California state and local enforcers could seek injunctive relief for digital discrimination under modification to a bill by Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D). The Assembly Judiciary Committee approved AB-2239 with the amendment at a livestreamed meeting Tuesday. The panel and the Senate Judiciary Committee also considered multiple bills on algorithms and social media.
CTIA and its major members agreed that grants of special temporary authority (STA) are the best method of getting “inventory” spectrum into play, in reply comments posted Tuesday in docket 24-72. Others continue to stress the benefits of dynamic sharing and other mechanisms (see 2404090045). The FCC sought comment in March as the agency marked the one-year anniversary of its general auction authority expiring.
The Senate Commerce Committee is eyeing a May 1 vote on the to-be-filed Spectrum and National Security Act from panel Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., lobbyists told us. A general notice on the Senate Commerce markup session was online Wednesday night but the committee hadn’t formally announced its agenda. It wasn’t certain Wednesday night whether the Spectrum and National Security Act would actually be part of the meeting. The executive session will begin at 10 a.m. in 253 Russell. There are five other telecom and tech-focused bills on the docket: the Rural Broadband Protection Act (S-275), Network Equipment Transparency Act (S-690), Protecting Kids on Social Media Act (S-1291), Create AI Act (S-2714) and Future of AI Innovation Act (S-4178).
The FCC set June 6 as the deadline for comments, replies by July 8, in docket 24-119 about the state of competition in the communications marketplace for the agency’s biannual State of Competition in the Communications Marketplace report to Congress (see 2207050062). The agency sought data, information, and statistics for 2022 and 2023, as well as "any notable trends and developments that have occurred during early 2024," said a public notice Monday.
Barbara van Schewick, director of Stanford University’s Center for Internet and Society, met with aides to the FCC’s Democratic commissioners to counter CTIA arguments about the treatment of 5G slicing under draft net neutrality rules (see 2404170032), said a filing posted Monday in docket 23-320. “In recent filings, CTIA suggests that language [suggesting] that alleged non-BIAS data services that offer quality of service to applications, content, and services whose quality of service requirements can be met over [broadband internet access service] consistent with open internet protections would likely be found to evade the Open Internet protections is ‘a dramatic shift from the 2015 framework,’” van Schewick said: “I disagree with that characterization. As the draft order recognizes, the 2015 Order clearly stated multiple times that it would ‘take appropriate enforcement action’ if an alleged non-BIAS data service was found to evade the Open Internet protections.” She noted that her name was spelled “Shewick” several times in the draft and asked that it be corrected.
The FCC Enforcement Bureau affirmed its 2019 decision fining AT&T and AMG Technology Investment for appearing to violate the commission's rules on prohibited communications during the Connect America Fund phase II auction (see 1909060063). The bureau said in a forfeiture order Monday that AT&T must pay a $75,000 fine because it violated the prohibited communications rule and five-business day reporting deadline. A separate forfeiture order affirming AMG's $100,000 fine said the company was "an active participant in prohibited communications with AT&T surrounding AMG’s bids, bidding strategies, and bidding results."
The FCC’s Disability Advisory Committee will next meet virtually May 16 (see [2404190025).
The 12.2 GHz band is the only spectrum DirecTV uses to deliver programming to subscribers, including several heavily watched HD channels, and to deliver mobile services to aircraft boats and RVs, the company told FCC staffers. In a docket 22-352 filing Monday recapping a meeting with Wireless and Space Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology staff, DirecTV discussed a supplemental Savid study detailing the possibility of harmful interference from terrestrial operations in the adjacent 12.7 GHz band.
The Kentucky Public Service Commission should quicken ISP access to utility poles in response to a directive from the state legislature, said the Kentucky Broadband and Cable Association (KBCA) in comments Friday. Electric companies that own poles said they’re fine with existing Kentucky rules. More could be done to encourage negotiation and to ensure complete applications and timely payments by attachers, they allowed.
The FCC’s proposed $1.8 million forfeiture against Nexstar and Mission Broadcasting over allegations that the companies misrepresented Nexstar’s control over WPIX New York (see 2403220067) is an unlawful attempt to overturn a previous FCC’s decision, violates the Constitution and changes rules without prior notice, Nexstar said in a response filing Monday. “The NAL is unlawful and the proposed forfeiture, divestiture obligations, and other requirements must be canceled and the NAL vacated in its entirety,” it said.