Public interest and consumer groups replying to an FCC notice of inquiry (see 2411150025) encouraged the agency to launch a more targeted inquiry on data caps and said ISPs haven’t built a case for caps to continue. Industry groups opposed FCC intervention. Reply comments were due Monday in docket 23-199.
NTIA on Tuesday released the first of the band-specific reports called for in the national spectrum strategy (see 2403120056) on the 37 GHz band. Due last month, the report was developed with DOD and recommends a federal and nonfederal co-primary sharing framework for the lower 37 GHz band.
Communications industry executives and former federal officials said during a Practising Law Institute event Tuesday they see a likely GOP-led budget reconciliation package next year as a potential vehicle for legislation that would reinstate the FCC’s lapsed spectrum auction authority. House Commerce Committee leaders and Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., have repeatedly attempted to reinstate the authority during this Congress only to have their efforts stall (see 2409170066).
FCC Commissioner and incoming Chairman Brendan Carr on Tuesday discussed empowering local broadcasters, moving "aggressively” on USF revisions and opening up the space economy and jumpstarting spectrum policy. Speaking at the Practising Law Institute's 42nd Annual Institute on Telecommunications Policy & Regulation, Carr said he's “really looking forward” to taking the commission's top seat.
A U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit panel of judges is scheduled to hear oral argument Jan. 10 regarding BIU's appeal of the FCC's dismissal of the company's petition seeking reinstatement of Spectrum Five's complaint alleging that Intelsat is interfering with SF's spectrum license (see 2409100005). Oral argument in the docket 24-1189 case is scheduled for 9:30 a.m., according to an order last week.
NCTA's argument that the FCC needn't clarify its "all-in" video pricing order on franchise fees (see 2411190065) shows why clarification is necessary, local governments and allies said in a docket 23-203 filing posted Monday. The filers said that while NCTA recognizes what the law says about franchise fees, the FCC incorrectly said otherwise in a footnote in the all-in order. Signing the filing were the Texas Coalition of Cities for Utility Issues, Boston, Mount Hood Cable Regulatory Commission, Fairfax County, Virginia, and NATOA.
A lawyer for Apple, Broadcom and Meta Platforms spoke with Ira Keltz, acting chief of the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology, on tweaking a draft order that would allow the use of very-low-power (VLP) devices across the 6 GHz band. For example, the lawyer noted that the draft says a June report on interference risks assumed 2% of people were outdoors, but the report said 6%. Other suggested changes were mostly technical. “While some parties have asserted that mandatory firmware updates could have benefits, it is important to note that the Commission has never made this determination, and we agree with the Commission that the record does not support making that conclusion in this order,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 18-295. Commissioners will vote on the draft Dec. 11 (see 2411200050).
The 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals tentatively scheduled for the week of Feb. 3 oral argument on AT&T’s challenge of a $57 million fine the FCC levied in April (see 2404290044) for allegedly not safeguarding data on customers' real-time locations. AT&T called the penalty arbitrary, capricious and an abuse of discretion within the meaning of the Administrative Procedure Act (see 2405130030). Verizon challenged the FCC’s fine against it in the 2nd Circuit (see [Ref:2411060008) and T-Mobile in the D.C. Circuit (see 2411260048). “If you have a serious, irresolvable conflict, contact us IMMEDIATELY via e-mail,” said a Monday notice from the 5th Circuit : “Do not ask to reschedule argument unless you can find no other solution.” The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, meanwhile, filed an amicus brief in support of T-Mobile in the D.C. Circuit. T-Mobile was fined $80 million for its violations, plus $12 million for Sprint's, which it subsequently acquired. The FCC “abused its investigative and enforcement authority to violate the companies’ Seventh Amendment right to a jury,” the Chamber said: “It announced and applied novel legal interpretations of the Communications Act to calculate and impose staggering forfeitures for activities that were not at the time of conduct a violation of any agency rule or law.” The brief said the FCC’s role in overseeing data privacy and security “is limited to specific regulatory activities directed by Congress, such as the regulation of ‘customer propriety network information’ -- statutorily defined term.”
Public Knowledge supported an AT&T request to discontinue, effective Sept. 15, residential local service in nine wire centers in Oklahoma “where there is virtually no demand for the service.” The FCC Wireline Bureau sought comment on the application, due Thursday in docket 24-220. PK was the first to file. The group’s “sole addendum is to request that AT&T make regular reports in this docket as to the progress of the transition,” said a filing Monday. “This will assist the Commission and the public to monitor the progress of the transition, and provide other incumbent local exchange carriers with a guide to conducting their own transitions.” AT&T said last month it grandfathered the service in 60 wire centers in 13 states, with FCC approval. The local service is “outdated and prohibitively expensive for AT&T to maintain,” AT&T said: Discontinuing it “will benefit the public and serve as an important step toward meeting both AT&T’s and the Commission’s goals of advancing the IP revolution.”
Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) support recipients must notify the FCC Wireline Bureau if they can’t meet the program’s third-year service milestone, said a reminder public notice posted Monday. The milestone requires “building out to at least 40% of each support recipient’s RDOF locations,” the PN said. The bureau must be notified by the carrier’s third-year service milestone deadline, which is Jan. 15 for carriers authorized in 2021 and Jan. 15, 2026, for those authorized in 2022, the PN said. “An RDOF support recipient that does not meet its third-year service milestone shall be subject to quarterly reporting and have its support withheld if warranted in accordance with the Commission’s rules,” the PN said. The bureau announced a host of RDOF defaults last week (see 2411270049).