The FirstNet Authority is asking AT&T for a full report on the Feb. 22 outage that cut off service on much of the carrier’s wireless network (see 2402220058), officials said Wednesday during a meeting of the authority's board. FirstNet CEO Joe Wassel said last week the authority was looking at how to prevent similar outages (see 2402290055). AT&T “took immediate action” to prioritize and restore service to public safety agencies on the FirstNet network and most were back online early that morning, hours before service was reestablished for some commercial customers, said Richard Carrizzo, authority chair. FirstNet is asking AT&T to submit an “after-action report” under its contract with the authority “to assess the root cause of the outage,” said Vice Chair Renee Gordon. “We understand the importance of this and will continue to hold AT&T accountable,” she said. “We have a very serious mission, and we take our mission very seriously,” Wassel said Wednesday. The outage impacted first responders “and for that … we are very sorry,” he said. The authority will work closely with AT&T to identify the cause “and implement strategies for corrective actions to prevent an outage like this in the future,” he said. The authority’s emphasis is on rapidly addressing problems and communicating quickly with first responders, he said. In telecom “outages are unavoidable” but we “can lessen the blow by planning and preparing,” he said. The outage was “a powerful reminder, and an important reminder, that there’s always more to be done,” Wassel said. Brian Crawford, chair of the Finance and Investment Committee, reported on an announcement last month that AT&T and FirstNet plan strategic investments of more than $8 billion over 10 years in the public safety network (see 2402130060). “This is a significant next step in the lifecycle of FirstNet” and “will ensure the network keeps pace with advances in technology,” Crawford said. The board convened in Honolulu and members and authority staff met this week with Hawaiian authorities to discuss lessons from last year’s fires in Maui (see 2308110064), officials said. This was the board’s first quarterly meeting outside the continental U.S., Wassel said.

The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation randomly picked the 6th U.S. Court of Appeals to consolidate a pair of petitions for review that challenge the FCC’s Dec. 21 report and order updating the commission’s data breach notification requirements, said its consolidation order Monday (docket MCP No. 178). The Ohio Telecom Association filed its petition Feb. 20 in the 6th Circuit (see 2402210026), and the Texas Association of Business did so two days later in the 5th Circuit (see 2402230024). Both petitions seek review on grounds that the updated data breach notification rules exceed the FCC’s statutory authority.

NAB, CTIA and the Information Technology Industry Council joined a host of Washington D.C.-based trade associations last week that urged D.C.’s mayor and city council to address the district's increasing violent crime and pledging to bring back their employees to physical offices. “As job creators, taxpayers, and dedicated contributors to the economic and social well-being of our nation’s capital, we urge the Mayor and City Council to address this pressing issue,” said the letter, which more than 65 business groups signed, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Fuel & Petrochem Manufacturers and the American Society for Association Executives. Increasing incidents in the downtown business district where many of the groups are based threaten “the safety and prosperity of not only our community but also our employees and their families,” the letter said. “The City Council should take immediate action to target the small group of organized and repeat criminals responsible for most of these violent offenses,” the letter said. The groups are committed to bringing back their employees to work in their physical offices downtown, the letter said. “We are committed to Washington D.C., and we are ready to collaborate with the City Council to ensure the implementation of effective measures to reduce crime,” the letter said.

President Joe Biden signed off Friday on a continuing resolution (HR-7463) that extended federal appropriations for NTIA, other Commerce Department agencies, DOJ’s Antitrust Division and the Agriculture Department’s Rural Utilities Service through March 8. The measure also extends appropriations for the FCC and FTC through March 22. The Senate approved the CR 77-13 Thursday night, averting a partial government shutdown that would have otherwise closed RUS late Friday. The House passed it earlier Thursday (see 2402290076).

New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) will investigate AT&T's nationwide wireless outage last week, the AG office said Thursday. The office will investigate its causes and AT&T’s response, and wants consumers to file complaints, it said. “Nationwide outages are not just an inconvenience, they can be dangerous,” James said. AT&T CEO John Stankey on Sunday apologized for the outage, which the carrier blamed on a technical issue (see 2402260031). AT&T declined to comment Thursday. In addition, the FirstNet Authority is probing the AT&T outage (see 2402220058), and the authority board will discuss what happened at its quarterly meeting Wednesday, authority CEO Joe Wassel wrote in a Thursday blog post. The FirstNet network was restored by around 5 a.m. CST, about three hours after service was initially affected for some users, he said. “We are committed to identifying the circumstances that led to the outage and working with AT&T to implement strategies and corrective actions to help prevent FirstNet from experiencing an outage like this in the future,” he said. “Resilience is crucial in the face of adversity, and AT&T stepped up and prioritized the restoration of FirstNet.” Wessel said he has also established a FirstNet Authority After-Action Task Force “comprised of public safety, technical, and emergency management experts from our team” that will “help us strengthen our preparedness and emergency communications processes” to prepare for future outages.

