Public interest groups and two academics urged the FCC to update its approach to net neutrality rules to address issues concerning new services like network slicing, which industry, particularly T-Mobile (see 2402260058), has raised. “Open Internet protections primarily focus on providers’ practices when providing broadband Internet access service [BIAS],” the filing said: “But ever since the FCC first adopted comprehensive open Internet protections in 2010, the agency has recognized that other services that are delivered over the same last-mile connection … may also undermine the open Internet, harming innovation, competition, investment, and user choice.” The FCC should consider how the service is defined “in the first sentence of the BIAS definition … or a functional equivalent of regular BIAS,” advocates said. The technology shouldn’t harm the open internet “by negatively affecting the capacity available for, and the performance of, BIAS, either dynamically or over time” or “have the purpose or effect of evading Open Internet protections,” the filing said. The filing was made by the Open Technology Institute at New America; Public Knowledge; Barbara van Schewick, director of Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society; and Scott Jordan, computer science professor at the University of California, Irvine.

Petitioner Insurance Marketing Coalition's brief is due April 15, with respondent FCC's due 30 days later, said a briefing notice Tuesday (docket 24-10277) in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The coalition’s optional reply brief is due 21 days after the service of the commission’s brief, it said. The coalition’s petition for review asks the 11th Circuit to vacate the FCC’s Dec. 18 order implementing rules under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act to target and eliminate illegal robotexts (see 2312220059). The coalition alleges the order exceeds the FCC’s statutory authority and was adopted “without observance of procedure required by law.” The order imposes several measures, including codifying that the national do not call registry’s protections apply to unlawful text messages.

The FCC has announced the membership of the rechartered Intergovernmental Advisory Committee in a public notice and news release Monday. Composed of elected officials from municipal, county, state and tribal governments, the IAC is focused on advising the FCC on telecom issues that affect those entities. “These local, county, state, and Tribal leaders offer the Commission valuable perspectives on how we can work together to connect the American people,” said Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in the release. The IAC has 30 new and returning members, including Chair and Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist (D) and Vice Chair Marshall Pierite, who is chairman-CEO of the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana. The group also includes the governors of North Carolina, Wisconsin and South Carolina, the mayors of Washington, D.C.; Pasadena, California; and North Miami, Florida, and numerous other public officials. The first IAC meeting will be held on April 18.

Oral argument in Gray Television’s petition for review against the FCC is scheduled for May 15 in Birmingham, said an 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals calendar Friday (docket 22-14274). Argument time is 15 minutes for each side, it said. Gray’s petition argues that the agency’s authority over broadcast license transfers doesn’t apply to the company’s 2020 purchase of another broadcaster’s CBS network affiliate in Anchorage because no licenses were transferred (see 2309140058).

Users of the FCC’s Commission Registration System (CORES) must use a new two-step login process before accessing the system starting March 29, said a public notice from the Office of Managing Director in Friday’s Daily Digest. CORES users should make sure ahead of the change that they have access to email accounts associated with their usernames, the PN said.

The FCC’s Communications Equity and Diversity Council will hold its first meeting under its new charter March 27, said a notice in Friday’s Federal Register. The CEDC’s two-year charter was renewed in June. Its hybrid meeting will involve introducing the advisory committee’s members, announcing working groups and receiving guidance on federal advisory committee best practices, the FR said.

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel hailed Fara Damelin's confirmation as the commission’s inspector general (see 2403070072). Damelin’s “decades of experience in roles overseeing government operations will help us ensure the ongoing integrity and success of the Commission’s work,” Rosenworcel said Friday. The Senate approved Damelin Thursday night as part of a package that also included a trio of FTC nominees, including GOP Commissioners Andrew Ferguson and Melissa Holyoak (see 2403080038). Damelin is the FCC’s first Senate-confirmed IG. Her confirmation gives the watchdog office its first permanent leader since appointed incumbent David Hunt died in January 2023 (see 2301260026).

The recently concluded Mobile World Congress in Barcelona was the largest show since 2019, with 5G and AI dominating discussions, panelists said Thursday during a TelecomTV webinar. “The show was all about AI,” said Sandeep Phadke, senior vice president at tech provider Tech Mahindra. The show was also “very grounded,” he added. “It was about how, do I make sure that, from a telecom operator’s standpoint, we are able to address the costs to serve customers, the time to market, and where do we get the new set of revenues?” he said. Carriers are “starting to position” themselves on how they will bring their customers AI, which is “an important turning point,” said Andrew Border, head-product for telco solutions at Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Carriers potentially have a “massive advantage" in AI because of "their globally deployed networks,” he said: “You don’t want to be pulling this AI data all back centrally.” The show also demonstrated that the wireless industry is “coming back really strongly,” he said. “There was a lot of AI -- you could not escape AI,” said Salman Tariq, vice president-sales at software provider Optiva. Every tech player had AI as a theme, he said. There was “a good mix of AI fantasy versus real use cases,” he added. “We are now starting to talk about real-life challenges of AI,” Tariq said. MWC is transforming from a “core telecom” show to a tech show, Tariq said. “You could see a lot of adjacent industries coming in and using telco as a platform to build solutions, to add value in their ecosystems,” he said. AI was “omnipresent,” mentioned in every discussion and spread throughout the show floor, said David Boswarthick, director-new technologies at the European Telecommunications Standards Institute. How AI is defined “wasn’t too clear,” he noted. Most of the AI presentations didn’t focus on how carriers are using the technology, he said. But most other discussions were ”very grounded,” Boswarthick said. The focus was on what 5G is doing now and how we can get value now, what customers need, he said. “It was a very now event, as opposed to a more future-looking event.” AI is “finally” emerging as a “significant technology trend,” said Paul Miller, chief technology officer at open radio access network company Wind River. “We’re early in the adoption curve” for AI, he said. His company is deploying AI as part of ORAN, which can save providers money, he said. The meeting saw packed, standing-room only crowds for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, he said. “It was a very, very hot show,” he said. The “AI World Congress” should replace MWC as the show's name, said Francis Haysom, principal analyst at Appledore Research. While "there is, obviously, a degree of hype there,” some discussions focused on “AI as an enabler of automation in networks,” he said.

Comments are due May 6 for the FCC’s biennial 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act report to Congress, said a Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau public notice in docket 10-213 Thursday. The agency is seeking comment on accessibility topics including internet browsers in mobile phones, the extent of barriers to accessibility in telecom, and the effect of CVAA enforcement on innovation. The PN is focused on whether there was progress on matters highlighted in the 2022 report (see 2210120059), such as accessibility to advanced communications services for Braille readers and apps that allow those with hearing or speech impairments to make phone calls. The PN also calls for updated information on accessibility for systems that allow remote work and remote healthcare. “Since our last biennial Report to Congress, accessibility needs have evolved, and we anticipate that this year’s report will highlight specific accessible devices and services, as well as those that may need improvement in this area,” the PN said.

T-Mobile and SpaceX jointly sought tweaks to the supplemental coverage from space (SCS) service order on the FCC’s March 14 agenda. The FCC should “permit terrestrial licensees to attribute SCS operations in making renewal certifications” and “defer consideration of aggregate out-of-band power flux-density limit[s] to a Further Notice to allow a technical record to develop,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 23-65 recapping calls with aides to Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington: “Replace equipment authorization re-certification requirements with a certification by rule for existing devices” and “clarify that SCS entry criteria apply solely to the provision of SCS in the United States, and permit SCS operators to apply for and receive authority to deploy SCS capabilities internationally independent of a domestic U.S. SCS lease arrangement.” The FCC should also clarify when the 90-day SCS discontinuance period begins, they said.