California should shed carrier of last resort (COLR) obligations in many parts of the state, carriers that are subject to those regulations said in comments posted this week at the California Public Utilities Commission. Just don’t extend the rules to other kinds of companies, warned a cable broadband association, whose members are free from such regulations. However, consumer advocates said COLR obligations remain necessary and should be updated to include high-speed internet service, not just voice.
Consideration of license transfers from Intelsat to SES as part of SES' planned $3.1 billion purchase of Intelsat (see 2405310004) is on hold pending a review by Team Telecom, the FCC Space Bureau said. The Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the U.S. Telecom Services Sector is Team Telecom's formal name. In docket 24-267 comments this week, cable and satellite interests raised the idea of conditions related to New SES' C-band assets on the requested license transfers. Cable operators and programmers distribute video programming using Intelsat’s and SES’s C-band downlinks, and the FCC should ensure that they continue providing the same quality of service in the C band, said NCTA. It said SES and Intelsat assertions that cable operators can use terrestrial fiber for distribution are "untrue." The FCC, NCTA added, shouldn't accept commitments about New SES' use of C-band licenses that would jeopardize video distribution in that spectrum. SES and Intelsat each control just shy of 50% of the video content distribution by satellite market in the U.S., said Eutelsat/OneWeb, and the FCC should consider whether conditions are needed on SES/Intelsat to address competitive impacts. Eutelsat/OneWeb didn't suggest possible conditions. The SES transaction would seem to help ensure Intelsat can continue following the core principles set out in its 2001 reorganization from an international organization to a private company, said the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization, which owned and operated Intelsat pre-2001. ITSO said Intelsat in recent years hasn't provided sufficient funding to the organization, and a better funding approach needs to be established.
The FCC Enforcement Bureau released on Monday data on traceback records requested from the Traceback Consortium on artificial or prerecorded voice calls where the consortium “identified an originating, gateway, or non-responsive provider.” The data covers April 1 to June 30 and lists hundreds of incidents. It doesn’t include records “where (1) the legality of the relevant call was disputed by the provider and resolved by the Traceback Consortium in favor of the provider; (2) the traceback was initiated in error; (3) the terminating provider could not identify the relevant call; or (4) the Traceback Consortium determined the call was untraceable,” the EB said.
The FCC Wireline Bureau on Monday gave carriers that already received six-month extensions on deadlines to remove Huawei and ZTE components from their networks additional time to comply with the rip-and-replace program. Southern Ohio Communications Services (SOCS), which recently asked for a third six-month extension, had its deadline extended from Oct. 6 to April 6. “The Bureau finds SOCS’s showing persuasive and that its situation is consistent with the situation of other recipients that have been granted extensions on similar grounds of supply chain issues, and accordingly grants the requested extension,” said a Monday order in docket 18-89. The bureau also approved a third extension for James Valley Co-op, to April 8, and for Stealth Communications, to March 29. Panhandle Telecommunication Systems got a second extension to April 18, and WorldCell Solutions a second extension, of three and a half months, to Jan. 15. Congress has considered, but not yet approved, $3.08 billion to fully fund the FCC's Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program (see 2409170066). “The lack of full funding will not necessarily be a sufficient showing for multiple extension requests, as recipients should continually make progress toward completing their projects by the end of their removal, replacement, and disposal term,” the order said.
SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell in a meeting with FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel urged that the agency authorize commercial operations of its direct-to-device service, according to a posting Monday in docket 23-135. The agency's Space Bureau signed off late last year on SpaceX conducting limited supplemental coverage from space operations for testing purposes (see 2312050029).
T-Mobile agreed it will make extensive changes in its business practices to bolster its customers' security and it will pay a nearly $15.8 million fine, the FCC said Monday. The company will spend at least that same amount strengthening its cybersecurity practices, though the carrier's costs will likely be significantly higher, the FCC said. Elements of the announced consent decree resolve separate incidents in 2021, 2022 and 2023, which the FCC Enforcement Bureau was investigating.
The FCC released its order approving 3-2 radio broadcaster Audacy’s request for a temporary waiver of its foreign-ownership requirements. The dissents from both FCC Republicans condemn the order as a deviation from normal FCC procedure, but neither mentions by name the involvement of the Soros family in the deal, though that has been the main focus of Republican lawmakers and conservative media critical of the restructuring. Commissioner Brendan Carr previously called the waiver a “Soros shortcut.” To suggest that Audacy is receiving special treatment is “cynical and wrong,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, pointing to numerous similar grants from the FCC going back to 2018. “Our practice here and in these prior cases is designed to facilitate the prompt and orderly emergence from bankruptcy of a company that is a licensee under the Communications Act.”
The FCC Wireless Bureau on Friday extended comment and reply deadlines by 30 days on an August NPRM that asks about further rules changes for the citizens broadband radio service band (see 2408160031). The new deadlines are Nov. 6 for initial comments, Dec. 5 for replies, in docket 17-258. The bureau took the step following a request by the Wireless Innovation Forum, the OnGo Alliance and the Wireless ISP Association (see 2409200015). “We find that Joint Petitioners have established that additional time is necessary to enable commenters to adequately assess highly technical data and to produce studies in response to the complex technical, legal, and policy issues presented in the NPRM,” the bureau said: “Given the importance of receiving robust input from all of [the groups’] respective members on the questions raised in the NPRM, along with the Commission’s stated desire for detailed technical analyses, we find there is good cause to extend the deadlines.”
The FCC Public Safety Bureau extended by 10 days the application deadline for CTIA and TUV Rheinland of North America to become cybersecurity labeling administrators (CLAs) or lead administrator under the FCC’s voluntary cyber-trust mark program (see 2409240063). The new deadline is Oct. 11. “The Bureau finds that the Parties’ request for an extension of time is warranted to ensure applicants have sufficient time to prepare full and informed responses,” said an order in Friday’s Daily Digest.
House Oversight Committee GOP leaders said Thursday night they launched an investigation into the FCC’s handling of radio group Audacy’s request for a temporary waiver of FCC foreign-ownership rules to complete a bankruptcy restructuring that includes George Soros-affiliated entities purchasing its stock. Panel Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-N.Y., claim the FCC’s expected approval of Audacy’s request (see 2409170015) represents a politicization of the review process just more than one month before the Nov. 5 presidential election. Langworthy briefly raised the issue during a House Oversight hearing earlier this month (see 2409190063).