Fox News, ESPN and MSNBC are exempt from FCC audio description rules governing the top-five national nonbroadcast networks, the FCC Media Bureau said in an order in Thursday's Daily Digest. The three provide less than 50 hours per quarter of prime-time programming that isn't live or near-live, the bureau said. Effective July 1, the top-five national nonbroadcast networks subject to the audio description requirements will be: HGTV, Hallmark, TLC, TNT and TBS, it added.
More than two-thirds, or 68%, of households enrolled in the affordable connectivity program "had inconsistent or zero connectivity" before entering the program, according to an FCC survey released Thursday. The survey included data from a December poll of ACP households. It said 80% of ACP households cited affordability as the reason for their lack of connectivity before the program. More than three-quarters of household respondents said losing ACP benefits would cause them to change or cancel their internet service plan. “Thanks to today’s survey data, leaders making the decisions about ACP’s future know one thing for certain," Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel wrote in a note, ACP is "not nice-to-have, it’s need-to-have." Rosenworcel added: "We’ve come too far to turn back now."
The FCC and the U.K.’s Information Commissioner’s Office will cooperate on enforcement matters related to unlawful robocalls and robotexts and protecting consumer privacy and sensitive data, the FCC said Thursday. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and U.K. Information Commissioner John Edwards signed a memorandum of understanding agreeing to collaborate, the FCC said. The FCC's efforts to protect consumer privacy and defend against robocalls and text scams "are fortified through strategic partnerships like these,” said Rosenworcel.
The 5G Automotive Association is getting support for a June 2021 petition (see 2106030075) that asks the FCC to reduce by 20 dB the permitted level of unwanted emissions from the unlicensed services that share the 5.9 GHz band. The 5GAA has been at the FCC in recent months urging action on the petition to protect cellular vehicle-to-everything operations (see 2402090049). “Granting the Petition would provide the necessary protection for critical safety services while still providing for robust indoor unlicensed operations,” the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute said in a filing posted Thursday in docket 19-138. “Failure to grant the Petition, by contrast, would impact C-V2X safety communications,” the institute said. “As 5GAA’s Petition highlights, the unwanted emissions levels that the FCC adopted for unlicensed services that neighbor C-V2X in the 5.9 GHz spectrum band place C-V2X’s benefits at risk by subjecting the technology to harmful interference,” said the Wyoming Department of Transportation's filing said. “We support the 5GAA Petition and ask that the FCC promptly grant it,” said Spoke Safety, which is dedicated to protecting bicyclists using C-V2X.
The Wireless ISP Association petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for review of the FCC’s Nov. 20 digital discrimination order on grounds that it’s contrary to law, an abuse of discretion and violates the Administrative Procedure Act, said the petition Wednesday (docket 24-1047). It becomes the 15th such petition consolidated in the 8th Circuit once it’s transferred there under the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation's Feb. 9 order (see 2402120077). The order “undermines” congressional intent “by diverting limited human resources and investment from deployment to compliance with burdensome and overbroad regulations,” said the petition. It imposes a novel disparate-impact test that allows the FCC “to micromanage a host of legitimate business practices, including network buildout decisions, pricing, promotions, advertising, contract renewal, and customer service,” it said. If the order is allowed to stand, the FCC could enforce it “with its full range of tools, including civil penalties,” it said. The order “will deter innovation and investment in broadband,” including among WISPA’s small and rural members who may lack adequate resources to “absorb” the order’s compliance and potential enforcement costs, it said.
