The House Communications Subcommittee rescheduled a postponed hearing on the FCC's FY 2025 budget request for Tuesday, the Commerce Committee said Tuesday. The subpanel previously planned the hearing for early May (see 2405030068). “The U.S. maintains some of the most preeminent broadband networks in the world,” said House Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R- Wash., and Communications Chair Bob Latta, R-Ohio. “This has resulted in lower costs and faster, more reliable services to Americans that have helped cement American innovation and leadership in next-generation technologies. Our networks have benefitted from a light-touch regulatory approach, which has allowed them to adapt and thrive. Unfortunately, recent actions by the FCC, including burdensome new regulations, threaten that light-touch system and people’s access to these critical services.” The House Appropriations Committee's FY 2025 funding bill for the FCC, which it advanced last month (see 2406140054), proposes increasing the commission's budget to $416 million but would bar the agency from using funds to enforce its net neutrality and digital discrimination orders.
Recent U. S. Supreme Court decisions on judicial deference to federal agencies and agency enforcement actions will have “significant impacts” on FCC matters, but “how they apply may vary significantly by context,” according to a Monday post from HWG attorneys Christopher Wright, Sean Lev and Jason Neal. Wright and Lev are former FCC general counsels. “Many FCC actions are based on statutory provisions that are at least arguably ambiguous, and litigants affected by those decisions will in some cases have a greater chance to prevail in federal court,” in light of the Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo decision (see 2407010036), the attorneys said. However, many of the rules that Congress directed the FCC to implement use terms like “appropriate” or “reasonable," they noted. “The meaning of the Court’s reasoning regarding those instances where Congress clearly has authorized some amount of discretion will be important (and surely contested),” they said. While SCOTUS ruled previous decisions that relied on Chevron deference remain in effect, that's also likely to get tested in the courts, they wrote. In its decision in SEC v. Jarkesy (see 2406270063), the court didn’t specify what opportunities for a jury trial satisfy the Seventh Amendment. Although FCC enforcement proceedings haven’t generally involved juries, even before Jarkesy an entity facing an FCC forfeiture could decline to pay, and eventually face a civil suit from DOJ to collect the unpaid money, a proceeding called a “trial de novo.” The FCC has previously contended that this opportunity satisfies any 7th Amendment requirements, the attorneys said.
In an update to Congress on its rip-and-replace program, the FCC said as of June 1, it has received 23,830 reimbursement claims across 122 of the 126 applications approved for a funding allocation to replace Huawei and ZTE communications gear and services. It also approved more than $693 million in claims “for which funds have been fully disbursed to recipients or are in the process of being disbursed through the U.S. Treasury.” The FCC noted a May 2 letter from Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel to Congress urging full funding, which would close the program's shortfall of more than $3 billion (see 240502007). The Wireline Bureau “has continued to review Reimbursement Claims submitted by recipients and disburse funds within the approved funding allocations for costs reasonably incurred to remove, replace, and dispose of covered communications equipment and services,” the report said in Tuesday’s Daily Digest: “We have also received and reviewed the sixth and seventh rounds of status updates submitted by Reimbursement Program recipients.” The FCC estimated that 12% of participants have completed the program. Complaints from participants include “(1) absence of full funding; (2) supply chain delays; (3) labor shortages; (4) weather-related challenges; and (5) extended review times in the processing of requests for reimbursement,” the report said. Providers continue seeking additional time to complete the program. This week, Hotwire Communications became the latest to seek an extension, citing delays in obtaining replacement equipment, labor shortages and funding “uncertainties.”
California state senators pushed back on two digital equity bills Tuesday. Multiple Communications Committee members during a livestreamed hearing raised concerns about the Assembly-passed AB-2239, which would ban digital discrimination as the FCC defines it. Also, the committee scaled back the Assembly-approved AB-1588, which had proposed to update the California LifeLine subsidy program to support broadband for low-income households. The committee directed the LifeLine bill’s sponsor to find a compromise with industry opponents and other stakeholders over the summer recess that runs from July 3 to Aug. 5.
