The FCC’s 2024 foreign-sponsored content rules violate the First Amendment and the Administrative Procedure Act and are outside the FCC’s authority over sponsorship ID, NAB said in an initial brief filed Tuesday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (see 2409160043). NAB successfully challenged the 2021 version of those rules, leading to the additional requirement in 2024 that broadcasters and entities leasing programming time from them certify that foreign governments aren't sponsoring lessees. The newer rules “dramatically expanded” the requirement by redefining a lease of airtime to include non-candidate political advertising and public service announcements, NAB said. The order violates the First Amendment by imposing content-based restrictions on protected speech, it said. The 2024 rules “radically increase the burdens on lessees, advertisers, and broadcasters by sweeping in hundreds of thousands of new transactions, including advertising spots, under the foreign-sponsor identification regime,” NAB said. That expansion isn’t a logical outgrowth of the FCC’s rulemaking process, which had sought comment only upon a request from broadcasters for a clarification on the length of ads excluded from the 2021 rules, NAB said. “The APA is not satisfied by a rumor mill,” said the brief. The FCC “still has no evidence of any foreign governmental sponsorship of any form of advertising, including political advertising,” NAB said. That is why the 2021 rules excluded “traditional, short-form advertising” from the requirements, “and the Commission never explained why its analysis changed.”
The Communications Workers of America was among the commenters urging the FCC to take a hard look at Verizon’s proposed buy of Frontier, a $20 billion all-cash deal announced in September (see 2409050010). More than half that figure will pay off Frontier’s debt. The transaction would affect wireline communications “for tens of millions of voice and broadband customers in states served by Frontier and Verizon,” CWA said in a filing posted Tuesday in docket 24-445. The union said Verizon’s goal of upgrading and expanding Frontier’s fiber network is encouraging. But the companies “provide no specific details on their turnaround plans for Frontier, such as the amount of funds Verizon intends to allocate for additional fiber upgrades, the geographic areas that will benefit from such funds, specifics on how Verizon plans to maintain and improve quality of service for customers that will not get fiber upgrades, whether Verizon wants to continue Frontier’s excessive use of low-wage and inadequately trained contractors for construction projects, and whether this acquisition could result in reduced capital investments by Verizon in its current footprint,” CWA said. The Coalition for IP Network Transition said the FCC should approve the deal only on the condition that the two companies phase out their legacy time division multiplex and feature group D (FGD) networks and agree to “interconnect with all other carriers” on an IP basis. The two companies have been silent on that issue, the coalition said. “The Applicants plan to bring only some of their customers a 21st Century IP-based network, while leaving other carriers with out-of-date TDM and FDG technology and facilities, and excessive access charge bills,” the coalition argued: “That, by any fair definition, does not serve the public interest.” Intrado Life & Safety urged attention to public safety issues. Since providers like Verizon and Frontier refuse to interconnect their wireline traffic to the next-generation 911 network in session initiated protocol “and insist on TDM interconnection at their service edge, the 911 network is captive to TDM with no viable alternatives for the next three to five years,” Intrado said. “Because Verizon and Frontier are two of the main contributors to the current 911 TDM dilemma, the Transaction will accelerate and deepen the ongoing harm and threat to public safety and 911 reliability during the transition to NG911.” Intrado called on the agency to “examine the potential public safety impacts of the Transaction and consider appropriate conditions regarding 911 TDM circuit availability and pricing to mitigate such impacts.”
The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology approved Axon Enterprise’s request for a waiver, allowing it to market three investigative and surveillance devices to law enforcement agencies. The devices would operate at higher power levels than allowed under FCC rules in heavily used 5 GHz spectrum. The Axon waiver has proven controversial (see 2403080044). The company proposed in July that its devices operate primarily using channels at the upper and lower edges of the U-NII-3 band, attempting to address the concerns of Wi-Fi advocates (see 2407310049). “Based on the record of this proceeding and the above analysis, we are convinced that the Axon devices can be operated without unduly jeopardizing Wi-Fi operations,” OET said Thursday. It noted that first responders will use the devices in emergencies, for short periods and mostly indoors. “We recognize the concerns from Wi-Fi operators that, under the terms of the initial waiver request, Axon’s devices could still lead to Wi-Fi interference," the order said: “However, we note that Axon … has indicated that it would be willing to accept waiver conditions and limitations appropriate to the limited scope of its product’s use.”
NOAA is making plans with NASA for what could result in a high accuracy and robustness service (HARS) that augments GPS, members of the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) Advisory Board heard Wednesday. Board members also discussed a draft presidential transition issue paper urging the President-elect Donald Trump's incoming administration to bolster reliable national PNT capabilities.
Public interest and consumer groups replying to an FCC notice of inquiry (see 2411150025) encouraged the agency to launch a more targeted inquiry on data caps and said ISPs haven’t built a case for caps to continue. Industry groups opposed FCC intervention. Reply comments were due Monday in docket 23-199.
NCTA's argument that the FCC needn't clarify its "all-in" video pricing order on franchise fees (see 2411190065) shows why clarification is necessary, local governments and allies said in a docket 23-203 filing posted Monday. The filers said that while NCTA recognizes what the law says about franchise fees, the FCC incorrectly said otherwise in a footnote in the all-in order. Signing the filing were the Texas Coalition of Cities for Utility Issues, Boston, Mount Hood Cable Regulatory Commission, Fairfax County, Virginia, and NATOA.
It would be a mistake for the Trump administration to undo President Joe Biden’s efforts at establishing a rights-based regulatory framework for AI technology, Democrats told us in interviews before the break.
Clarifying the FCC's "all-in" video pricing order to spell what does or doesn't count as a franchise fee isn't necessary, as the order itself is clear, NCTA said in a docket 23-203 filing posted Tuesday. If the FCC wants clarity, it should ensure that its statement in the order about public, educational and governmental access support fees remains in line with agency precedent on the item, NCTA said. Any clarification could reaffirm that all charges and payments for PEG facilities are excluded from the all-in pricing rule "whether they are characterized as franchise fees or not," it said. NCTA was responding to a local franchise authorities petition seeking the clarification (see 2411140004).
Mercury Wireless Indiana notified the FCC it's unable to meet rural digital opportunity fund commitments to build out its service in 13 census tracts in Indiana. “This was a very difficult decision for Mercury to make, as we continually strive to deploy high-speed broadband throughout rural America,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 19-126. “Mercury took the time to put forth thoughtful analysis as we endeavored to find a way to make these broadband deployments feasible,” the provider said: “However, deployment costs have increased dramatically since Mercury made its bids in the RDOF reverse auction.”
Brattle Group officials and others representing NextNav met with an aide to FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez on NextNav’s plan to reconfigure the 902-928 MHz band to enable a terrestrial complement to GPS for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services (see 2404160043). The Brattle representatives discussed their assessment of the potential economic benefits, said a filing posted Monday in docket 24-240. They “explained the conservative valuation methodology they employed in preparing their analysis, and they reviewed both the economically quantifiable benefits NextNav’s proposal would generate, which figured into their valuation estimate, and the potential for significant benefit in terms of lives saved, which did not,” the filing said.