The FCC is seeking comment on NAB’s request for a retroactive waiver of the agency’s audible crawl rule while the comment period on the association's previous request for an extension of a waiver of the same rule remains open, said a public notice Friday. The FCC’s rule requiring aural description of visual, non-textual emergency information, such as radar maps, has been repeatedly waived since 2015, but the most recent waiver lapsed Nov. 26. NAB had already requested an extension by then, but comments on that request aren’t closed until Jan. 9, so the trade group last week asked the FCC to issue a retroactive temporary waiver until the agency decides on issuing a longer one (see 2411290007). Comments on the retroactive waiver are due Dec.13, replies Dec. 18, in docket 12-107, Friday’s PN said. Without the retroactive waiver, many broadcasters have ceased using radar maps to avoid violating the aural description requirement, NAB told the FCC. NAB has maintained that automated audio description of a visual graphic isn’t currently technologically feasible.
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, the incoming chair, suggested Friday the agency could open a proceeding on the definition of the broadcaster public interest requirement and that he's open to broadcast ownership deregulation. In an interview with CNBC Friday, Carr said broadcasters “have to operate in the public interest, and ... it's probably appropriate for the FCC to take a fresh look at what that requirement looks like.” He added, “There is something different about broadcasters and say, podcasters, where you have to operate in a public interest,” Carr said. “So right now, all I'm saying is maybe we should start a rulemaking to take a look at what that means.” Carr also said he wants a fresh look at “a whole set of ownership issues” and ensuring “we get investment in local news.” He reiterated that revocation of broadcaster licenses for not meeting the public interest is “on the table,” though he also said that the law prevents the FCC from engaging in censorship. “I don't want to be the speech police.”
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled Friday that a federal law banning TikTok unless its Chinese government-controlled owners divest from it is constitutional. TikTok, parent company ByteDance and a group of TikTok users had challenged the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. The ban “does not suppress content or require a certain mix of content” but “narrowly addresses foreign adversary control of an important medium of communication in the United States,” Judge Douglas Ginsburg wrote in the majority opinion. Because the law doesn’t target content of speech on TikTok but instead the ability of China to covertly manipulate that content, it “is wholly consonant with the First Amendment,” Ginsburg wrote. The evidence and judgment of Congress and the White House that TikTok is a national security threat “is entitled to significant weight,” Ginsburg added. “In this case, a foreign government threatens to distort free speech on an important medium of communication,” and the law would end China’s control over that medium, Ginsburg said. “Understood in that way, the Act actually vindicates the values that undergird the First Amendment.” A ban of the social media platform is set to take effect Jan. 19. Unless TikTok executes a qualified divestiture by then or the White House grants it a 90-day extension before then, “its platform will effectively be unavailable in the United States, at least for a time,” said the order. President-elect Donald Trump, who opposes the TikTok ban after kicking off the effort during his first term, takes office Jan. 20. House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio, praised the D.C. Circuit ruling as “a major win for the rule of law.” House Commerce unanimously advanced the TikTok divestiture measure in March (see 2403070063). “From the beginning, Congress gave TikTok a very clear choice: Divest from your parent company -- which is beholden to the Chinese Communist Party -- and remain operational in the U.S. or side with the CCP and face the consequence,” Rodgers and Latta said. “The United States will always stand up for our values and freedom, which is why the days of TikTok targeting, surveilling, and manipulating Americans are numbered.” FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, an early vocal proponent of the ban effort, didn’t comment.
ExteNet Systems executives met with aides to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Anna Gomez on concerns raised by the December 2023 pole attachment Further NPRM (see 2402140048). The company deploys and operates distributed mobile infrastructure. ExteNet supports streamlining the rules but is concerned “that comments from some, such as the Coalition for Concerned Utilities, indicate a desire to rollback the progress made on pole attachments, including those rules related to transparency and communication,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 17-84. “Rolling back these provisions will increase delays and prevent consumers from receiving the wireless services they need,” ExteNet said.
