The House voted 341-82 Wednesday to pass a continuing resolution (HR-9747) that would maintain funding through Dec. 20 for the FCC, FTC, Commerce Department agencies and all other federal entities. The resolution's passage would avert a government shutdown that would otherwise begin after FY 2024 funding expires Monday. The Senate was expected to take up the measure Wednesday night. “It would be political malpractice to shut the government down” just weeks before the Nov. 5 presidential election, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters. “I think everyone understands that.”
The FCC will take on two consumer issues at the commissioners' Oct. 17 open meeting: the georouting of calls to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline and rules requiring all wireless handsets to be hearing-aid compatible, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said Wednesday. The meeting is the last before the Nov. 5 elections. Drafts will be posted on Thursday. A draft order would require all U.S. wireless carriers to implement georouting within 30 days of the effective date of the rule for nationwide providers and 24 months after the effective date for smaller ones, said a news release. Telecom trade groups have asserted carriers are voluntarily implementing 988 georouting and the agency doesn't need to mandate it (see 2407300050). The release refers to two carriers, which the FCC confirms are Verizon and T-Mobile. “Last week, our country’s largest wireless carriers began phasing out the old system of routing 988 calls, which was based on the area code and prefix of your phone number, regardless of your actual location,” Rosenworcel said: “They are replacing it with a system that uses so-called ‘georouting’ technology to make sure wireless 988 callers are connected with counselors in their local community.” Some 80% of calls to the 988 Lifeline "are done through wireless phones, and many people have phone numbers with different area codes from where they live, work or visit,” said Ulf Ewaldsson, T-Mobile president-technology. “Georouting ensures that those seeking help will reach the available crisis center nearest their location for support. It’s about making sure help is there when and where it’s needed most.” The FCC sought comment in a December NPRM (see 2312130019) on how to implement a 100% HAC standard. While the wireless industry largely supported recommendations in the NPRM, groups representing the deaf and hard of hearing urged tweaks (see 2402270066). “We’re making smartphones more accessible to consumers with hearing loss,” Rosenworcel said. “After a reasonable phase-in period, the 48 million Americans with hearing loss will be able to choose among that same mobile phone models that are available to all consumers,” she said. Commissioners will also consider an adjudicatory matter from the Media Bureau. Such items are released at the meeting after they are approved.
Communications Daily is tracking the lawsuits below involving appeals of FCC actions.
State government entities and telecom companies braced Wednesday for the imminent arrival of Hurricane Helene. The powerful weather event could become a Category 4 hurricane before reaching Florida's Gulf Coast Thursday, likely damaging buildings and knocking out power in many places, said an AccuWeather advisory Wednesday.
“Shoveling more spectrum” into the pool of available frequencies for unlicensed use won’t necessarily mean faster Wi-Fi speeds, Richard Bennett, High Tech Forum founder, said during a Georgetown University Center for Business and Public Policy webcast Wednesday. Bennett, who worked on the initial Wi-Fi standard, also questioned whether 6 GHz is taking off as a Wi-Fi band. It's expected he will lay out his arguments in a paper next week.
Industry experts expect the FCC will petition the U.S. Supreme Court for a writ of certiori following the split rulings between the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the 6th and 11th circuits on the Universal Service Fund contribution mechanism, they said during a Schools, Health, Libraries & Broadband Coalition webinar Wednesday. The 5th Circuit sided with Consumers' Research in its challenge of the contribution mechanism and agreed to stay its ruling pending the commission's petition (see 2408270030).
An order approving Audacy’s request for a temporary exemption from the foreign-ownership rules was adopted but isn’t expected to be released before next week, FCC officials told us. The waiver would allow Audacy to complete foreign-ownership review after it finishes a bankruptcy restructuring that involves control of the broadcaster passing to a fund affiliated with George Soros' family. FCC Republicans hadn’t submitted dissenting statements Wednesday afternoon but indicated they plan to do so, the agency officials said. Broadcast industry officials, attorneys and others told us the Audacy transaction wouldn’t attract as much attention without Soros’ name attached, and that radio broadcasters have long sought increased private equity investment in their industry. “They’re making it a political ax,” said Christopher Terry, University of Minnesota media law professor. “The radio industry has been cash-strapped for 20 years.”
