Whether or not Paramount canceled Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show to please President Donald Trump, “the industry -- and industry investors -- believe they did," wrote Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld in a blog post Thursday. “Major companies seeking regulatory approval or conducting other business with the Trump administration, and their investors, believe the action was, or at least could be, politically motivated,” Feld wrote. “They will therefore do what they can to obey in advance.” The FCC’s ongoing behavior of investigating entities targeted by Trump “reinforces that belief,” and “encourages these companies to self-censor, keep their heads down, and avoid either news coverage or entertainment that could anger President Trump,” Feld said. “This quiet subservience, where media companies and creators toe the administration’s line, comes with a cost,” Feld said. “It limits free expression, shuts down open political discourse, and prevents us from even knowing the educational and entertainment options we’re missing because they’re simply not developed for fear of reprisal from President Trump.”
The Arizona Senate’s Republican leader has asked the FCC to investigate Arizona PBS over its coverage of the state’s 2022 gubernatorial election. Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen sent a letter to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr Tuesday calling for the investigation. The letter points to a report in the Arizona Republic that said leaders at Arizona State University -- which operates Arizona PBS -- considered Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake’s view that the 2020 election was stolen before offering her Democratic opponent, Katie Hobbs, airtime.
The Telecommunication Terminal Industry Forum Association (TAF) on Thursday broadly questioned proposed rules in a May Further NPRM that was part of the FCC’s focus on “bad labs” (see 2505220056 and 2508120011). “The large-scale revocation of laboratory authorizations based on security concerns lacks both technical and practical justification, which will increase the burden on U.S. consumers and cause significant disruption to the global ICT industry,” TAF said in a filing in docket 24-136.
The GPS Innovation Alliance told the FCC it needs more information before weighing on a request by Geophysical Survey Systems Inc. (GSSI) for a waiver of commission rules for ultra-wideband ground-penetrating radar devices to allow the certification and marketing of a new device it's developing. The device would assist autonomous vehicles in staying in their lane. In May, GSSI asked for action on its 2019 waiver request (see 2505280052).
The subsea cable license order adopted at the FCC's August meeting (see 2508070037) differs materially from the draft order regarding presumptions that disqualify an applicant from receiving a license. The 214-page, finalized version of the order was released Wednesday.
Comments are due Sept. 12, replies Oct. 14, on an Intrepid petition asking the FCC to preempt a contract that Cottage Grove, Minnesota, has with another provider for deployment of fiber optic infrastructure there, an FCC Wireline Bureau public notice said in Thursday's Daily Digest. The docket is 25-248. In its petition earlier this month, Intrepid said the city had granted another provider exclusive access to the city's right of way (ROW) and was denying Intrepid's pending applications. It said the city had argued Intrepid is a broadband internet service provider and not entitled to use the public ROW under the Communications Act or state law.
The White House eliminated a Biden-era executive order that contained net neutrality and broadband billing provisions. The 2021 EO on promoting competition urged the FCC to consider adopting net neutrality rules and prohibiting "unjust or unreasonable early termination fees for end-user communications contracts" (see 2107090006). It also urged the agency to undertake a rulemaking to require broadband service providers to regularly report broadband price and subscription rates "for the purpose of disseminating that information to the public in a useful manner, to improve price transparency and market functioning." The EO urged DOJ and FTC to review existing horizontal and vertical merger guidelines "and consider whether to revise those guidelines." DOJ's Antitrust Division on Thursday said with the EO's revocation, it will "continue its work to recalibrate and modernize the Federal approach to competition policy to suit the needs of our dynamic and innovative economy."
FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty said in a speech Thursday that the agency will use its returned auction authority and other initiatives to make the U.S. an international leader in integrated sensing and communications (ISAC), the technology that combines tracking and data transmission. It lets mobile communications networks be used to sense and track non-connected objects, similar to radar. “ISAC is not just a technical evolution; it is a strategic leap,” Trusty said at the ISAC Strategy Summit in Arlington, Virginia, Thursday. “It gives us a chance to fuse our economic and national security goals into a common platform.” The international race for ISAC leadership “is already underway,” Trusty said. “Just as with 5G, those who move first will shape the technical rules, secure the supply chains, and capture the economic benefits. The question is not whether ISAC will be deployed; it is who will deploy it first, at scale, and on their own terms.”
A White House executive order on regulation of novel space activities by the Commerce Department leaves uncertain what role, if any, the FCC will have in overseeing in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing, we're told. The EO, which President Donald Trump issued Wednesday, also looks to ease the regulatory hurdles for commercial space launches. The FCC commissioners unanimously approved an ISAM licensing framework NPRM 18 months ago (see 2402150053).
Industry will likely turn to the FCC to address a 6th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court decision on Wednesday upholding the agency’s 2023 data breach notification rules (see 2508130068). When the rules were approved, now Chairman Brendan Carr and former Republican Commissioner Nathan Simington dissented (see 2312220054).