Representatives of the Wireless ISP Association said they spoke with aides to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Brendan Carr on concerns the group is raising on the draft net neutrality order (see 2404160068) set for a vote next week. WISPA is asking the commission to seek additional comment before imposing net neutrality rules on broadband providers with fewer than 250,000 subscribers. The FCC should use a Further NPRM “to fully explore the issues related to whether the Commission should permanently exempt … providers with 250,000 or fewer subscribers from the rules proposed in the draft item,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 23-320.
Barbara van Schewick, director of Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society, spoke with aides to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Geoffrey Starks to expand on concerns she raised last week on draft net neutrality order’s approach to 5G network slicing (see 2404120045). “The draft order turns the brightline no-throttling rule into a new, vague case-by-case standard,” said her filing posted Thursday in docket 23-320. “This opens the door to ISPs’ creating fast lanes for select apps or kinds of apps, as long as the application provider does not charge for it,” van Schewick said. “There is no way to predict which kinds of fast lanes the FCC might ultimately find to violate the no-throttling rule.”
The Coalition for Emergency Response and Critical Infrastructure (CERCI) told the FCC in a filing it lacks legal authority to award control of the 4.9 GHz band to the FirstNet Authority (FNA). New Street’s Blair Levin highlighted the filing Wednesday in a note to investors. “The Commission lacks statutory authority under the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 to award the FNA a license beyond the 700 MHz band addressed by that Act, and no other statute authorizes such a transfer,” CERCI said in a filing in docket 07-100: “Even if the FCC were authorized to make this grant, the FNA is not statutorily authorized to receive it” and “attempting to undertake this grant based on existing statutory authorities would, in any case, violate the major questions doctrine and raise nondelegation issues.” If lawyers at the FCC “agree with the argument, it moots the policy arguments about the relative benefits of national versus local control of spectrum and prevents the reallocation of the 50 megahertz of 4.9GHz spectrum licenses at issue,” which would be a “win” for Verizon and T-Mobile, Levin said. The arguments “are designed to have appeal to both Democrats and Republicans, who, in particular, are more sympathetic to arguments based on the major questions doctrine and the nondelegation doctrine,” he said. CERCI was formed last year by some public safety groups, the Edison Electric Institute, T-Mobile, UScellular, Verizon and the Competitive Carriers Association (see 2311160052). AT&T declined comment Thursday.
A coalition of Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction winners asked the FCC to waive its letter of credit (LOC) rules for RDOF, meeting separately with aides to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioners Brendan Carr, Geoffrey Starks and Anna Gomez (see 2311140077). The group proposed limiting LOCs to one year of support similar to NTIA's waiver for the broadband, equity, access and deployment program. "Maintaining the LOC while having to absorb the huge construction cost increases that RDOF winners are encountering exacerbates the significant financial burden RDOF Winners are already facing," the coalition said in a filing posted Thursday in docket 19-126.
NTCA raised concerns about the FCC's proposed decision to grant ISPs forbearance from USF contributions under Communications Act section 254(d), holding separate meetings with aides to Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Anna Gomez (see 2404050068). The FCC "would be on sounder legal footing" if it issued a Further NPRM "to consider how and whether to reform universal service contributions," the group said in an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 23-320. Forbearance is "a blunt instrument where a lighter touch that has similar effect would be far more appropriate," NTCA said, asking the commission to "adopt a procedural approach that will at once enable more careful consideration of the merits of contribution reforms and potential impacts."
Rep. John Joyce, R-Pa., said during a Thursday Punchbowl News event he will “very shortly” roll out a resolution aimed at allowing 5G innovation in the U.S. to “continue” amid uncertainty about when Congress will restore the FCC’s lapsed spectrum auction authority. “There is incredible interest from my colleagues” in both parties for the resolution, he said. Joyce remains hopeful that Congress still has a chance to renew the FCC’s lapsed spectrum auction authority “by the end of the year” despite more than a year of stalled progress in talks aimed at reauthorizing the mandate as part of a broader legislative package (see 2404110059). Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and others are shopping new spectrum proposals in hopes of jump-starting the talks (see 2403210063). Restoring the FCC’s authority not only is positive … for anyone who logs on, it’s positive for industry because competition can continue to occur,” said Joyce, a House Communications Subcommittee member. “It’s what’s needed worldwide so that we can” be as dominant on 5G as the U.S. was with 4G. “We’re gonna lose out to China if we don’t have that reauthorization.” He pointed to enactment of his 5G Spectrum Authority Licensing Enforcement Act in late December to give the FCC temporary authority to issue 2.5 GHz band licenses that T-Mobile and others won in a 2022 auction (see 2312200061) as an example of Congress being able to quickly move on airwaves issues when necessary. “We have a very short window … to get this completed,” Joyce said.
When people started discussing 5G 10 years ago, Mischa Dohler, Ericsson vice president-emerging technologies, said he was asked why anyone needs the next generation of wireless. Dohler, who spoke Thursday at a Competitive Carriers Association conference streamed from Palm Springs, California, said he has spent the last 10 years finding answers to that question.
The FCC "has already begun investigating the 911 multistate outages that occurred [Wednesday] night to get to the bottom of the cause and impact," Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement Thursday. Authorities in affected states are asking questions, too. At least four states -- Texas, Nebraska, Nevada and South Dakota -- experienced 911 calling problems, said state officials and news reports.
The FCC approved Thursday waiver requests from 11 additional parties seeking permission to launch early deployments of cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) technology in the 5.895-5.925 GHz band. The FCC has yet to finalize rules for C-V2X in the band -- an item pending since November 2020, when the commission approved an order opening 45 MHz of the band for Wi-Fi, while allocating 30 MHz C-V2X technology (see 2011180043).
Congressional Republicans have remained relatively quiet about the FCC’s draft net neutrality order since Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel released it earlier this month (see 2404030043) but are likely to become more active in opposition when the commission adopts it as expected next week, lawmakers and observers said in interviews. Congressional Democrats have been comparatively active since the draft’s release, including sending Rosenworcel suggestions aimed at preventing loopholes that ISPs could use to circumvent regulation. Congressional Democrats highlighted that divergence in style Thursday by bringing Rosenworcel to Capitol Hill for a news conference that amounted to a preemptive victory lap ahead of the FCC’s April 25 vote on the order.