A coalition of banking and utility companies urged that the FCC adopt a draft order that was removed from consideration during its September open meeting (see 2409200036). The American Bankers Association, America's Credit Unions, ACA International, Bank Policy Institute, Mortgage Bankers Association, Student Loan Servicing Alliance, and Edison Electric Institute said in a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Brendan Carr that the draft order's proposal that requires wireless providers to offer email-to-text as an opt-in service will "significantly reduce the use of email-to-text to send illegal text messages." Texts impersonating legitimate businesses "harm consumers and undermine those business' ability to communicate with their customers," the coalition said in an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 17-59.
Fraud isn't a valid reason to reject an FCC proposal requiring that all mobile wireless providers unlock handsets, as there are ways to reduce fraud risk, according to the cable industry. In a docket 24-186 filing Monday, it urged a 180-day period after a provider initiates service before unlocking is required, instead of the FCC's proposed 60 days. It said the shorter span often isn't enough time for a customer to identify fraud, such as through an unauthorized credit card charge, and get the issue resolved before the handset gets unlocked. It said the agency also should make clear a provider has the ability to decline an unlocking request if it has a good-faith belief the handset is subject to fraud. Cable representatives want a transition period of at least six months before unlocking rules take effect, letting providers update their internal procedures. The filing recapped meetings NCTA, Comcast, Charter and Cox Communications conducted with the offices of FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, Commissioners Brendan Carr, Geoffrey Starks and Nathan Simington and with Office of Engineering and Technology and Wireless Bureau staff.
The Osage Nation urged the FCC to act on its amended petition to receive an eligible telecom carrier (ETC) designation. The tribe told an aide to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel its petition has been pending for more than a year and the ETC designation is necessary to ensure it can obtain services through Lifeline. The designation would also "ensure rapid deployment" to residents through a $40.7 million grant from NTIA (see 2208180056), the tribe said in an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 09-197.
Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., is urging the FCC to update its horizontal location (Y-axis) enhanced 911 location accuracy standard to “reflect advances in technology to ensure that” public safety answering points and first responders “can more accurately locate” callers. The existing Y-axis standard the FCC adopted in 2015 “represented a dramatic improvement in E911 accuracy and effectiveness and reflected the technology available at the time,” Eshoo said in a Friday letter to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel we obtained. “But this standard can still lead to mispositioning of E911 callers and compromise the response times of first responders, placing callers on the wrong side of the street, in the wrong building, or even on the wrong block.” Improvements to the global navigation satellite system and other technologies have “advanced significantly” since 2015 and “provide greater horizontal location accuracy and improve emergency response times,” Eshoo said: Any changes to the standard “should be technologically feasible and technologically neutral so that providers can choose the most effective solution from a range of options.” A “lot of new and powerful technologies have been deployed in the decade since the FCC last updated the location accuracy framework,” emailed Cooley’s Robert McDowell, a former FCC commissioner. “They could power devices to locate users with great precision. Uncountable lives could be saved by using modern technology and the Commission could help get us there.”
The FCC deactivated the disaster information reporting system and mandatory disaster response initiative for Hurricane Helene Saturday, said a public notice in Monday’s Daily Digest. Reporting for Hurricane Milton was deactivated last week (see 2410150075).
Some candidates for state utility commissions promised to take on broadband and other telecom matters if they win election this year. Eight states will elect utility regulators this year: Alabama, Arizona, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota. In addition, a New Mexico ballot question will ask voters to authorize millions of dollars for upgrading public safety communications. Meanwhile, Oregon voters will consider a universal basic income that would require Comcast and other big companies to foot the bill.
The FCC’s order on collecting broadcaster workforce diversity data is outside its authority and violates the Constitution, said a reply brief from the National Religious Broadcasters, the American Family Association and the Texas Association of Broadcasters filed Friday in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (see 2410070023). “The FCC fails to identify any statutory provision or delegated function furthered by the Order,” said the filing. “Noticeably absent is any quote from statutory text. That’s because none exists,” it added. The equal employment opportunity order is “unlawful because the government requires race- and sex-based classifications, and seeks to pressure broadcasters to treat applicants differently based on race and sex,” said the groups.
The FCC should limit the scope of its lowest unit rate (LUR), applying only to political ads that are at least 50% candidate funded, said a joint letter Wednesday to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel from campaign finance groups, including End Citizens United Action Fund and Campaign Legal Center. Under LUR, candidates buying broadcast advertisements can be charged only the lowest rate that commercial advertisers paid for the same class of time. LUR applies to federal, state and local candidates but not PACs or issue advertisers. However, some campaign finance groups say Republican joint finance committees are benefiting from LUR and running TV ads where the National Republican Senatorial Committee provides the majority of funds, not the individual candidates. That's “a blatant attempt to bypass contribution limits and undermine our campaign finance system,” said a news release from the groups, which also include Public Citizen and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. The NRSC didn’t comment. Rosenworcel should “publicly confirm” that LUR applies only to ads that candidates pay for, and that a candidate must pay for at least 50% of an ad to trigger the lower rates and other FCC political ad rules, the letter said. The FCC lacks a policy on how much of an ad a candidate must fund before triggering LUR, said Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford in an interview. The agency’s long-standing stance is “even though a spot was bought by the party on a national basis, if the candidate authorized it, it would be entitled to lowest unit charge,” Oxenford said. Changing that would likely require notice and comment periods rather than a simple clarification, he said. That makes it unlikely LUR policy would change in time for the November election. There are some indications broadcasters might support such clarifications, Oxenford said. In 2023, the Florida Association of Broadcasters filed a petition for a declaratory ruling calling for a clarification on when LUR applies, but that petition was later withdrawn. The matter of when an ad should enjoy the lowest unit charge “is really a question that ... needs to [be] resolve[d],” Oxenford said. NAB didn’t comment.
A news distortion complaint filed at the FCC against CBS isn’t “facially ridiculous,” said Commissioner Nathan Simington in a Fox News segment Thursday, though he also vowed not to “prejudge” the matter. The complaint argues that editing of an interview with Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris changed her answer to a question on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, making it sound more favorable. Although the complaint was brought against CBS’ owned and operated station WCBS New York, the content it focuses on was from network programs Face the Nation and 60 Minutes. For the FCC to find that news distortion occurred, the conduct would have had to occur at the level of the licensee rather than the network, Simington said. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Thursday had reposted on Truth Social Simington's early posting about the complaint in which the commissioner wrote, “Interesting. Big if true. Will look into it.” Trump appointed Simington to the FCC in 2020, after the then-president withdrew his renomination of former Commissioner Mike O’Rielly in the wake of an O'Rielly speech critical of social media content regulation that the executive branch proposed.
High-power, two-way fixed operations in the 12.2-12.7 GHz band would cause harmful interference to DirecTV receivers 100 to 1 million times the limits in place to protect direct broadcast satellite (DBS) customers, according to DirecTV. In docket 20-443, it submitted an engineering study by consultancy Savid to counter Dish Network's submitted study by consultancy RKF that backs DBS and fixed wireless coexistence in the band (see 2311160032). The Savid study shows interference extending well beyond the intended coverage area of the base stations, contrary to RKF's "misleading depictions," and allegations of "wreak[ing] havoc" on DBS subscribers, DirecTV said in the filing posted Friday. Separately in docket 22-352, DirecTV recapped calls with aides to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioners Anna Gomez, Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington. It discussed concerns about opening the adjacent 12.7-13.25 GHz band to terrestrial wireless and the likelihood of harmful interference to DBS operations.