The Wireless ISP Association asked the FCC to change how it characterizes the group’s stance on letter of credit issues in a draft order teed up for a commissioner vote Dec. 11 (see 2411200050). A footnote states “WISPA suggests that all letters of credit should be reduced to one year of support,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 10-90. “WISPA’s Comments can more fairly read to support the Commission’s proposed decision to allow RDOF recipients to reduce their letters of credit to one year of support if they have consistently met their deployment milestones,” WISPA said.
The FCC Wireless Bureau approved a waiver giving SiriusXM additional time to deploy satellite-based emergency communications for public safety agencies, in combination with AT&T. The order covers spectrum in the C and D blocks of the 2.3 GHz wireless communications service band, which the commission addressed in a 2017 order (see 1701180088). “Working with Sirius XM, AT&T has put forth a plan for the beneficial use of the C and D Blocks -- assigning the C and D Block licenses to Sirius XM so that Sirius XM could lease the bandwidth at no cost to one or more public safety agencies,” said an order in Tuesday’s Daily Digest. The service “would permit public safety agencies access to satellite communications services, using Sirius XM satellites, by pre-staging satellite receivers designed for WCS reception within the service area of each license to be deployed, as needed,” the order said. The bureau said AT&T tried developing a network for utilities in the spectrum: “Despite preliminary successes, according to AT&T, the service is no longer viable because of alternative spectrum available to utilities for smart grid operation.”
The FCC Wireless Bureau said it's examining carriers' numbering resource utilization and forecast (NRUF) reports and carrier-specific local number portability (LNP) data as it examines the T-Mobile/UScellular deal; it doesn't plan to disclose the data publicly. Consistent with past practices, "we will make such information available to participants in this proceeding, but limit such access to their Outside Counsel of Record and Outside Consultants whom they retain to assist them in this proceeding, and their Outside Counsel’s and Outside Consultants’ employees,” said a Tuesday order in docket 24-286. The bureau said in a separate notice providers have until Dec. 6 “to oppose the limited disclosure of their NRUF and LNP data pursuant to the protective order.” T-Mobile announced in May a plan where it will acquire “substantially all” of UScellular’s wireless operations in a deal valued at about $4.4 billion, including $2 billion in assumed debt (see 2405280047). Also Tuesday, the FCC referred the transaction to the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the U.S. Telecommunications Service Sector. The agency wants a review of “national security or law enforcement concerns related to the applications." DOJ requested that step (see 2411200013). The committee is informally known by its former name, Team Telecom.
The FCC's 3-2 April decision (see 2404290044) fining T-Mobile for allegedly not safeguarding data on customers' real-time locations should be overturned, the carrier said in a brief filed Monday at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. “The FCC concluded that essentially the entire wireless industry had violated the law by continuing to operate location-based service (LBS) programs” based on actions by a “single, rogue actor” who “misused those programs,” T-Mobile said in docket 24-1224. T-Mobile was assessed the largest fine of the major carriers, more than $80 million, plus $12 million for Sprint's violations, which it subsequently acquired. Republican Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington dissented, even though the FCC four years ago, under Republican Chair Ajit Pai, approved the initial notice of apparent liability. T-Mobile noted that it and Sprint ended their LBS programs months after reports of potential abuse surfaced. Moreover, it argued that the FCC lacks authority over LBS data under the Communications Act: “The FCC based its retroactive punishment on an utterly novel construction of the governing statute, holding, for the first time, that the mobile-device-location information used in those LBS programs was ‘customer proprietary network information" (CPNI). T-Mobile said the “FCC’s unilateral imposition of tens of millions of dollars in civil penalties violates the Companies’ jury-trial rights under the Seventh Amendment and Article III.” It cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in SEC v. Jarkesy, which questioned administrative penalties handed down absent a jury trial (see 2406270063). The fines also violate principles of fair notice, the brief said. “The FCC adopted its broad view of CPNI for the first time in these enforcement proceedings, after the conduct had already occurred.” The FCC’s “hindsight-based liability findings” are also “arbitrary and capricious,” the provider said. “Among other safeguards, the Companies limited the number of entities with direct access to device-location information, ensured that LBS providers were vetted before allowing them to participate in the LBS programs, and required express customer consent before sharing device-location information.” The government is scheduled to respond Dec. 26. Verizon challenged the FCC’s fine in the 2nd Circuit, AT&T in the 5th Circuit (see 2411060008).
