In a dissent attached to a combined $3.6 million forfeiture against Sinclair Broadcast and others over kidvid violations, FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington has vowed he will dissent from monetary forfeitures until the agency “formally determines the bounds of its enforcement authority.” Simington's move comes in the wake of the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision SEC v. Jarkesy. The order was approved 3-2, with Commissioner Brendan Carr also dissenting. The forfeiture order was adopted Aug.14, but not released until Thursday. The FCC didn't immediately comment on the delay. “I call on the Commission to open a Notice of Inquiry to determine the new constitutional contours of Commission enforcement authority,” Simington wrote. “The statutory structure governing the FCC’s forfeiture power is quite different from that of the SEC,” the FCC said in a footnote in the order, arguing that the agency’s enforcement actions don’t violate the Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial as SCOTUS ruled the SEC’s do.
Securus asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review the FCC's August order on incarcerated people's communication services. In a petition filed last week (docket 24-60454), Securus said the FCC's denial of its clarification and waiver petitions on alternative payment plans was "arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion within the meaning of the Administrative Procedure Act" (see 2408230012).
The FCC Wireless Bureau on Thursday launched a record refresh seeking comment on updating performance standards for maritime radiocommunications equipment under Part 80 of the commission’s rules. Comments are due Oct. 21, replies Nov. 4, in RM-11765. The bureau asked for comment on the specific updated version of the standard the agency should incorporate into its rules, “the rule section(s) where the standard appears, … the element(s) of the standard which have been modified from the version currently referenced in part 80” and “the costs and benefits of referencing the updated standard,” among other issues.
The Wi-Fi Alliance asked the FCC to address its waiver request that would allow automated frequency coordination systems in the 6 GHz band to take building entry loss into account for “composite” standard-power devices that are restricted to operating indoors. Representatives met with an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. The FCC sought comment on the waiver last year (see 2304060049). The request “has been pending for over 18 months” and “there have been no additional submissions in the record in this proceeding for over a year,” said a filing Wednesday in docket 23-107.
Jeff Blum, EchoStar executive vice president-government and external affairs, fired back at a SpaceX filing this week that called on the FCC to close a proceeding examining the lower 12 GHz band for fixed wireless use (see 2409040035). "The latest SpaceX study is an unserious and last-ditch effort by SpaceX to prevent unleashing 500 MHz of spectrum in the 12.2-12.7 GHz band for fixed 5G broadband services that can be used to help close the digital divide,” Blum said in an email. The filing “imagines phantom locations for SpaceX’s own customers, a phantom fixed 5G system that can either operate at full power or not operate at all (without being able to reduce power), and phantom physics (a fictional world where all 5G transmissions will hit all Starlink antennas right at their ‘boresight’).”
The Electronic Frontier Foundation opposed NextNav’s proposal that the FCC reconfigure the 902-928 MHz band “to enable a high-quality, terrestrial complement” to GPS for positioning, navigation and timing services (see 2404160043). Comments were due Thursday in docket 24-240. “NextNav’s own proposal makes it clear that this is essentially a land grab,” the foundation said: “NextNav seeks to increase the amount of band they have sole use of, the size of the physical region those licenses operate in, the amount of power they can use, and amount interference they can cause.”
A FirstNet Authority task force report about the Feb. 22 nationwide AT&T wireless outage (see 2403040062) found “the network did not perform up to public safety’s standards that day,” CEO Joe Wassel blogged Thursday. The task force made five recommendations including “more complete All Hazards Emergency Operations planning between the FirstNet Authority and AT&T, so both entities can better prepare for, respond to, and communicate effectively during planned and no-notice network impacting events.” The report also discusses the importance of “stakeholder communications” and continuity planning. The FCC released a report on the outage in July (see 2407220034). In a second development, the Commerce Department Office of Inspector General said it’s starting an audit of authority “oversight of the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network.” The objective “is to determine whether FirstNet Authority is ensuring that the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network is achieving service availability requirements,” a notice said.
CTIA, Incompas, NCTA, the Wireless Infrastructure Association and six other communications industry groups urged House leaders Thursday that they should “prioritize consideration” of the House Commerce Committee-cleared American Broadband Deployment Act (HR-3557) “in the final months of this Congress.” House Commerce last year advanced HR-3557, a package of GOP-led connectivity permitting revamp measures, without Democratic support (see 2305240069). Some local government advocates have since also vocally opposed HR-3557 (see 2311060069). Congress’ bid to achieve the “goal of universal connectivity” via the $65 billion it allocated in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act “will ultimately be limited unless certain barriers are removed today,” the industry groups said in a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. The measure “would go a long way to address these barriers” by mandating “clear and streamlined” rules that will prevent permitting bottlenecks. The groups cited language in HR-3557 that “will codify several deployment streamlining orders and interpretations that the FCC has adopted over the past ten years," including the commission’s 2018 order that removed local barriers to small-cell deployment (see 1803220027). The bill also “takes proactive steps to improve siting on federal lands and reduce unnecessary red tape for applications to deploy or improve communications networks,” the industry groups told Johnson and Jeffries.
The Congressional Research Service predicts the U.S. Supreme Court’s June Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo ruling (see 2406280043) and “uncertainty about the scope of the FCC’s authority and ability to adopt regulations in the public interest” could prompt congressional legislation "to clarify the agency’s statutory authority.” Conversely, lawmakers could also maintain “the status quo and let ambiguities regarding the FCC’s rulemaking authority be resolved by the courts,” CRS said in a Wednesday report. “There are also questions on whether the FCC may alter its rulemaking efforts in response to Loper Bright, as well as how such alterations might affect interest in legislation.” The FCC’s July FCC order that lets schools and libraries obtain E-rate support for off-premises Wi-Fi hot spots and wireless internet services (see 2407180024), April net neutrality rules and a 2023 digital discrimination order “illustrate the types of rules that might be challenged as exceeding FCC authority under Loper Bright or the major questions doctrine,” researchers said. Maurine and Matthew Molak petitioned the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week to review the E-rate Wi-Fi order (see 2408300027). The Molaks, whose 16-year-old son died by suicide after he was cyberbullied, say that ruling would give children and teenagers unsupervised social media access. Numerous FCC rules even before Loper Bright "were being contested by affected parties, including” the 5G Fund and next-generation 911 transition, “in both of which the FCC cites its public interest mandate,” CRS said. Researchers also noted the FCC’s 2022 notice of inquiry about ways to aid nascent in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing companies (see 2208050023) “has come under scrutiny from interested parties.”
CTA warned that one of the proposals in the FCC's “bad lab” NPRM could hamper the commission's authorization of some wireless devices. Other groups also raised concerns. Approved by commissioners 5-0 in May, the NPRM proposes barring test labs of entities on the agency’s “covered list” of unsecure companies from participating in the equipment authorization process and other changes in gear authorization rules (see 2405230033). Comments were due this week in docket 24-136.