The FCC should fundamentally change its relationship with broadcasting, provide more flexibility for the ATSC 3.0 transition, and not allow broadcasting to decline as newspapers have, Commissioner Brendan Carr said Tuesday. Speaking at the Radio and Television Summit of the Americas, Carr referenced The Washington Post slogan “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” The FCC “may be the one flipping out the light” through recent actions that discourage investment in broadcasting, he said. For example, Carr mentioned the Standard General/Tegna deal and the proposed enforcement action against Nexstar and Mission related to their local marketing agreement for WPIX New York. The FCC is “going down the path of imposing enforcement -- fines -- against broadcasters doing exactly what they told us they were going to do,” Carr said. The agency has allowed wireless companies to sunset and transition to new wireless technologies and should do the same for broadcasters on ATSC 3.0, he said.
Alaska Telecom Association representatives emphasized to the FCC the importance of the Alaska Connect Fund to improving mobile wireless service in the state and other issues. The representatives met with an aide to Commissioner Nathan Simington. “We urged the Commission to quickly move forward with the Alaska Connect Fund to provide needed certainty to carriers and the consumers they serve in the state,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 10-90. USF support is “essential to make service available and affordable in Alaska and the Alaska Connect Fund can build on past successes,” the group said.
New America's Open Technology Institute is raising concerns about the FCC's broadband consumer labels (see 2404100076). In a meeting with Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau staff, OTI asked the FCC to issue best practices for formatting and clarify that ISPs "should not block automated collection and access of CSV files by means other than human directed web browser actions," according to an ex parte filing Tuesday in docket 22-2. The group also found instances of "label implementation that either undermined the purpose of the rule or raised other concerns." OTI said some labels couldn't be accessed without providing a service address. One provider's plan directed a user to a "pop-up with a large block of 'fine print' rather than the label" on its website, OTI said. It also noted some consumers shopping for services in person "may not be aware" they can ask for a broadband consumer label to compare plans.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel on Tuesday announced the establishment of the Spectrum Steering Team that will lead FCC efforts “to develop and implement forward-looking spectrum policies” and oversee work on the national spectrum strategy (see 2404260050). Susan Mort, deputy chief of the Wireless Bureau, and Ira Keltz, deputy chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology, will co-lead the team. Krista Witanowski, OET legal adviser, will serve as chief of staff. The FCC said the team “brings together policy experts, economists, and engineers from across the Commission.” The Office of Economics and Analytics and Space Bureau are also involved. “Demand for spectrum is growing at a breakneck pace as wireless technology expands and transforms so much in our economy and modern life, so we need to get creative with spectrum policies,” Rosenworcel said.
U.S. Chamber of Commerce representatives met with an aide to FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez on the group’s perspective on a November Further NPRM on protecting consumers from SIM swapping and port-out fraud. The Chamber weighed in on a single issue: whether to require wireless carriers to explicitly exclude resolution of SIM change and port-out fraud disputes from arbitration clauses in providers’ agreements with their customers or abrogate such clauses (see 2401180053). “We noted that the Commission lacks the authority to prohibit arbitration per the Federal Arbitration Act as well as discussed the benefits of arbitration agreements for consumers,” said a filing this week in docket 02-278. The Chamber representatives also opposed a proposal to prohibit bulk billing arrangements (see 2405080043): “We noted that bulk billing arrangements provide significant benefits to consumers, enable greater access to broadband, and that a rulemaking at this point is premature.”
The FCC reminded competitive LECs they must submit interstate tariff revisions by July 17. A Wireline Bureau public notice posted Tuesday in docket 21-41 encouraged CLECs to file revisions "after the competing incumbent LEC's interstate access charge tariffs become effective on July 2."
A coalition of Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) winners urged the FCC to grant a limited waiver of the program's rules concerning a letter of credit and relinquish census block groups in areas that have been or will be overbuilt by federal-funded broadband deployment projects. The coalition said in a meeting with Wireline Bureau staff that waiving the letter of credit rule to one year of support was needed because "unforeseeable cost increases place significant strains on RDOF winners to contribute huge amounts of additional funds for RDOF broadband deployments." The group also urged the commission to "promptly address" potential overbuilding "through its deconfliction process and allow RDOF funding recipients to return such areas ... without financial penalties."
The possible end of the federal affordable connectivity program (ACP) isn't an excuse to make sweeping changes to state broadband grant rules, ISPs told the California Public Utilities Commission this week. In Monday comments (docket R.20-08-021), AT&T, Frontier Communications, cable companies and small rural local exchange carriers urged the CPUC to swiftly reject last month’s The Utility Reform Network (TURN) petition to modify rules for the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) broadband infrastructure account (see 2404150062).
Broadband providers, broadcasters, satellite companies and the FirstNet Authority urged the FCC not to expand outage reporting requirements. Meanwhile, groups such as Public Knowledge, Next Century Cities and The Utility Reform Network (TURN) said increased reporting rules are a matter of public safety. Comments were filed in docket 21-346 by Monday’s deadline.
Supplemental coverage from space service will provide a huge backstop to terrestrial networks' coverage, especially when disasters and emergencies strike terrestrial networks. But SCS also will carry significant challenges for pinpointing callers' locations, speakers said Tuesday at an FCBA CLE.