A coalition of Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) winners urged the FCC to grant a limited waiver of the program's rules concerning a letter of credit and relinquish census block groups in areas that have been or will be overbuilt by federal-funded broadband deployment projects. The coalition said in a meeting with Wireline Bureau staff that waiving the letter of credit rule to one year of support was needed because "unforeseeable cost increases place significant strains on RDOF winners to contribute huge amounts of additional funds for RDOF broadband deployments." The group also urged the commission to "promptly address" potential overbuilding "through its deconfliction process and allow RDOF funding recipients to return such areas ... without financial penalties."
The possible end of the federal affordable connectivity program (ACP) isn't an excuse to make sweeping changes to state broadband grant rules, ISPs told the California Public Utilities Commission this week. In Monday comments (docket R.20-08-021), AT&T, Frontier Communications, cable companies and small rural local exchange carriers urged the CPUC to swiftly reject last month’s The Utility Reform Network (TURN) petition to modify rules for the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) broadband infrastructure account (see 2404150062).
Broadband providers, broadcasters, satellite companies and the FirstNet Authority urged the FCC not to expand outage reporting requirements. Meanwhile, groups such as Public Knowledge, Next Century Cities and The Utility Reform Network (TURN) said increased reporting rules are a matter of public safety. Comments were filed in docket 21-346 by Monday’s deadline.
Supplemental coverage from space service will provide a huge backstop to terrestrial networks' coverage, especially when disasters and emergencies strike terrestrial networks. But SCS also will carry significant challenges for pinpointing callers' locations, speakers said Tuesday at an FCBA CLE.
The FCC Space Bureau signed off on two of Planet Labs' proposed Tanager satellites with some of the conditions SpaceX sought. SpaceX has urged the agency to put similar conditions on numerous operators as were imposed on its second-generation constellation (see 2301180049). In an order in Monday's Daily Digest, the bureau said some second-generation analogous conditions tailored for the specific conditions presented in the Tanager application are "appropriate." It said Planet Labs must report any loss of control of a Tanager satellite at altitudes above 350 km. The bureau also conditioned the Tanager approval on Planet Labs coordinating with NASA and the National Science Foundation. The bureau said it was deferring decisions on the third and fourth Tanager satellites pending Planet Labs submitting additional orbital debris mitigation information.
SES' O3b is asking the FCC for 26 additional months to meet milestones for making operational its Ka-band satellites authorized in the agency's U.S. market access order. In an FCC Space Bureau application posted Monday, O3b said the COVID-19 pandemic initially delayed its mPower satellites. Next, performance deficiencies were discovered in 2023 in the first four mPowers. It said design updates addressing those issues delayed manufacture of later mPowers. It asked that its milestone deadline for having 50% of the mPowers in the U.S. market access application be operational move from June 7, 2024, to Aug. 7, 2026. It also asked that the milestone deadline for the remaining 50% be moved from June 7, 2027, to Aug. 7, 2029.
The Texas Association of Broadcasters filed a petition for review Thursday (docket 24-60226) in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the FCC’s gathering of equal employment opportunity workforce diversity data. TAB's filing alleges the agency, through its Feb. 22 EEO order, “seeks to deputize private activists to pressure” broadcasters to “achieve the FCC’s long-held goal of imposing race and gender quotas on broadcast stations.” The order violates broadcasters' constitutional rights and is arbitrary and capricious, the petition said. The TAB appeal joins another filed in the 5th Circuit earlier this month by the National Religious Broadcasters and the American Family Association (see 2405060057). In addition, groups of religious broadcasters, including the Catholic Radio Association, filed several applications for review (see 2405010070).
The FCC Wireline Bureau made several Rural Digital Opportunity Fund census block groups eligible for other funding programs following letters from Charter and Altice notifying the commission that each company was surrendering some winning bids (see 2405010080). The bureau said in a public notice Friday in docket 19-126 that the carriers "will be subject to penalties" for their defaulted bids.
The FCC Public Safety Bureau on Monday asked for comments June 12, replies July 12, on rules for implementing multilingual wireless emergency alerts. The FCC proposes requiring that providers support template alert messages, “which the Bureau translated into the thirteen most commonly spoken languages in the United States aside from English, and American Sign Language,” the notice said: “The Bureau also seeks comment on whether the templates and their translations are accurate and will be effective at encouraging the public to take protective action during emergencies; whether templates addressing other types of emergencies should be supported; whether ‘form-fillable’ elements can be added to the templates, allowing alert originators to customize the templates with information specific to each emergency; and whether additional languages should be supported.” Comments can be filed in dockets 15-91 and 15-94.
Dish Wireless spoke with FCC Wireline Bureau staff on the company’s amended petition seeking eligible telecom carrier status in Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Maine, New Hampshire, North Carolina and in the District of Columbia (see 404080037). “DISH clarified that it is a facilities-based wireless provider offering 5G voice and broadband services in markets throughout the country,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 09-917: “DISH has successfully tested this capability and is working toward launching at scale" and "as soon as possible ... will offer a combination of services (including Lifeline service) using its own facilities in portions of each state where the network is suitable and resale of its network partners to provide coverage in the remaining areas of the state.”