Incarcerated people’s calling service providers and law enforcement groups want the FCC to reconsider provisions of its implementation of the Martha Wright-Reed Act, but a coalition of public groups said the industry arguments are incorrect and procedurally wrong, comments filed in docket 23-62 posted Tuesday show. Most of the filings focused on October petitions for reconsideration of the FCC’s order from NCIC Communications and HomeWAV, and aimed at the agency’s categorization of costs and fees, handling of provider expenses, and timing of the order’s changes to prison calling rules.
O3b is no longer seeking FCC OK for the low earth orbit component of its proposed medium earth orbit constellation. In an FCC Space Bureau application posted Monday, the company said it's modifying its pending U.S. market access application and eliminating the LEO component. Since the LEO satellites were proposed for satellite-to-satellite communications, it is no longer seeking satellite-to-satellite authority.
SpaceX direct-to-device (D2D) authorizations should include the condition that before conducting operations in the 2300-2395 MHz band within line of sight of a NASA Deep Space Network facility outside the U.S., the company will certify it has completed coordination with NASA, NTIA said in a docket 23-135 filing posted Monday. Meanwhile, recapping a meeting with FCC Space Bureau Chief Julie Kearney, Omnispace said SpaceX has not shown that its proposed D2D operations in the 1990-1995 MHz band won't cause harmful interference to primary-status licensees. It said if the FCC approves nonconforming use, despite a record showing harmful interference risks, it should be conditioned on SpaceX reaching operator-to-operator agreements with parties like Omnispace "that have demonstrated a sound basis for a pronounced risk of harmful interference in the present record."
Radio Communications Corporation wants the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to strike an FCC filing related to a disagreement between the agency and the broadcaster over oral argument conducted before the court last week (see 2411180040). After the Nov. 18 oral argument, RCC sent the court a letter disputing a statement FCC attorney Adam Sorensen made during the session about must-carry rights. Sorensen told the three-judge panel: “There’s really nothing in the statute that would indicate to the commission that Congress had even considered the issue, let alone taken the very significant step of extending must-carry rights to Class A stations.” RCC’s letter after oral argument disputed that statement, pointing to language in a 2004 amendment to the Satellite Home Viewer Act that defined Class A stations as low-power TV stations. The FCC responded Friday, saying the court should disregard RCC’s letter because it wasn’t pertinent, and the company didn’t raise the matter in its briefs. “The fact that Congress defined Class A stations as low-power television stations for purposes of the Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act of 2004 does not suggest that Class A stations are equivalent to full power stations in all other contexts,” the FCC said. In a motion filed the same day, RCC said the FCC’s response should be stricken from the record. The FCC’s response “unfairly denied RCC the opportunity to rebut the Commission’s procedural arguments because the Court’s ECF filing system does not allow RCC to file a further response to the Commission’s Letter,” said RCC. “Therefore, RCC is compelled, and unfairly so, to file the instant motion to strike.” RCC’s filings were “entirely appropriate and warranted under the circumstances and certainly not deserving of a rebuke from the party who misstated the law to the Court,” RCC said.
The FCC is seeking comment on an NAB petition for an additional extension of a waiver of a 2013 rule requiring that broadcasters provide audio description on a second audio stream of emergency information conveyed through graphics, said a public notice in docket 12-107 Monday. Compliance with the 2013 rule was originally required by 2015, but the agency granted an 18-month waiver and has repeatedly extended it, most recently by 18 months in 2023. The waiver is currently set to expire Tuesday. In addition to the requested extension of the waiver, NAB is seeking a rule change specifying "that compliance is fulfilled if a station provides textual crawls that provide emergency information duplicative or equivalent to the information conveyed by the visual image.” It “remains impossible for stations to continue to provide important emergency information to viewers while complying with the audible crawl rule as written,” NAB said. Comments are due in docket 12-107 on Dec. 26, replies Jan. 9.
The FCC’s Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council will meet at FCC headquarters Dec. 18, starting at 1 p.m., said a notice in Monday’s Federal Register. That was the expected next meeting date, officials said during CSRIC’s last meeting in September (see 2409270047).