2004150063). See here and here for details on the 2014 deal.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai encouraged House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., “to speak out publicly in favor of the First Amendment -- and thus in opposition to” Free Press’ “misguided” emergency petition for inquiry into broadcasters airing allegedly false information about COVID-19 (see 2004060026). The agency rejected the petition this month, with Pai and other commission Republicans criticizing it as an attack on free speech (see 2004060073). Pallone and Doyle sought reassurance the agency won’t revoke licenses for airing legally protected speech. They cited letters President Donald Trump’s campaign sent to some broadcasters telling them their licenses could be “in jeopardy” if they continued to air ads from the anti-Trump Priorities USA Action Fund political action committee that say Trump called the epidemic a “hoax” (see 2004020069). “I have always stood firmly in the defense of the First Amendment for all Americans,” Pai said in letters to Pallone and Doyle posted Friday. “This has been my long-standing position, and there should be no question as to my commitment.” Pai cited the FCC’s denial of the Free Press petition. “Standing up for the constitutional rights of broadcast stations means that we must do so in all instances in which their rights appear threatened,” he said. “I hope that you agree.” Pai “is willing to cast aspersions on his opponents without using their names or addressing them directly,” emailed FP Vice President-Policy Matt Wood. He “continues to mischaracterize our petition. We did not 'demand' that the FCC 'take action to curtail the freedom of the press.' We asked the FCC to offer guidance on use of the public airwaves to spread COVID-19 disinformation that is quite literally killing people.” Pai “never said in his response that” the Trump campaign’s threats “were wrong or harmful,” Wood said. “He merely said, haughtily, that ‘there should be no question as to my commitment to these ideals.’ That's a non-answer.” The FCC didn’t comment.
The FCC’s April 23 meeting will be via teleconference and in a shortened format due to COVID-19, the agency said in a sunshine notice Thursday. As expected (see 2004150057), some major items will be voted during the meeting while the rest will be voted on circulation ahead of the meeting, the notice said. Commissioners will vote during the meeting on the 6 GHz rules and Further NPRM, the 5G rural USF fund and the orbital debris item. For the March meeting, some items were voted on the day before the meeting and others that morning, FCC officials said. In March, the agency prior to the meeting issued a deletion notice on the voted items.
Participants in NTIA’s software transparency initiative multistakeholder group should aim to make “progress” over the next six to eight weeks in its software bill of materials work ahead of the next expected meeting, said Office of Policy Analysis and Development Director-Cybersecurity Initiatives Allan Friedman during a Wednesday conference call. Group members noted continued progress on SBOM issues, including how to create an interoperable format for software companies to use to aid understanding of common data sets used in different software programs. The Framing Working Group released a naming-focused use cases document and noted identification issues as a major factor in their work. The Formats and Tooling WG focused on considering how automation could be helpful in making sense of software company-generated data are generating and finding knowledge gaps in current stakeholder-drafted SBOM documents. The Awareness and Adoption Working Group said its work has shifted away from earlier plans to do outreach to the technical community amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The group is creating an FAQ to answer questions about the SBOM process and encourage stakeholders to adopt NTIA’s coming end product. The group released a draft version of the FAQ ahead of the meeting. The Healthcare Proof of Concept WG said it’s been working on a proof of concept to share information collected from medical devices. The healthcare industry created its own proof of concept document before NTIA released initial SBOM documents last year. The NTIA-developed proof of concept includes input from hospitals’ security providers and software tool providers that collaborate with medical device manufacturers, the subgroup said.
The California Public Utilities Commission reasserted authority to review T-Mobile/Sprint, while tweaking some conditions the carriers opposed, in a revised proposed decision released Wednesday (see 2004150050). Commissioners plan to vote Thursday. T-Mobile and Sprint “have California wireless subsidiaries that are public utility telephone corporations under state law, and subject to the jurisdiction of the Commission,” the CPUC said. The agency rejected the carriers’ motion to withdraw their wireline application, plus Sprint’s letter relinquishing its wireline certificate, both of which the carriers used to lay a foundation for closing without California OK. The CPUC removed specific backup power obligations and requirements that 5G commitments extend to 2030. It added a condition that 93% of California's population have 300 Mbps download speeds in 2024. The agency also tweaked conditions for Lifeline, a Boost pilot program and CalSpeed testing. The edits “are more meaningful in what they do not say, more so than the relatively small changes,” emailed The Utility Reform Network Managing Director-San Diego Christine Mailloux. The commission “held steady in its correct and critical position that it has the full authority under the California Public Utilities Code to review all aspects of this merger and to impose conditions.” The companies completed their deal and began integrating in states other than California.
The April 23 commissioners’ meeting will be teleconferenced and possibly shortened in a manner similar to the March meeting, FCC officials told us. Though eighth-floor offices are discussing the final format, Chairman Ajit Pai's office proposed again voting on many of the items ahead of the meeting (see 2003310067), but having in-meeting votes and commissioner statements on major ones such as 6 GHz, officials said. One FCC official said commissioners are preparing full statements on all the major items. When the FCC changed the format for the March meeting, Chief of Staff Matthew Berry was in touch with the offices weeks in advance to discuss what to expect. A few days before that meeting, the chairman’s office said in an email to other offices the plan was to keep the session very short, the official said. Discussions over the format of the April meeting are in progress, several officials said. The commission didn't comment Wednesday.
Waive letter-of-credit requirements for Connect America Fund Phase II, industry asked the FCC in comments posted through Tuesday in docket 10-90. Skybeam and the CAF II Coalition petitioned for waivers to conform with recent Rural Digital Opportunity Fund rules (see 2003110034). CAF-II LOC requirements are "far more onerous than the less restrictive obligations of future RDOF auction winners," USTelecom said. Use the same logic that led to RDOF LOC to support "a retroactive decision now to establish parity for CAF II auction winners," the group added. The Wireless ISP Association called it "entirely reasonable" to ensure requirements establish parity, "particularly where equal treatment will foster the timely delivery of improved broadband service" to "advance Commission policy objectives." NCTA said "granting the request will serve the public interest by allowing support recipients to deploy broadband more expeditiously while continuing to provide adequate protection in cases where buildout commitments are unmet." "Lift the yoke" off small, family-owned providers by revising LOC rules, LocalTel Communications said.
FCC implementation of the Pallone-Thune Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (Traced) Act and other recent anti-robocall actions “appear to be having some impact,” but “scammers remain determined,” the Congressional Research Service reported. Commissioners approved secure telephone identity revisited and secure handling of asserted information using tokens call authentication rules at their March meeting (see 2003310067). “Most of the tools being used against robocalls have been developed recently, while some are still under development,” CRS said Friday. “It may be some time before a long-term and ongoing decrease in robocall numbers will be realized.” Chairman Ajit Pai noted the FCC’s recent bid to address robocalls preying on COVID-19 fears (see 2004030052), writing two groups of telecom-focused lawmakers including Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., and House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa.