The FCC Enforcement Bureau on Thursday asked voice service providers and USTelecom’s Industry Traceback Group to file information by May 1 on “private-led efforts to trace back the origin of suspected unlawful robocalls necessary for the Commission’s annual report.” The reporting period for the request is all of 2024. “Unlawful prerecorded or artificial voice message calls -- robocalls -- plague the American public,” the bureau said in a notice in docket 20-195. “Spoofed caller ID makes it more difficult to identify the source of the call.”
CTIA filed a petition Thursday at the FCC asking the commission to launch a rulemaking aimed at updating its rules implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has promised to focus on streamlining regulation and cutting red tape but has yet to outline a specific agenda (see 2503030040). Carr led the FCC work on cutting wireless infrastructure red tape during the first Trump administration.
Comments are due April 10, replies April 17, on transfers related to the proposed purchase of Kansas telecommunication services provider IdeaTek Telecom by private equity funds Oak Hill Capital Management and Pamlico Capital Management, the FCC Wireline Bureau said Thursday (docket 25-129).
There were no surprises during U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments Wednesday on the Consumers’ Research challenge to the constitutionality of the USF contribution factor, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said Thursday following the commission's open meeting. Most observers saw SCOTUS as unlikely to issue a ruling that would imperil the USF program (see 2503260061). “I got a high-level briefing from some of our team that attended it,” Carr said. “The read that I got is it went really well for the U.S. government’s position.” He added, “You never know when you’re reading tea leaves from an oral argument,” but “the net consensus was that it was good day” for the USF.
FCC commissioners on Thursday approved by 4-0 votes a notice of inquiry on alternatives to GPS, a Further NPRM on 911 wireless location accuracy and an FNPRM on next-generation 911. FCC officials said that while the GPS item saw some tweaks that reflect outreach to the commission (see 2503240043), there were no significant changes to the 911-related items.
A wave of retirements has hit the FCC, likely owing to a combination of early retirement offers, the transition in administrations, return-to-office requirements and increased pressure on federal workers, according to interviews with FCC employees and union officials.
Regulatory fees assessed on all authorized satellites and earth stations, not just operational ones, help better distribute the fee burden to everyone benefiting from FCC Space Bureau employee resources, the Satellite Industry Association said. In docket 24-85 comments posted Wednesday, SIA said this would also mean lower per-station and per-satellite fees. The group backs assessing satellite regulatory fees based on how much a particular type of operator likely benefits from "full-time employee resources" and constellation size. But it opposes alternative approaches that use a subjective analysis of a system's design and operations, it said. If the FCC takes a fee approach that looks at the number of authorized satellites in a fleet, it must use consistent methodology across satellite operators for what constitutes an authorized satellite, SIA added.
SpaceX's opposition to Globalstar's C-3 constellation plans (see 2503070006) is baseless, Globalstar told the FCC in a letter Tuesday. The agency's March 2024 denial of SpaceX operating in Globalstar's licensed big low earth orbit mobile satellite service (MSS) spectrum didn't set a new big LEO rulemaking as a precondition to FCC consideration and grant of C-3, Globalstar said. Instead, it said, the 2024 denial sets up a rulemaking precondition for applications for additional non-geostationary orbit MSS systems from other parties. C-3 doesn't represent an additional NGSO MSS system, but a next-generation deployment request from the longtime operator and exclusive MSS licensee in this spectrum, Globalstar said.
The FCC Media Bureau will give more consideration in the future to waivers for stations that constructed permitted facilities on time but failed to meet license application deadlines, said a unanimous order from the full FCC Tuesday. The item had been listed on Thursday’s open meeting agenda as an adjudicatory matter, but the agency released a deletion notice Tuesday.
North Carolina lawmakers introduced a bill Tuesday that would establish a broadband assistance program similar to the FCC's affordable connectivity program. S-551 was filed by Democratic state Sens. Natalie Murdock and Joyce Waddell and proposes a minimum monthly credit of $15 for broadband for low-income families. It would allow the state's Department of Commerce to adjust the benefit "according to family size." The department could also remove recipients from the program if an ISP informs it that the recipient's account is more than 45 days past due. The bill notes that $250,000 was appropriated for the program from the department's general fund for the 2025-26 fiscal year.