A draft order on circulation that would update the FCC’s foreign-sponsored content rules in response to a July 2022 U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruling against the agency could be interpreted to require that entities buying political issue ads must first show broadcasters they aren’t foreign agents, broadcast and FCC officials told us. That language could change before the item is approved, although when it will be voted on is unclear, FCC and industry officials said. The draft item “just creates more questions,” said Gray Television Senior Vice President Robert Folliard.
The FCC is moving toward requiring georouting of mobile calls made to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, with Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's office Thursday circulating on the 10th floor a draft NPRM proposing a georouting rule. Mental health interests applauded the move. "This is something we've been pushing for pretty much since the law that created 988 passed" in 2020, National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Chief Advocacy Officer Hannah Wesolowski told us. The text of the draft NPRM wasn't released.
The California Public Utilities Commission again delayed votes on an AT&T enforcement item and another proposal to make a foster youth program permanent. Both were scheduled for Thursday’s meeting, but staff postponed them until the April 18 meeting, said a CPUC hold list Tuesday. CPUC President Alice Reynolds previously asked to address the AT&T item at a Feb. 15 meeting (see 2402150067). It would deny the carrier’s corrective action plan explaining how it will correct failures and improve service after failing to meet the state’s out-of-service repair interval standard in 2021. In addition, the CPUC originally planned a Feb. 15 vote on the foster youth proposal but twice postponed it. Earlier this month, the agency received a dire warning from the foster youth pilot program’s administrator, iFoster (see 2403110042), which said the current draft would create a program “destined to fail.”
USTelecom asked the FCC to ensure providers have flexibility to comply with any new call blocking rules (see 2309110060). The group told Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau staff that many providers rely on the USTelecom-led Industry Traceback Group's do-not-originate (ITG DNO) list and expanding the DNO requirement "could force providers to inefficiently allocate resources to measures that will not have the highest protective impact for their customers and networks," said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 17-59. USTelecom also warned "any signal from the commission" that the ITG DNO list doesn't meet a provider’s "applicable reasonable DNO requirement" would "call into question whether it makes sense for the ITG to continue to maintain its DNO list" and "whether providers could continue to rely on it."
A CTIA executive on Wednesday criticized DOD’s work so far on the potential clearing of parts of the lower 3 GHz band. “We need more spectrum to meet commercial demand” and the federal government holds the most spectrum, said CTIA Senior Vice President-Spectrum Umair Javed during an Information Technology and Innovation Foundation webinar on Wednesday. Other panelists praised the Biden administration for releasing a national spectrum strategy (see 2403120006). The strategy includes a co-led NTIA and DOD study of the lower 3 GHz band.
Direct-to-device (D2D) services enjoy strong demand worldwide, but putting a dollar figure on that potential market is challenging, speakers said Monday at Access Intelligence's Satellite 2024 conference in Washington. Multiple launch providers discussed new rockets coming online. Satellite operators touted the role of satellites closing the digital divide worldwide.
The FCC released the Further NPRM added to an order on a voluntary cyber trust mark program that commissioners approved 5-0 last week (see 2403140034). The final order includes numerous other tweaks to the draft, addressing security and excluding motor vehicles and related equipment. The order and FNPRM were posted in Monday’s “Daily Digest.”
The Media Alliance and Great Public Schools Now nonprofits, which filed a petition for review challenging portions of the FCC’s Nov. 20 digital discrimination order under the Administrative Procedure Act, seek to intervene on the FCC’s behalf against the 20 industry petitioners who want to set the entire order aside (see 2403140042), said their motion Friday (docket 24-1315) in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. If the industry petitioners are successful in having the FCC’s digital discrimination rules vacated, communities that nonprofits advocate for -- including disproportionately low-income communities and communities of color -- “will be left with inferior options with limited speeds and increasing prices,” said their motion. This would harm their interests “in advancing equitable broadband access for their members and constituents, who, because of their race, ethnicity, color, income level, religion, or national origin, lack access to quality, affordable broadband,” it said.
A May 13 effectiveness date for the January FCC order requiring that carriers implement location-based routing for calls and real-time texts to 911 (see 2403130028) means the implementation deadline for nationwide carriers is Nov. 13, the Public Safety Bureau clarified Thursday. The deadline for non-nationwide carriers is May 13, 2026. By that second date, all providers must deploy a technology that supports location-based routing for real-time text to 911 originating on their IP-based networks, the bureau said.
The Senate Commerce Committee needs to meet with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and the Senate Intelligence Committee before deciding on potentially marking up TikTok-related national security legislation, Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told reporters Thursday (see 2403130039).