Stopgap funding for the FCC’s affordable connectivity program is not included in an FY 2024 appropriations “minibus” package Congress is aiming to approve this week, several lobbyists told us Tuesday. The omission also makes it doubtful congressional leaders attached an additional $3.08 billion for the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program, lobbyists said. Advocates of both programs were pushing for their funding in the minibus (see 2403150063) as recently as last weekend. The White House and Capitol Hill reached a deal on FY24 funding for the FCC and most other agencies over the weekend; they reached a final agreement on the bill Monday night.
Firefly Aerospace is aiming for a Sept. 19 launch of its Elytra-1 satellite, it told the FCC Space Bureau in an application posted Monday. The low earth orbit satellite will serve as a technology demonstration platform for as long as a year, transporting and deploying multiple customer payloads, it added. Firefly said the Elytra product line is targeting on-orbit mobility, logistics and hosted payload services.
Ohio's Jefferson County Cable TV will pay a $10,000 civil penalty to end an FCC investigation into the company's broadband data reporting practices, according to an Enforcement Bureau consent decree in Monday's Daily Digest. The bureau said that after an individual challenged the company's reported broadband service provision data, Jefferson County Cable acknowledged it hadn't properly reviewed and understood the FCC's guidance on broadband data collection filings and that about 1,500 locations reported as receiving service were removed from the company's filings.
The FCC Wireless Bureau sought comment Monday on an application from Watts Bar Maritime and Amateur Radio School (WBMARS) in Tennessee to serve as a commercial operator license examination manager. The bureau said 12 entities are certified to serve in that role. “WBMARS asserts that examinations will be offered upon request and administered on-site or remotely in almost all U.S. states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands beginning within 10 days following approval,” the bureau said. Comments are due April 17, replies May 2, in docket 24-89.
The Free State Foundation believes Republicans' use of Congressional Review Act authority in their resolution of disapproval to undo the FCC’s digital discrimination order (H.J.Res. 107/S.J.Res. 64) is "a "necessary and proper" means of scuttling the commission's "unlawful" action. The CRA "provides a means for Congress to rein in overreaching administrative agencies that have abused their authority," FSF tweeted. Republicans face long odds of enacting H.J.Res. 107/S.J.Res. 64 because it's unlikely any Senate Democrats will back the measure and President Joe Biden would probably veto it (see 2402260001). The digital discrimination order faces multiple legal challenges, now consolidated in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (see 2403140042).
Industry largely welcomed an FCC proposal to rely on the broadband serviceable location fabric for updating and verifying compliance with certain high-cost program support recipients’ deployment obligations in comments posted Monday in docket 10-90 (see 2402130058). Some sought assurances and support thresholds for rural carriers and those nearing their final deployment milestones.
The FCC released the Further NPRM added to an order on a voluntary cyber trust mark program that commissioners approved 5-0 last week (see 2403140034). The final order includes numerous other tweaks to the draft, addressing security and excluding motor vehicles and related equipment. The order and FNPRM were posted in Monday’s “Daily Digest.”
The 60-day settlement process to resolve mutually exclusive applications from December's low-power FM station construction permit application window began Friday and stretches to May 14, said an FCC Media Bureau public notice Friday. The PN also identifies 109 groups of mutually exclusive application, involving 264 applications. Two applications were dismissed for having “significant technical and/or legal defects,” the PN said.
Vexus Fiber will pay $100,000 for violating the FCC's affordable connectivity program rules. An Enforcement Bureau order Friday said Vexus admitted it violated the program's rule prohibiting downselling broadband services to ACP-eligible households by "preventing customers from applying the ACP benefit to any residential broadband internet access service plan they selected."
The FCC's Q2 USF contribution factor will be 32.8%, said an Office of Managing Director public notice Thursday in docket 96-45. That's a decrease from Q1, which was 34.6%.