A panel of the Better Business Bureau’s National Advertising Review Board recommended Thursday that AT&T change its advertising “to avoid conveying a false message regarding eligibility for an iPhone device offer.” The bureau’s National Advertising Division previously said AT&T should modify a claim that “everyone” can get an “iPhone 16 Pro on us” because the offer applies to specific plans only. Verizon brought the challenge.
CBS again faced controversy Monday over its editing of a 60 Minutes interview, this time with President Donald Trump, leaving FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and Democrats at odds over whether the changes constituted a violation of the commission’s news distortion rules. The volley of barbs compared the removal of pieces of Trump's interview -- at his request -- to 60 Minutes’ controversial October 2024 editing of an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris (see 2410100050). Harris' campaign didn't seek edits to her 60 Minutes interview, which is itself the subject of an ongoing FCC news distortion probe and a lawsuit from Trump that CBS settled in July (see 2507020053).
Liberty Media Vice Chairman Robert Bennett becomes chairman, effective Jan. 1, replacing John Malone, who becomes chairman emeritus … FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty names the Wireless Bureau's Nellie Foosaner as her acting legal adviser, temporarily replacing Will Holloway, who's on paternity leave for three months ... Fiber and wireless network provider BCE Canada will nominate Louis Vachon, J.C. Flowers, as chair, contingent on his reelection to the board, replacing Gordon Nixon, leaving in May … Network systems integrator Black Box names Suman Roy, ex-HCL, as senior vice president for Europe, a newly created position … Cloud communications provider Fusion Connect appoints Ken Worcester, formerly YourSix, as chief revenue officer, replacing Jim Delis, who's leaving the company … Dustin Vance, ex-Ingersoll Rand, joins Broadcast Electronics as sales manager for the Western region and Canada, replacing Ben Marth, now at GatesAir.
The FCC would seek comments on options for the upper C band, including an auction of up to 180 MHz of it, in an NPRM to be voted on at the agency's Nov. 20 meeting. Congress has directed the FCC to auction at least 100 MHz of upper C band by July 2027. "We have no time to spare," agency Chairman Brendan Carr said Wednesday. "So it is now time to start making important decisions on how best to unleash new wireless services quickly in the band."
With one of the FCC's largest monthly agendas in recent years -- nine items -- the commissioners on Tuesday unanimously approved everything from a major revamp of the agency's satellite and earth station approvals process to a proposal to end simulcast requirements for the ATSC 3.0 broadcast standard. But three items were adopted Tuesday over the dissents of minority Commissioner Anna Gomez. She said the broadband labels further NPRM was "one of the most anti-consumer items I have ever seen." She also dissented on the prison-calling order and NPRM (see 2510280045) and the wireless direct final rule.
The FCC's draft incarcerated people’s communications services (IPCS) order, which is set for a vote Tuesday, will vastly increase costs for the families of inmates, is based on questionable evidence, and doesn’t address legal questions about the Wireline Bureau’s June suspension of the agency’s existing IPCS deadlines and requirements (see 2506300068), said Worth Rises and the United Church of Christ Media Justice Office during a press call Monday. By raising rate caps and incorporating facility security costs into the price of calls, the draft item would force the families of incarcerated people to “pay for their own surveillance,” said UCC attorney Cheryl Leanza.
Advocates for incarcerated people, corrections trade groups and prison-calling companies disagree about the FCC’s draft order on incarcerated people’s communications services (IPCS), according to filings last week in docket 23-62. Thirty-five House Democrats panned the item in a letter (see 2510220049) and advocacy group FWD.us said the proposed rule would increase rate caps by up to 83%, “is based on misleading information, and unfairly shifts facility costs onto the families of incarcerated people.” Securus, meanwhile, said the rule revisions in the draft “make considerable progress towards placing IPCS on a sustainable path, both economically and legally, a critical outcome to all stakeholders.”
The Consumer Technology Association “remains concerned” about NAB’s proposal for an ATSC 3.0 tuner mandate, the trade group said in a meeting Monday with aides to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and Media Bureau staff, according to an ex parte filing in docket 16-142. The group praised the FCC’s draft ATSC 3.0 further NPRM for asking questions about consumer costs and technical feasibility of the 3.0 transition.
The FCC should ensure that any changes to space technology licensing, as proposed in an NPRM on the agency's October meeting agenda (see 2510070038), maintain "a transparent and predictable sharing environment," CTIA told Commissioner Anna Gomez, Space Bureau Chief Jay Schwarz and aides to Chairman Brendan Carr and Commissioner Olivia Trusty. In an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 25-306, the group said updates must not "inadvertently undermine the rights of terrestrial license holders in shared bands ... where a mutual operational understanding is critical to enable network deployments, prevent confusion, and ultimately speed implementation" of modernization efforts. The FCC should also clarify its meaning of "blanket licensing" and keep existing limits for out-of-band emissions, CTIA said.
The FCC should “reverse course” on superseding and suspending its 2024 incarcerated people’s communications services (IPCS) order (see 2506300068), said the United Church of Christ, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, the Pennsylvania Prison Society and other justice reform groups in a letter posted Tuesday in docket 23-62. Evidence in the record shows that jails that providers said would lose service because of the 2024 order haven’t, the letter said. Continued reliance on claims that jails have lost service due to the 2024 order would be “arbitrary and capricious.” It's also arbitrary and capricious for the FCC to vote on the draft IPCS order slated for the Oct. 28 meeting without first taking up the pending application for review challenging the bureau-level suspension of the 2024 order, the groups said, because they address similar issues. “Given that the Commission has considered substantively a number of issues in its order, it is the height of arbitrary and capricious behavior for the Commission to fail to grant or deny the Application, at least as to the issues it will address if the Draft Order is adopted.”