AI poses potential competition challenges and countries must work together to address them, DOJ, the FTC, the European Commission and the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority said in a joint statement Tuesday. “We are working to share an understanding of the issues as appropriate and are committed to using our respective powers where appropriate,” they said. There are risks companies “may attempt to restrict key inputs for the development of AI technologies” and those “with existing market power in digital markets could entrench or extend that power in adjacent AI markets or across ecosystems,” the entities said. Lack of choice for content creators among buyers “could enable the exercise of monopsony power,” they said: AI also “may be developed or wielded in ways that harm consumers, entrepreneurs, or other market participants.” FCC commissioners are expected to vote at their Aug. 7 open meeting on an NPRM examining consumer protections against AI-generated robocalls (see 2407170055).
FCC Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin has ordered broadcast attorney Dan Alpert to explain how he can represent multiple clients whose interests conflict with each other in a hearing. The proceeding involves allegedly false transfers of control of low-power radio and TV stations (see 2310020059). Alpert declined to comment. The proceeding concerns allegations that Antonio Guel transferred stations to his niece, Jennifer Juarez, to avoid including them in a bankruptcy filing, although he remained in control of the stations. Guel’s daughter, Maria Guel, allegedly controls other companies involved in the transaction (see 2402060049). The Enforcement Bureau filed an emergency motion Monday asking for Halprin to take action against Antonio Guel’s attorney, Alpert, after he informed it that he would be representing both Maria Guel and Juarez in depositions scheduled for next week. “Mr. Alpert now represents two witnesses in the case who are likely to provide information that is directly and materially adverse to the interests of his original client, Mr. Guel,” the EB motion said. Halprin cautioned Alpert in February about apparent conflicts of interest in the case. “It is a fundamental rule of practicing law that a lawyer may not represent clients in the same matter whose interests are adverse to each other,” wrote Halprin in Tuesday’s order. While Halprin said that rule can be waived if the parties provide informed consent, the EB argued that some conflicts in this matter can't be waived under DC Bar ethics rules. “The responsibility is on Mr. Alpert to know and adhere to applicable rules of professional conduct,” Halprin wrote. “At the same time, the Presiding Judge must be mindful that the Administrative Procedure Act and the Commission’s rules allow witnesses to be represented by counsel.” The EB “cannot risk incurring the cost of these depositions at the public’s expense only to have Mr. Guel or Ms. Juarez later claim ineffective assistance of counsel and/or otherwise challenge the integrity or validity of this entire proceeding,” the EB said. Tuesday’s order gives Alpert until Friday to respond and “include an explanation of how he reconciles his simultaneous representation of Mr. Guel, Ms. Guel, and Ms. Juarez with applicable rules of professional conduct.”
The FCC on Tuesday posted a memorandum of understanding on the collection and reporting of data from federal broadband programs that it entered in May with NTIA and the Agriculture and Treasury departments. The MOU covers data and metrics from broadband programs that the FCC and NTIA oversee, as well as USDA Rural Utilities Service-administered efforts, and Treasury’s Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund (CPF) and Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF). The FCC didn’t comment on the delay between the document’s date and its release. The MOU requires that the agencies share information about the projects and make nonconfidential data about the projects publicly available “using tools such as the FCC's Broadband Funding Map.” The agencies will also notify each other about Freedom of Information Act requests for the data and coordinate their responses to them, the MOU said. It expires in four years but can be renewed if all agencies mutually consent.
The New York Public Service Commission rejected calls by Charter Communications and others to make pole owners pay a portion of pole replacement costs when adding an attachment is required. The New York PSC on Monday released its order revising pole attachment rules after adopting the decision unanimously last week (see 2407180028). The PSC adopted one-touch, make-ready for simple attachments in the communications spaces, set dispute resolution time frames, created a pole-attachments working group and added annual reporting requirements (docket 22-M-0101). But it disagreed with arguments about changing a state policy that says that the attacher pays if a pole needs replacement only to accommodate the proposed new attachment, whereas the owner pays if the pole already needed replacement due to its poor condition. Charter and other attachers previously argued that owners benefit from replacements even in the first case and therefore should share costs (see 2403050043). But in Monday’s order, the commission said those companies provided no "quantifiable analysis" or other evidence supporting their assertions that PSC staff failed to consider a pole owner's incentive to shift replacement costs and incorrectly concluded that owners don't benefit from the replacements. Staff determined "that ratepayers do not receive any economic value of poles being replaced to enable third-party attachments even when the attacher entirely funds such replacements,” the PSC said. "Electric utilities do not have an incentive to require attachers to pay for pole replacements because utilities do not earn a return or depreciation expense on contributed assets such as third-party funded pole replacements.” The FCC declined in a December order to shift replacement costs to pole owners, the PSC added. And the PSC doesn’t want to see higher electric rates, it said. "While expanding broadband in New York is critically important, utility customer funds are not unlimited.” Also in the order, while allowing certain alternative types of attachments on a case-by-case basis, the PSC denied Verizon's request to open up the pole's electric space for telecom attachments. "The electric space is designated for qualified and approved electric workers and only includes electric facilities to help protect those working in that space as well as ensure the work performed is done professionally and to code to satisfy reliability and resiliency concerns,” the PSC said. “Opening up the electric space to additional or alternative pole attachment methods raises significant safety, reliability and resiliency concerns and negatively impacts these efforts."
