CaptionMate urged the FCC to give smaller providers of IP captioned telephone services a "fair shot at achieving scale" by establishing an emergent rate (see 2406030062). The company said in separate meetings with aides to Commissioners Brendan Carr and Geoffrey Starks that the cost of an emergent rate "would be exceedingly small and more than offset by even modest reductions to" the automatic speech recognition-only rate of larger providers. CaptionMate also met with the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics, and the Disability Rights Office, per a filing Thursday in docket 03-123.
The House Innovation Subcommittee plans a June 26 hearing with Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo about her department’s FY 2025 budget request, the Commerce Committee said Tuesday night. President Joe Biden in March proposed funding increases for NTIA and other Commerce agencies in excess of what they received for FY 2024 (see 2403040083). Biden sought $65 million for NTIA, $4.5 billion for the Patent Office, $1.5 billion for the National Institute of Standards and Technology and $233.4 million for the Bureau of Industry and Security (see 2403110056). The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn.
Twenty-nine out of 113 cellsites are down and some police departments have rerouted 911 calls owing to wildfires affecting two counties in New Mexico, a disaster information report system update said Thursday. The fires are mainly affecting Lincoln and Otero counties, so the FCC has activated “DIRS-Lite,” which involves the Public Safety Bureau “obtaining more granular situation-specific information through ongoing direct communications with communications providers,” the report said. The agency is using DIRS-Lite “due to the geographically concentrated impact of the New Mexico wildfires, and the need to gain information that is more precise than county-level.” The report also shows 2,877 wireline customers out of service due to a damaged switch, and that a head-end in Lincoln County serving 172 VoIP customers was damaged. Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility deployed nine mobile assets to the area, the report said. The Public Safety Bureau also issued a public notice Thursday detailing contact numbers and emergency communications procedures for the disaster.
As part of a reorganization of SiriusXM's ownership structure, Liberty Media is asking the FCC Space Bureau for approval of a pro forma transfer of control of Sirius XM and its licenses. In a bureau application posted Tuesday, Liberty said the people who control Liberty Media, which has a controlling interest in Sirius XM, will also run New SiriusXM directly through the transaction. It said the simplified New Sirius XM ownership structure, with a single class of stock shares, should attract a broader investment base. New SiriusXM's formation was announced in December.
Pointing to the FCC's pending pay-TV early termination fee (ETF) proceeding, EchoStar representatives urged that the agency instead adopt the billing practices in Dish Network's 2009 agreement with 46 state attorneys general. That approach would ensure consumers are fully educated about the terms of any pay-TV plan, Dish parent EchoStar representatives told FCC Media Bureau Chief Holly Sauer, according to a docket 23-405 filing Tuesday. EchoStar said the 2009 measure covers such turf as requiring that ads promoting an ETF plan must conspicuously disclose minimum terms of agreement. A split FCC 3-2 adopted the ETF NPRM in December (see 2312050007). EchoStar said the FCC's proposed mandatory rebates in the event of retransmission consent-related programming blackouts would worsen the retrans negotiating power imbalance with broadcasters that spurs blackouts. Instead, the agency should revise the retrans consent regime, EchoStar said. The blackout rebate NPRM also received a 3-2 approval (see 2401100026).
The FCC Enforcement Bureau denied a petition for reconsideration of a $25,000 forfeiture against Jupiter Community Radio, operator of WJUP-LP Jupiter, Florida, an order in Tuesday’s Daily Digest said. The original forfeiture order was issued for violations including failure to make the station available for FCC inspection and to maintain emergency alert system equipment. Jupiter appealed that order in 2022 seeking a reduction in the fine, saying that it was unable to pay and that it had addressed the issues with its EAS equipment. In April 2024, Enforcement Bureau agents tried to inspect the station but found it off the air, the order said. “An agent contacted Jupiter’s president to arrange an inspection of the Station’s facilities, but the president was uncooperative at the time and did not return the agent’s follow-up calls seeking access to the Station’s facilities to conduct an inspection,” Tuesday’s order said. Jupiter didn’t submit sufficient documentation to demonstrate an inability to pay, the EB said. “Coupled with Jupiter’s continued unwillingness to permit Bureau agents to inspect the Station, we find that the public interest does not favor granting the relief that Jupiter seeks.”
Muon Space wants to add a third satellite to its authorization for a two-satellite non-geostationary orbit constellation. In an application with the FCC Space Bureau posted Monday, Muon said MuSat-4 will carry a global navigation satellite system reflectometry payload similar to MuSat-2 and -3, plus a new infrared sensor. The company said that while MuSat-2 is in orbit, -3 and -4 are scheduled for a Q1 2025 launch.
The FCC is increasingly leaning toward an "object-years" regulatory approach to space safety, experts say. But some warn of flaws in the approach. The agency is seeking input, due June 27, on its orbital debris open proceeding about using a 100 object-years benchmark -- a cap on the total cumulative time to deorbit failed satellites -- for assessing the risk of a constellation's derelict satellites (see 2405240005).
Alstom Transport Holding US agreed to pay a $30,000 fine and implement a compliance plan for the transfer of private wireless licenses without FCC authorization. Alstom got nine licenses from three subsidiaries of Bombardier when it purchased the businesses in January 2021, the Enforcement Bureau said Friday. In February 2022, Alstom sought consent for the transfers. The FCC approved the transfers in July 2023. The Wireless Bureau also referred the matter to the Enforcement Bureau, which launched an investigation, the order said.
CTIA and other commenters raised concerns about an FCC notice seeking comment on rules for implementing multilingual wireless emergency alerts. Comments were due last week in dockets 15-91 and 15-94 on a notice from the FCC Public Safety Bureau (see 2405130047).