State Emergency Communications Committees (SECCs) that haven’t submitted their state emergency alert system (EAS) plans in the alert reporting system should do so “as soon as possible,” said the FCC Public Safety Bureau in a public notice Wednesday. The plans were due in the ARS Tuesday. “The Bureau stands ready to assist any SECCs that may need help either with the Commission’s rules governing State EAS Plans or with utilizing the ARS.” The FCC website Thursday afternoon listed only Illinois as having submitted an approved state EAS plan.

FCC commissioners approved, as expected (see 2206300048), a draft order circulated by Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel (see 2206150070) requiring wireless carriers to participate in the previously voluntary wireless network resiliency cooperative framework, and work out roaming arrangements before disasters, agency officials confirmed. The order builds on Commissioner Brendan Carr's proposal in May (see 2205160067). “We find it appropriate to apply today’s requirement to all facilities-based mobile wireless providers,” the order says: “We recognize the merits of the current Framework and agree with the commenters who argue that its provisions would be more effective if they were expanded to include entities beyond the Framework’s current signatories.” The order also requires carriers to negotiate roaming agreements. “We require that all such negotiations be conducted in good faith and note that any disputes will be addressed by the Commission on a case-by-case basis,” with the Enforcement Bureau delegated to “investigate and resolve … disputes.” The FCC also approved a Further NPRM asking more questions. The order “will help restore service faster, help speed response coordination, and keep more people connected in disaster,” said Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “But we can’t stop here,” she said. “The rules we adopt today are also a critical part of our efforts to respond to the climate crisis,” said Commissioner Geoffrey Starks: “We also cannot ignore how these disasters disproportionately impact the low-income.” Replacing the voluntary framework “with new rules, as we do today, will provide consumers with strong, enforceable protections that will help ensure that even more Americans can reach public safety officials, loved ones, or others who can help during disaster scenarios where seconds can make all the difference," Carr said. “Our approach strikes the right balance between promoting industry’s incentive to invest in their networks and continuing to implement lessons learned from each disaster,” he said.

NielsenIQ and GfK will combine into a single entity offering “new capabilities in the consumer and retail measurement industry,” said the companies Friday. The terms of their definitive merger agreement weren’t disclosed. The transaction is expected to close later this year or early 2023, until which NielsenIQ and GfK will continue to operate as independent companies, they said. Private equity firm Advent International, which bought NielsenIQ last year, will remain majority shareholder in the combined venture, while the nonprofit Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions, GfK’s founder and anchor shareholder, will maintain a “key” ownership stake, they said.

The FCC’s Communications Equity and Diversity Council scheduled a virtual meeting July 22, said a public notice Friday. The meeting will include reports from each of the CEDC working groups. The Digital Empowerment and Inclusion Working Group will present on recommendations for addressing “barriers that impact equitable access to broadband and other emerging technology,” the Innovation and Access WG on solutions to encourage diverse ownership of communications and media entities, and the Diversity and Equity WG on how the FCC can affirmatively advance equity, civil rights and racial justice, and equal opportunity in the telecommunications industry. A footnote in the PN also lists newly appointed members of the CEDC and several individuals who are no longer participating.

The FCC said Friday it’s rechartering the Consumer Advisory Committee and asked for nominations for membership for a two-year term, due Aug. 1. The group last met in April (see 2204260056). The agency plans to renew the charter on or before Oct. 16. “The Commission seeks nominations from interested nonprofit organizations, corporations, trade associations, government agencies, or other entities from both the public and private sectors,” the notice said: “Selections will be made based on factors such as expertise and diversity of viewpoints that are necessary to effectively address the topics before the Committee.”

The FCC expanded the interstate Telecom Relay Service Fund contribution base to include intrastate and interstate end-user revenue, to ensure "fair treatment of intrastate and interstate communications services and users in the funding of relay services," said an order released Thursday in docket 03-123 (see 2206280060). The order modified contributions for video relay and IP relay services based on the "total interstate and intrastate end-user revenues of each telecommunications carrier and VoIP service provider." It denied an NTCA request to limit the contribution cost of rural providers' intrastate end-user revenue and set a compliance date of July 1, 2023. The order takes effect 30 days after Federal Register publication. Also released Thursday was a second order amending VRS and IP captioned telephone service rules, an NPRM proposing to modify certain VRS rules, and a declaratory ruling on COVID-19 pandemic waivers. The second order gave VRS and IP CTS providers a two-week "grace period" to be compensated for "providing service to new and porting-in customers ... after initial submission of the consumer's registration data." The change will allow users to "immediately start making and receiving relay calls," the order said. The NPRM seeks comments on increasing the percentage of a VRS provider's monthly minutes a communications assistant (CA) may handle from home to 80% and reducing or eliminating the requirement that CA's have at least three years of interpreting experience. The notice also seeks comment on whether to allow VRS providers to contract interpretation services for "up to 30% of their monthly call minutes." The commission also waived its cap on the rules for one year. Comments are due 30 days after Federal Register publication, 60 days for replies. The declaratory ruling clarified that the maximum period a VRS provider may be compensated for calls originating abroad by a VRS user is one year.