The FCC received OMB clearance to collect more granular data on public safety deployments in the 4.9 GHz band, said a notice for Monday’s Federal Register. The collection requirement takes effect that day, the notice said. FCC commissioners approved it as part of an order last year (see 2301180062).
The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology conditionally approved Axon Networks’ plan to operate an automated frequency coordination (AFC) system to manage access to the 6 GHz band by standard-power unlicensed devices. In February, OET approved the applications of seven AFC providers (see 2402230050) and in July, conditionally approved C3Spectra's application. Axon “has sufficiently demonstrated that it has the technical capability and knowledge to operate an AFC system and may now move to the testing phase of the AFC system approval process,” said an order posted last week in docket 21-352.
The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology modified a 2021 waiver allowing Zebra Technologies to market its Dart system for precision tracking in NFL and other sports venues, operating at 7125-8500 MHz (see 2104260041). In June, Zebra asked to add seven locations to the list of approved sports venues where the Dart system can operate. “The modifications represent the type of routine adjustments that one would expect from a 32-team professional sports league, including changes to training camp and practice facility locations,” said an order in Friday’s Daily Digest. “In two cases, the construction of new stadiums adjacent to existing facilities are prompting a slight change to the coordinates associated with those sites,” OET said.
Hamilton Relay told the FCC in a required annual report that it remains in compliance with FCC rules. Earlier this year, the FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau extended until Dec. 31 Hamilton Relay's conditional certification to provide fully automatic IP-captioned telephone service pending further review (see 2404120035). Posted Friday in docket 10-51, the report noted the company is still waiting for an FCC decision. Some data in the report was redacted.
CEO April Feng and others from Ameelio spoke with FCC Wireline Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics staff about the nonprofit’s incarcerated persons communications services offering. Ameelio “provides video and voice IPCS at no charge to incarcerated persons or their families, but rather charges a subscription fee to prisons, jails, and other facilities to provide the services in those institutions,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 23-62. Ameelio discussed "its successes in Iowa’s Department of Corrections and various prison, jail, and juvenile facilities across the country.” An Iowa study found “a substantial decrease in prison misconduct overall, and more significant decrease in violent prison misconduct as a result of the introduction of Ameelio’s services, which allow incarcerated people to contact their family and loved ones more frequently than [through] a pay-per-minute provider,” the filing said.
Insurance Marketing Coalition Limited v. FCC, which the 11th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court will hear Dec. 18 (see 2312130019), may prove significant, TroutmanAmin’s John Henson blogged Friday. “Part of the decision making will be how much deference does the FCC get in its rulemaking authority,” Henson said, noting the case (24-10277) examines agency authority under the Hobbs Act. “The Hobbs Act is having a moment and especially in the Eleventh Circuit,” he said. Approved 3-1 a year ago, the order adopted a one-to-one robotext consent policy (see 2312130019). Commissioner Nathan Simington dissented, citing the FCC's “factually thin record.” Henson noted the three judges hearing the case were appointed by President-elect Donald Trump during his first term -- Elizabeth Branch, Britt Grant and Robert Luck. They seem aligned with 11th Circuit precedent on limiting the reach of regulatory agencies, Henson said. “It would not stretch the limits of reason to think that the FCC’s 1:1 consent order was not properly enacted,” he said: “If that’s the case, then the Eleventh Circuit, might once again have an opportunity to strike a blow against Hobbs deference.” This term the U.S. Supreme Court will hear McLaughlin Chiropractic Associates v. McKesson, a Telephone Consumer Protection Act case from the 9th Circuit, examining the extent to which lower courts must defer to FCC decisions, which also has Hobbs Act implications (see 2410170015). The Hobbs Act gives the appeals courts exclusive jurisdiction to enjoin, set aside, suspend or determine the validity of some agency orders, including most FCC orders.