FCC commissioners unanimously approved an order Wednesday amending the commission's letter of credit (LOC) rules for providers receiving high-cost USF support, moving away from reliance on the Weiss rating system. The order affects participants in the Connect America Fund Phase II and Rural Digital Opportunity Fund programs and those receiving support for Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands. The order saw tweaks at the request of Commissioner Anna Gomez, officials said.
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, during a Wednesday Communications Subcommittee hearing criticized FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel’s draft declaratory ruling last week finding that Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act Section (CALEA) Section 105 requires telecom carriers to secure their networks against cyberattacks (see 2412050044). Republican FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to become chairman Jan. 20, told reporters Wednesday he believes the commission’s response to the Salt Typhoon Chinese government-affiliated effort at hacking U.S. telecom networks (see 2411190073) should focus on continuing to “closely” coordinate with other federal cyber-related agencies and identify vulnerabilities to the private sector.
Communications industry lobbyists told us they expect President-elect Donald Trump to soon follow his pair of Tuesday night FTC selections (see 2412100073) with a nominee for the FCC seat Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel plans to vacate Jan. 20. The lobbyists mentioned Arielle Roth, telecom policy director for Senate Commerce ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, as the apparent front-runner for the nomination, though the Trump team hasn’t yet made a final decision. Trump said Tuesday he’s picking Republican FTC Commissioner Andrew Ferguson as permanent chair of the commission and will nominate Mark Meador, a former antitrust staffer for Senate Antitrust Subcommittee ranking member Mike Lee, R-Utah., to the commission seat that Chair Lina Khan currently holds.
FCC commissioners, as expected, approved unanimously (see 2412090047) an order that expands the parts of the 6 GHz band where new very-low-power (VLP) devices are permitted to operate without coordination. In addition, commissioners Wednesday approved 5-0 an NPRM proposing updates for broadcast radio and TV rules. The open meeting was the penultimate with Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel at the helm.
Lynk Global wants its non-geostationary orbit license to include authority for supplemental coverage from space (SCS) operations in the 845.1-845.3 MHz and 890.1-890.3 MHz frequencies throughout Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. In an FCC Space Bureau application posted Tuesday, Lynk said it has SCS regulatory approvals in more than 30 countries and is deployed commercially via more than 40 mobile network operator commercial service contracts covering approximately 50 countries. The company said it is "well prepared to provide commercial service in the U.S." and that it has a lease agreement with Docomo, a terrestrial wireless licensee that holds all co-channel licenses throughout the Guam/Northern Mariana Islands region. Moreover, Lynk said its SCS operations are compatible with those in the leased frequencies. It said Docomo holds all the Channel Block A licensed frequencies in that region and is the only party that can operate in this spectrum and geographic location.
The prospects for achieving broadcast ownership deregulation are “better than at any point in the recent past” under the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump, said Nexstar CEO Perry Sook in a Q&A during the UBS Global Communications Conference. Sook said Monday he expects a congressional effort will scrap the 39% broadcast ownership cap and implement internal FCC changes that will ease rules on broadcasters within the first six months of the new administration. Incoming FCC head and current Commissioner Brendan Carr “gets it,” Sook said. “We've been in contact with him, and will continue to be in close contact.” Sook said that Carr’s repeated statements on taking away broadcast licenses and holding broadcasters to a public interest standard are aimed at NBC, CBS and ABC. “I think there is some animus or frustration with some of the networks for some of their content decisions.” However, Sook downplayed the threat. “FCC chairmen can't really unilaterally revoke licenses,” he said. “Now you can use your pulpit to commence hearings ... and ... make people's lives more expensive and more difficult, but unilaterally removing licenses is not really within the cards.” Along with Carr, Sook said Nexstar discussed deregulation with Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La. Unlike previous pushes to change the national cap, the broadcast TV groups support completely removing it this time, Sook said. “The industry itself is united around the need and not divided as to what the right number is.” Carr could spur TV market consolidation simply by signaling that waivers allowing top-four duopolies would be more liberally granted, Sook said, adding it’s a move he could make without a majority at the commission. Sook is also looking to Carr to eliminate the simulcast requirement for the ATSC 3.0 transition and establish a date certain to end ATSC 1.0. “We are spending time working with both the legislative and the executive branch to try and affect these changes.”
