Satellite operators continue urging the FCC to phase-in any regulatory fee hike stemming from the Space Bureau's creation. Docket 24-86 reply comments this week also saw CTIA pushing back on broadcasters' arguments that favor charging regulatory fees for equipment authorizations. Previously, the space community and broadcasters raised concerns about regulatory fee shock in initial comments in the proceeding (see 2407160049).
Members of the congressional Universal Service Fund revamp working group are considering whether, and how much, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling will affect their rollout of a framework for overhauling the program. The court ruled last week that the FCC's USF contribution factor is unconstitutional (see 2407240043). Experts believe lawmakers will likely factor the ruling into the framework, but it could be moot should the U.S. Supreme Court reverse the decision on appeal (see 2407260044). Uncertainty about USF’s future will likely extend the working group’s already lengthy process, lobbyists told us.
Charter Communications has agreed it will pay $15 million for failing to notify public safety answering points about a trio of network outages in early 2023 that affected 911 service, the FCC Enforcement Bureau said Monday. The bureau said Charter also acknowledged it didn't meet other network outage reporting system (NORS) deadlines tied to numerous planned maintenance outages. In addition, it said Charter didn't notify more than 1,000 PSAPs about a Feb. 19 outage and didn't meet NORS reporting deadlines tied to that outage and to March 31 and April 26 outages. Charter didn't comment.
It isn’t a conflict of interest for Dan Alpert to represent multiple people in an FCC hearing proceeding because all the parties have given him permission and their testimony doesn’t conflict, the broadcast attorney said in a filing posted Monday in docket 23-267. Alpert was responding to a request from Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin, who temporarily suspended discovery in the proceeding over conflict concerns (see 2407230051). The facts conceded by Alpert’s client Antonio Guel don’t conflict with those of Guel’s daughter, Maria Guel, or his niece, Jennifer Juarez, Alpert said. The Enforcement Bureau claims Guel arranged a false sale of broadcast stations to Juarez while maintaining control of them, and that Maria Guel runs companies involved in the transaction. Alpert, who practices in Virginia, also told Halprin that he checked on the ethics of his position with the Commonwealth of Virginia Bar counsel. “As long as all three persons were aware of the simultaneous representation, that representation of all three persons was permissible,” Alpert said. “If at any point in time, circumstances change, and an actual conflict arises, that undersigned counsel will discontinue such simultaneous representation.”
Most parts of the FCC’s three-year, $200 million cybersecurity pilot program for schools and libraries will become effective Aug. 29, a notice for Tuesday’s Federal Register said. FCC Commissioners approved the program 3-2 in June, with Republicans Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington dissenting (see 2406060043). “The Commission seeks to address the apparent needs of schools and libraries for additional support for cybersecurity services and equipment, while evaluating the impact that providing that support would have on the USF,” the notice said.
Handset repair advocates told the FCC that a 60-day period in which handsets can’t be unlocked is too long. Commissioners approved an NPRM 5-0 this month seeking comment on unlocking rules (see 2407180037). “For the sake of full hardware freedom, we call on the Commission to eliminate hardware-based carrier lock-in periods entirely and require carriers to unlock handsets upon sale,” a filing posted Monday in docket 24-186 from iFixit, U.S. PIRG, The Repair Association, the Secure and Resilient Future Foundation, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Waveform. A 60-day period, as the FCC proposed, is “customer-hostile, props up predatory business models, and weakens the secondary market for smartphones,” the groups said.
A March FCC order creating a voluntary cyber-trust mark program is effective Aug. 29, a notice for Tuesday’s Federal Register said. Questions remain about when the program will launch, with the FCC yet to finalize some aspects of the rules (see 2405090051). The cyber mark label will appear on consumer IoT products with an accompanying QR code (see 2403140034).
The FCC wants comments by Aug. 28, replies by Sept. 12, in docket 03-123 on Bond Communications' application for certification to provide video relay service funded by the Telecom Relay Service Fund, a Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau public notice said Monday.
The FCC Wireline Bureau denied requests from Community Hospital Corp. and Interfacing Co. of Texas to waive the FY 2022 invoice filing deadline for all Healthcare Connect Fund program participants. In an order Monday in docket 02-60, the bureau noted it has granted individual waivers and will continue doing so "where good cause exists." It's "inappropriate to grant a widespread waiver when an individualized approach to addressing requests for waivers is available and more suitable for the circumstances," the order said.
A case before the U.S. Supreme Court, Consumers' Research, et al. v. Consumer Product Safety Commission, potentially has major implications for the FCC and FTC, and could permit a president to fire a commissioner at will, industry lawyers said. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other conservative groups are asking SCOTUS in amicus filings to grant the writ of certiorari from Consumers' Research.