Amazon artificially inflates consumer prices by charging third-party sellers exorbitant and unavoidable fees, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine (D) said Tuesday during a Senate hearing.
Judges raised many questions about practical effects of the FCC's January changes to over-the-air reception devices (OTARD) rules, at oral argument Tuesday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The court heard Children’s Health Defense (CHD) and four individuals’ challenge of FCC amendments that appellants said could lead to large-scale deployment of carrier equipment in residential areas despite alleged local harms (see 2110140031). Since the commission's goal was to reduce deployment barriers, said Judge Patricia Millett, “it seems to me the FCC itself anticipated that this was going to produce substantial proliferation of these antennas.”
The FAA warned about flights being diverted or grounded because of 5G C-band wireless broadband signals. Satellite and network experts told us the regulatory clash between the FAA and FCC over 5G in the C band reflects in part the lack of a permanent head of NTIA to broker an agreement.
The Senate’s Tuesday reconfirmation of FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel to another term (see 2112070029) provides more certainty for upcoming policy moves, but it isn’t likely to mean any major changes in how the agency functions because it will remain in a 2-2 tie for now, lawmakers and experts told us. Democrats are relieved Senate action forestalled the possibility the FCC would shift to a 2-1 GOP majority in January but believe the ongoing stalemate underscores the need to confirm Democratic commission nominee Gigi Sohn, whose path forward remains uncertain (see 2112010043). Republicans see the ongoing stalemate as an opportunity for Rosenworcel to continue seeking bipartisan consensus.
Sorenson Communications and its CaptionCall agreed to reimburse the Telecom Relay Service Fund $28 million and pay a $12.5 million fine for violating TRS rules on incentives and reimbursement filings, in a consent decree with the FCC Enforcement Bureau. It’s the “largest recovery of monies for the TRS Fund and the largest fine for violations of the TRS rules,” the bureau said Friday.
An NPRM and notice of inquiry on accessibility in emergency alert system messages are likely to be unanimously approved as-is, said FCC and industry officials in interviews. Alerting industry officials said the agency’s proposals need fine-tuning, but strong industry pushback isn’t expected. Accessible alerts are “certainly a laudable goal,” said Sage Alerting President Harold Price. Comments on the item would go to docket 15-94.
A landowners' challenge to a Virginia easements law is gaining attention as other states consider similar laws to make it easier for power companies to add broadband lines to land where they have electric facilities. Virginia’s 2020 law allows utilities to proceed without permission or additional compensation to landowners. The U.S. District Court in Charlottesville dismissed constitutional claims against Virginia in Grano v. Rappahannock Electric Cooperative (REC) last month, but the landowners haven’t given up and are considering appeal, said their lawyer Joshua Baker of Waldo and Lyle, in an interview.
U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit judges evinced some skepticism about standing issues and Viasat's broad read of the National Environmental Policy Act's (NEPA) jurisdiction, during docket 21-1123 oral argument Friday on challenges to the FCC's April OK of a license modification for SpaceX (see 2108090022). A lawyer in the proceeding told us it's not clear how soon the three-judge panel might rule.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel appeared on the cusp Friday of securing a healthy bipartisan Senate reconfirmation vote, which her supporters see as vindication after months of behind-the-scenes nomination drama that led some observers to view her as an underdog to remain at the commission just days before President Joe Biden picked her in October (see 2110080043). Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., filed for cloture on Rosenworcel Thursday, setting up a Monday vote that would be the penultimate hurdle before her reconfirmation. The Senate Commerce Committee, meanwhile, hasn’t finalized whether Democratic FCC nominee Gigi Sohn will get a vote at a potential mid-month executive session.
Numerous nations have a regulatory focus on the 6 GHz band now, before the band is also center of attention at the 2023 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-23), international regulators said Thursday on a Wireless Innovation Forum 2021 panel. Several countries said they're looking at technological means to better allow spectrum sharing, particularly of the 6 GHz band.