The National Association of the Deaf, Hearing Loss Association of America, and TDIforAccess asked the FCC to require that IP-captioned telephone service providers give users the option to select a live communications assistant "whenever the user finds [automatic speech recognition] performance to be unsatisfactory." The groups said in a petition for rulemaking filed Monday in docket 03-123 that the FCC shouldn't certify additional ASR-only providers of IP CTS "until a new rule requiring providers to give users the option to select CAs is adopted." The groups also asked the FCC to "expeditiously" complete its proceeding "on the establishment of clear, technology-neutral performance goals and metrics for IP CTS."
The FCC's World Radiocommunication Conference Advisory Committee has a particularly heavy load of 16 space-related agenda items on its plate in advance of WRC-27, Co-Chairwoman Kimberly Baum said Monday at WRC's first meeting. The meeting was largely housekeeping, including discussions of the informal working group structure and logistics of WAC and IWG meetings, as well as issues such as meeting procedures and records keeping. NTIA has a preparatory process through the Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee (IRAC), FCC Office of International Affairs lawyer Greg Baker said. Proposals that are reconciled between the FCC and NTIA are forwarded to State, he said. Charles Glass, NTIA international spectrum policy division chief, said IRAC has two groups dealing with WRC issues: one an ad hoc committee working on recommendations to send to the FCC regarding implementation of WRC-23 outcomes, and another dealing with preliminary proposals for WRC-27. Glass said there is one preliminary view that will go before IRAC this week for approval, with several more considered during IRAC's meeting next month. Baum said WAC's aim is to have preliminary views and even preliminary proposals prepared before September's Inter-American Telecommunication Commission meeting.
A coalition of industry groups on Friday challenged the FCC's net neutrality order and declaratory ruling reclassifying broadband as a Communications Act Title II telecom service (see 2405310074). The coalition asked the FCC to stay the effective date of its order and declaratory ruling pending judicial review. Coalition members included USTelecom, NCTA, CTIA, ACA Connects and several state broadband associations.
SightLine Applications, video processing solutions company, taps Jonathan Atwood, ex-Trillium Engineering, also former L3 Harris, as CEO ... National OnDemand, communications and utilities infrastructure provider, hires Richard Jordan, ex-Mears Broadband, as executive vice president-operations ... National Content & Technology Cooperative adds former Vyve Broadband CEO Phil Spencer to its board ... Truepic, provider of secure content transparency infrastructure, adds former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler to industry board of advisers … Hovr, marketing software company for delivering video content to website visitors, adds former Remington Hotels President Chris Green to its advisory board.
As part of SES' proposed $3.1 billion purchase of Intelsat (see 2404300048), the two are asking the FCC Space Bureau to transfer all of Intelsat's FCC authorizations to SES. In a series of applications posted Friday, the two said the proposed deal would result in "a more dynamic multi-orbit satellite operator with the ability to offer innovative and enhanced services to commercial and U.S. Government customers," and greater competition as New SES "will be better positioned to vigorously compete" with legacy geostationary orbit operators and emerging low earth orbit players.
The one-year window for qualified low-power TV stations to apply for Class A status under the provisions of the Low-Power Protection Act opened Friday, and will stretch until May 30, a Media Bureau public notice said Friday in docket 23-126. The window is open to stations that broadcast a minimum of 18 hours daily, carry three hours per week of local programming, are located in markets of 95,000 households or fewer, and met all those requirements 90 days before the LPPA’s approval on Jan. 5, 2023. Fewer than 30 rural stations are expected to qualify. LPTV broadcaster Radio Communication Corporation is challenging the FCC order implementing the LPPA in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (see 2405230040).
The FCC should treat public TV stations differently from commercial stations in its locally originated content proceeding (see 2403120071), America’s Public Television Stations and PBS said during a call with an aide to Commissioner Geoffrey Starks Thursday, according to an ex parte filing in docket 24-14. The proposal prioritizing applications from broadcasters that originate local content “should not shift the long-standing understanding of localism as ‘issue-responsive’ programming,” the filing said. The NPRM proposes defining locally originated content as created within or very close to a station’s market, and that would exclude much public TV content, the filing said. The proposed definitions “do not align with the inherently local, community-responsive programming of public television stations, especially the programming of state and regional networks and local stations that engage in station collaborations,” the filing said. “Public television stations, which are locally owned and locally operated, are inherently local.” The FCC’s local content proceeding could have implications for what content is considered local in future proceedings, PBS and APTS said.
The State E-rate Coordinators’ Alliance reported on a series of meetings at the FCC with aides to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and others to offer advice on the commission’s proposed $200 million cybersecurity pilot program for schools and libraries (see 2405160076). Commissioners will vote at their open meeting Thursday. “Our underlying premise, based on our day-to-day, year-after-year experiences working with applicants, is that they need to be informed of all the fundamental program requirements before they begin the application process, to flourish and succeed with the new pilot,” the alliance said in a filing posted Friday in docket 23-234. Potential negative effects “can be mitigated by addressing all the program parameters in the final Report and Order, at the beginning of the pilot, rather than relying on supplemental clarifications being issued later,” the group said. Also seeking tweaks were the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition, the American Library Association, the Consortium for School Networking and Common Sense. “It is not immediately apparent that there is a need for funding floors or caps since this is a pilot program in which the Commission retains the authority to choose which applicants are going to receive funding,” the groups said. They said it’s also not clear how the FCC will choose which pilots to fund.
Dahua Technology and IPVM remain at odds on Dahua USA’s request for confidentially on its compliance plan with FCC supply chain security rules (see 2310130042). Dahua provided additional information last week, which it said makes IPVM’s objections “now largely moot in light of” the “voluntary disclosures.” Parts of the plan remain redacted. While Dahua released some previously redacted information, questions remain, IPVM said in a filing posted Thursday in docket 21-232. Among the information redacted is a list “of the entities in Dahua USA's new control structure,” IPVM said: “We cannot be certain if this is similar to the corporate ownership Dahua has just disclosed. Dahua provides no further justification for this redaction, meaning it hinges on the same basis of vague commercial confidentiality it has now abandoned for other information.”
Don't expect traditional methods of protecting radio astronomy from spectral interference to work when it comes to supplemental coverage from space (SCS), according to radio astronomy interests. In comments last week (docket 23-65), radio astronomy advocates repeatedly warned that SCS service poses a significant interference risk. Multiple parties said SCS service is too new to justify emergency calling requirements. The FCC's SCS framework order adopted in March (see 2403140050) included a Further NPRM on 911 and radio astronomy issues.