A recent Media and Democracy Project (MAD) submission of a petition with 25,000 signatures against the renewal of Fox-owned WTXF-TV Philadelphia (see 2407250056) is an attempt at “distort[ing] the Commission’s processes” and less than 2.3% of the signatories reside in WTXF’s viewing area, the network said in an ex parte filing Friday. “Taking at face value MAD’s claim as to the accuracy of the names and locations in its filing,” only 571 of them “possibly reside in Fox 29 Philadelphia’s viewing area,” Fox said. “In contrast, over 3.1 million households, and many more people, live in the Philadelphia” designated market area. The FCC “does not, and should not, make decisions on whether to grant a license renewal application based on the number of persons allegedly willing to fill out a webform.” The petition “cannot outweigh the testimony of numerous viewers of Fox 29 Philadelphia who have urged the Commission to swiftly renew the station’s broadcast license.” The FCC “should adhere to its own precedent, weigh the evidence in the record fairly, and grant Fox 29 Philadelphia’s license renewal without further delay.” The "issues raised in the petition go well beyond the Philadelphia station and raise serious questions about the decisions made by its owner to knowingly spread dangerous lies to protect profit,” MAD Executive Director Milo Vassallo said in an email. “It is time to remind Fox that we the people own the airwaves, not any single individual or corporation."
The FCC should reconsider resurrecting rules restricting commonly owned, same market FM stations from duplicating content, NAB said in a petition for reconsideration posted Monday in docket 19-310. In 2020, the previous FCC dropped the rule for FM and AM stations, but the current commission reinstated the FM portion in June, responding to a 2020 petition from REC Networks, the musicFIRST Coalition and the Future of Music Coalition (see 2407020055). The FCC “has no basis to reverse its initial judgment in this proceeding and willfully turned a blind eye to conducting any research including seeking any updated comment after waiting nearly four years to act,” NAB said. The FCC should have sought comment on whether the reversal was needed but instead acted based only on the record from 2020, NAB added. The trade group also said the recon order returning the nonduplication rules “turns the petition for reconsideration standard on its head.” FCC precedent requires showing a material error or omission in the order, but in the FM nonduplication recon order the agency “reasons that it has the ability to reconsider the Order here because the material error is that the Order itself was wrongly decided.” NAB added, “Were the FCC to adopt this new approach to petitions for reconsideration, the standard would amount to no standard at all.” The FCC should “reconsider its grant of the Reconsideration Petition in this proceeding, and solicit comment on the effect of eliminating the FM radio duplication rule during the past four years.”
The FCC initiated the disaster information reporting system (DIRS) for 44 Florida counties in anticipation of Hurricane Debby making landfall, a public notice said Sunday. The alert encompasses much of northern Florida, including Jacksonville, Tallahassee and Tampa. In addition, it activated the mandatory disaster response initiative (MDRI) for facilities-based mobile wireless providers in the affected area, which requires companies to allow reasonable roaming and cooperate in service restoration during disasters. On Monday, the commission expanded the DIRS and MDRI requirements to 27 counties in South Carolina. Monday’s DIRS report shows 1% of cellsites down in the affected counties, and 82,858 cable and wireline subscribers without service. Two TV and one FM stations were reported down; no AM stations were listed as out of service and one FM station redirected. The FCC also issued public notices on priority communications services and emergency contact procedures for licensees that need special temporary authority. The Public Safety Bureau issued a reminder for entities clearing debris and repairing utilities to avoid damaging communications infrastructure. Hurricane Debby became Tropical Storm Debby Sunday. T-Mobile issued a statement that they're working with FEMA and local emergency operations centers to prioritize restoration efforts.
Forcing ByteDance to divest TikTok or face a U.S. ban is a legitimate response when facing a national security threat and doesn’t violate free speech rights, former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Thomas Feddo, former Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. chairman, argued in an amicus brief filed Friday (see 2406280020). President Joe Biden signed the TikTok divestment measure as part of Congress’ foreign aid package in April (see 2404240060). TikTok and ByteDance are challenging the law's constitutionality. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia scheduled oral argument for Sept. 16 (docket 24-1113). The divestiture policies are “nothing new or extraordinary,” Pai and Feddo wrote. Congress has exercised such power frequently in recent years, especially against Chinese telecom companies like Huawei and ZTE, whose threat to U.S. citizens is “endemic," they said: It’s “ludicrous to suggest, as TikTok does, that the U.S. Government cannot prefer divestiture as a policy option, or that it must wait for Americans to be compromised before it can act." The Biden and Trump administrations see TikTok as a national security threat in view of its mass collection of data and its vulnerability to Chinese surveillance, they said. The new law doesn’t discriminate against individual speakers or content on TikTok and doesn’t regulate speech, they said: It “targets ByteDance’s conduct and is based on the government’s longstanding concerns about that conduct. The Act fits comfortably alongside the existing regulatory structures ... that similarly aim to tackle evolving national security risk.”
