Comments are due Dec. 20 about a proposed requirement that covered text providers, including wireless providers, support georouting text messages made to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline to the appropriate local crisis center, said a notice for Wednesday's Federal Register. Replies are due Jan. 9. Comments are to be filed in docket 18-336. The 988 call georouting order approved unanimously at the FCC's October meeting included an NPRM about text georouting (see 2410170026).
The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied Securus' motion to stay the FCC’s incarcerated people's communications services order, the court ruled Monday. It didn't detail why it ruled against Securus. “Having carefully reviewed the specific arguments Securus offers in favor of a stay, the motion is hereby denied, without prejudice to later revisitation of relevant points in briefing and during merits review,” the court said. Securus had argued that the FCC’s order violates the 2022 Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act and would “irreparably harm Securus if allowed to take effect." The order’s effective date was Tuesday. The FCC order “will increase the likelihood that correctional agencies will reduce communications options in the absence of necessary safety and security services” and “materially inhibit competition in the marketplace.”
The FCC should open an investigation into a Chinese hacking campaign that allegedly targeted communications from Vice President-elect JD Vance and the presidential campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said Tuesday. Blumenthal was referring to a Chinese hacking known as the Salt Typhoon attack. In addition to the investigation, Blumenthal urged the FCC to begin a rulemaking process. Chinese hackers allegedly breached several American phone companies in an attempt to spy on American political targets, said Blumenthal during a hearing before the Senate Privacy Subcommittee, which he chairs. From a legal standpoint, the FCC can “set and enforce security standards,” he said. The investigation should be supported with “bipartisan unity,” and it can be carried over from the Biden administration to the Trump FCC, he added. Telecommunications Industry Association CEO David Stehlin testified that high-profile attacks like Salt Typhoon indicate a “need to address vulnerabilities within our [information and communications technology] ICT supply chain and mitigate them wherever possible.” He noted TIA’s 2022 development of SCS 9001, “the ICT industry’s first Supply Chain Security standard.” Stehlin called for a public-private “partnership that builds in the elements needed to verify trust and continually improve.” Blumenthal addressed issues related to TikTok, saying President-elect Donald Trump can’t ignore a new law setting a Jan. 19 deadline for Chinese parent company ByteDance to divest from the social media app (see 2411140057). Trump can extend the deadline once but can’t ignore the law, Blumenthal said: “If he wants to change the law, he can try,” but Congress voted overwhelmingly in favor of it.
If the incoming presidential administration enacts the broadband regulatory suggestions in Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, it will bring "a new era of wild West-style deregulation for broadband," Penn State doctoral student Abby Simmerman blogged Tuesday at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. Project 2025's urges deregulation and public spending cuts. Simmerman said deregulation could benefit satellite broadband operators, such as SpaceX and Amazon's Kuiper and incumbent internet service providers, easing the path to potential acquisitions. Project 2025 also criticizes inefficiency in U.S. broadband programs, arguing that a lack of a national strategy has created redundancies and waste, Simmerman wrote. The comprehensive program review it recommends would attempt to eliminate programs deemed duplicative. The USF undoubtedly would see a reduction in spending, given how Project 2025 urges “right-sizing the federal government’s existing broadband initiatives," she added. The next FCC is also unlikely to initiate affordability programs, Simmerman predicted.
