The FCC Wireline Bureau denied two petitions from Colo Telephone and South Canaan Telephone seeking waivers to revise their Connect America Fund broadband loop support filings. Both companies sought a waiver of the Dec. 31 deadline to file data needed to calculate a carrier's CAF BLS amount. The order, posted Tuesday in docket 10-90, said both companies "failed to demonstrate good cause." The bureau found that the telcos' arguments on the "significance of the support amount" to their broadband operations compared with the "insignificance of the amount to the total amount of BLS payments" were "equally unpersuasive."
The major questions doctrine "is not applicable" to reclassifying broadband as a Communications Act Title II service, Public Knowledge told FCC Wireline Bureau, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, and Office of General Counsel staff. The group said in an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 23-320 that the commission "would need to claim a new power or reverse a long-standing interpretation of a statute" for the doctrine to be considered. The FCC "does not need evidence of new harms to justify its reversal" to "the status quo ante," the group said, adding the commission "only needs to assert that the 2018 reversal does not comport with the FCC’s mandate to ensure universal service and promote public safety." Public Knowledge also asked the FCC not to forbear providers from Section 254(d) rules governing USF contributions, noting any contribution requirements would require the commission to first establish a specific mechanism (see 2403080055).
The FCC Wireline Bureau waived until March 12, 2025, sua sponte, certain letter of credit rules for Connect America Fund II and Rural Digital Opportunity Fund recipients, according to an order Tuesday in docket 10-90. The bureau waived its requirement that a bank issuing a letter of credit to a support recipient maintain at least a B- Weiss bank safety rating (see 2311140077). "Recent submissions from banking institutions indicate that a majority of United States banks are no longer eligible to issue LOCs to auction recipients because they have a safety rating less than a B-," the order said, noting that more than 1,600 banks are no longer able to issue the LOCs since 2022. The waiver applies "only to auction support recipients that wish to retain, renew, or reestablish their LOCs with banks that previously had Weiss ratings at or above a B- but have since seen that rating fall below B-," the order said. It doesn't let support recipients obtain an LOC from a new bank that did not already provide one from a bank with a Weiss safety rating below a B-.
Petitioner Insurance Marketing Coalition's brief is due April 15, with respondent FCC's due 30 days later, said a briefing notice Tuesday (docket 24-10277) in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The coalition’s optional reply brief is due 21 days after the service of the commission’s brief, it said. The coalition’s petition for review asks the 11th Circuit to vacate the FCC’s Dec. 18 order implementing rules under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act to target and eliminate illegal robotexts (see 2312220059). The coalition alleges the order exceeds the FCC’s statutory authority and was adopted “without observance of procedure required by law.” The order imposes several measures, including codifying that the national do not call registry’s protections apply to unlawful text messages.
The House Communications Subcommittee unanimously advanced the Foreign Adversary Communications Transparency Act (HR-820), Future Uses of Technology Upholding Reliable and Enhancing Networks Act (HR-1513) and two other anti-China communications security bills Tuesday. House China Committee Chairman Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., meanwhile, is pressing the FCC on whether it will act on reports that mobile devices in the U.S. are still processing signals from China’s BeiDou and Russia’s global navigation satellite systems (GNSS).
An FCC proposal prioritizing processing of applications from broadcasters that offer local programming (see 2401180074) won’t have much of an effect and doesn’t do enough, according to a wide swath of comments filed to docket 24-14 by Monday’s deadline.
The House will vote Wednesday on legislation that would ban TikTok in the U.S. unless Chinese parent company ByteDance divests the popular social media app, an aide for House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., confirmed Tuesday.
NTIA Tuesday released its implementation plan for the national spectrum strategy. Under the plan, studies for the 3.1-3.45 GHz and 7/8 GHz bands, top priorities of wireless carriers, will begin this month and be completed in October 2026 (see 2403120006). FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr criticized the plan, saying in “the best case” the lower 3 and 7/8 GHz bands won’t be available until 2028. Others had a more positive take.
Cogeco and Cogeco Communications promote Frederic Perron to president-CEO of both companies and add him to their boards, succeeding Philippe Jette, retiring, but remaining a strategic adviser until Aug. 31 ... Young’s Communications names Chief Operating Officer Rob Hughart interim CEO to replace outgoing CEO Chad Rasmussen ... Altice USA taps John Hsu, ex-AMC Networks, as senior vice president-corporate finance, and John Lombana, ex-Mitsubishi Power Americas, also former Verizon and AT&T, as senior vice president-corporate controller ... Rohirrim, generative AI company, taps Andrew Shoaff, ex-Zywave, as vice president-customer success, and Nintendo’s Savani Tatake, also former Meta and T-Mobile, as vice president-engineering.
The FCC Space Bureau granted non-geostationary orbit applications from Space X and Kuiper, with limitations, said a pair of orders in Monday’s Daily Digest. The SpaceX order authorizes the company to conduct communications in the E-band only with the 7,500 Gen 2 Starlink satellites that the FCC already authorized. “This Order does not authorize SpaceX to construct, deploy, or operate any additional satellites beyond those authorized to date.” The order defers consideration of SpaceX proposals on emergency beacons and use of additional satellites. Meanwhile, the Kuiper order grants the company’s request for modifying its NGSO license to use frequencies allocated to the fixed-satellite service (FSS) and mobile-satellite service (MSS) in the Ka-band. The license modification will reduce the number of satellites in its constellation from 3,236 to 3,232 and authorize radiofrequency communications for launch and early-orbit phase (LEOP) operations, payload testing, and deorbit operations. The Kuiper order also rejects a SpaceX petition to deny Kuiper’s application. Granting the applications will serve the public interest by improving broadband service, the orders said.