The Affordable Broadband Campaign and WTA asked the FCC to reconsider its decision granting ISPs forbearance from Communications Act Section 254(d), which governs USF contributions. The contribution mechanism isn't "stable or equitable" and the declining revenue base is "hindering the ability of the commission to ensure that universal service is properly evolving," the groups said in a petition filed Monday in docket 23-320. The FCC granted ISPs forbearance in its May order restoring its net neutrality framework and reclassification of broadband as a Title II telecom service (see 2404190043).
SpaceX's second-generation Starlink satellites are proving more robust than expected and can operate easily a couple of hundred kilometers lower than their 525-535 km operational orbits without hardware changes, the company told the FCC Space Bureau last week. It said its pending request for operating in the 340-360 km range capitalizes "on the significant space sustainability and service improvements that lower-altitude operations allow." SpaceX said it has been coordinating with NASA and the National Science Foundation to ensure that the lower-altitude operations won't increase risk to federal space and science missions and in many cases will decrease risk. Earlier this month, the bureau posed a series of questions to SpaceX about its lower-altitude plans. Pointing to its partial approval of the company's second-generation constellation (see 2212010052), including a condition that it not deploy satellites that operate below the International Space Station -- roughly 400 km altitude --, the agency asked how many satellites SpaceX anticipates operating below the ISS at any one time. In its filing last week, SpaceX said the figure could vary, but potentially 600, though perhaps more. It said it hopes ultimately the FCC will sign off on 19,440 satellites at 340-360 km altitudes, as it requested in its second-generation application. However, for now it wants to include those orbital shells as an option for its first tranche of 7,500 second-gen satellites. SpaceX said its automated collision avoidance system "has proven its mettle on-orbit."
Comments are due June 28, replies July 5, on a Warner Bros. Discovery petition seeking a waiver from the FCC requirement that its TBS and TNT networks provide a certain amount of audio-described programming per quarter. The requested waiver would run July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2027, and cover multichannel video programming distributors carrying the WBD networks, according to a public notice Friday.
Petitions asking the FCC to reconsider authorizing radio geotargeting are “procedurally defective” and request changes that would affect all FM boosters, Geobroadcast Solutions (GBS) said in an opposition filing posted Friday (docket 20-401). REC Network’s recon petition asks the agency to prevent boosters from exceeding the signal strength of other nearby radio stations, while the Press Communications petition asks the agency to ban program-originating boosters in “embedded metros” -- radio markets located within the boundaries of a larger market. Neither petition “shows a material error or omission” in the original order and so the FCC should reject them, GBS said. REC’s request would create a technical standard that would apply to all FM boosters and is outside the bounds of the geotargeted radio proceeding, GBS said. “To the extent that REC wishes the Commission to adopt a new rule to protect [low-power] FM stations from all FM boosters, a petition for reconsideration is clearly not the proper vehicle,” GBS said. The FCC “carefully considered and addressed concerns pertaining to stations in embedded markets in the Order,” and the Press petition doesn’t introduce new facts, GBS said. “The Commission should continue pressing forward with program-originating boosters and dismiss the petitions,” GBS said.
Liberty Communications of Puerto Rico petitioned the FCC to waive certain USF reporting requirements for Q2. Liberty sought a waiver of the pretesting performance measurement, performance measures model system reporting requirements, and rules related to withholding disbursements. The company has "encountered numerous technical problems" with the performance measures module system "for multiple months," said its petition posted Friday in docket 18-143. Liberty also said it lacks enough time to deploy equipment to sampled subscribers and complete testing by June 30.
ClearCaptions urged the FCC to increase its rates for IP captioned telephone service (IP CTS) providers using communications assistants (CA). It also suggested establishing a $1 floor rate for automatic speech recognition. A "lack of rate certainty" has caused several providers to stop investing in marketing and outreach, ClearCaptions told an aide to Commissioner Geoffrey Starks. "This has resulted in three straight years of negative industry growth," ClearCaptions said in a filing posted Friday in docket 03-123. The company noted that a rate plan of "at least two years" would also provide rate stability for the industry.
The National Sheriffs' Association urged the FCC to include safety and surveillance costs in its final ratemaking for incarcerated people's communications services (IPCS), holding separate meetings with aides to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioners Nathan Simington, Geoffrey Starks and Brendan Carr. NSA also met with Wireline Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics staff. It said that jails are "subject to a broad array of requirements that necessitate safety and security measures," in a filing posted Friday (docket 23-62). IPCS can also "expose jails to liability for failing to fulfill their obligations to the incarcerated," NSA said. "It is important to recognize that the commission does not have authority over jails," NSA said: "The commission must therefore take care not to interfere with the operation of jails as it develops an IPCS compensation plan." NSA also asked that the FCC "disregard proposals to use industry-wide average costs based on the general telecommunications industry," noting the industry is "largely deregulated." The group suggested developing separate rates for smaller jails "due to the unique cost structure of such facilities" and higher rates for jails based on average daily population.
With the FCC signing off on four of Tomorrow Companies' planned non-geostationary orbit satellites and deferred action on 14 more, Tomorrow is asking the agency's Space Bureau to modify its grant, going to six satellites and allowing the company to move on the remaining 12. The Space Bureau application posted Thursday included updated re-entry casualty risk information; the agency in granting the four weather satellites had deferred action on the 14 pending updated re-entry casualty information (see 2405200049). Tomorrow said it's trying to make redesigns that are part of the updated re-entry casualty information, but they don't appear to be practical to be implemented before the seventh and eighth scheduled missions. It said it anticipates an October launch for its third and fourth satellites, with another 10 launching in Q1 2025.
Given the expected growth in low earth orbit traffic, the FCC's pending 100 object-years metric proposal (see 2405290074), while a good idea, should be reduced to 25 to 50 years, Kall Morris said in docket 18-313 Thursday. It also urged data collection that it said would improve rulemaking. The data would include planned and actual total derelict time on orbit for failed and planned disposals for each object launched and tracked by the operator. It said the FCC also could play a role in fostering collaboration between insurance companies and in-orbit servicing, assembly and manufacturing operators. Operators' premiums could pay for ISAM services if relocation of a satellite is needed owing to damage or if it exceeded object-year time frames, it added.
Banning early-termination fees (ETF) and requiring prorated refunds would hurt consumers, but should the FCC go that route, it should ban only "unjust or unreasonable" whole-month billing, NCTA and cable operators said Thursday in docket 23-405. Recapping a meeting with Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's office and Media Bureau Chief Holly Sauer, the cablers said that approach would "preserve the benefits of reasonable ETFs" and protect consumers from excessively high ETFs. Reasonable ETFs would be transparently disclosed, or cable companies could grant a grace period, letting consumers cancel video service without incurring a fee, they said. Moreover, the record would need further development before supporting extending ETF rules to bundled services, they added. Representatives of Comcast, Charter Communications and Cox Enterprises also met with the FCC on these items. In December, FCC commissioners 3-2 approved a video service fees NPRM that proposes banning ETFs and requiring prorated refunds when service is canceled (see 2312130019).