The FCC’s Aug. 1 commissioners’ meeting will be headlined by proposed rulemakings on robocalls and the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, per the tentative agenda and drafts released Thursday late afternoon. Members will vote on an NPRM on low-power FM technical rules, orders on 911 location and small satellites, plus items on a toll-free number auction and local franchising authority over cable.
The FCC voted along party lines Wednesday for partial pre-emption of San Francisco's Article 52 open-access rule, with dissenting Democratic commissioners complaining of regulatory overreach. Geoffrey Starks called the declaratory ruling “not sound law and not good policy." Jessica Rosenworcel said it's "an affront to our long history" of local control. The Republicans and Starks, meanwhile, backed the related NPRM asking about other ways the FCC could boost broadband deployment in multi-tenant environments (MTE), though Mike O'Rielly said he did so with reservations.
The FCC voted 3-2 along party lines Wednesday to approve a kidvid order that was little changed from the draft version released last month, as expected (see 1907090069). Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks condemned the order. “There is nothing in this item that would prevent a broadcaster from reducing the amount of regularly scheduled, 30-minute core programming aired on its primary stream to zero,” Starks said.
The FCC approved revised rules for the 2.5 GHz educational broadband service band over partial dissents at the commissioners' meeting Wednesday by Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks. The biggest change from the draft order was that instead of single 100 and 16 MHz licenses, the FCC will offer two 50 MHz licenses. The order also contains language (see 1907030043) sought by Commissioner Brendan Carr addressing licenses held by national nonprofits. Rosenworcel and Starks dissented to all of the order except provisions preserving a filing window for tribal entities seeking new EBS licenses.
FCC preliminary numbers show about 12 percent of Lifeline subscribers de-enrolled in states where the national verifier is reaching final steps in the reverification process. Lifeline providers saw many Lifeline de-enrollments in recent weeks in some of the first states where the NV launched, but carrier application program interface remains unavailable and Universal Service Administrative Co. still lacks access to many state databases or the national Medicaid database, said John Heitmann of Kelley Drye, counsel to the National Lifeline Association. At least 2 million could be de-enrolled due to difficulties verifying, he said.
Comments are due July 24, replies Aug. 23 on the Further NPRM commissioners approved as part of an anti-robocalling item earlier this month (see 1906060056), in docket 17-59. The FCC approved a declaratory ruling allowing carriers to block unwanted robocalls by default, over partial dissents by Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Mike O’Rielly. The FNPRM asks about additional steps, including a potential mandate of secure handling of asserted information using tokens and secure telephone identity revisited technology, if major voice providers don’t comply with demands Shaken/Stir be implemented by year-end.
FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks sent letters to 14 providers seeking details on their plans to offer free, default call blocking services to consumers aimed at curbing “disruptive and dangerous robocalls.” For Starks and Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, cost has been a major issue. Starks voted for the declaratory order and Further NPRM last week (see 1906060056). Also Monday, USTelecom said there are calls for robocall tools to be provided free, but that could lead to every carrier opting for the same, cheapest solution instead of employing a variety of them (see 1906100038).
The argument that changing technology left FCC leased access rules at odds with the First Amendment rights of cable operators is seemingly a step toward axing those and other content carriage requirements, said the public, educational and government channel community and Democratic commissioners Thursday. Commissioners adopted 3-2 the leased access item on their meeting agenda. Big technology and market changes in the video distribution world "cast substantial doubt on the constitutional foundation for our leased access rules," said the draft order. An accompanying Further NPRM would seek comment on whether the remaining leased access requirements can withstand First Amendment scrutiny given those video market changes. The agency is echoing an often-repeated NCTA argument that public interest obligations violate cable's right as a publisher, emailed Alliance for Community Media President Mike Wassenaar. Courts rejected the "zombie idea ... and yet it keeps moving on inexorably," he said. Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Jessica Rosenworcel dissented in part on the constitutional issues. Starks said the item's First Amendment analysis "goes too far." He said the abundance of over-the-top outlets doesn't necessitate a reinterpretation of the agency's First Amendment principles on cable. Commissioner Mike O'Rielly said the item's affirmation that OTT video is a substitute for traditional video distribution should inform future media actions. He said after the meeting that such a market-based OTT analysis could be important in many proceedings. The leased access rules regime is "the Betamax ... of FCC video regulation," Chairman Ajit Pai said: "This is real progress, even against the backdrop of serious concerns that have been raised (concerns that I share) about the constitutionality of this entire regime." Asked after the meeting whether he philosophically saw First Amendment issues with other existing media carriage rules, Pai said, “I wouldn’t read more into my comments” beyond their applicability to the leased access proceeding.
Regulators approved a declaratory ruling Thursday allowing carriers to block unwanted robocalls by default. Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Mike O’Rielly, who had signaled concerns (see 1906030008 and 1905310061), partially dissented. A Further NPRM asks about additional steps and was strengthened last week to add a proposal that the FCC mandate secure handling of asserted information using tokens and secure telephone identity revisited technology if major voice providers don’t comply with demands Shaken Stir be implemented by year-end.
The argument that changing technology has left FCC leased access rules at odds with the First Amendment rights of cable operators is seemingly a step toward axing those and other content carriage requirements, said the public, educational and government channel community and Democratic commissioners Thursday. Commissioners adopted the leased access item on their meeting agenda.