The FCC plans to update its orbital debris mitigation docket, its Space Bureau said in a docket 18-313 public notice Thursday. It said it especially wanted comments about whether to analyze collision risks for non-geostationary orbit systems aggregately or per satellite, and about the use of U.S. Orbital Debris Mitigation Standard Practices’ probability of collision metric as a threshold or safe harbor as a means of identifying systems that may need further review. In addition, it said it was seeking updated input evaluating the likelihood of individual satellite maneuvering failures within a multisatellite system.
The FCC should issue an NPRM seeking comment on a proposed report about content vendor diversity, Allen Media, the United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry, the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, Black Women’s Roundtable, and attorney David Goodfriend of I Street Advocates said in a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Geoffrey Starks Tuesday, according to an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 22-209. A petition for rulemaking on the proposal was already the subject of a round of comments in 2022 (see 2207250060). The proposed report “will be effective and not burdensome,” the filing said. The proposal would collect data from FCC regulatees that operate media companies -- such as Disney and Google -- about their vendors. “No vendor, including small vendors, will be required to submit data, but the data that is submitted will add to the publicly available information.” The data would “be consistent, according to FCC-adopted definitions and thus can be compared easily with each other, unlike the anecdotal information available now.” Creating the report would be in line with provisions in the Cable Act authorizing the FCC to adopt rules specifying how regulatees encourage minority and female entrepreneurship, the filing said.
The cable industry is urging the FCC to simplify the proposed reinstatement of the collection of FCC Form 395-A, which concerns the workforce composition of multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs). Smaller MVPDs especially lack resources for handling extensive regulatory requirements, ACA Connects said in docket 98-204 comments this week. It said the agency should let 395-A submissions be made through the Cable and Operations Licensing System, which would help minimize compliance costs. It also urged that mandatory 395-A submissions not occur until at least a year from the effective date of an order reinstating data collection. NCTA also suggested ways of reducing cable operator burden, such as requiring information be made available only through the FCC-hosted Online Public Information File, rather than also through MVPD local facilities or websites. NCTA said the FCC should opt for EEO-1 forms, which would provide substantially similar information, rather than 395-As. American Free Enterprise and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said collecting and disclosing race, gender and ethnicity employee data "is intended to pressure MVPDs to discriminate in recruiting and hiring to bring their workforce composition in line with prevailing notions of 'diversity,'" They urged withdrawal of the proposed rule, saying that publishing the data to pursue increased representation of certain demographics at MVPDs goes against the Fifth Amendment.
LTD Broadband asked to partly relinquish its eligible telecom carrier designation in Minnesota due to the FCC canceling the company’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) support. In a Wednesday letter to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, CEO Corey Hauer said the FCC decision “has left us disappointed and puzzled, as [it] seems to contradict the very purpose of RDOF: to connect unserved and underserved Americans.” LTD seeks to give up ETC status only for RDOF, not for the Connect America Fund Phase II, he clarified. Hauer’s letter marks a turnaround from November when he told the state commission that he still wanted to defend his company and keep the ETC designation (see 2311160039). State telecom and electric industry groups had asked the PUC to revoke the company’s ETC certificate (docket 22-221). The Minnesota Telecom Alliance “is pleased to see this contested case come to closure,” MTA President Brent Christensen said Thursday. “LTD’s decision … is very appropriate given the recent decisions of the FCC.” Hauer told us in an email Thursday that his company “doesn't intend to relinquish ETC designation in any other state.” It's doing so in Minnesota, said Hauer, because MTA and the Minnesota Rural Electric Association (MREA), supported by Minnesota’s attorney general office and commerce department, “refused to pause” the proceeding to revoke the broadband company's ETC status while LTD challenged the FCC decision at the D.C. Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. “They did so under the false premise that we were in imminent danger of being awarded RDOF funds without … saying how much they hate competition and how only MTA or MREA members are capable of building broadband networks," he said. "I am not going to let them waste more of our time and money.” If LTD wins against the FCC on appeal, “I expect to aggressively build our RDOF areas in entirety,” the CEO added.
