The FCC-certified frequency advisory committees that review and certify applications for industrial/business frequencies authorized under Part 90 of the FCC rules asked the regulator for tweaks to the rules. The groups noted that they sought changes in a 2020 petition, but the FCC took no action. The earlier petition sought “modification of an FCC rule that, in their opinion and based on extensive expertise in Part 90 spectrum management, is overly protective of systems proposing mobile-only operation without reference to any fixed location,” said an undocketed filing Thursday. The current rule “effectively precludes the use of the assigned frequencies as exclusive frequencies in spectrally efficient trunked systems anywhere within or adjacent to the area of operation self-defined by the mobile-only applicant.” Among those signing the filing were the AAA, the Association of American Railroads, Aviation Spectrum Resources, the Enterprise Wireless Alliance, the Utilities Technology Council and the Wireless Infrastructure Association.
T-Mobile cited widespread power issues in its annual report on the progress of its affiliate T-Mobile Puerto Rico in hardening its network through Uniendo program funding. Parts of the report, posted Friday in docket 18-143, were redacted. Other providers also updated the FCC.
In an FCC filing on its proposed buy of Frontier, Verizon committed to comply with all USF requirements and related rules if regulators approve the deal. Verizon agreed to buy Frontier in a $20 billion all-cash deal announced in September (see 2409050010). “Verizon will, consistent with the continuation of Authorized Parties’ USF-related obligations post-transaction, assume all risks and consequences of noncompliance with program requirements, regardless of whether such noncompliance pre-dates or post-dates the consummation of the transaction, including default recovery of support and potential forfeiture penalties, in all supported areas,” said the filing, posted Friday in docket 24-445. Verizon said it will comply "regardless of any preexisting or reasonably foreseeable conditions that could impact the relevant Authorized Parties’ ability to meet USF-related obligations, including technical, marketplace, and on-the-ground conditions." It filed the commitments at the request of FCC Wireline Bureau staff, Verizon added.
As previewed during a recent financial call, it appears AT&T in recent days has been moving more aggressively to shut additional parts of its legacy copper network (see 2501270047). In December, in what AT&T executives saw as a model for future retirements, the FCC took no action, allowing AT&T to initially halt sales and then discontinue residential local service in nine Oklahoma wire centers (see 2412230066). AT&T CEO John Stankey said on the call that the carrier plans to file applications at the FCC to stop selling legacy products in about 1,300 wire centers, or about a quarter of the AT&T footprint. On Friday alone, the FCC posted retirement proposals for AT&T wire centers in Alliance, Ohio; Murfreesboro, Tennessee; Easley, South Carolina; and Milwaukee.
Rep. Pat Ryan, D-N.Y., and Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., filed the Stop Sports Blackouts Act on Friday in a bid to force cable companies to make refunds to “customers who aren’t able to watch the channels they already pay for during television blackouts,” Ryan’s office said. The measure would direct the FCC to require cable distributors to provide rebates to subscribers for blackouts that occur as a result of carriage disputes. The lawmakers cited MSG Network's recent blackout, which left more than a million subscribers in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey unable to watch local sporting events. Altice USA and some Republican lawmakers previously proposed refunds from MSG (see 2501160072). “On behalf of fans across the country, we’re putting down a marker: everyone will get their money back when a blackout stops them from watching TV, no questions asked,” Ryan said. “That means dollars back in your pockets, and, equally importantly, it provides a hell of an incentive to these billion dollar corporations to make sure these blackouts don’t happen in the future.” It’s “ridiculous the rest of us get stuck in the crossfire of negotiations between cable and broadcast companies,” he said. “Our bill is simple: if cable companies can’t provide the service you’re paying for, they owe you a refund.” ACA Connects CEO Grant Spellmeyer criticized the Stop Sports Blackouts Act, saying Friday that it “gives billion-dollar broadcast corporations a complete free pass. If we don’t address the root of the problem [with] reforms to the retrans consent regime, insatiable broadcasters will continue to abuse market power to extract higher fees, jack up prices [and] force blackouts.”
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is “encouraged” that FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has asked the Enforcement and Media bureaus for an investigation of PBS and NPR member stations over possible underwriting violations (see 2501300065), a spokesperson emailed us Thursday night. Cruz’s “rigorous oversight” last year of NPR’s funding sources (see 2407230038) “has inspired continued attention to this matter,” the spokesperson said: He “has led the fight to end liberal bias in taxpayer-funded media” and “remains committed to conducting thorough investigations of taxpayer dollars being misused to fund liberal propaganda on public airwaves.”
On his first trip as FCC chairman, Brendan Carr said Friday he was in western North Carolina to visit “several of Hurricane Helene’s hardest-hit areas where recovery and restoration are underway.” President Donald Trump visited the area ahead of Carr, before continuing on to California, which has been hit by massive wildfires. “Everybody is talking about California, and that’s a mess,” Trump said after he arrived in North Carolina on Jan. 24. “But I said, ‘I’m not going to California until I stop in North Carolina.’” Trump also signed an executive order on rebuilding roads in the region, eliminating the need for permitting. Carr said he will make several stops in the state, spending "time with emergency management and public safety officials, telecom crews, broadcasters, and other government representatives that are now working to rebuild these communities.” He added: “I am grateful for the surge in support that President Trump and his Administration have been providing to communities across Western North Carolina, including an Executive Order that will speed restoration efforts here.” Carr hasn’t made other travel plans, FCC officials said Friday. He went to California for a visit tied to the Dixie Fire in 2021.
A reported escalation of the FCC’s investigation into CBS is “a retaliatory move” against broadcasters over unfavorable coverage and is intended to “weaponize” the agency’s license authority, FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez said in a statement Friday. This came after a report in the L.A. Times said the agency demanded a full, unedited transcript of an October interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris that ran on 60 Minutes and Face the Nation. The FCC’s request is “designed to instill fear in broadcast stations and influence a network’s editorial decisions,” Gomez said. CBS didn’t comment. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has said in interviews as far back as November that he expected the transcript to come up in the agency’s ongoing review of Skydance’s proposed purchase of CBS TV stations from Paramount (see 2411190051). During the first two weeks of Carr’s reign, “the FCC has shown a concerning pattern of implementing the will of the Administration on issues that go far beyond our core responsibilities,” Gomez said. “These actions disregard long-standing norms and ignore the mandate granted by Congress to the FCC to act as an independent agency,” she added. “They also set a dangerous precedent that threatens to undermine trust in the agency’s role as an impartial regulator.”
Five days before a scheduled oral argument on the FCC’s Form 395-B collection of diversity data from broadcasters, DOJ told the court Thursday that it no longer supports aspects of the equal employment opportunity (EEO) rule, citing the recent White House executive orders on diversity and gender terminology in a letter filed with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in docket 24-60219.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said Monday night that President Donald Trump is nominating panel Republican Telecom Policy Director Arielle Roth as NTIA's leader, as expected. Lobbyists had previously also tipped Roth as a top contender for former FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel’s seat but Trump nominated Senate Armed Services Committee Republican staffer Olivia Trusty for that role instead. Roth was previously a legislative aide to former Senate Commerce member Roy Blunt, R-Mo., O’Rielly’s wireline adviser and a Wireline Bureau legal adviser. She also had stints at the Hudson Institute and Federalist Society.