The National Consumer Law Center and Electronic Privacy Information Center raised concerns about callers "rotating outbound numbers that allows them to circumvent" the FCC's Stir/Shaken caller ID authentication rules. Meeting with Wireline Bureau staff, the groups asked the FCC to "explicitly say that providers are prohibited from offering any service that obfuscates the real caller’s name, location, and telephone number, including but not limited to rotating through numbers for this purpose." The groups also asked the commission to "resume and target its auditing of the use of numbers" to "curtail improper use of numbering resources."
The Coalition of Concerned Utilities defended its petition of certain parts of the FCC's December order revising pole attachment rules in a filing Tuesday in docket 17-84 (see 2312130044). The group sought elimination of "the requirement that utilities submit a copy of periodic pole inspection reports to attaching entities." Utility pole owners "should not be placed at odds with broadband providers," the coalition said, and electric utilities "should not be subject to a pole inspection report requirement that will provide no legitimate benefit to attachers." The requirement "may potentially divert time and scarce resources away from processing applications and ... much of the information in the pole inspection reports is unlikely to promote broadband deployment," UTC warned. The Utilities Technology Council also backed the petition.
House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone (N.J.), Communications Subcommittee ranking member Doris Matsui (Calif.) and 10 other subpanel Democrats urged NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson Tuesday "to continue to prioritize affordability in your administration of" the $42.5 billion broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program as the agency reviews states' plans for the money. The Democrats wrote Davidson days after Congress approved the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act FY 2024 minibus spending package without hoped-for stopgap money for the FCC's affordable connectivity program or Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program (see 2403210067). "Access to internet service is meaningless to consumers if the cost of signing up is a barrier,” the lawmakers said in their letter. “Studies show that nearly half of all broadband non-adopters cited cost as the primary reason they did not have home internet service." The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which created ACP and BEAD, "includes separate affordability provisions that are specific to the BEAD program," the lawmakers said: "Congress decided to allocate BEAD funds to states and territories since they are best situated to determine the needs of their communities, but it did not change any existing authority to oversee broadband or pricing." NTIA has "administrative oversight and programmatic support responsibilities to ensure the funds would be spent consistent with Congressional intent, including the review and approval of proposals after significant consultation between the state or territory and NTIA," the Democrats said. "These are critical procedures for NTIA to follow in determining whether low-cost plans are in fact affordable for the areas and markets where they are proposed." It "would be a significant missed opportunity in the administration of BEAD if these affordability provisions are not exercised to their fullest to help middle-class and low-income Americans afford the cost of internet service, consistent with the statute," the lawmakers said. Congressional Republicans have criticized NTIA's reviews of state plans' affordability provisions as a form of rate regulation (see 2312180063).
The FCC announced the membership of the rechartered Communications Equity and Diversity Council ahead of the group’s first meeting Wednesday. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced in May that she would recharter the advisory committee, and the group’s new charter began in June (see 2305250058). “Currently, across the federal government, including here at the Commission, there is a focus on ensuring equity for all, including under-served communities,” Rosenworcel said in a news release Tuesday. “The CEDC exists to help level the playing field.” Wednesday’s meeting will open with an address from Rosenworcel, and otherwise involve introducing the advisory committee’s members, announcing working groups and receiving guidance on federal advisory committee best practices. Many members are returning from the previous charter, including the group’s chair and vice chairs (see 2403150059), Neptuno CEO Leticia Latino-van Splunteren, Multicultural Media Telecom and Internet Council President Robert Branson and former FCC Commissioner Henry Rivera. New members include University of Minnesota journalism professor Christopher Terry.
The FCC said Tuesday it has “more than doubled” the number of employees assigned to privacy and data protection since the launch last year of the Privacy and Data Protection Task Force (see 2306140075). The commission has “integrated technologists, software and hardware engineers, and other subject-matter experts into its enforcement matters, adding to the FCC’s deep technical expertise in rulemaking and licensing matters," and “convened technical experts” to focus on AI, machine learning and other emerging technologies through its Technological Advisory Council, it said in a news release. The announcement was part of a broader administration push (see 2403260029). “This ongoing work will allow us to maximize our efforts to address risks arising from the misuse or mishandling of sensitive data we entrust with service providers and the continued threats posed by cybercriminals and foreign adversaries,” said Enforcement Bureau Chief Loyaan Egal, chair of the task force.
Non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) will expand the reach of cellular networks, which is increasingly important when 95% of the U.S. population has abandoned landline phones, David Witkowski, co-chair of the Deployment Working Group at IEEE Future Networks, said during an RCR Wireless webinar Tuesday. Last month, FCC commissioners approved a supplemental coverage from space framework, facilitating carriers working with satellite operators on converged networks (see 2403150045).
The 5G Fund order that FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel circulated last week (see 2403200071) is expected to have several gaps that will need addressing with a Further NPRM on a tribal reserve but also through auction public notices, industry officials said. One question that needs answering is how to define open radio access networks, slated to get up to 10% of the $9 billion to be awarded.
FCC announces Precision Agriculture Connectivity Task Force working group members, including Mapping and Analyzing Connectivity on Agricultural Lands Working Group Chair Joseph Carey, special government employee, and Vice Chair Brad Robison, CEO-Tallahatchie Valley Electric Power Association and Tallahatchie Valley Internet Services; Examining Current and Future Connectivity Demand for Precision Agriculture Working Group Chair Joy Sterling, CEO-Iron Horse Vineyards, and Vice Chair Steven Strickland, director-partnerships and channels at Ericsson; and Encouraging Adoption of Precision Agriculture and Availability of High-Quality Jobs on Connected Farms Working Group Chair Joshua Seidemann, vice president-policy, NTCA, and Vice Chair Alex Thomasson, professor-Mississippi State University Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering; Accelerating Broadband Deployment on Unserved Agricultural Lands Working Group Chair Heather Hampton-Knodle, vice president/secretary-Knodle Ltd. Farms, and Vice Chair Jarrett Taubman, vice president/deputy chief government affairs and regulatory officer-Viasat.
SpaceX wants to go lower with its planned 7,500 second-generation satellites that would provide direct-to-device (D2D) service. In an application modification posted Monday, it asked the FCC Space Bureau to add 340-360 km orbital shells as a deployment option. It said those lower orbits "will come at a significant additional cost to SpaceX [but] enhance space sustainability by further reducing collision risk and passive decay time." It said the lower orbits also would make for better spectrum sharing. The D2D application seeks approval for operating at 525 km, 530 km and 535 km altitudes.
Hawaiian Telecom's application for review of an FCC Media Bureau $720,000 notice of apparent liability issued against Nexstar (see 2403080072) is part of HT's "continuing crusade" to punish it and other broadcasters for not extending expiring retransmission consent agreements, Nexstar said Monday. In a docket 23-228 opposition to HT's review application, Nexstar said the liability notice clearly refutes HT's "meritless" argument that the bureau should have considered the circumstances around Nexstar withholding a meaningful retrans agreement extension to determine whether the broadcaster acted in bad faith. With it already facing a potential $720,000 forfeiture, Nexstar said there "is neither a need nor a legitimate basis for requiring the Bureau to expend even more resources in taking up what amounts to a petition for a new and improper revision of the Communications Act and the FCC’s [retrans consent] rules."