The FCC deactivated the disaster information reporting system for Louisiana and Mississippi, in connection with Hurricane Sally, said public notices Wednesday and Thursday. The system remains active for nine counties in Alabama and four in Florida. Thursday’s DIRS report, including the since-deactivated Mississippi region, listed 156,147 cable and wireline subscribers in the affected areas as out of service, and 17.1% of cellsites are offline. One Florida public safety answering point is rerouting calls, one AM station and three FMs are off-air, another AM is sending programming to another station and no TV stations are down.

The FCC corrected the reply comments deadline for the NPRM on proposed changes to the agency's ex parte rules (see 2009020006). Replies are due Oct. 19, not Nov. 2, said Thursday's Federal Register.

The FCC is briefly reopening the window for C-band earth station operators to correct their registrations and add existing antennas collocated with existing register antennas. Don't expect it to open again because it's "unlikely [the agency] will be in a position to grant any such waiver requests filed after Sept. 25," the Wireless and International bureaus said in a public notice in Thursday's Daily Digest. The action responds to an NAB/NCTA ask (see 2008120055). The bureaus said waiver requests need to specify whether they involve antennas located within 150 meters of an incumbent earth station; seek a waiver for no more than 25 additional antennas per registrant at any given site; and seek interference protection only and disavow any claim to reimbursement for antennas subject of the waiver request.

FCC members OK'd a change proposed by Chairman Ajit Pai a year ago (see 1909060030) transitioning universal licensing system (ULS) filings from paper to electronic. The change got broad support from industry (see 1911150057). “We received a limited number of comments, the vast majority of which supported the Commission’s efforts,” said Thursday's order. The change includes all radio services authorized in parts 13, 20, 22, 24, 26, 27, 30, 74, 80, 87, 90, 95, 96, 97 and 101 of commission rules and is effective in six months. “We finalize our transition to electronic interactions for licenses in the Wireless Radio Services -- a transition that began more than two decades ago,” the order said: “We decrease the costs for consumers and the Commission, enhance transparency of and access to data, significantly improve administrative efficiency, and save a substantial amount of paper annually.”

Cable and wireline subscribers out of service in areas affected by Hurricane Sally jumped from 1,096 Tuesday to 88,362, said Wednesday’s disaster information reporting system FCC report. Out-of-service cellsites climbed from 0.5% to 6.9%, and two AM and two FM radio stations are off-air. No TV stations or public safety answering points were down.

The FCC said 157 of the more than 400 applications by tribal entities to use 2.5 GHz during the tribal window were accepted for filing. Petitions to deny are due Oct. 15, oppositions Oct. 26 and replies to the oppositions Nov. 2. “That an application has been accepted for filing means that the application is, upon initial review, complete and contains sufficient information to be accepted for processing and further review, including a required period on which public comment on the application is sought,” said a Tuesday notice. FCC Democrats and tribal and other groups said the FCC should have kept the window open beyond Sept. 2 due to COVID-19 (see 2007310066). “This FCC has taken aggressive action to address the digital divide on Tribal lands, and the 2.5 GHz Tribal Priority Window has been perhaps the most significant,” said Chairman Ajit Pai.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai circulated an NPRM proposing to require disclosures at the time of broadcast when TV and radio stations are paid “directly or indirectly” to air content by a foreign entity, said a release Tuesday. Disclosure would also be required if programming were “provided to the station free of charge by such an entity as an inducement to broadcast the material,“ the release said. “With some station content coming from the likes of China and Russia, it is time to update our rules and shed more sunlight on these practices,” Pai said. Current rules don’t specify how foreign government sponsorship should be disclosed to the public, but the proposed rules would provide standardized language identifying the country involved, the release said. The text wasn’t released. House Democrats urge Pai to act against what they called Russian propaganda broadcast in the U.S. before the 2020 election (see 2002130060). “Americans are currently in the process of deciding who they will elect to lead our country, and it’s critical that they are not unknowingly influenced by foreign propaganda,” said a February letter to Pai from Reps. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., Mike Doyle, D-Pa., and others.

USTelecom and Incompas have an unbundled dark fiber transport compromise, following their LEC line access pact proposed to the FCC (see 2008060044), they said in docket 19-308 Tuesday. They urged the FCC to adopt the two concurrently and "bring finality and certainty to issues that have long bedeviled parties and policymakers alike." Since requesting carriers are impaired without unbundled access to dark fiber transport to any Tier 34 wire center more than half a mile from alternative fiber, the compromise would have the FCC find non-impairment and use its authority to forbear from the obligation to provide unbundled dark fiber transport to wire centers within a half mile of alternative fiber where unbundled transport currently isn't required. They said competitive LECs will still have unbundled access to all dark fiber transport arrangements ordered before the order's effective date for eight years, during which the incumbent LEC won't increase rates for access to unbundled dark fiber.

The FCC activated the disaster information reporting system for counties in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi in anticipation of Hurricane Sally, said a public notice Monday. Reports from communications providers in the affected areas are due Tuesday morning. Sally is expected to make landfall Tuesday along the Gulf Coast as a Category 2 storm.

A Republican- or Democratic-controlled FCC will continue to focus on issues like the digital divide and 5G deployment, but expect differences in approaches and priorities, said Kelley Drye USF lawyers John Heitmann and Steve Augustino at the Incompas Show Monday. On FCC direction next year, Heitmann said rhetoric about digital divide issues will continue, though the GOP prioritizes infrastructure issues, while Democrats prioritize affordability and accessibility via Lifeline. Augustino said more attention likely will be on broadband infrastructure spending, though Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's campaign has been making it more of an emphasis than President Donald Trump's. Augustino said the Republican approach to 5G focused heavily on deployment, particularly via preemption of state and local government regulation, but Democrats are less likely to focus so heavily on preemption. He said Democrats have called more for revamping FCC broadband mapping, while the GOP-led agency focused more on making do with current mapping until Congress provides the resources for a deep dive. Under a Democratic-controlled FCC, expect "a re-reclassification" of broadband, perhaps accompanied by privacy regulations, Heitmann said. Expect the agency to continue to focus heavily on robocalls and supply chain security issues, the two said. With it widely expected that Ajit Pai leaves the chairmanship soon, Augustino said Commissioner Brendan Carr seems to have the inside track to replace him in a Republican FCC, while the Democrats have a history of going with dark horse outsiders. Heitmann said Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel or former Commissioner Mignon Clyburn seem to be the likeliest Democratic choices, and while Carr might be odds-on likeliest for Republicans, other candidates, such as a variety of Senate Commerce Committee staffers, could be in the mix. Heitmann said the next chairman isn't likely to roll back transparency initiatives Pai instituted, such as releasing draft items before commissioner meetings. "It's an irreversible trend," and a subsequent chairman would find it difficult to justify less openness, he said.