Parties to the 14 petitions for review challenging the FCC’s Nov. 20 digital discrimination order now consolidated in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (see 2402120077) should meet, confer and submit a joint proposed briefing schedule within 30 days, clerk of court Michael Gans wrote counsel for the various parties Wednesday. The proposed briefing schedule “should either provide for briefing to be complete, and the cases ready for submission on the merits,” before the end of calendar 2024, or include an explanation “why the parties believe such a schedule is not reasonably attainable,” his letter said. In his initial review of the petitions, Gans “has preliminarily identified two groups of petitioners, with the members of each group appearing to challenge the agency action in one of two different respects,” it said, without specificity. He thus anticipates that the consolidated cases “will be broken into two tracks, with each of the two groups briefing their respective issues separately, before the cases are ultimately argued and submitted together to the same panel of judges on the same day,” it said. He asked that the proposed briefing schedule “indicate whether the parties agree with the clerk’s preliminary assessment that two separate tracks are warranted.” Gans also asked whether the petitioners intend to submit separate opening briefs, a single consolidated opening brief, or two consolidated opening briefs, “one from each preliminarily identified group of petitioners.”

The FCC should immediately investigate Apple for blocking the functionality of cross-platform messaging app BeeperMini, several tech and policy groups said in a letter to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel Tuesday. Apple's actions degrading Beeper Mini’s functionality "may have violated FCC’s Part 14 rules, which guarantee access to advanced communications services and equipment by people with disabilities,” the letter said. A total of nine entities signed the letter, including the American Economic Liberties Project, the Open Markets Institute and Y Combinator. Earlier this month, Commissioner Brendan Carr at the State of the Net conference called for a similar investigation (see 2402120068). Beeper Mini’s tech allows users of Android phones to message iPhone users without using SMS. Without the app, Android users can message iPhones only with SMS, and their text messages have limited accessibility and appear on iPhones in green bubbles rather than the blue of Apple’s proprietary iMessage service. Apple responded by repeatedly blocking Beeper Mini from accessing its system, the letter said. Apple’s actions also prevent interconnection between carriers, which could violate other FCC rules, the letter said. Apple’s actions, and “the Biden Administration’s economy-wide focus on antitrust enforcement” should immediately lead to an FCC investigation, the letter said. Apple didn’t comment.

Three infrastructure owner and contractor groups petitioned the U.S. Appeals Court for the D.C. Circuit Tuesday for review of the FCC’s digital discrimination order, released Nov. 20 and published Jan. 22 in the Federal Register, on grounds that it gives the commission unprecedented authority to regulate the broadband internet economy. The Wireless Infrastructure Association (WIA), the Power & Communications Contractors Association (PCCA) and NATE filed the petition. It was immediately transferred to the 8th Circuit where it was consolidated with 13 previous petitions under a Feb. 9 order from the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (see 2402120077). It was docketed as case number 24-1411. The Nov. 20 order “demonstrates the FCC’s failure to retain sight of the scope of its mission assigned by Congress,” the petition said. Entities like infrastructure owners and contractors “play an important role in advancing the goal of facilitating equal access to broadband service by making high-quality modern infrastructure available as quickly as possible for the use by telecommunications and broadband providers,” it said. The infrastructure provided is generally “neutral host,” allowing “any number of providers to place equipment on the sites, increasing broadband access and improving service,” it said. But the infrastructure owners and contractors represented by WIA, PCCA and NATE don’t sell broadband services directly to end users and therefore don’t have the ability “to control the place and manner of broadband access,” it said. The order ultimately also fails to “meaningfully address” WIA’s argument that the order’s definition of “covered entities” exceeds the FCC’s “statutory language and mandate” that Congress intended, it said.

The Global Satellite Operators Association and the Global System for Mobile Communications Association will collaborate on supplemental coverage from space items, they said Tuesday. The joint efforts will include standards promotion, educational programs and workshops. GSOA Director General Isabelle Mauro said, "This convergence becomes paramount in building a reliable, secure, robust and globally connected world" as 5G and 6G evolve.

E-rate participants and advocates welcomed the FCC's proposed cybersecurity pilot program for schools and libraries in reply comments posted Tuesday in docket 23-234 (see 2311130062). A coalition of education associations and school districts from 42 states and Puerto Rico urged the FCC to move forward, saying public schools are "now the industry most targeted by ransomware attacks" because they are "data-rich environments that often lack advanced resources and technology." The FCC should update the definition of firewalls under category two services to include "industry standard firewalls that are necessary to counter the most common, yet devastating, cyberattacks," the coalition said. The group also backed the schools and libraries cybersecurity pilot program, asking the FCC to "adequately fund the pilot and to shorten its duration so that entities can immediately strengthen their cybersecurity defenses by next school year." Establish an 18-month timeline for the pilot program, said E-rate compliance consulting firm Kellogg & Sovereign. Consider an "open data model" so the public, researchers, program participants and other stakeholders can "independently analyze and use data to support informed decision-making." The American Library Association noted that smaller libraries lack staff time and expertise to apply for the program and urged the FCC to require the Universal Service Administrative Co. to conduct outreach. ALA backed a one-year timeline for the pilot, saying the proposed three-year timeline "just adds unnecessary delay in the urgent need to make cybersecurity tools eligible for E-rate support."