Broadcasters must be able to report the news without government retaliation and need the FCC to scrap ownership limits, said NAB President Curtis LeGeyt during a Media Institute speech Wednesday. “Our democracy relies on journalists’ ability to report the news without the risk of government retribution,” he said. “Efforts to limit the ability of broadcasters to report the facts hinders the public’s right to know and chills free speech.” The FCC should eliminate the national ownership cap, or it risks damaging emergency alerting and local news, LeGeyt added. “Without a necessary course correction in our ability to compete for local advertising, local newsrooms will continue to downsize, robbing the community of its voice," he said. “Eliminating these regulations will allow local stations to aggregate resources, invest in journalism and strengthen their service to communities.”
Public Knowledge urged the FCC to include a tribal priority window (TPW) in the AWS-3 and upper C-band proposals before commissioners vote Feb. 27 (see 2502060062). The 2.5 GHz TPW “increased the number of Tribes holding licenses from 18 to 319. Tribes have used these licenses, and additional funding provided by a number of grants, to construct point-to-point networks that are helping Tribes to close the digital divide,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 25-59. Tribes need more spectrum “just as every wireless provider needs additional spectrum, to meet the ever-increasing demand for broadband capacity as more and more of our daily activities move to the real world from the virtual world,” said the group, whose representative met with aides to all four FCC commissioners.
Representatives of CTIA, T-Mobile and Verizon met with aides to FCC Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Nathan Simington on the importance of the upper C band to the future of 5G. In a filing posted Wednesday in docket 25-59, the wireless interests noted that carriers face a licensed spectrum deficit of 400 MHZ by 2027 and nearly 1,500 MHz by 2032. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr is seeking a vote on a notice of inquiry on the upper C band at the FCC’s Feb. 27 meeting (see 2502060062). The initial C-band auction “was a record-breaking success, with the spectrum put to use ahead of schedule and immediately generating faster download speeds for consumers,” the filing said. “The Upper C-Band creates a new opportunity for near-term, contiguous access in a portion of the most widely deployed frequency range for 5G worldwide.”
T-Mobile made its final written arguments this week at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit against a $80 million fine imposed by the FCC for allegedly not safeguarding data on customers' real-time locations. T-Mobile was also fined $12.2 million for violations by Sprint, which it later acquired. The FCC and the government defended the fines in January during the last weeks of President Joe Biden's administration (see 2501130061). Oral argument is scheduled for March 24.
Luminys expressed disappointment and asked for additional time to address the FCC’s finding that the company was selling equipment from Dahua, which is on the FCC’s “covered list” of providers of unsecure gear (see 2502140040). Foxlink announced its acquisition of Dahua Technology USA last month. “As it has repeatedly explained to the Commission, both Luminys and its majority shareholder Foxlink, which are wholly owned and managed by Taiwanese individuals, have no prior or current corporate relationship” with China’s Zhejiang Dahua Technology “or any Dahua-affiliated entities,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 25-85. “Nor do they have any intention of establishing such a relationship in the future.” Luminys and Foxlink “take pride in maintaining a robust, diverse, and transparent supply chain that does not include any involvement by Covered List companies,” the filing said. Luminys asked for an additional 14 days, until March 10, to respond to the commission’s Feb. 13 show cause order.
WTA members are concerned about the uncertainty stemming from the U.S. Supreme Court review of FCC v. Consumers' Research, a case that could invalidate how the USF program is funded (see 2501090045), as well as the future of the enhanced alternative connect America cost model program, representatives from the group said in a meeting with aides to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. WTA members also “raised the need for addressing both USF contribution and distribution reform,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 10-90. “The current contribution factor is above 36% and is unsustainable, and therefore the Commission should look to assess [broadband internet access service] providers and work with Congress to have edge providers and others who should be contributing to USF do so in order to bring the contribution factor down and be spread equitably among all users.” The WTA members also reported on meetings with aides to Commissioners Nathan Simington and Anna Gomez.
The National Federation of Independent Business’ Small Business Legal Center joined Consumers’ Research in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reject how the FCC handles USF. FCC v. Consumers' Research, which SCOTUS will hear March 26, challenges the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ 9-7 en banc decision invalidating how the USF program is funded (see 2501090045).
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr called three of his predecessors -- Democrats Tom Wheeler and Reed Hundt and Republican Alfred Sikes -- partisans with "TDS," or Trump derangement syndrome, after they condemned Carr's actions against media companies, according to a report in Status. “I gotta imagine it’s hard when the curtain is closing on your career and yet you’re still yearning for one more moment in the limelight,” Carr said. Hundt told Status that the FCC’s independence was intended to keep it from being used as a weapon to reward friends and punish enemies, while Sikes said the First Amendment should be “foundational” to the way the FCC acts. Wheeler said he reached “a breaking point” when the FCC announced an investigation into Comcast over its diversity, equity and inclusion practices. “They’re just partisans that are mad the Biden FCC didn’t do more to punish their political enemies,” Carr said. “In contrast to them, though, I will ensure that everyone gets a fair shake from this FCC.”
CTIA, NCTA and USTelecom on Wednesday asked the FCC to reconsider a January declaratory ruling by the FCC in response to the Salt Typhoon cyberattacks, which now-FCC Chairman Brendan Carr had opposed (see 2501160041). The ruling concluded that Section 105 of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) “affirmatively requires telecommunications carriers to secure their networks from unlawful access or interception of communications.” An accompanying NPRM seeks comment “on ways to strengthen the cybersecurity posture of our nation’s communications systems and services.” Members of the associations “were early adopters of cybersecurity risk management practices, collaborate on these issues with government agencies, and participate in public-private partnerships,” said a petition for reconsideration in docket 22-329. The ruling, “adopted in the waning days of the prior administration without any opportunity for public comment, supplants this longstanding collaborative approach,” the groups said. It also established “an ‘uncoordinated … and counterproductive’ policy based on an expansive reading” of CALEA “that imposes onerous network-wide duties on covered entities.” The ruling is inconsistent “with CALEA’s text, structure, and purpose,” they said: “Congress did not intend for CALEA to evolve into a general cybersecurity statute over three decades after its enactment.”
Communications Daily is tracking the lawsuits below involving appeals of FCC actions.