The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) warned the FCC of potential risks to consumers regarding providers’ implementation of security countermeasures to prevent the exploitation of vulnerabilities in the Signaling System 7 (SS7) and Diameter protocols to track the locations of consumers through their mobile devices (see 2404290032). “EFF has been concerned about location data privacy for years, including the threat posed by surveillance companies enabling their foreign government customers to conduct surveillance by exploiting SS7 network vulnerabilities,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 18-99. Current use of the Diameter protocol “presents similar problems,” EFF said in reply comments on a Public Safety Bureau notice. EFF urged the FCC to require audits of major wireless carrier use of SS7 and Diameter “every 12-18 months,” with a requirement that providers “address any identified vulnerabilities.”
Top executives from Rakuten Group and Rakuten Symphony met with FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and staff on the “latest developments” on the company’s open radio access network initiatives, said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 21-63. They were joined by officials from the U.S. Embassy in Japan. The executives discussed “key challenges for the deployment and adoption” of ORAN and how Rakuten “making its source code available to other companies” could promote open networks.
USTelecom urged the FCC to continue designating its Industry Traceback Group (ITG) as the consortium to coordinate industry efforts on identifying illegal robocalls. The group noted in a letter Wednesday in docket 20-22 that the ITG "receives direction and support from a broad cross-section of the communications industry." The ITG "continues to meet the criteria established in the Traced Act for the registered consortium and the ITG’s track record demonstrates that it is and remains the best candidate for the role of the commission-designated registered consortium," USTelecom said.
Providers covered under the FCC's rules regarding line separation requests in the Safe Connections Act are required to comply with the provision by July 15 (see 2311160080). A Wireline Bureau public notice Wednesday in docket 22-238 said OMB completed its review of the rules May 3.
Coastal TV is being forced to broadcast with a low-power transmitter that lacks sufficient power to cover its broadcast area due to a contract dispute with Mississippi TV, alleged a May 1 fraud complaint (docket 1:24-cv-00100), removed Tuesday from the Circuit Court of Lee County, Mississippi, to U.S. District Court for Northern Mississippi in Aberdeen.
Broadband access, equity and deployment program funding is flowing more slowly than expected and likely won’t start in mid-2025 as originally expected, Diana Eisner, USTelecom vice president-policy and advocacy, said during a Georgetown University Center for Business and Public Policy webcast Wednesday. Most of the money will start to flow in mid-2026 or later, she predicted. It could even be the second half of 2026, she said.
Intuitive Machines hopes it can send its second lunar lander to the moon's surface sometime in Q4. In an FCC Space Bureau application posted Tuesday, it sought approval for that NOVA-C Lunar Lander mission. It would land at the moon's South Pole and carry out a variety of missions, including testing an LTE communications system on the moon. The company's first lunar lander mission, part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, was carried out in February.
Intrepid Fiber Networks backed the FCC's proposal that bans bulk billing arrangements between ISPs and multi-tenant environment (MTE) owners (see 2405080043). Intrepid said in a letter Tuesday in docket 17-142 that such arrangements without an opt-out provision "force MTE resident consumers to pay for broadband, cable, and satellite service" from a specific provider. In addition, they act "as an impediment to new market entrants," Intrepid said. Some consumers are "being forced to purchase unwanted and unused services, leading to overall higher costs," it added. The company said bulk billing contracts result in consumers being "obligated to pay for increasingly outdated technology and network equipment."
Supplemental coverage from space activities could make radio astronomy impossible from 600 MHz to 2700 MHz and beyond, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory said Tuesday in FCC docket 22-271. NRAO said strong beam coupling or high passband occupation by SCS will destroy or permanently impair a radio astronomy receiver, though this could be mitigated. It said large swaths of spectrum where terrestrial interference has been coordinated away or otherwise obviated will be blocked by bands allocated to SCS. SCS emissions would block even protected bands, NRAO said, noting SCS undermines the protections the National Radio Quiet Zone and other remote locations enjoy today. Accordingly, it said the FCC should make SCS applicants show they can operate without directly illuminating, incapacitating or damaging radio astronomy observatory receivers. NRAO also urged cumulative limits on SCS interference.
A lawyer for Florida Power & Light spoke with an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel about the utility’s support of rules authorizing shared use of a portion of the 5030-5091 MHz band for control and non-payload communications (see 2403290055). FPL discussed how it and “other similarly-situated critical infrastructure entities” use drones, said a filing Tuesday in docket 22-232 said.