The FCC’s 2024 foreign-sponsored content rules violate the First Amendment and the Administrative Procedure Act and are outside the FCC’s authority over sponsorship ID, NAB said in an initial brief filed Tuesday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (see 2409160043). NAB successfully challenged the 2021 version of those rules, leading to the additional requirement in 2024 that broadcasters and entities leasing programming time from them certify that foreign governments aren't sponsoring lessees. The newer rules “dramatically expanded” the requirement by redefining a lease of airtime to include non-candidate political advertising and public service announcements, NAB said. The order violates the First Amendment by imposing content-based restrictions on protected speech, it said. The 2024 rules “radically increase the burdens on lessees, advertisers, and broadcasters by sweeping in hundreds of thousands of new transactions, including advertising spots, under the foreign-sponsor identification regime,” NAB said. That expansion isn’t a logical outgrowth of the FCC’s rulemaking process, which had sought comment only upon a request from broadcasters for a clarification on the length of ads excluded from the 2021 rules, NAB said. “The APA is not satisfied by a rumor mill,” said the brief. The FCC “still has no evidence of any foreign governmental sponsorship of any form of advertising, including political advertising,” NAB said. That is why the 2021 rules excluded “traditional, short-form advertising” from the requirements, “and the Commission never explained why its analysis changed.”
The FCC Enforcement Bureau announced possible action against more than 2,400 voice service providers because they did not file properly in the Robocall Mitigation Database. In addition, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel proposed a further tightening of the database’s filing rules, said an order and news release Tuesday. The 2,411 providers must correct their filings or show why they shouldn’t be removed from the database, the order said. The filings are incorrect because companies didn’t submit updated certifications and robocall mitigation plans. “Removal of a Company’s certification from the RMD would require all intermediate providers and voice service providers to cease accepting all calls directly from the Company,” the EB order said. The Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force also announced Tuesday that it resolved investigations of several voice service providers over transmitting suspected illegal robocall traffic on their networks. “The Task Force issued notices to these providers informing them that the Task Force has shared the results of its investigations with the FCC,” the release said. “A number of the providers on notice from the Task Force are included in today’s FCC enforcement action.” In the release, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein said phone providers "can’t put their profits first and turn a blind eye to the illegal robocallers they allow on our phone networks." Stein added, "I’m pleased that the states and the FCC are working together to confront these companies that are frustrating Americans with millions of scam calls.” The report and order circulated to the 10th floor Tuesday would require “timely updates to company information,” and institute base fines of $10,000 for false or inaccurate submissions, and $1,000 for failing to keep information current, said the release. The circulated order would also require companies to certify their submission's accuracy, institute a $100 filing fee, and direct that the Wireline Bureau establish a dedicated reporting mechanism. A draft version of the order was not released. Providers “must be active partners in the fight against unwanted and illegal robocalls,” said Rosenworcel. “If they are not, they should not be allowed to participate in our phone networks. Full stop.”
Consolidated Communications' purchase by Searchlight Capital Partners and British Columbia Investment Management has a green light from the FCC. The deal will serve the public interest, the FCC Wireline and Wireless Bureaus and Office of International Relations said in an order Monday as they also waived agency rules governing foreign equity and voting interests for entities holding common carrier wireless licenses. The roughly $3.1 billion deal was announced in October 2023 (see 2310160065).
A coalition of attorneys general from 14 states and Washington, D.C., asked the FCC to adopt rules requiring providers to improve their customer service practices, in a letter Tuesday. The coalition, led by Pennsylvania AG Michelle Henry (D), said they regularly hear complaints from consumers about "deceptive, confusing, and unfair interactions with service providers." The AGs urged the commission to adopt rules that "make it quicker and easier for consumers to reach live agents" and provide automatic credits for service outages or missed service appointments.