Led by the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition, four public interest groups filed a petition at the FCC asking for changes in a July order that lets schools and libraries use E-rate support for off-premises Wi-Fi hot spots and wireless internet services (see 2407180024). The petition reflects several changes SHLB sought before the order was approved 3-2 (see 2407170035). “The Commission should allow E-Rate funding to support cost-effective options that are functionally equivalent to commercially available mobile wireless services and Wi-Fi hotspots within the established pre-discount budget,” said the petition, posted Friday in docket 21-31: “E-Rate support should also be available for the purchase of hotspots on a standalone basis if an applicant already has access to the service needed to use the hotspots, and for wireless service that could be used with an applicant’s existing non-hotspot Wi-Fi-enabled equipment.” Also signing the petition were the Open Technology Institute at New America, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society and the Consortium for School Networking. Maurine and Matthew Molak filed a legal challenge to the order in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The FCC told the court the case isn’t ripe for review since the agency hasn’t addressed petitions for reconsideration and the order isn’t final (see 2409130063). Commissioner Brendan Carr has questioned whether the order would survive a legal challenge.
An FCC order lowering per minute rate caps for audio calls and establishing interim rate caps on video calls for incarcerated people takes effect Nov. 19, said a notice in Friday's Federal Register. The agency also wants comments by Oct. 21, replies by Nov. 19, in docket 23-62 on a related Further NPRM seeking comment on permanent video rate caps for incarcerated people's communications services. Commissioners adopted the item in July and released part of the order last month (see 2407180039). Several groups filed challenges to the partially released order (see 2409190061).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will decide, without oral argument, a case alleging that the FCC has an “affirmative legal obligation” under Sections 552 and 553 of the Administrative Procedure Act “to make its proposed and final rules readily available to the public without charge,” despite the process known as incorporation by reference (IBR), the court said Friday (docket 23-1311). IFixit, Public Resource and Make Community brought the challenge (see 2406050031). They charged that the FCC violated the APA when the commission failed to provide proper notice and comment protocol as it amended rules incorporating four equipment-testing standards (see 2311090002). “When IBR was adopted in the pre-Internet era, its purpose was to save the cost of reproducing in the Federal Register what are often voluminous technical standards that have been adopted by federal agencies as substantive rules, and hence are the law, apparently on the assumption that most of those who needed the standards already had access to them,” plaintiffs said in a June reply brief (see 2406050031): “Now that the FCC and every federal agency has a website on which they can, and do, post all of their rules not subject to IBR, there is no longer a cost justification rationale for IBR.” The court decided on its own motion, that oral argument will not assist … in this case,” the order said. “Accordingly, the court will dispose of the petition for review without oral argument on the basis of the appendix submitted by the parties and the presentations in the briefs.”
The FCC is getting lots of advice on potential changes to its draft order tackling robocalls and robotexts, set for a vote on Thursday (see 2409050045). Republican Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington have mentioned concerns about the order but aren't necessarily expected to dissent on what is usually considered a top consumer priority, industry officials said Friday.
Legislators, broadcasters, cable groups, the Heritage Foundation and civil rights groups disagree on whether the FCC can or should require disclosures for political ads created with generative AI, according to comments filed in docket 24-211 by Thursday’s deadline.
A phone company may be held liable for illegal robocalls transmitted over its network, a federal court ruled Thursday. Partly granting Florida’s motion for summary judgment, the U.S. District Court of Southern Florida found that Smartbiz Telecom violated the Truth in Caller ID Act and the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR). While the court will move to trial on Florida’s additional counts alleging Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) violations, Judge Jose Martinez disagreed with Smartbiz, which, as an intermediate provider that didn't initiate the calls, argued it can't be held liable under the TCPA. Smartbiz, Martinez wrote, "was involved in the placing of the telephone calls because it knowingly allowed fraudulent calls to transit its network.”
The FCC gave the green light to extended milestone deadlines for EchoStar's 5G network buildout Friday, three days after the company filed its request (see 2409190050). EchoStar called the approval "a significant step to promote competition in the wireless market."
The FCC shouldn’t “shift the long-standing understanding of localism” in its proceeding on prioritizing locally originated programming (see 2403120071), said America’s Public Television Stations and PBS in a teleconference meeting Tuesday with Media Bureau Chief Holly Saurer and an aide to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, according to an ex parte filing in docket 24-14. Public TV programming is local because it's issue-responsive, the filing said. “The definitions established in this rulemaking could have implications for what is considered ‘local’ broadcast programming in future regulations,” said the public TV groups. The FCC should adopt a “qualified” noncommercial educational broadcast station definition that would allow NCE applications to be prioritized without meeting the agency’s proposed requirements that programming be originated locally. The public TV groups also said the FCC shouldn’t expand rules governing TV translators. Rather than requiring translators to designate communities of license, the agency should “grandfather in existing COLs for public television translators until the station requests to change their community of license.” Doing otherwise could “create a burdensome engineering and administrative scramble for some public television stations,” the public TV groups said.
CostQuest will offer NTCA members its broadband fabric data location "at exclusive member pricing" for the FCC's broadband maps and NTIA's broadband, equity, access and deployment program, the group announced Thursday. NTCA members will receive a "10% discount off list pricing," it said. In addition, CostQuest will provide data on network cost, competition and demographics for each broadband serviceable location (see 2211180062). NTCA and CostQuest will host a webinar for the group's members Oct. 30 at 1 p.m. EDT.
Representatives of Somos and the Ad Hoc Telecom Users Committee met with aides to all five commissioners about tweaking a draft order on using the do not originate (DNO) list in blocking unwanted and illegal robocalls. The order is set for a vote at the FCC’s Sept. 26 open meeting (see 2409050045). “Somos applauds the Commission for applying a DNO mandate for all carriers in the draft Order” and agrees the commission shouldn’t designate a particular list, said a filing posted Thursday in docket 17-59. But “a reasonable list must (not may) include” all invalid numbers where the area code or central office code begins with a 0 or 1, “all numbers in an area code that is not yet, or can never be assigned” and “all 10,000 and 1,000 blocks of numbers in area codes that are in service, but the blocks are not yet assigned,” the filing said. Somos would also include on the list “numbers for which the subscriber has requested call origination blocking.”