Hamilton Relay urged the FCC to preserve adequate rate caps that IP captioned telephone service (IP CTS) providers may recover for the cost of providing services with a communications assistant (CA), according to an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 03-123. The company said in separate meetings with aides to Commissioners Nathan Simington and Anna Gomez that CA’s are needed for about 25% of all IP CTS (see 2406180063). “A failure to preserve CA’s is a failure to preserve functional equivalency,” Hamilton said.
California commissioners next month could finalize a process that lets people without social security numbers apply for state low-income phone subsidies. The California Public Utilities Commission on Monday released a proposed decision (docket R.20-02-008) that could get a vote as soon as commissioners’ Aug. 22 meeting and tee up a three-month implementation. Accepting applications from those without SSNs wouldn't be optional under the draft.
Consumer and public interest advocates opposed a push in the 11th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court by a group representing lead generators and their clients aimed at overturning the FCC’s Dec. 18 robocall and robotext order. The order was approved 4-1, with Commissioner Nathan Simington dissenting. It clamps down on the lead generator (LG) loophole (see 231208004) and will become effective in January unless the court intervenes.
Large and small broadcasters, engineers and low-power FM interests disagree about whether the FCC should create a more powerful group of Class A FM station known as A-10, according to comments posted in docket 24-183. Due Monday, the comments responded to a Commander Communications petition (see 2406200052). Many smaller broadcasters support the proposal, but Cumulus and NAB said it could increase interference at other stations. Common Frequency and REC Networks said the proposal must be paired with one allowing increased power for LPFM stations. Multiple commenters, including Commander, said the petition contains technical errors in its calculations of separation distances, but those discrepancies could be adjusted. “Commander believes that the Commission could easily correct these spacing values and that the underlying concept of the FM Class A-10 station would not be affected negatively,” Commander said in a comment filing.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and five other Senate Democratic caucus members urged that the FCC and DOJ's Antitrust Division “closely scrutinize” T-Mobile’s proposed acquisition of UScellular’s wireless operations Monday night (see 2405280047). Wireless industry lawyers previously forecast the deal could face a tough road under the Biden administration. Its future could change depending on the outcome of November's presidential election (see 2405300053).
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, pressed NPR Tuesday for information about its funding sources amid the House GOP's push to end CPB’s advance funding for FY 2027. Thus far no lawmakers have tried stopping the House from moving forward on the Appropriations Committee-cleared Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee FY 2025 funding bill (HR-9029), which excludes advance money for the broadcasting network. House leaders meanwhile pulled the Appropriations-approved FY 2025 FCC-FTC funding bill (HR-8773) from planned floor consideration Monday, delaying potential floor votes on filed amendments that seek to undo a ban on the FCC implementing an equity action plan and increase the FTC’s annual funding (see 2407100060).
The best way of measuring short-term interference between non-geostationary orbit satellite systems is by looking at the absolute change in link availability, rather than a relative change in unavailability, according to SpaceX. In a docket 21-456 filing Monday, it submitted a 42-page technical study of spectrum sharing among NGSO systems that it said could help inform the FCC in setting a framework for assessing compatibility of earlier and later processing round satellite systems. It said 99% link availability without the interferer should be treated as the minimum benchmark for an efficient, well-designed NGSO system that warrants levels of protection without unduly empowering inefficient earlier-round systems.
The U.S. Supreme Court's 2005 Brand X decision "remains binding" on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals "under established principles of stare decisis as to all issues the Supreme Court decided in that case," the FCC said in a supplemental brief Friday (docket 24-7000). The court temporarily stayed the FCC's net neutrality order until Aug. 5 (see 2407120052). Brand X held that the Communications Act "gives the FCC authority to classify and regulate broadband service," the agency said. The FCC said the court "remains bound by Brand X" regardless of whether petitioners disagree with the ruling. "Insofar as petitioners now seek to forever freeze in time the former Title I approach, they are not asking the court to respect the Brand X decision under principles of stare decisis, but instead to countermand it," the FCC said. CTIA, USTelecom, NCTA, ACA Connects, the Wireless ISP Association and several state telecom associations said in a joint supplemental brief that Brand X's holding "now dooms the commission's rule." They said that the court "may not accept the commission's new, contrary conclusion that broadband is solely" a telecom service. "Even if Brand Xdid not require this court to reject the commission's argument as a matter of statutory stare decisis , it still supports petitioners' arguments that the best reading of the 1996 Act is that broadband is an information service," the coalition said.
NCTA representatives asked the FCC to reject Axon's waiver request that would allow the marketing of three investigative and surveillance devices operating at higher power levels than allowed under agency rules in the heavily used 5 GHz spectrum. The devices target the law enforcement market. NCTA discussed “the central importance of the U-NII-3 band for Wi-Fi in homes, businesses, schools, and healthcare settings, and the significant negative impact that operation of Axon’s devices would have on nearby consumers using Wi-Fi devices,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 24-40. The representatives met with aides to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Geoffrey Starks. “Wi-Fi’s success in supporting a great number of users and devices using unlicensed spectrum is due in large part to its use of a listen-before-talk protocol to support spectrum sharing,” NCTA said. The proposal has proven controversial (see 2403080044).
An Extreme Networks representative urged the FCC Office of Engineering to move forward on the company’s request for a waiver of rules for low-power indoor (LPI) devices for 6 GHz access points (APs), to be installed exclusively in indoor-only sports venues. “Fans demand reliable Wi-Fi coverage when they attend events at stadiums and arenas,” a filing posted Monday in docket 23-282 said. “Extreme partners with major stadiums and arenas across the country and is ready to install LPI APs to support fans’ needs,” the company said. The proposal proved controversial when the FCC took comment last year (see 2310170045).