FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced acting leadership for a number of bureau offices Friday but not for the offices of Workplace Diversity or Communications Business Opportunities. An executive order that President Donald Trump issued Monday that ends federal diversity, equity and inclusion efforts could affect those offices and their staff, industry and FCC officials told us. Neither office was mentioned in Carr’s release Monday announcing the shuttering of other FCC diversity efforts (see 2501210070). The FCC didn’t respond to repeated inquiries about those offices' fate. Office of Workplace Diversity staff were present at an all-hands meeting that Carr held Thursday, FCC employees told us.
New FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has pulled all items on circulation for a vote by commissioners. “There are no Items on Circulation,” said a single line on the agency’s list, which was dated Friday. Among the items pulled was an NPRM that was seen as a preliminary step to an AWS-3 auction. It was not expected to be controversial (see 2501060044).
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that the FCC overstepped its statutory boundaries in part of its implementation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and vacated part of the agency's 2023 robocall and robotext order. In a 23-page decision (docket 24-10277), Judges Elizabeth Branch, Robert Luck and Barbara Lagoa sided with petitioner Insurance Marketing Coalition and said the 2023 order sets rules that conflict with the ordinary statutory meaning of the TCPA's "prior express consent" language. The 11th Circuit judges expressed skepticism in oral argument last month regarding the one-to-one robotext consent policy in the order (see 2412180008). The 11th Circuit vacated the portion of the order that states that a consumer can't consent to a telemarketing or advertising robocall unless they consent to calls from only one entity at a time and consent only to calls whose subject matter is “logically and topically associated with the interaction that prompted the consent.” The 11th Circuit also remanded the order back to the FCC for further proceedings. The decision was penned by Branch.
Olivia Trusty, President Donald Trump’s intended nominee for the FCC seat former Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel vacated last week, faces a uncertain confirmation timeline amid a glut of higher-profile nominees the Senate must process in the coming weeks. Trump said shortly before his return to office that he intended to pick Trusty for an FCC seat (see 2501160064) but as of Friday afternoon had not formally nominated her. It’s possible that the Senate Commerce Committee could hold a confirmation hearing for Trusty in February, but it's likelier to wait until the panel can pair her with a Trump NTIA administrator pick and other subcabinet nominees, some lobbyists told us.
The National Sheriffs’ Association and the California State Sheriffs’ Association asked that the FCC stay an October order giving the FirstNet Authority -- and, indirectly, AT&T -- use of the 4.9 GHz band (see 2410220027) pending judicial review of the order. The Coalition for Emergency Response and Critical Infrastructure challenged the order, while the Public Safety Spectrum Alliance questioned aspects of it, in petitions for review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (see 2412040043). The sheriffs groups said plaintiffs will likely prevail in court. “The Order is arbitrary and capricious because its last minute decision to block public safety entities from modifying existing licenses and applying for new licenses was not the subject of adequate notice,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 07-100. In addition, the order is “self-contradictory and not based on sound reasoning,” the groups said. It "claims that incumbent licensees will not be adversely affected, when they will immediately be stripped of their geographic license rights and ability to apply for new or modified licenses as needed.” The order also unfairly helps AT&T “better position itself vis-à-vis its commercial wireless service competitors” by giving it “access to free mid-band spectrum in order to ‘maintain parity’ with its competitors, which is not an appropriate use of the 4.9 GHz public safety spectrum.”
The National Wireless Communications Council (NWCC) asked that new FCC Chairman Brendan Carr address T-band interference issues. Formerly the Land Mobile Communications Council, the group noted that it initially asked about the issue in 2020, seeking “expedited FCC action” to address alleged harmful interference from newly authorized DTV stations to Part 90 private land mobile radio systems (see 2008280062). The NWCC “recognizes that interference from one category of FCC-compliant systems to another, equally compliant group of licensees presents a difficult situation for the Commission,” said an undocketed filing Thursday. “What is certain is that no solution will be found unless the FCC addresses the issue.” The NWCC said it's willing to participate in a task force on T-band interference “or in any other forum the FCC chooses to convene for that purpose.”
Consumer and public interest groups urged the FCC on Wednesday to avoid acting on a petition by Responsible Enterprises Against Consumer Harassment (REACH), which seeks an emergency stay of the FCC's one-to-one robotext consent rules (see 2501210058). Commissioners approved the rules 13 months ago (see 2312130019). Absent further FCC action, the order will take effect Monday. The rules are “widely supported by consumers and small businesses, a bipartisan coalition of 28 state Attorneys General, as well as the telephone industry,” said a filing this week in docket 02-278. The delay that REACH proposes “requires full compliance with the Administrative Procedures Act, and thus even [if] it was warranted (which it is not), cannot be adopted in time to delay the effective date of the one-to-one regulation,” the groups said. The National Consumer Law Center, Consumer Action, the Consumer Federation of America, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the National Association of Consumer Advocates, the National Consumers League, Public Knowledge and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group signed the filing.
The Puerto Rico Telephone Co. (PRTC) updated the FCC on its work restoring copper networks following Hurricanes Irma and Maria. “Fixed telecommunications services in the areas served in network node 95000IP06 have been restored,” bringing nodes restored to 1,201, said a filing this week in docket 18-240. That includes 590 network nodes restored through deployment of fiber-to-the-home to replace copper loops, “which is more than four times the number of network nodes that PRTC originally had planned for restoration through FTTH.” PRTC noted that part of its restoration plan is to replace legacy connections with fixed broadband voice over LTE. “As PRTC has informed the Commission, the deployment of this fixed VoLTE-based solution was delayed significantly due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent supply chain disruptions that affected the telecommunications industry.”
The FCC is revising its Freedom of Information Act fees to reflect increases to federal employee pay enacted by Congress and the White House, said a public notice Thursday. The agency made a corresponding increase in 2023 (see 2302060054). “The Commission bases its FOIA Fee Schedule on the grade level of the employee who processes the request,” the PN said. “The Commission’s rules provide that the Fee Schedule will be modified periodically to correspond with modifications in the rate of pay approved by Congress.” The FOIA fee changes are effective as of the PN’s release.
The FCC received feedback from space and wireless interests in docket 24-687 on selection of a space launch frequency coordinator (SLFC) for the agency's space launch service, and in docket 13-115 regarding licensing and frequency coordination procedures and data requirements. Comments were due Wednesday in both. The space launch spectrum allocation order adopted in 2023 (see 2309210055) requires that launch operators seeking to use the 2025–2110 MHz or 2200–2290 MHz band complete a frequency coordination process with a third-party coordinator.