Dish Network and its CEO Charles Ergen want Standard General (SGCI) and its attorneys to be sanctioned over the broadcaster’s lawsuit against Dish, Byron Allen, the FCC and several unions and public interest groups (see 2409100008), said a motion for sanctions Tuesday. The Standard filing is “frivolous,” violates federal rules of civil procedure and infringes on Dish’s First Amendment rights, the filing said. Dish wants the court to sanction SGCI and its attorneys to cover all of Dish’s expenses from the case and dismiss the complaint. “Frustrated that SGCI’s transaction financing expired and the merger agreement terminated, Plaintiffs have concocted a false narrative that the FCC’s actions must have been caused by a vast racist conspiracy against Mr. Kim,” said the Dish filing, referring to Standard founder Soohyung Kim. The Standard complaint doesn’t show any evidence of a conspiracy but rather disparate parties that disliked the Standard/Tegna deal for different reasons, Dish said. “There is absolutely nothing actionable about a desire to see a deal fail, especially a deal that was artificially engineered to raise DISH’s costs,” Dish said. Standard’s conspiracy claims “rest on the mere fact” that attorney David Goodfriend, who represented unions against the Standard deal, has also worked for Ergen and Allen, Dish said. “This ‘conspiracy’ theory offends the First Amendment’s right to association,” Dish said. “This action was commenced in retaliation, as a rich man’s manifestation of a temper tantrum, in order to harass the parties that Plaintiffs hold responsible for the failure of their merger deal.” Standard didn't comment.
The FCC’s latest next-generation 911 order, approved 5-0 by commissioners in July (see 2407180037), is effective Nov. 25, said a Tuesday notice in the Federal Register. The order is intended to “facilitate the NG911 transition,” the notice said.
A Cox complaint about the state’s handling of NTIA’s broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program is “misleading and unsupported by facts,” the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation said Tuesday. In a lawsuit Monday at Rhode Island Superior Court in Providence, Cox said that Commerce’s flawed mapping and challenge process will lead to the state overbuilding wealthy communities with its $108.7 million BEAD allocation. Cox's complaint seeks declaratory judgment and an injunction to stop the state “from using flawed internet speed data that the Commerce Corporation refuses to make public to build taxpayer-subsidized and duplicative high-speed broadband internet in affluent areas of Rhode Island like the Breakers Mansion in Newport and affluent areas of Westerly.” The FCC’s broadband map shows 99.3% of Rhode Island residents have high-speed internet, Cox said. But Rhode Island Commerce reclassified 30,000 homes as underserved, including several mansions, which can receive at least 1 Gbps download and 35 Mbps upload speeds from Cox, the cable ISP said: Additionally, Rhode Island “devised a process to challenge its flawed data … that exists nowhere else in the 18 states where Cox offers service and that is impossible for Cox to meet.” Rhode Island Commerce noted that NTIA reviewed and approved its initial BEAD plan, which was “a proposal built on fairness, transparency, and a commitment to maximizing the impact of this historic federal investment.” However, Cox, the state’s biggest ISP, “declined to engage in the robust, months-long public planning process on how the Corporation would deploy Rhode Island’s BEAD funds.” The lawsuit “is an attempt to prevent the investment of $108.7 million dollars in broadband infrastructure in Rhode Island, likely because ... [Cox] realizes that some, or even all, of that money may be awarded through a competitive process to other internet service providers,” added Commerce. It said Rhode Island has unserved or underserved areas even in wealthier areas. “Whether an area is affluent or not has no bearing on the type of broadband service that is -- or is not -- available in that area.”