NTIA asked the FCC to harmonize rules for the 24 GHz band with decisions made at the World Radiocommunication Conference in 2019. The FCC approved an NPRM 3-2 in December examining changes to the rules, over dissents by Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington (see 2312260043). Reactions have been mixed (see 2402280037). NTIA filed joint comments, posted Thursday in docket 21-186, with NOAA and NASA. The NPRM proposes “an important step to honor our country’s international commitments,” they said. The NPRM “astutely explains” that passive satellite sensors operated by the federal government on frequencies allocated to the earth exploration satellite service “are particularly vulnerable to harmful interference,” the filing said. These passive sensors “are designed to look downward toward Earth and measure the power level of naturally occurring radio emissions from molecules in the atmosphere that occur at specific frequencies. Very sensitive instrumentation is necessary to measure such weak, natural signals.” NTIA said NOAA wants the FCC to apply the Resolution 750 limits to fixed services in the band and not just to international mobile telecommunications, “noting it is unaware of any technical justification for applying different emission limits to fixed systems.” That latter point was opposed by industry. The limits should apply to only mobile base stations and handsets and not other operations the rules allow, including point-to-point operations, point-to-multipoint operations and transportable devices like fixed wireless access customer premises equipment, Qualcomm said. “The Commission distinguishes these types of operations in its Part 30 rules, particularly when it comes to emissions limits,” Qualcomm said: “NTIA’s request to apply Resolution 750 to fixed operations is outside the scope of and inconsistent with the FCC’s longstanding regulatory framework.” Ericsson supported the WRC-19 limits but urged an exemption for indoor small cells “given the interference protection factors inherent in indoor operations and the unnecessary costs the limits would impose on the development and deployment of those systems.” CTIA said the FCC should adopt the WRC-19 recommendations but go no further. The group noted that companies invested $2 billion to buy licenses in the 24 GHz auction. “Beyond the FCC’s already balanced approach, the emission limits adopted by WRC-19 go above and beyond what is necessary to protect passive satellite operations,” CTIA said. “Any suggestions to expand emission limits beyond the WRC-19 agreement would be unnecessary and cause substantial harm to 24 GHz licensees,” the group said. “To avoid undermining licensees’ investment-backed expectations in acquiring 24 GHz band licenses, the Commission should reject proposals that would go beyond implementing the consensus-based decisions made at WRC-19,” T-Mobile agreed.
Don't grant Wavelength's request for confidentiality regarding its application for review of its Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I long-form application, TWN Communications urged the FCC in an opposition filing posted Thursday in docket 19-126 (see 2401190055). Wavelength "sought to justify confidential treatment and denial of access to the material designated confidential" in its application for review, TWN said. The information Wavelength sought to keep confidential is based on "a generic statement that information in the AFR is confidential" and "does not mention access to capital at all."
The House voted 320-99 Thursday to approve a continuing resolution (HR-7463) that would extend federal appropriations for NTIA, other Commerce Department agencies, DOJ’s Antitrust Division and the Agriculture Department’s Rural Utilities Service through March 8, averting a partial government shutdown that would otherwise close RUS late Friday. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and other congressional leaders said they reached a deal on appropriations measures covering those agencies, so the short-term extension would allow time for Congress to address individual funding measures. HR-7463 also extends appropriations for the FCC and FTC through March 22. The CR’s enactment prospects remained in doubt Thursday afternoon amid misgivings from some Senate Republicans, but Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., hoped to hold a vote that evening.
Parties to the 14 petitions for review challenging the FCC’s Nov. 20 digital discrimination order now consolidated in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (see 2402120077) should meet, confer and submit a joint proposed briefing schedule within 30 days, clerk of court Michael Gans wrote counsel for the various parties Wednesday. The proposed briefing schedule “should either provide for briefing to be complete, and the cases ready for submission on the merits,” before the end of calendar 2024, or include an explanation “why the parties believe such a schedule is not reasonably attainable,” his letter said. In his initial review of the petitions, Gans “has preliminarily identified two groups of petitioners, with the members of each group appearing to challenge the agency action in one of two different respects,” it said, without specificity. He thus anticipates that the consolidated cases “will be broken into two tracks, with each of the two groups briefing their respective issues separately, before the cases are ultimately argued and submitted together to the same panel of judges on the same day,” it said. He asked that the proposed briefing schedule “indicate whether the parties agree with the clerk’s preliminary assessment that two separate tracks are warranted.” Gans also asked whether the petitioners intend to submit separate opening briefs, a single consolidated opening brief, or two consolidated opening briefs, “one from each preliminarily identified group of petitioners.”
A fresh stab at creating a state net neutrality law met industry opposition this week. Connecticut’s joint General Law Committee held a hearing Thursday on a wide-ranging bill (SB-3) that would also require affordable broadband, ban junk fees, require streaming TV prorating and let consumers repair electronics. The legislature’s consumer protection bill “addresses inequities,” said Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff (D).