The FCC voted unanimously Tuesday to seek comment on relaxing local broadcast-ownership limits, even as protesters at the crowded meeting called FCC Chairman Brendan Carr “the censorship czar” and he continued to deny that his recent comments about Jimmy Kimmel were a threat.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr emphasized Tuesday that he was “ready to go” with what the commission said would be a suspension of “most operations” after midnight Wednesday if Congress couldn't reach a deal on a continuing resolution to extend federal appropriations past Tuesday night, as most observers expected. Meanwhile, the Commerce Department said more than 77% of NTIA’s 600 staff will remain at work following an appropriations lapse, in part because of spectrum funding included in Republicans’ reconciliation package, previously known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (see 2507030056).
Radio Communications Corp. (RCC) is seeking U.S. Supreme Court review of its challenge of the FCC’s implementation of the 2023 Low Power Protection Act (LPPA), which a U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit three-judge panel unanimously rejected in June (see 2506270043). The FCC’s LPPA order allowed low-power TV stations fulfilling certain criteria set by Congress to upgrade to Class A status. Though the FCC’s order used nearly identical language to the LPPA, RCC has repeatedly argued that the FCC mistook Congress’ intent. RCC had argued the LPPA's requirement that eligible stations operate in a designated market area (DMA) with not more than 95,000 TV households was misinterpreted by the FCC, and it actually meant the upgrades should be available based on the size of a station’s community of license. The D.C. Circuit disagreed. “Nowhere in the statute does Congress reference ‘community of license,’ nor are communities of license equivalent systems to DMAs,” said the June opinion. “RCC’s convoluted reading of these statutory provisions is plainly incorrect.” In its petition for certiorari, RCC said the D.C. Circuit opinion and FCC order gave NAB and full-power broadcasters “speculative third-party regulatory relief” by not letting more LPTV stations upgrade to Class A status. The D.C. Circuit opinion “twists the LPPA into knots, ignoring basic statutory interpretive rules, for the improper purpose of protecting NAB’s Full Power clients, the entities the LPPA seeks to constrain,” RCC said. The petition accuses the FCC of acting on NAB’s behalf, though the agency’s order implementing the LPPA stuck narrowly to the text of the statute. “Federal agencies are not alter egos for trade associations,” RCC said.
An FCC order expanding the reach of the do-not-originate lists and strengthening call-blocking capabilities is effective Dec. 15, said a Monday notice by the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau. Commissioners approved the order in February (see 2502270058).
Groups opposing an FCC order giving the FirstNet Authority control of the 4.9 GHz band through a nationwide license (see 2410220027) Monday slammed Public Safety Spectrum Alliance (PSSA) and Public Safety Broadband Technology Association (PSBTA) challenges of part of the order. The Coalition for Emergency Response and Critical Infrastructure (CERCI) and other groups filed a brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which is scheduled to hear the case Nov. 24. The FCC and DOJ, meanwhile, defended the order.
CTIA Monday filed in support of a T-Mobile petition asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to rehear en banc the August decision by a three-judge panel upholding the FCC’s data fines against it and Sprint, which it subsequently purchased (see 2509220056).
An upper C-band auction is unlikely to start in FY 2026, the FCC Office of Economics and Analytics said in an annual update on projected auction activity in the next fiscal year, which begins Wednesday. The report projected that the AWS-3 reauction will get underway but didn’t provide additional timing details. The report was posted in Monday’s Daily Digest. “In the next twelve months, the Commission will also consider competitive bidding for licenses for spectrum in other services in its inventory that is well-suited for 5G and has been licensed in prior auctions, such as, without limitation, 600 MHz spectrum,” the report said.
The Telecommunications Industry Association Monday asked the FCC to act quickly on rules that could speed up the transition by carriers away from legacy copper networks (see 2507240048). Comments were due Monday in docket 25-208. The FCC also continues to hear from consumers on what they see as the advantages of traditional wireline phones (see 2509250045).
Incarcerated people’s communications service (IPCS) provider Pay Tel asked the FCC for a waiver of a rule against charging prisoner families ancillary fees. The ban was adopted as part of the 2024 order (see 2407180039) implementing changes required by Congress in the Martha Wright-Reed Act. In late June, in a surprise move, the Wireline Bureau delayed some deadlines in the order until April 1, 2027 (see 2506300068).
Disability Belongs, a nonprofit led by people with disabilities, urged the FCC to reach out to all those affected before eliminating a requirement that telecommunications relay services providers support the largely obsolete ASCII transmission format. Other commenters saw little risk from permanently deleting the requirement.