Nokia representatives met with FCC Wireline Bureau staff to discuss tweaking the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program. Some invoices submitted in September haven’t been paid and even adjustments of a few pennies need to be “kicked back, corrected and reprocessed again,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 18-89.
Dish Wireless certified that it’s in compliance with new mandatory disaster response initiative (MDRI) requirements the FCC approved last year (see 2207060070). Dish “complies with the Commission’s MDRI rules and thus is entitled to a presumption of compliance with the Commission’s rules implementing the MDRI,” the company said in a filing posted Thursday in docket 21-346.
The Council of Large Public Housing Authorities is concerned about the FCC's proposal that would ban bulk billing arrangements between ISPs and building owners (see 2403050069). The group said in a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Geoffrey Starks and a separate letter to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel that "wholesale elimination of bulk billing would precipitate unintended consequences by having a negative effect on low-income residents." CLPHA noted that some bulk billing arrangements let residents in public housing units receive service at no cost.
The FCC’s April 24 opposition to Essential Network Technologies and MetComm.Net's petition challenging the authority of the FCC and the Universal Service Administrative Co. to withhold reimbursement of discounts for IT and broadband services that the companies provided to schools confirms that the petition should be granted, the petitioners’ reply said. It was filed Wednesday (docket 24-1027) at the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Discounts on IT and broadband services come under Section 254 of the Communications Act (see 2404250028). The FCC calls the mandamus relief that the petitioners seek to force the reimbursements a drastic remedy that should be invoked only in extraordinary circumstances. In cases such as this, involving claims of unreasonable agency delay, mandamus is warranted only when delays are egregious, the agency said. But under “the first mandamus factor,” for a remedy in this case to be adequate, “it must enable the numerous schools in this case to complete their IT projects before the next school year,” said the petitioners’ reply. If the FCC doesn’t render a decision and provide funding before the summer, “many schools will be unable to move forward with vital IT projects and hundreds of students will be deprived next school year of the IT infrastructure necessary for a modern education,” it said. Compensatory relief after years of litigation, as the FCC suggested, doesn’t provide an adequate remedy that would prevent this harm to the public, “which after next year would become irreversible in the absence of immediate mandamus relief,” it said. The agency contends that in light of evidence showing that the petitioners may have had an improper relationship with the schools they were servicing, USAC investigated that possible misconduct, but expects those probes will be finished by the end of May. But that expectation “provides little solace when USAC lacks any authority to address the legal issues in this case and there is no time limit for an FCC decision,” said the petitioners’ reply. The agency’s opposition doesn’t indicate when the FCC will render a decision or whether the schools will receive funds before next school year, it said. Under the second mandamus factor, there’s a clear and indisputable right under Section 254 to the particular relief sought, it said. The Fifth Amendment also establishes a clear and indisputable right to due process, which required a “timely deprivation hearing” either before or after Essential and MetComm were deprived of their “statutory entitlement to reimbursement,” it said. The FCC has a “clear duty” to report its deprivation decision in writing, it said.
The federal government is progressing in its understanding of the extent of threats to federal technology systems, Eric Goldstein, executive assistant director-cybersecurity at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event late Wednesday. Other speakers noted private companies have slowly become more willing to share information when they experience a cyberattack.
The low earth orbit (LEO) satellite boom is aping the consumer electronics model of cheap and standardized, meaning the industry must focus more on rapid replacements that are also environmentally sustainable, said Aaron Boley, University of British Columbia Outer Space Institute co-director, speaking at an IEEE event Thursday on LEO and sustainability. Darren McKnight, LeoLabs senior technical fellow, said the proliferation of spent rocket bodies left in orbit is an increasing concern. Among regulatory agencies, the FCC has "set a good example" in trying to tackle orbital debris, McKnight said. The commission has said it would refresh its space debris mitigation docket (see 2405020048).