SiriusXM Radio told the FCC that its network is more vulnerable than other incumbents to interference from outdoor use of very-low-power devices in part of the 6 GHz band. The company was responding to Apple, which last month downplayed those concerns in meetings at the FCC. “Sirius XM’s satellite-delivered service is unique among satellite providers because of our custom-designed network that provides digital audio and data services primarily to vehicles,” said a filing Tuesday in docket 18-295. The service “is received by these vehicles through low gain, tea cup size satellite antennas installed on vehicle roofs,” SiriusXM said: “These antennas use an extremely low noise amplifier to capture very weak signals near the noise floor from satellites located more than 36,000 kilometers above the Earth.”
SI Wireless asked for an additional six months to remove, replace and dispose of Huawei and ZTE equipment from its network. The deadline for SI Wireless was previously extended from May 24 to Nov. 24 (see 2404300031). “Due to a variety of reasons, most notably the FCC’s unexpected current hold on all funding disbursements” the company can’t meet the Nov. 24 deadline, said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 18-89. “The grant of an additional six-month extension, as contemplated by the FCC’s rules, is warranted and in the public interest.”
Verizon told the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals the $47 million fine the FCC levied on it in April (see 2404290044) for allegedly not safeguarding data on customers' real-time locations is arbitrary and capricious and that the court should reject it. “The agency ignored the limits of its authority in these multiple ways, in an effort to show force against a large company that did nothing wrong,” the provider said. Verizon said it would appeal the fine at the time the FCC approved it 3-2, with Republican Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington dissenting. The fine was approved four years after Republican Chairman Ajit Pai proposed it. Verizon’s location-based service (LBS) program “used device-location information, and device-location information is not” customer proprietary network information, Verizon said this week in a brief in docket 24-1733. By the time the FCC proposed the fine, “Verizon had shut down its LBS program nearly one year earlier, eliminating any potential current or going-forward liability,” it added. Verizon noted that the FCC got involved following a New York Times report that Securus “misused many carriers’ LBS programs and that a sheriff in Missouri took advantage of Securus’s actions to track wireless carriers’ customers without their consent.” But the agency found that the statute of limitations had expired in both cases, Verizon said. The FCC then “adopted a novel approach to generate an eye-popping penalty amount,” the brief said: The agency “punished Verizon for not terminating every other service provider from the LBS program on a faster timeline” imposing “a forfeiture penalty for each day -- starting 30 days after the New York Times article -- that each of the 63 service providers remained able to use the LBS program, despite not being involved in any wrongdoing.” Verizon also argued the order should be overturned given the U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision in SEC v. Jarkesy (see 2406270063). “The Constitution guarantees Verizon a jury trial -- not an administrative adjudication -- before it faces an order compelling it to pay a forfeiture.” AT&T, meanwhile, made similar arguments in its challenge filed in the 5th Circuit against the FCC’s $57 million fine, approved the same time as Verizon's. “The Commission itself has acknowledged that Securus’s misdeeds took place long before the statute-of-limitations period,” AT&T said: “The Commission cites no evidence that Securus ever unlawfully accessed a single AT&T customer’s location information.” AT&T said the FCC accused it of carelessness. “AT&T gave access only to providers with an approved use case; conducted daily audits of consent records and broader programmatic audits; and responded to Securus’s misdeeds promptly and prudently, weighing the costs and benefits at every turn,” AT&T said. “That is far more than the Commission can say for itself, having taken no action (failing even to inform the major wireless carriers) after learning of Securus’s malfeasance nearly a year before AT&T did.”
Mercury Broadband surrendered dozens of additional census block groups it won in the FCC's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction (see 2410250006). In a letter posted Wednesday in docket 19-126, the ISP said that a dramatic increase in deployment costs and "competitive encroachment" rendered many of the census block groups "economically unviable and ultimately unachievable."
Communications Daily is tracking the lawsuits below involving appeals of FCC actions.
Several industry groups continued calling on the FCC to permanently eliminate the requirement that a certified professional engineer (PE) verify and certify a company's broadband data before it's submitted through the broadband data collection (BDC). The groups made the remarks in comments posted through Wednesday in docket 19-195 (see 2408300036). Others raised concerns with a proposal for adopting additional reporting requirements for satellite and fixed wireless providers.
Proponents of uniform handset unlocking rules said Wednesday that momentum for approval should continue despite the upcoming change in leadership, following Tuesday's election. Experts spoke during a Broadband Breakfast webinar.
House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., urged FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and FTC Chair Lina Khan Wednesday to stand down from working on controversial matters during the transition from President Joe Biden to former President Donald Trump, who won a second term that morning (see 2411060042). Senate GOP leaders will likely send similar “pencils down” letters, lobbyists told us. Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz of Texas and other GOP leaders are likely to have their positions against controversial FCC and FTC action strengthened given the party won control of the upper chamber Tuesday night, lobbyists said. Cruz appears on course to take the Senate Commerce gavel next year, having prevailed Tuesday as part of the Republicans' victory (see 2411060001).
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr is in prime position to take over the commission’s chairmanship in January following former President Donald Trump’s election to a second term, giving him leeway to make potentially sweeping changes on a range of high-profile communications policy matters, lawyers and other observers said in interviews Wednesday. Carr’s agenda if he becomes chairman is likely to mirror elements of the FCC chapter he wrote for the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 policy agenda (see 2407050015), but he may need to delay non-bipartisan actions until the Senate can confirm a Republican nominee to fill current Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel’s seat if she resigns, as is tradition, observers told us.
SpaceX wants to add Swarm VHF-band mobile satellite service payloads onto its first-generation Starlink satellites. In an FCC Space Bureau application posted Tuesday, SpaceX said the payloads would let Starlinks offer services that Swarm's authorization permits. SpaceX said the payloads also would let the company track and maintain contact with first-gen Starlinks during rare space weather events and orbit raising. SpaceX said it is operating similar payloads on its second-gen Starlinks as safety beacons for more than 18 months without interference complaints from commercial or federal users.