Comments are due April 16, replies May 16, on a January NPRM on rules aimed at providing more spectrum for uncrewed aircraft systems. The comment dates came in a notice for Monday’s Federal Register. The FCC adopted the NPRM unanimously, but Commissioner Anna Gomez recused herself from voting on the 450 MHz portion of it (see 2501170023). The NPRM proposes opening the 450 MHz band “to aeronautical command and control operations; allowing for a single, nationwide license in the band; and adopting flexible licensing, operating, and technical rules that will facilitate robust use of the band at a range of altitudes while minimizing interference to neighboring operations,” Monday's notice said: “It also proposes expanding radiolocation operations in the 24.45-24.65 GHz band for uncrewed aircraft system detection operations” and “proposes to modernize the Commission’s legacy power rules for Commercial Aviation Air-Ground Systems in the 849-851 and 894-896 MHz band, which is used for in-flight connectivity."
Facing a withholding of some USF high-cost support due to an untimely certification, RiverStreet Communications of North Carolina is asking the FCC Wireline Bureau for a waiver of agency rules concerning submitting annual reporting information. In a docket 10-90 request posted Friday, RiverStreet said that initially it inadvertently failed to certify its Q3 2023 data, though that filing was certified weeks later. It said the Universal Service Administrative Co. notified it last month that a portion of RiverStreet's high-cost support payment would be withheld. RiverStreet said the lost money will delay its planned broadband deployment to the unserved and underserved in rural North Carolina. The shutdown of the performance measures module for much of last fall prevented it from certifying when it was supposed to, it said, subjecting it to notably higher penalties.
The FCC Wireline Bureau on Friday set forth procedures for protecting access to proprietary or confidential information filed in a proceeding on the Alternative Connect America Cost Model program (see 2306260044). “Under the Enhanced A-CAM mechanism, electing carriers receive high-cost support calculated based on model-estimated costs in exchange for deploying 100/20 Mbps or faster broadband to locations without such service at the time of the offer and maintaining or improving such service to locations to which the electing carriers already provided at least that level of service,” the bureau said. “While we are mindful of the sensitive nature of some of the information involved, we are also mindful of the general right of the public, and our desire for the public, to participate in this proceeding in a meaningful way.”
The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau sought comment Friday on a petition by Sorenson Communications and CaptionCall on allowable costs for providing telecommunications relay services (TRS). Comments are due April 14, replies April 28, in dockets 03-123 and 10-51. The redacted petition asks that allowable TRS costs include funds associated with “responding to and defending against FCC enforcement proceedings related to a provider’s compliance with the TRS rules” and "educating members of the U.S. Congress and other policymakers on the TRS program generally and a TRS provider’s operations specifically,” the bureau said. It noted that Sorenson filed a similar petition in 2023.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said Thursday night that FCC Chairman Brendan Carr is “exactly right” in urging Congress to mandate a pipeline of reallocated spectrum in conjunction with a restoration of the commission's lapsed auction authority. Carr said in a letter to Cruz and other leaders of the House and Senate Commerce committees that enacting “legislation that establishes a new pipeline of mid-band spectrum is vital to our economy and national security.” The FCC, Carr said, “will make any and all of the spectrum allocations and license changes necessary to comply” with any new statute.
Senate Homeland Security Investigations Subcommittee ranking member Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., is pressing the FCC's Enforcement and Media bureaus for information on investigations of broadcasters that commission Chairman Brendan Carr has ordered since taking over Jan. 20. The probes thus far focus on broadcasters that have run content critical of President Donald Trump or otherwise face claims of pro-Democratic Party bias. Carr has, in some cases, said the scrutiny is focused on other matters (see 2502110063).
The FCC’s investigation of iHeartMedia over payola (see 2502240070) was sparked by requests made to Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., by “musicians and band members,” she told FCC Chairman Brendan Carr on Friday's episode of her podcast, Unmuted With Marsha. “In Tennessee, we've got a lot of people that play in bands and spend a lot of time on the road,” said Blackburn, who, in part, represents country music center Nashville. She responded to the request by sending a letter to Carr, who, in turn, sent one to iHeart. “A radio station can't secretly exchange free performances from musicians or bands in exchange for better airplay on the radio,” Carr said. “And the evidence we've seen suggests that in fact, that has been happening significantly.” Blackburn said, “To some of the band members for the big-name musicians, expenses is one thing, but payment for the show is another.”
Two FCC facilities are listed among government real estate leases marked for termination by the Department of Government Efficiency, according to the DOGE website. The FCC didn’t respond to requests for comment on the listings, but the leases appear to be Enforcement Bureau field offices in Dallas and Cerritos, California. An internal General Services Administration planning document said those leases would be canceled Sept. 30, according to an Associated Press report. DOGE lists the termination of the Cerritos lease as saving $142,637 a year and the Dallas lease as saving $60,630 a year. The FCC didn’t respond to questions about whether the canceled leases would influence Enforcement Bureau field coverage or involve a reduction in personnel. After then-Chairman Tom Wheeler cut several EB field offices in 2015, FCC Republicans -- including former Chairman Ajit Pai -- voiced their opposition (see 1507160036).
The Senate voted 62-38 at our deadline Friday afternoon to invoke cloture on a House-passed continuing resolution (HR-1968), which would extend current federal funding levels for the FCC, NTIA and other federal agencies through Sept. 30 (see 2503100060). The vote came after many hours of uncertainty about whether enough Democrats would back clearing the procedural hurdle. The chamber appeared likely to pass HR-1868 Friday evening, averting a shutdown, which would otherwise begin for some agencies when an existing CR, passed in December, was set to expire late that night (see 2412230024).
The government defended the FCC in a reply brief in FCC v. Consumers’ Research, the USF case before the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that Consumers' Research (CR) creates a “straw man” to attack. Public interest groups, led by the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition, also defended the legality of how the USF contribution factor is calculated. SCOTUS is set to hear oral argument March 26.