The FCC Precision Ag Task Force will meet virtually Oct. 15 at 3 p.m. EDT, said a notice in Wednesday's Federal Register. The group will hear updates from working group leadership and edit its draft executive summary of the group's report to the FCC.
The FCC’s three-year, $200 million cybersecurity pilot program for schools and libraries will likely be highly competitive, with lots of interest nationally, Julia Legg, account manager at E-Rate Central, predicted on Wednesday during a Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition webinar. SHLB received dozens of questions about program details during the webinar. The FCC wants to fund as many eligible schools, libraries and consortiums as possible, including “those that include tribal entities, and a mix of large and small, urban and rural” programs, Legg said. All the details haven’t been published on reporting requirements, but a baseline report will be required in year one, with annual reports due within 60 days of the end of the year, she said. Applicants disagreeing with a decision have 30 days to appeal, half the time normally available for E-rate appeals, she said. Allison Baker, associate chief of the FCC Wireline Bureau, said the agency will accept applications from entities not participating in the E-rate program, but they must be eligible for it. Sue McNeil, chief of the Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, warned potential applicants that failure to file a complete Part 2 application could mean being removed from the pilot and potentially being referred to the Enforcement Bureau: “Nobody wants that.” Some 30 questions raised in the webinar that weren't answered will be addressed during an Oct. 2 SHLB workshop, said John Windhausen, SHLB executive director. The FCC approved the pilot program 3-2 in June with Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington dissenting (see 2406060043). The initial window to apply for the program opens Sept. 17 and closes Nov. 1 (see 2409040036).
NCTA told the FCC that giving wireless providers six months to unlock handsets after they’re activated, not the FCC’s proposed 60 days, would allow providers time to “ascertain whether a handset has been subject to fraud.” Comments were filed this week in docket 24-186, on an NPRM commissioners approved 5-0 in July (see 2409100048). A six-month mandate would mean “increased competition among providers, and, in turn, lower service prices and more competitive offerings than under existing unlocking policies,” NCTA said. Comcast also urged a six-month unlocking requirement. The longer period “would give wireless providers a sufficient opportunity to detect and combat handset fraud as well as a greater opportunity to identify other payment issues, while promoting increased competition and consumer choice in the wireless marketplace,” Comcast said. The Cloud Communications Alliance supported an order requiring unlocking by default when a phone is activated. That would “further enhance competition, avoid any consumer confusion, and prevent wireless providers from interposing delays or objections,” the alliance said: Unlocking by default "is the rule in several other countries and has long been supported by consumer advocates.” The Coalition of Rural Wireless Carriers said the mandate should apply only to handsets customers buy outright. “The proposed rule will interfere with contractual arrangements in ways that will disproportionately harm financially vulnerable consumers,” the coalition said. For smaller providers, “the incentive to offer device installment contracts to credit-challenged consumers will likely decrease if consumers can more easily break these agreements and take devices -- without paying for them -- to other carriers,” the group said. But EchoStar backed a requirement that applies to all devices “whether prepaid or postpaid and regardless of financing status.” It also called on the FCC to issue a Further NPRM on porting practices. “Carriers today impose varied and often onerous requirements on consumers seeking to port their phone numbers to new carriers that -- like unlocking rules -- may hinder their ability to switch providers,” the company said. The Advanced Communications Law and Policy Institute at New York Law School advised the FCC not to “micromanage” handset policy. “Unfortunately, the Commission, notwithstanding its confidence in the need for prophylactic regulation, fails to offer persuasive data, analysis, or legal justification for its proposed handset unlocking rules,” the institute said: “In reality, the U.S. wireless sector is robustly competitive, vibrantly innovative, and incredibly responsive to consumer demands, including those related to handset unlocking.”
The FCC Wireless Bureau approved a waiver for Federated Wireless of rules that require environmental sensing capability systems to protect federal incumbents in the citizens broadband radio service band from harmful interference as Hurricane Francine hits the Gulf Coast. The waiver “only applies to periods where the subject ESC sensors are unable to communicate with the Federated [spectrum access system] due to a power outage or backhaul outage,” said the order in Wednesday's Daily Digest. The waiver expires either on Sept. 24 “or when commercial power and backhaul service is restored to the subject ESC sensors,” the bureau said.
The FCC opened a new docket, 24-286, on T-Mobile’s proposed buy of “substantially all” of UScellular’s wireless operations, including some of its spectrum (see 2405280047). “Applications seeking Commission consent to the transaction are expected to be filed in the coming days,” the FCC said Wednesday. The agency said under its “permit-but-disclose” proceeding rules, anyone making an ex parte presentation “must file a copy of any written presentation or a memorandum summarizing any oral presentation within two business days after the presentation (unless a different deadline applicable to the Sunshine period applies).” The companies unveiled the deal in May, valued at about $4.4 billion, including $2 billion in assumed debt.
Patti Kukula, executive director of the Detroit Public Safety Foundation, withdrew a filing at the FCC made in August opposing FirstNet control of the 4.9 GHz band (see 2408290015). The filing "is not reflective” of the foundation’s “position or stance on this public safety communications matter,” said the new filing posted Wednesday in docket 07-100. “The submission of the Foundation’s original filing did not adhere to our organization’s process for review,” Kukula said. The foundation was “operating on an incomplete set of facts regarding this regulatory proceeding and a mistaken assumption regarding the proposal.”
The FCC wants comments by Oct. 15, replies by Nov. 12, in docket 24-213 on proposed revisions to the robocall mitigation database, said a notice for Thursday's Federal Register. Commissioners adopted the item in August (see 2408070047).
Former FCC Public Safety Bureau Chief David Simpson stresses the importance of finding a terrestrial alternative to GPS for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) in a new paper. “A day without accurate and available PNT services is a scenario the U.S. cannot afford,” Simpson argues. The paper comes amid broad opposition to NextNav’s pursuit of an NPRM examining using the 902-928 MHz band for PNT (see 2409060046). Terrestrial PNT “utilizes ground-based infrastructure, making it less susceptible to jamming and spoofing attacks targeting space-based systems” and combined with GPS would “create a more robust and resilient PNT ecosystem, minimizing the impact of single-point failures,” said Simpson, also a former Navy rear admiral, now a professor at Virginia Tech. A terrestrial system would “eliminate the confusion GPS receivers often encounter in urban canyons, difficult geographies and indoors” and “eliminate the asymmetric advantage an adversary might seek from an attack on our space assets.” The paper was prepared in part with the support of NextNav but reflects his personal views, Simpson said.
The FCC activated the disaster information reporting system and mandatory disaster response initiative for 30 parishes in Louisiana facing impacts from Hurricane Francine, a public notice said Wednesday. The alert includes Acadia Parish, Orleans Parish, St. Martin and others. Reports are due from communication providers starting Thursday. The FCC also issued public notices on priority communications services, FCC availability and emergency contact procedures for licensees that need special temporary authority. The Public Safety Bureau also issued a reminder for entities clearing debris and repairing utilities to avoid damaging communications infrastructure.
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