The FCC has congressional authorization to collect Form 395-B data and didn’t violate broadcasters' constitutional rights in issuing its equal employment opportunity order, the agency said in a brief filed Friday in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The brief responds to challenges against the EEO order brought by the National Religious Broadcasters, the American Family Association and the Texas Association of Broadcasters. “The mere fact that a regulation takes account of race or sex does not make it suspect,” said the FCC. Adding a nonbinary option to gender choices on the form is a “minor change in terminology” for “a category of information that the Form 395-B already collected in 1992,” and thus is well within the agency’s authority, the FCC said. “Nothing about the collection or disclosure of Form 395-B data interferes with a broadcaster’s ability to communicate its own message or suggests the broadcaster agrees with the FCC’s views.” The agency said it “has a legitimate public interest” in collecting workforce diversity data “to facilitate analysis and reporting on broadcast industry workforce trends.”
The FCC Enforcement Bureau released on Monday data on traceback records requested from the Traceback Consortium on artificial or prerecorded voice calls where the consortium “identified an originating, gateway, or non-responsive provider.” The data covers April 1 to June 30 and lists hundreds of incidents. It doesn’t include records “where (1) the legality of the relevant call was disputed by the provider and resolved by the Traceback Consortium in favor of the provider; (2) the traceback was initiated in error; (3) the terminating provider could not identify the relevant call; or (4) the Traceback Consortium determined the call was untraceable,” the EB said.
The FCC Wireline Bureau on Monday gave carriers that already received six-month extensions on deadlines to remove Huawei and ZTE components from their networks additional time to comply with the rip-and-replace program. Southern Ohio Communications Services (SOCS), which recently asked for a third six-month extension, had its deadline extended from Oct. 6 to April 6. “The Bureau finds SOCS’s showing persuasive and that its situation is consistent with the situation of other recipients that have been granted extensions on similar grounds of supply chain issues, and accordingly grants the requested extension,” said a Monday order in docket 18-89. The bureau also approved a third extension for James Valley Co-op, to April 8, and for Stealth Communications, to March 29. Panhandle Telecommunication Systems got a second extension to April 18, and WorldCell Solutions a second extension, of three and a half months, to Jan. 15. Congress has considered, but not yet approved, $3.08 billion to fully fund the FCC's Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program (see 2409170066). “The lack of full funding will not necessarily be a sufficient showing for multiple extension requests, as recipients should continually make progress toward completing their projects by the end of their removal, replacement, and disposal term,” the order said.
SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell in a meeting with FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel urged that the agency authorize commercial operations of its direct-to-device service, according to a posting Monday in docket 23-135. The agency's Space Bureau signed off late last year on SpaceX conducting limited supplemental coverage from space operations for testing purposes (see 2312050029).
The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions updated the FCC on the status of a new volume control standard for handset makers to use to certify that handsets are hearing aid compatible. ATIS noted that the FCC required the update, which was provided by the Telecommunications Industry Association. TIA’s Volume Control Task Group (VCTG) has made “significant progress” in addressing concerns of the HAC Task Force, said a filing posted Monday in docket 20-3. The VCTG “expects the approval process to happen using only the minimum time required for approval of this standard by the American National Standards Institute and suggests that the Commission can provisionally incorporate the draft standard into its rules while the standard is pending ANSI approval,” ATIS said.
The FCC expanded the reporting area for communications outages caused by Hurricane Helene to include counties in Tennessee and Virginia and additional counties in South Carolina, said a public notice in Monday’s Daily Digest. Reports from the affected counties show communications services experiencing outages from the storm but improving.
T-Mobile agreed it will make extensive changes in its business practices to bolster its customers' security and it will pay a nearly $15.8 million fine, the FCC said Monday. The company will spend at least that same amount strengthening its cybersecurity practices, though the carrier's costs will likely be significantly higher, the FCC said. Elements of the announced consent decree resolve separate incidents in 2021, 2022 and 2023, which the FCC Enforcement Bureau was investigating.
Don't expect a DirecTV/Dish Network deal to face the same anticompetitive obstacles as a similar merger attempt did 22 years ago, antitrust and FCC experts tell us. The two direct broadcast satellite (DBS) companies said Monday they reached an agreement where DirecTV would buy EchoStar's Dish and Sling video distribution businesses for $1. DirecTV will also assume an estimated $9.75 billion in Dish DBS debt. The companies said they expect regulatory approval before the end of next year.
The FCC released its order approving 3-2 radio broadcaster Audacy’s request for a temporary waiver of its foreign-ownership requirements. The dissents from both FCC Republicans condemn the order as a deviation from normal FCC procedure, but neither mentions by name the involvement of the Soros family in the deal, though that has been the main focus of Republican lawmakers and conservative media critical of the restructuring. Commissioner Brendan Carr previously called the waiver a “Soros shortcut.” To suggest that Audacy is receiving special treatment is “cynical and wrong,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, pointing to numerous similar grants from the FCC going back to 2018. “Our practice here and in these prior cases is designed to facilitate the prompt and orderly emergence from bankruptcy of a company that is a licensee under the Communications Act.”
The FCC posted on Friday an order approved 5-0 on Thursday addressing satellite operations in the 17 GHz band. The agency adopted rule changes enabling non-geostationary orbit-fixed-satellite services to operate in the 17.3-17.7 GHz band for downlinks on a shared, co-primary basis with geostationary satellite orbit services and on a co-primary basis with other incumbents (see 2409260026). “Our action today provides a contiguous 1300 MHz of spectrum for NGSO FSS downlink operations, allowing for technologically innovative and enhanced satellite services to the benefit of American consumers,” the order says: It also aligns “the U.S. Table with the International Table of Allocations to provide a more cohesive global framework for FSS operators and maximize the efficient use of the 17 GHz band.” Only Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Geoffrey Starks attached statements.