Most industry groups opposed the FCC's decision restoring net neutrality rules and reclassifying broadband internet access service (BIAS) as a Communications Act Title II service Thursday. Most disagreed with Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel on the order's legal standing, warning it could likely be overturned if a challenge is brought (see 2404250004). The Wireless ISP Association will "carefully review" the order and "determine what legal recourse we should take," Vice President-Policy Louis Peraertz said. Several consumer advocacy groups praised the order.
FCC commissioners were met with applause following a 3-2 vote that restored the net neutrality framework and reclassified broadband internet access service (BIAS) as a Communications Act Title II telecom service during the agency's open meeting Thursday (see 2404190038). “Essential services [require] some basic oversight,” Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said. She told reporters following the vote that the rules are "court tested and court approved" because they are "very consistent with" prior rules that were upheld in court: "I'm confident that these rules will also be upheld."
TWN Communications, supplier of commercial and residential broadband services to rural electric cooperatives, taps former FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein as executive vice president-chief strategy and external affairs officer ... NCTA hires NTIA’s Russ Hanser as deputy chief legal officer ... Incompas adds DC Blox CEO Jeff Uphues to its board ... Silicon Labs taps board member Bob Conrad, also a former Texas Instruments and Analog Devices executive, as senior vice president-worldwide operations; Sandeep Kumar, who currently leads global operations, will depart Silicon Labs in 2024's second half ... New IAB hires: Cintia Gabilan, ex-Amazon and Meta, as vice president-IAB Media Center; Arlene Mu, ex-Lowe's, as assistant general counsel; and Nadine Karp McHugh, ex-Goldman Sachs, as executive in residence ... Ivanti, IT and security company, adds Proofpoint’s Alex Lei, also former Dell Technologies, as senior vice president-sales, Asia Pacific and Japan ... Streaming media company FreeCast rehires Chris Savine, ex-Netscape and AOL Time Warner, as chief operations officer and head-finance; he previously was FreeCast’s chief financial officer from 2014 to 2020 ... Involta, provider of data center and cloud infrastructure and services, hires Everstream Solutions' Dereck Wischmeyer as general counsel.
SpaceX wants V-band capabilities on some of its lower-orbiting second-generation Starlink satellites. In an FCC Space Bureau application posted Wednesday, the company asked for authority to include V-band payloads on its second-generation satellites orbiting at 340-360 km. The agency last year approved V-band payloads on second-generation Starlinks operating at 525-535 km (see 2310160053). SpaceX said the FCC giving it more V-band deployment options would augment its broadband service capabilities using V-band frequencies. It said it can share V-band frequencies with other non-geostationary orbit systems and conventional geostationary orbit satellites and terrestrial networks at 300 km without becoming a significant interference threat.
NTIA hired Shiva Goel, who was an aide to FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, as senior advisor-spectrum policy, NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson said Wednesday. Scott Harris served in that role previously. He left the agency a month ago. Since then, questions arose about who would oversee NTIA’s implementation of the national spectrum strategy (see 2404030033). Davidson also announced Francella Ochillo as director-public engagement. Ochillo was a technology and society fellow at Georgetown University.
Samsung Electronics America representatives met with aides to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel about the company’s request for a waiver for a 5G base station radio that works across citizens broadband radio service and C-band spectrum (see 2309130041). The company refuted concerns raised about the potential interference threat to CBRS (see 2404090058). Samsung was “the first phone manufacturer to offer a phone operating in CBRS in the United States and a leading supplier of CBRS base stations around the country,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 23-93: “Samsung has every incentive to ensure its proposed radio does not intentionally interfere with its and others’ CBRS radios.” The waiver request “has been pending more than 600 days and is ripe for grant,” the company said.
The Public Safety Spectrum Alliance (PSSA) defended its push for assigning 4.9 GHz band spectrum to FirstNet (see 2401190067), in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 07-100. It’s important that the FCC “preserve access to the band for incumbent users, while taking steps to increase nationwide usage as well as leverage the unique characteristics of this mid-band spectrum to supercharge 5G capabilities for a broader array of public safety users,” the PSSA said: Under current rules “the band would remain balkanized and underutilized nationwide -- as it has for more than two decades.” Giving the FirstNet Authority access is “the clear and obvious path to advance the public interest,” the group said.
Eager to win FCC approval of its proposed buy of Mint Mobile (see 2303150032), a low-cost prepaid wireless brand, and other assets from Ka’ena, T-Mobile told the FCC it would agree to a handset unlocking requirement. Public and consumer interest groups have asked the FCC to push for that concession (see 2402060025). “Within 60 days of the closing of the transaction, T-Mobile commits to implement an unlocking policy applicable to all Mint Mobile and Ultra Mobile devices activated on the T-Mobile network both pre- and post-closing,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 23-171. T-Mobile said it views the concession as unnecessary but wants to ensure prompt FCC approval. The company "believes that the public interest benefits of its proposed acquisition of the Mint Mobile and Ultra Mobile wireless brands and their customers are clear and compelling and that no credible competitive concerns have been raised with respect to the proposed transaction,” the filing said. T-Mobile reports quarterly earnings after the close of the financial markets Thursday. “It is good to see progress on the issue, though the voluntary commitments do not quite match what we asked for in the record,” emailed PK Legal Director John Bergmayer. “There are some timing differences,” but the biggest difference is T-Mobile is committing to unlocking Mint Mobile and Ultra Mobile devices, “as opposed to all devices on the T-Mobile network,” he said: “It’s not just Mint customers that would benefit from unlocking, and having a uniform policy would probably be simpler.” It’s “in the public interest to unlock all new devices on T-Mobile’s network, not only the acquired Mint Mobile customers,” said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America: “A uniform policy for all T-Mobile customers would also bring the U.S. closer to the sort of industry-wide unlocking policy that is already required by the regulators in Canada” and the U.K.
The consolidated petitions of 20 industry groups that challenge the FCC’s Nov. 20 order implementing Section 60506 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (see 240319004) do so because the order interprets digital discrimination to mean not only intentional discrimination but also “actions with a disparate impact,” the groups’ brief said Wednesday (docket 24-1179) in the 8th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court in support of their petitions. Disparate-impact liability is "rare," and every "interpretive clue here" confirms that Congress didn't intend to impose it, said the brief that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, CTIA and NCTA and others submitted. The FCC nevertheless has created the “first-ever regime” prohibiting business practices that cause a disparate impact based on income level, it said. The petitioners contend that the rule exceeds the commission’s statutory authority and that the order is arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act, it said. In light of the many "complex and novel questions" presented and the fact that these cases involve two “distinct, nonaligned groups of petitioners,” the industry petitioners ask that the 8th Circuit afford one hour of oral argument time, with the precise division to be determined after the briefing is complete, it said.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court granted the unopposed March 20 motion of Hamilton Relay, a telecommunications relay service (TRS) provider, to intervene in support of the Ohio Telecom Association’s petition for review challenging the FCC’s Dec. 21 order modifying and expanding the commission’s data breach notification rules on telecom carriers, VoIP providers and TRS providers (see 2403210001), said a clerk’s order Wednesday (docket 24-3133). Hamilton provides intrastate and interstate text telephone, speech-to-speech and captioned telephone services in numerous states through individual state TRS contracts, plus nationwide relay service through its internet protocol captioned telephone service, which is regulated by the FCC. Hamilton’s motion said it was entitled to intervene because it was a party of interest in the proceeding leading to the adoption of the order and because the order’s data breach notification rules changes adversely affect its interests.