Using “inaccurate broadband maps that are still being pressure tested” isn't a reasonable approach to a proposed 5G Fund, the Competitive Carriers Association said in a filing at the FCC posted Monday in docket 20-32. “Despite the Commission’s efforts in this area, the evidence available to the Commission refutes any notion that the current broadband maps are reliable or accurate,” CCA said. Any rules based on the maps would be “contrary to the Commission’s statutory obligations under the Communications Act and the Administrative Procedure Act, unmoored from the record, and in conflict with the Commission’s own policy goals,” the group warned.
AT&T CEO John Stankey met FCC Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington concerning the 4.9 GHz band and FirstNet. He “highlighted the success of the public-private partnership between the FirstNet Authority and AT&T,” a filing Friday in docket 07-100 said. “Public safety users require a distinct level of network performance, reliability, and coverage ... AT&T is proud to have answered the call to help meet those needs.” A Public Safety Spectrum Alliance (PSSA) proposal that would assign the GHz band to FirstNet has been hotly contested at the agency (see 2407230045). Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg opposed FirstNet control of the spectrum and warned commissioners in July of a potential windfall for AT&T (see 2407120025). Stankey disputed that claim. In filings posted Monday, the Southeastern Association of Fire Chiefs supported FirstNet control of the band, while Flint, Michigan, made clear its opposition.
The FCC's World Radiocommunication Conference Advisory Committee held its second meeting Monday as it prepares for the next WRC, in 2027, moving forward on some early items for the conference. Among the proposals considered was agenda item 1.7, which examines studies on sharing and compatibility and the use of international mobile telecommunications in the 4, 7/8 and 15 GHz bands. Informal Working Group (IWG) 2, Mobile and Fixed Services, recommended two views. The first alternative supports the sharing and compatibility studies called for at WRC-23, “with a view to ensure the protection of services to which the frequency bands are allocated on a primary basis, including in adjacent bands, as appropriate.” Alternative 2 has the same findings but “adds additional language referencing employment of coexistence mechanisms to safeguard incumbent operations,” said IWG-2 Chair Daudeleine Meme, Verizon's vice president-federal regulatory and legal. “There were extensive discussions” and “in the end it was agreed to present two alternatives,” she said. IWG-2 member Scott Kotler, director-regulatory engineering at Lockheed Martin, noted item 1.7 is “critical” to the U.S. aerospace and defense industry “to innovate, to meet the needs and demands of existing services, while also exploring innovative opportunities for new wireless services.” Kotler said the alternative view better reflects the national spectrum strategy and administration principles “on what the U.S. would not support at WRC-27 for IMT.” Other speakers supported Kotler’s view. The WAC voted and approved both alternative views.
The FCC Wireline Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics made available the final incarcerated people's communications services database for 2024. Released Monday, the database was used to develop rate caps and other changes adopted in the commission's recent IPCS order implementing the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act of 2022, a public notice said (see 2407180039). The database includes two datasets IPCS providers submitted in response to the 2023 mandatory data collection. The first dataset includes cost and revenue information used to determine the upper and lower bounds of the zones of reasonableness. The other dataset includes geocoding information on facility locations.
The FCC said Monday it plans to recharter its Consumer Advisory Committee for two years and is seeking nominations for membership. A renewed charter will become effective on or before Oct. 13, the notice said. Nominations are due Sept. 6. The current CAC is focused on AI and met last in June (see 2406260041).
FCC commissioners are expected to approve at Wednesday's open meeting, largely as circulated, a draft NPRM aimed at reducing unwanted AI robocalls. Industry officials active in the proceeding predicted few tweaks based on the limited number of ex parte filings in docket 23-362.