Pointing to the FCC's retransmission blackout reporting order released earlier this month (see 2501060032), Altice USA discussed the current Nexstar blackout (see 2501130068). In a docket 23-427 filing posted Tuesday, Altice said Nexstar continues insisting on including WPIX New York in the negotiations despite the FCC's proposed $1.8 million forfeiture against Nexstar and Mission Broadcasting over allegations that the companies misrepresented Nexstar’s control of WPIX (see 2403220067). Altice said Nexstar, in the retrans talks between the two, "is demanding exorbitant rate increases."
OMB shouldn’t approve the information-collection requirements associated with the FCC’s most recent foreign-sponsored content rules, said NAB in comments posted Tuesday in docket 20-299 responding to the agency's Paperwork Reduction Act notice on the rules. The rules don’t comport with the PRA, the First Amendment or the Communications Act, said NAB, which has also challenged the rules at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (see 2412100070). Commissioner Brendan Carr, the FCC's incoming chair, partially dissented from the order approving the rules in May (see 2406100063). The FCC “continues to underestimate both the number of respondents and responses and the burdens of compliance, especially in light of the last minute dramatic expansion of the scope of its rules,” NAB said in the comments Tuesday. “Absent disapproval, OMB should at least require the Commission to gather more data and develop more accurate estimates in connection with the proposed information collections and make changes to minimize the burden on affected respondents.”
The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology on Tuesday approved Piper Networks' request for a waiver of rules allowing use of its enhanced transit location system in the metropolitan Boston area (see 2411080021). The system operates in the 4243-4743 MHz band, and Piper sought an expansion of its current waiver. “We find that granting Piper’s request to operate its system in the greater Boston area is in line with the waiver’s intent and serves the public interest,” OET said: “We are not aware of any reported harmful interference to existing services resulting from Piper’s operations, and we see no reason why a geographic expansion under the same technical restrictions would alter this dynamic.”
The Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition (FWCC) objected on Tuesday to one aspect of a December order by the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology that conditionally approved Axon Networks’ plan to operate an automated frequency coordination (AFC) system to manage access to the 6 GHz band by standard-power unlicensed devices (see 2412060046). FWCC complained that OET “arbitrarily” departed “from Commission policy” by permitting Axon to shorten its public trial period to 20 days, instead of the usual 45. “OET fails to meet the standard for agency decisionmaking because shortening the public trial period will result in disparate treatment among similarly situated AFC applicants,” said a filing in docket 21-352: The decision “constitutes an impermissible policy change because the change was made without good reason.”
Mongoose Works isn't entitled to an additional $69,686 for its relocation out of the lower C-band after all, according to an FCC order (docket 21-333) in Tuesday's Daily Digest. The agency said the administrative law judge's decision in Mongoose's favor (see 2407180049) wrongly held that it met the burden of proof to show the C-band relocation payment clearinghouse's reclassification of two earth station antennas was inconsistent with the FCC's C-band order. The ALJ decision had reversed an FCC Wireless Bureau decision that Mongoose was entitled to the additional sum.
The Coalition of Rural Wireless Carriers (CWRC) this week sought reconsideration of the FCC’s August order launching a 5G Fund. The coalition agreed with the Rural Wireless Association (see 2501130024) that the FCC should hold off on a 5G Fund auction while BEAD unfolds. “BEAD-funded projects that move points of fiber interconnection closer to proposed new towers, or those towers currently using microwave backhaul, will stretch 5G Fund program dollars and benefit rural areas in need of improvement,” the group said in a petition posted Tuesday in docket 20-32: “When fiber moves closer to a new or proposed tower or fixed wireless access provides both home and mobile broadband to an area, 5G Fund auction bids will reduce, increasing the program’s efficiency and better serving the public interest.” CWRC also called for better broadband maps and an improved challenge process. “One CRWC member provided drive test data demonstrating that an area shown on the mobile availability map to have 5G service at 7/1 Mbps or better had almost no such coverage,” the filing said.
NTCA joined other industry groups in opposing a Fine Point Technologies' request (see 2411270048) that the FCC launch a rulemaking on standardized broadband speed testing protocols. USTelecom, NCTA and the Wireless ISP Association opposed the ask in initial comments last month (see 2412300034). “The final performance testing rules recognize the diversity of the marketplace and accordingly permit covered providers to select pathways toward performance measurements that best meet the individual needs of the company, whether based on company size, technology specifications, or other considerations as may be relevant to the provider,” NTCA said in reply comments this week in RM-11991. “The Petition’s request to impose ‘standardized broadband speed testing protocols’ is unnecessary and would moreover introduce vast and costly ramifications to a program that has demonstrated success in the half-decade since the rules were promulgated,” NTCA said.
Congress' oversight of broadband subsidy programs should include moving universal service funding from a surcharge to direct congressional appropriations, the Competitive Enterprise Institute said Tuesday as it issued "a pro-growth agenda" for the 119th Congress. CEI urged a focus on reform and oversight of BEAD and reauthorization of the FCC's spectrum auction authority. The libertarian public policy organization also said Congress should oppose efforts at repealing or curtailing Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
The FCC issued a consumer alert, an enforcement advisory and a public notice warning about a spoofed mortgage relief call campaign in all 50 states it calls “Green Mirage.” The agency has classified the campaign as a consumer communications information services threat. The Enforcement Bureau “applies this classification to heighten awareness of these threat actors among our law enforcement partners and industry stakeholders,” said the public notice. Under the scheme, callers phone homeowners posing as their mortgage lender, threaten foreclosure but then offer relief if the homeowner makes payments that go to the scammer, the agency said. “The use of the real mortgage lender’s caller ID number, along with knowledge of the homeowner’s personal information, creates a persuasive guise of legitimacy,” the FCC’s public notice said.
Defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth during his Tuesday Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing appeared to lean against repurposing portions of the 3.1-3.45 GHz band with commercial wireless use, an issue that stalled negotiations during the last Congress on spectrum legislation and is likely to be a flashpoint this year (see Ref:2501070069]). Senate Armed Services member Mike Rounds, R-S.D., was the only panel member who mentioned DOD’s spectrum priorities in the incoming Donald Trump administration during the hearing, which was at times rancorous and primarily focused on the nominee’s past behavior and statements.