New York state will halt enforcing its affordable broadband law while the U.S. Supreme Court considers a petition from ISP groups for a writ of certiorari, the industry groups wrote to the court Thursday. CTIA, NTCA, USTelecom, ACA Connects, the Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association and the New York State Telecommunications Association said they plan to file that petition Monday in case 24A138. Last week, the ISP groups filed an application for emergency stay of the state law at SCOTUS. In Thursday’s letter, the groups said they no longer need a ruling on that application by Aug. 15, but they can’t withdraw the request entirely because New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) hasn’t agreed to stay enforcement if the court grants cert, “absent a ruling from the Court compelling it not to enforce that law.” ISPs waited for the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to stay the FCC’s order reclassifying broadband as Title II before appealing the 2nd Circuit’s ruling that upheld New York’s law based on a Title I regime (see 2408010065 and 2406170042). The 2nd Circuit ruled in April that federal law doesn’t preempt the 2021 New York law requiring $15 monthly plans with 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds for qualifying low-income households (see 2404260051). In the Aug. 2 application for stay, the ISP groups said their forthcoming cert petition “will seek review of a divided panel decision that presents fundamental questions about whether the Communications Act of 1934 preempts States from regulating rates for broadband internet access service and other interstate information services.”
Representatives of Public Knowledge and New America’s Open Technology Institute met with FCC Wireless and Public Safety bureau staff on the groups' concerns about giving FirstNet, and AT&T, control of the 4.9 GHz band (see 2407230045). The groups pointed to AT&T’s February wireless outage, the topic of a recent FCC report (see 2407220034). “The network configuration error that shut down the AT&T Network simultaneously shut down access by first responders to FirstNet because FirstNet operates on the same AT&T network and relies on the same device certifications as all other devices connecting to the AT&T mobility network,” a filing posted Thursday in docket 07-100 said. There should be “no doubt that giving FirstNet an overlay license to the 4.9 GHz spectrum means that the 4.9 GHz band will be fully integrated into AT&T’s network, primarily for use by AT&T,” the groups said. The Lincoln, Nebraska, Fire & Rescue Department, meanwhile, said the band should be given to FirstNet. Giving FirstNet control “will enable the deployment of next-generation technologies such as 5G, AI, and IoT, which are crucial for effective emergency response,” the department said.
Test solutions company Keysight Technologies spoke with FCC Public Safety Bureau staff about the company’s perspective on the agency’s cyber trust mark program (see 2403140034), including ways to make the program “more successful,” a filing posted Thursday in docket 23-239 said. Among the topics discussed were “the role of security test automation to the program,” the importance of “standardized data interchange” and “keeping the cost of the program reasonable," Keysight said.
CTIA representatives met with Chief Alejandro Roark and other officials from the FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau on a February Further NPRM on whether the Telephone Consumer Protection Act applies to robocalls and robotexts from wireless service providers to subscribers (see 2404220029). CTIA discussed how the current framework for communications by wireless service providers to their subscribers "at no charge facilitates the sending of service-related communications that help ensure consumers’ safety and connectivity and protect consumers against fraud and scams, among other benefits,” a filing posted Thursday in docket 02-278 said. CTIA raised concerns about proposals in the FNPRM “to change or limit the existing framework, including proposals to carve out certain types of communications or require wireless providers to honor opt-out requests for any type of call or text to any wireless subscriber -- prepaid or postpaid alike,” the filing said.
The 5G Automotive Association called for expeditious FCC approval of a long-awaited order finalizing rules for cellular vehicle-to-everything use of the 5.9 GHz band. Representatives of the group met with aides to Commissioners Anna Gomez, Geoffrey Starks and Brendan Carr, said a filing posted Thursday in docket 19-138. 5GAA said that based on Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's statements (see 2407170042), the order “appears to be generally consistent with 5GAA’s most recent advocacy” on C-V2X use of the band. Fremont, California, meanwhile, became the latest city to seek a waiver of the current rules for deploying C-V2X for roadside and on-board units for “a wide range of applications to enhance public safety, efficiency, and overall traffic management.”
Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, are urging the FCC and DOJ Antitrust Division to “closely scrutinize” the Venu Sports streaming platform joint venture from Disney subsidiary ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery (see 2402070006). “This massive new sports streaming company would be poised to control more than 80% of nationally broadcast sports and more than half of all national sports content, putting it in a position to exercise monopoly power over televised sports,” the lawmakers said in an eight-page letter to DOJ Antitrust Chief Jonathan Kanter and FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel released Wednesday. “The market power of [Venu's] three giant parent companies would enable it to discriminate against competitors and increase prices for consumers.” The streaming deal’s description as a joint venture “should not prevent antitrust and telecommunications regulators from giving it the scrutiny it deserves,” the lawmakers said: The FCC and DOJ Antitrust should “oppose it if it violates antitrust or telecommunications laws or regulations.” They suggested the FCC examine whether the Venu Sports proposal represents “a violation of the national ownership cap” given its “duty to prevent a single entity from reaching more than 39% of households, and its broader mandate to promote competition in the public interest.”
Benton Institute for Broadband & Society's motion before the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is "crystal clear" that the group is seeking relief for only the two dockets with pending petitions before the FCC on net neutrality rules, the group said in a reply brief Wednesday night (see 2408070001). "The sole basis for seeking abeyance is the pendency of a recently-filed petition for reconsideration addressing the same issue as that raised here by movants," Benton said (docket 24-7000). It asked that the court act "as expeditiously as possible" because industry groups didn't oppose the targeted request.
Tropical Storm Debby’s disaster information reporting system was deactivated for Florida and activated for 48 counties in North Carolina, the FCC said in Thursday’s report (see 2408070032). The storm left .5% of North Carolina and .1% of South Carolina cellsites down, unchanged from Wednesday; 4,875 cable and wireline subscribers are without service, down from 17,344 Wednesday. No TV or radio stations were reported down.
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr is maintaining a constant drumbeat about what he calls the slow tempo of the broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program rollout. On July 29, he posted on X that it's 987 days since BEAD was enacted and "0 Americans have been connected, 0 Shovels worth of dirt turned." On Aug. 4, it was 993 days. "While there’s time to course correct, the trend line is not good," he posted Aug. 6. In his posts, he frequently lays the blame at the feet of Vice President Kamala Harris. His tweets repeatedly say that in 2021 Harris "agreed to lead a $42 billion plan to expand Internet service," and "no one has been connected."
The rise of Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democrats' presidential nominee should have few implications for FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, industry observers agree. If anything, Rosenworcel’s ties to Harris are likely stronger than they are to President Joe Biden, they said. Biden waited until October 2021, more than nine months after his inauguration, to designate Rosenworcel as the first woman to chair the agency on a permanent basis (see 2110260001).