Comcast will pay $1.5 million for a vendor breach that compromised personally identifiable information of cable subscribers, the FCC Enforcement Bureau ordered Monday. The company will also implement a compliance plan that includes vendor oversight practices related to customer privacy and information protection, the bureau said. The 2024 data breach involved information about 237,702 current and former Comcast customers that was held by debt-collection firm Financial Business and Consumer Solutions.
States can't easily do targeted outreach, support migration or identify people still relying on analog telecommunications relay services due to their lack of access to customer data, according to the National Association of State Relay Administration. In a meeting with FCC staffers, NASRA board members urged the commission to allow an exemption for TRS vendors to share customer data with state TRS administrators for outreach and transition support, said a filing posted (docket 03-123). That would help ensure device solutions for households without broadband, the group said.
The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe criticized the FCC’s approach to revising National Environmental Policy Act rules in an August NPRM (see 2509190053), according to a filing posted Monday in docket 25-217. “This is an irrationally rushed docket with questionable efforts to consult in a genuine or meaningful manner with Tribal Nations, without ample consultation opportunities, and with overly prescribed allowance for consultation,” the Minnesota tribe said.
Anuvu is supposed to show how the C-band Relocation Payment Clearinghouse was wrong in finding that the company can't get reimbursed for its German facility modifications, but it hasn't made the case of where the clearinghouse erred, the FCC Enforcement Bureau said in a brief posted Monday (docket 21-333). The bureau said much of Anuvu's argument revolves around one footnote in the FCC's C-band clearing order, and the agency can't make broad policy announcements in footnotes. But the C-band clearing order repeatedly makes clear that reimbursement of transition costs is only for those incurred within the U.S., the bureau said.
An FCC order that addresses gear authorization rules, which commissioners approved in October, will take effect Dec. 26, said a notice for Tuesday’s Federal Register. The order clarifies that rules prohibiting authorization of covered equipment include modular transmitters and imposes a prohibition on the authorization of devices that include modular transmitters that are covered equipment (see 2510280024).
Representatives of the Alaska Telecom Association met with staff from the FCC Wireless Bureau and Office of Economics to seek clarity on the eligible-areas map for the Alaska Connect Fund, according to a filing posted Monday in docket 23-328. Association members “inquired about the data set used to create the Map and urged the Commission to provide additional information about the areas that have been deemed ineligible.” They noted the burden of testing and challenging large areas of the map where service may not be available today.
Google subsidiary Starfish is seeking FCC approval to build and test parts of the Bulikula submarine cable system in U.S. territory while the agency reviews the cable landing license application. In a special temporary authority application Friday, Starfish said it needs approval by Dec. 16 so cable-laying activities in U.S. territory can start on schedule. The Bulikula system would connect Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and Hawaii to Fiji and French Polynesia. Google applied for FCC approval in November 2024 (see 2411180002).
The FCC commissioners' last meeting of 2025 will see votes on draft orders about robocalls and low-power TV (LPTV), Chairman Brendan Carr blogged Monday. He told reporters after the agency's meeting last week that the December agenda would likely be lighter than some previous months.
The two major differences between the draft and final versions of the FCC's NPRM on rules for an upper C-band auction were questions about a potential tribal window for the spectrum and about future satellite and other uses. Commissioners approved the notice 3-0 at Thursday's meeting (see 2511200046), where the changes were discussed. The final NPRM was posted in Monday’s Daily Digest.
FCC General Counsel Adam Candeub faced some tough questions as he defended the agency's order establishing a regime that's designed to promote use of the 4.9 GHz band by giving the FirstNet Authority access to the spectrum (see 2509160005). A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit heard oral argument Monday.