The FCC proposed extending for an additional six years its freeze on federal-state jurisdictional separations of telecom costs and revenue. The current freeze is set to expire Dec. 31 (see 1812170049). The proposed extension would let the commission continue working with the joint board on jurisdictional separations to "determine next steps" in amending the rules "in light of sweeping technological and regulatory changes since these rules were initially adopted," according to an NPRM Monday. Comments are due 30 days after Federal Register publication, replies 45 days after, in docket 80-286.
The three major U.S. wireless carriers, AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon, told the FCC it’s too early for rules on using supplemental coverage from space (SCS) to improve calling to 911. Their message was contained in reply comments posted through Tuesday in docket 23-65. The FCC's SCS framework order approved in March (see 2403140050) included a Further NPRM asking about 911 and radio astronomy issues. Specifically, the FNPRM looks at whether the FCC should mandate location-based routing requirements for SCS emergency communications.
The FCC shouldn’t directly or indirectly ban bulk broadband billing agreements, ACA Connects said during a call with an aide to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, according to an ex parte filing posted in docket 17-142. A ban would lead to rate increases for residents in multiple tenant environments, ACA said. In addition, it would prompt worse services for MTEs, the group said. MTE owners could evade FCC rules by building internal networks and charging tenants without the right to opt out, the filing said. “These networks -- unlike those of ACA Connects’ members providing bulk services -- would tend to lock in current technology and capacity limits because an MTE owner serving its own tenants would not be subject to the same competitive forces as a broadband provider.” The FCC should “proceed cautiously” and shift from a proposed Further NPRM on bulk billing to a notice of inquiry, ACA said: “We are confident that such an inquiry would provide additional support for the Commission to refrain from intervening to regulate bulk billing arrangements.”
The Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition asked the FCC to address how interference is reported and addressed in the 6 GHz band as automated frequency coordination systems open (see 2404050012). “The Commission must require AFC Operators to comply with the Office of Engineering and Technology Public Notice approving the AFC Operators’ applications, and it should do so by requiring [them] to work with incumbent licensees to build an interference portal that receives and addresses interference complaints,” the coalition said in a filing posted Monday in docket 21-352. It said the current reporting portal is “wholly inadequate.”
Back and forth arguments to the FCC on whether the FirstNet Authority should have effective control of the 4.9 GHz band appear to be heating up. Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg met with FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel last week to oppose a proposal that "wrest[s] control of the 4.9 GHz band from local public safety agencies and give[s] it to FirstNet and, in turn, AT&T,” a filing posted Monday in docket 07-100 said. This “proposed spectrum giveaway would disrupt the competitive marketplace for public safety and commercial wireless use,” Verizon said. It would give AT&T access to 50 MHz of mid-band spectrum “valued at over $14 billion and available for commercial use” and “would result in a substantial windfall, particularly at a time when the Commission and other policymakers are working to develop a pipeline for mid-band spectrum,” the carrier said. In a filing posted Monday, the National Sheriffs’ Association shared with the FCC its CEO Jonathan Thompson's recent blog that opposed giving the spectrum to FirstNet. “For more than two decades, we in public safety have been able to use the 4.9 GHz band to serve our local needs,” Thompson wrote: “It’s available for us to use as we need and see fit, and not part of a nationalized process controlled by a central authority that can only provide a limited set of basic, quasi-commercial AT&T products to choose from.” The National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) supported giving FirstNet use of the band. “Public safety has spoken loud and clear in the 4.9 GHz proceeding … calling for FirstNet to have unfettered access to the band,” said a letter from Executive Director Dwayne Crawford. NOBLE wants “to be clear that organizations that claim to represent thousands of law enforcement CEO’s across the United States and do not support our commitment to fully incorporating the 4.9 GHz band into the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network do not represent our organization.”
Advocates of expanding the use of very-low-power devices without coordination in other parts of the 6 GHz band filed a report at the FCC on a “comprehensive Monte Carlo analysis” of interference risks to broadcast auxiliary service TV pickup (TP). “The large majority (95%) of TP links had no exceedance over 100,000 simulation iterations,” a filing posted Monday in docket 18-295 said: “The risk of harmful interference from VLP devices to TP links was exceedingly small with a 0.0001% average probability of an exceedance across all TP links.” Representatives of Apple, Broadcom, Google, Meta Platforms and Qualcomm met with Office of Engineering and Technology staff to discuss the RKF Engineering Solutions report.