ISPs now have until Sept. 23 to file a petition for a writ of certiorari at the U.S. Supreme Court concerning the New York Affordable Broadband Act, the court said in a letter released Monday. A petition would have been due later this month, but Justice Sonia Sotomayor approved the extension July 16, the letter said. New York last month agreed not to immediately enforce the 2021 law, which requires $15 monthly plans with 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds for qualifying low-income households, despite the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in April that it’s not federally preempted (see 2406170042). Industry groups have held off appealing the 2nd Circuit decision while they wait to see what the 6th Circuit decides on the FCC’s order reclassifying broadband as a Title II service. The 6th Circuit ruling would affect how ISPs proceed on their challenge of the New York law because the 2nd Circuit decision was based on broadband as Title I.
Ligado Networks and GCT Semiconductor said on Tuesday GCT’s Luna Cat-12 LTE module is FCC-certified and commercially available. "The module is a foundational technology for a new ecosystem of commercial devices operating on LTE Band 54 spectrum at 1670-1675 MHz,” the companies said. The band “stands out as a highly distinctive mid-band spectrum resource for the utility and enterprise segments,” standardized by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project and offering a 5-MHz time division duplex block “available nationwide,” said Sachin Chhibber, Ligado chief technology officer: “Licensed spectrum assures availability and enhances security to enable more robust and secure private networks.”
GCI CEO Ronald Duncan and others from the Alaskan carrier, in separate meetings with FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Brendan Carr, urged that the agency approve the Alaska Connect Fund. GCI is deploying “5G where doing so makes sense -- typically in areas with fiber that are due for a radio network upgrade,” a filing posted Tuesday in docket 23-328 said. “Deploying 5G in these areas -- rather than the 4G LTE called for in GCI’s current Alaska Plan commitments -- provides a better experience for these Alaskans as well as a network that will last longer into the future,” GCI said.
Qualcomm representatives spoke with FCC Office of Engineering and Technology staff about 6 GHz automated frequency coordination system “implementation issues” and a proposal to create a geofenced variable power (GVP) device class (see 2404290035). “Qualcomm indicated its support for GVP operations at variable power levels that would protect incumbents by limiting operations to areas outside the exclusion zones and further explained the operations and GVP system architecture,” a filing posted Tuesday in docket 18-295 said.
The FCC Tuesday announced a new Mobile Speed Test app it will use in helping the agency collect information for broadband mapping. Replacing the original FCC Speed Test app, the new version “features an enhanced user interface that makes challenging the accuracy of the provider-reported mobile coverage data even easier,” the FCC said. The app lets users conduct repeated tests without entering and certifying information before each test, allowing for “hands-free mobile tests while driving,” the agency said. It’s available for Apple and Android devices. “Consumers deserve to know where they have mobile coverage and at what speeds and the FCC wants to include their experiences in our effort to create a more precise map of available coverage,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said.
New America's Open Technology Institute and Public Knowledge attacked the Public Safety Spectrum Alliance (PSSA) proposal that assigns the 4.9 GHz band to FirstNet, “either directly through a nationwide license or indirectly through a sharing agreement.” PSSA is “effectively proposing that the Commission reallocate the band for a single use (mobile broadband) and assign it exclusively, without competitive bidding, to AT&T,” the groups said in a Tuesday filing in docket 07-100. If the FCC agrees with the PSSA, it would allow the band to be used “predominantly for commercial use, but only by one user: AT&T,” the filing said: “Contrary to the original Congressional vision of a separate interoperable public safety mobile network, over time FirstNet has become little more than a priority access tier on AT&T’s commercial mobile network.” PSAA’s proposal “would amount to an enormous windfall for AT&T that could distort mobile market competition,” PK and OTI said. The band's future is hotly contested. AT&T last week noted the support for giving FirstNet access to the spectrum (see 2407110012). The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association also opposed FirstNet control in a filing posted Tuesday in docket 07-100. “The PSSA plan would take the 4.9 GHz band away from local public-safety entities and give it to FirstNet, which would effectively hand control over to AT&T, a commercial provider,” the association said.