President-elect Donald Trump and Republican FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr delivered additional bad news to broadcasters Tuesday about how the incoming administration may interact with them. Carr during an interview with Fox News that a news distortion complaint against CBS over its editing of an interview with Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris (see 2410170051) could affect the Skydance/Paramount Global deal. Carr said he planned to “reinvigorate” the legacy media by emphasizing broadcaster public interest obligations, and referred to the Skydance transaction as a possible example. “I'm pretty confident that news distortion complaint over the CBS 60 Minutes transcript is something that's likely to rise in the context of the FCC review of that transaction,” Carr said (see 2411010044). Paramount didn’t comment. Carr listed conferring with Trump and the space economy as priorities for his upcoming chairmanship. “The first thing is to get together with the president's team and make sure that I 100% understand his agenda,” Carr said: “After all, it is going to be his administration, and his agenda we’ll be pushing.” He also listed tech censorship, rural broadband and accelerating permitting for the satellite industry as priorities. Carr repeated plans for ending the FCC’s promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion policies (see 2411180059). “The idea that the [FCC] listed its second-highest strategic priority as promoting DEI, there's no place for that,” Carr said. “And when the transition is complete, when we come in, the FCC is going to end its promotion of DEI.” Trump said he would nominate Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick, who heads the president-elect’s transition team, to be commerce secretary. Lutnick, just days before the Nov. 5 election, said the U.S. should auction broadcast spectrum to only outlets that “agree to be nonpartisan” (see 2410280037). Lutnick’s comments came amid Trump’s fights with several major broadcasters over election coverage. Lutnick “will lead our Tariff and Trade agenda, with additional direct responsibility for the Office of the United States Trade Representative,” Trump said: Lutnick as transition chief “has created the most sophisticated process and system to assist us in creating the greatest Administration America has ever seen.” USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter said in a statement the group could work with Lutnick and the Commerce Department “to advance America’s global connectivity leadership by deploying more broadband, collaborating to prevent cyber threats, and spurring innovation throughout the economy.”
In a post-Chevron deference era, the FCC's space regulatory work beyond its spectrum bailiwick could be on shaky ground, space law experts said Tuesday during an FCBA CLE. Multiple speakers predicted "friendly chaos" for space policy from the incoming Trump administration, with it likely being friendly to commercial space but change being a constant. The Chevron doctrine, under which courts generally defer to regulatory agencies' expertise, was overturned this year by the U.S. Supreme Court's Loper decision, which gives agency expertise lesser weight.
Congressional GOP leaders are doubtful about lawmakers' chances of reaching a year-end deal on an additional $3.08 billion for the FCC's Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program even as some Democrats are softening their insistence that the funding move in tandem with stopgap money for the FCC's lapsed affordable connectivity program. Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, Rep. August Pfluger of Texas and nine other Republicans wrote congressional leaders Monday to press for rip-and-replace funding in a bid to highlight the issue amid the lame-duck frenzy.
In what could be its last full meeting under Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, the FCC on Dec. 11 will consider rules that would expand parts of the 6 GHz band where new very-low-power (VLP) devices can operate without coordination, beyond the initial 850 MHz commissioners approved last year (see 2310190054). Commissioners at the open meeting will also consider changing rules that govern letters of credit for USF programs and an item updating several broadcast radio and TV rules. Also on the agenda are various enforcement items, which will be released after the commission's approval.
Mercury Wireless Indiana notified the FCC it's unable to meet rural digital opportunity fund commitments to build out its service in 13 census tracts in Indiana. “This was a very difficult decision for Mercury to make, as we continually strive to deploy high-speed broadband throughout rural America,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 19-126. “Mercury took the time to put forth thoughtful analysis as we endeavored to find a way to make these broadband deployments feasible,” the provider said: “However, deployment costs have increased dramatically since Mercury made its bids in the RDOF reverse auction.”
RiverStreet Communications petitioned the FCC for a waiver on census block groups (CBGs) it won and surrendered through the FCC's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund program Monday (see 2410250006). New Kent County, Virginia, awarded Cox Communications $16 million to "build out a broadband network totaling 566.7 fiber miles that will allow Cox to provide high-speed broadband services to every household and business in New Kent County," RiverStreet said in a petition filed in docket 19-126. RiverStreet said both companies agreed that RiverStreet would relinquish certain CBGs that duplicate the locations Cox plans to build out. "Because deduplication serves the public interest and so that RiverStreet will not be subject to the penalties set forth in the FCC’s rules for failure to meet certain buildout milestones, RiverStreet seeks a waiver of those rules," the company said.