The FCC has adopted three Telecommunications Relay Services items circulated for a vote June 6, an FCC official told the FCC’s Disability Advisory Committee at a virtual meeting Tuesday. DAC didn’t act on any reports or take substantial action at the meeting. The FCC acted on T-Mobile Accessibility’s push for more sustainable TRS compensation rates (see 2206240047), said Eliot Greenwald, deputy chief of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau’s Disability Rights Office. “We hope to be able to release those items very soon,” he said. “One item adopts a new compensation formula for IP relay,” he said: Another “addresses some of the issues that have arisen regarding pandemic waivers related to” the video relay service, including interpreters “working from home and calls from abroad to the United States. The third one addresses the contribution base for VRS and IP relay.” The IP Captioning Files Transmittal Working Group has called in experts to offer insights and is putting together a “drafting subcommittee of the willing” for an upcoming report, said Chair Kyle Dixon, NCTA deputy general counsel-program network policy. The WG was asked to “identify issues and best practices associated with the delivery and receipt of captioning files or full-length programming distributed online” he said. The WG will also “suggest solutions to increase the amount of captioned programming,” he said. The goal is to get the full WG a draft next week, he said. Lyle Ishida, chief of the CGB Consumer Affairs and Outreach Division, updated DAC members on the FCC’s affordable connectivity program. He wants to “deputize all of you to supercharge awareness of the program using your existing contacts and your influence to help low-income households within the disability community,” he said.

FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks warned of the potential effects from the Supreme Court’s expected decision (see 2206240061) in West Virginia v. EPA, in remarks Monday at an Ericsson broadband conference. “The Court’s ruling could alter the larger legal landscape of federal efforts to address climate change, and even our core understanding of administrative law,” Starks said. The batch of opinions released Monday didn't include the decision, which is now expected Wednesday. Broadband deployment must be “vibrant, innovative, and inclusive” but also “environmentally sustainable,” Starks said. He emphasized the importance of spectrum efficiency. “We need to squeeze the most out of a finite resource while at the same time building networks that draw less power,” he said: “Bandwidth efficiency and energy efficiency are both must-haves if we want to manage spectrum in the public interest.” Industry has made a “strong start” with 5G, Starks said. “We know that through beamforming, micro-sleep, and other power-saving techniques, migrating to 5G can drive a 10-fold reduction in the amount of energy required to transmit a given amount of data -- even as it also packs more users, more data, and more throughput into each unit of bandwidth,” he said. “This is the type of jump in efficiency that can make wireless innovation both cost and climate sustainable, and we must continue to reach for it as traffic demand picks up,” he said.

An expected Supreme Court decision in West Virginia v. EPA appears likely to overturn the Chevron doctrine and fundamentally alter how the FCC and other regulatory agencies operate, New Street’s Blair Levin told investors Friday. If SCOTUS rules as he expects, “the decision would cause a massive shift in authority from the expert agencies to the courts, which, because of the many different courts that may decide any matter, will result in long-term uncertainty and unpredictability as to regulations,” he said: “If agencies don’t get deference, courts then will occupy the high ground of decision making. ... The new regulator for each sector will be the over 670 district court judges, the courts of appeals judges in the 13 Circuits and the Supreme Court.” While many investors think all regulation is negative, they should consider a more nuanced view of the potential impact, Levin said. “There is now a significant chance that any FCC process (approximately 9-15 months) is merely a preliminary step in a process that a Court of Appeals (whose panel will not be known for some time and that may take an additional several years for its process to play out) will be the principal decision maker,” he said. Some experts say what the court will do remains to be seen (see 2206150059) and note the court hasn’t cited Chevron deference in a case since 2016 (see 2206170069).

The FCC is undertaking a revamp of its electronic International Bureau filing system (IBFS), per documents we obtained from the agency via a Freedom of Information Act request. IBFS is used for satellite and international telecommunications applications filings. Contractor Incentive Technology Group, part of digital tech consultancy ICF, didn't comment Friday. The work is "expected to take a couple years," an agency spokesperson emailed. Per agency paperwork we obtained, contractor responsibilities are to "modernize IBFS system and its supporting subsystems" through such steps as custom web interfaces and integrations with existing FCC platforms. It didn't give specifics. An agency Performance Work Statement from December said the agency has been working for more than a year on modernizing the legacy IBFS system and that work lately has focused on such areas as developing international high frequency requirements and on doing defect remediation. The agency said among contractor responsibilities are loading legacy system data -- including legacy satellite, earth station, IHF and Telecommunications and Analysis Division submarine cable data and attachments -- to the new IB production environment.