The FCC’s remaining extensions on the implementation of call authentication standards “remain necessary to avoid undue hardship for the limited number of providers that require them,” the Wireline Bureau said in a public notice announcing its annual evaluation of extensions. The extensions of Stir/Shaken standards apply to small voice service providers originating calls via satellite using North American Numbering Plan (NANP) numbers and providers that cannot obtain a service provider code token. Retaining the extensions “does not present a significant barrier to the Commission’s goal of full participation in STIR/SHAKEN,” the PN said. The Wireline Bureau’s annual evaluation of the extensions is required by the Pallone-Thune Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (Traced) Act, the PN said.
Communications Daily is tracking the lawsuits below involving appeals of FCC actions. New cases since the last update are marked with a *.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., released a draft version of his Secure American Communications Act Tuesday in a bid to strengthen U.S. networks’ cybersecurity amid the fallout from the Chinese government-led Salt Typhoon hack (see 2411190073). The measure would require that the FCC implement security conditions for telecom carriers that Congress originally mandated in the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act. Lawmakers called in CALEA Section 105 for the FCC to require that telecom companies secure their systems against unauthorized intrusions, but the commission has never fully implemented this provision, Wyden’s office said. The draft bill would, in part, require carriers to annually test whether their networks and systems are vulnerable to cyberattack or other unauthorized intrusions. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel circulated a draft declaratory ruling last week to commissioners finding that Section 105 requires that telecom carriers secure their networks against cyberattacks (see 2412050044). “It was inevitable that foreign hackers would burrow deep into the American communications system the moment the FCC decided to let phone companies write their own cybersecurity rules,” Wyden said. “Telecom companies and federal regulators were asleep on the job and as a result, Americans’ calls, messages, and phone records have been accessed by foreign spies intent on undermining our national security. Congress needs to step up and pass mandatory security rules to finally secure our telecom system against an infestation of hackers and spies.” Wyden’s release of the draft came hours before Rosenworcel and federal intelligence officials were scheduled to brief House lawmakers on the Salt Typhoon hack. They briefed senators last week.
Many questions remain about how the U.S. Supreme Court will decide FCC v. Consumers’ Research, lawyers involved in the case said Tuesday during an FCBA webinar. The USF case is expected to be heard in the spring. SCOTUS decided last month to hear a challenge to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' 9-7 en banc decision, which found the USF contribution factor is a "misbegotten tax.” Consumers' Research challenged the contribution factor in the 5th Circuit and other courts.
Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and some other congressional leaders are objecting to a compromise version of the FY 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (HR-5009) released Saturday night with language allocating $3.08 billion to fully fund the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program (see 2412070001). The leaders’ concerns complicate plans for HR-5009's passage. House leaders are eyeing a vote on the measure this week. Meanwhile, some lawmakers want to attach the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act (HR-8449) and permanently lift some telehealth restrictions via other end-of-year measures.
The House and Senate Armed Services committees released a compromise version of the FY 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (HR-5009) Saturday night with language allocating $3.08 billion to fully fund the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program, as expected. The measure also provides up to $500 million through 2033 to the Commerce Department for regional tech hubs. The language in HR-5009, originating from the Spectrum and Secure Technology and Innovation Act (S-4207), would give the FCC $3.08 billion in Treasury Department borrowing authority for rip and replace reimbursements.
Communications Daily is tracking the lawsuits below involving appeals of FCC actions. New cases since the last update are marked with a *.
Communications Daily is tracking the lawsuits below involving appeals of FCC actions.
The FCC is seeking comment on an NAB petition for an additional extension of a waiver of a 2013 rule requiring that broadcasters provide audio description on a second audio stream of emergency information conveyed through graphics, said a public notice in docket 12-107 Monday. Compliance with the 2013 rule was originally required by 2015, but the agency granted an 18-month waiver and has repeatedly extended it, most recently by 18 months in 2023. The waiver is currently set to expire Tuesday. In addition to the requested extension of the waiver, NAB is seeking a rule change specifying "that compliance is fulfilled if a station provides textual crawls that provide emergency information duplicative or equivalent to the information conveyed by the visual image.” It “remains impossible for stations to continue to provide important emergency information to viewers while complying with the audible crawl rule as written,” NAB said. Comments are due in docket 12-107 on Dec. 26, replies Jan. 9.
The federal government defended the FCC’s decision denying petitions for declaratory ruling on the agency’s over-the-air reception device (OTARD) rules in response to Indian Peak Properties' challenge in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (see 2405060035). The FCC declined to step in following a dispute between the company and Rancho Palos Verdes, California (see 2410290011). “The Commission correctly construed the Rule to require a regular human presence at an antenna’s location,” the government said. “This requirement is evident from the Rule’s text and the Commission’s historic treatment of the Rule, and is consistent with Congress’s original purpose of protecting viewers’ access to video programming.” The pleading discussed the dispute's long history. After a city inspection revealed at least 11 antennas on the property in question, “plus other equipment on the roof, the City ordered Indian Peak to remove all but five antennas, and the parties began several years of discussions,” the pleading said, noting that in 2020, after suing the city, Indian Peak sought FCC review. The pleading said the commission’s determination “that Indian Peak failed to adequately allege that its antenna use fell within the Rule’s scope was supported by substantial evidence: Indian Peak repeatedly told the Commission that no one lived at the Property, emphasized the importance of remote access, and offered vague and inconsistent descriptions of how the Property was used.” From its origins protecting viewers’ access to satellite video at their homes, the OTARD rule “has always contemplated that a protected antenna serve a human end user at the antenna’s location,” the government said. “Indeed, if the Rule did not contain a human-presence requirement, it would necessarily extend to antennas on unoccupied buildings -- a result which nothing in the Rule’s history supports.”