The Association of American Railroads told the FCC that its members remain on schedule to move off 900 MHz frequencies to new frequencies by the September deadline. AAR disputed claims made by The Federal Newswire and Rail Tech News that the railroads won’t meet the deadline. “Although each railroad is implementing its own transition plan, all will accomplish the task on schedule,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 17-200: “Accordingly, there is no basis for parties -- especially those acting anonymously -- to question the railroads’ ability to do so.” Railroads have been using the 900 MHz frequencies since 1982 as part of a “single nationwide ribbon license,” AAR noted.
A broad group of companies and associations urged new FCC Chairman Brendan Carr to oppose fundamental changes to rules for the citizens broadband radio service band, including higher power levels and relaxed emission limits. “Such changes would fundamentally modify CBRS licenses and undermine the Commission’s bipartisan vision for CBRS as a lower-power, small-cell band that supports broad access and numerous applications,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 17-258. The changes “would also imperil the technical progress made over the last decade through collaboration between the Commission, federal agencies, and industry,” it said. Among signers of the letter were NCTA and major cable companies, Amazon.com Services, the American Library Association, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, Deere & Co., Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Lockheed Martin, the Open Technology Institute at New America, Public Knowledge, the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition, Shure, Spectrum for the Future and the Wireless ISP Association. CBRS is broadly used for “rural broadband, competitive mobile services, manufacturing, industrial and enterprise private networks, transportation and logistics connectivity (e.g. airports and shipping terminals), school and library access, and more,” the filing said.
Members of the Alternative Connect America Cost Model (ACAM) Broadband Coalition raised concerns about the latest FCC thinking on ACAM support in a call with FCC Wireline Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics staff. They “discussed the support adjustment methodology contemplated by Commission staff and the Coalition’s position that the methodology under consideration could lead to inaccurate and insufficient support levels,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 10-90. The coalition “maintains that the most accurate and equitable method to recalculate support is to rerun the cost model to reflect the network required to serve the final location counts,” the filing said.
Lawyers who made the recent arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court in McLaughlin Chiropractic Associates v. McKesson agreed that the case will likely turn on the views of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Morrison Foerster’s Joseph Palmore, who represented McKesson, and Gupta Wessler’s Matthew Wessler, representing McLaughlin, spoke during an FCBA continuing legal education event Wednesday.
The FCC’s draft notice of inquiry on opening the upper C band for commercial use acknowledges numerous incumbents using the spectrum and seeks “detailed and evidence-based comments” from all affected parties. Also on Thursday, the FCC released a draft NPRM on rules for the AWS-3 auction and other items, teeing them up for the FCC’s Feb. 27 open meeting, including new rules for wireless emergency alerts (see 2502050057).
The FCC Wireless Bureau on Wednesday granted five additional licenses in the 900 MHz broadband segment to PDV Spectrum, four in Texas and one in Missouri. The FCC approved an order in 2020 reallocating a 6 MHz swath in the band for broadband, while maintaining 4 MHz for narrowband operations (see 2005130057).
NextNav CEO Mariam Sorond urged the FCC to move forward on the company’s proposal to reconfigure the 902-928 MHz band, enabling what it called a “high-quality, terrestrial complement” to GPS for positioning, navigation and timing services (see 2404160043). “Since former President George W. Bush first acknowledged the need to build GPS redundancy in 2004, every presidential administration has recognized the problem,” Sorond said Tuesday in Forbes. GPS signals are “easily disrupted by intentional spoofing and jamming, and even by unintentional interference,” she wrote: “These signals weaken as they approach Earth -- a vulnerability we’ve seen exploited on the battlefield -- and threaten civilian industries in Europe and the Middle East.” GPS signals also struggle “indoors and in urban canyons, posing challenges for first responders trying to locate people in emergencies.” GPS is also an economic issue, she said. “A one-day loss of GPS could cost the U.S. economy an estimated $1.6 billion, according to a Brattle Group report.”
The National Sheriffs’ Association and ViaPath, a provider of incarcerated people’s communications services (IPCS), separately filed in support of challenges to the FCC’s July order implementing the Martha Wright-Reed Act of 2022 (see 2501280053) in briefs filed this week at the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The order reduces call rates for people in prisons while establishing interim rate caps for video calls (see 2407180039).
Jones Day’s Yaakov Roth, husband of NTIA nominee Arielle Roth (see 2502040056), also represents Maurine and Matthew Molak in their challenge in the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals of a 2023 FCC declaratory ruling (docket 23-60641) clarifying that Wi-Fi on school buses is an educational purpose eligible for E-rate funding (see 2411040061).
NAB pushed back Tuesday night against claims from Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., that broadcasters are using demands for free concerts to circumvent the FCC’s sponsorship identification rules ban on payola. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said Monday he asked the Enforcement Bureau to “examine” Blackburn’s claims (see 2502040062). NAB is “not aware of any specific complaint against any station or stations along” the lines of what Blackburn is describing, a spokesperson told us. “Those complaints are what trigger enforcement investigations. If anything, the most notable aspect of [Blackburn’s] letter is that it confirms the enduring promotional value of local radio, which listeners value greatly. We look forward to working with the Senator should any concrete issues arise.”