House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., is taking aim again at the FCC and FTC with less than a month left before the Nov. 5 presidential election. Comer said Tuesday he’s expanding his probe of FTC actions under Chair Lina Khan (see 2306010053) to examine her attendance at upcoming policy events as a way to campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ presidential nominee, and congressional candidates. House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and GOP former FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly have criticized Khan’s pro-Harris activities in recent days (see 2410020046).
Broadband deployment continues in a timely manner and adoption rates are rising, ISPs said in comments about the FCC's annual Section 706 report on the state of competition in the broadband marketplace (see 2409060058). In addition, some urged that the commission refrain from including metrics on pricing and adoption rates in its final analysis. Others said the FCC should refine the broadband data collection (BDC) process and national broadband map.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) reappoints Michael La Rosa to the Florida Public Service Commission, effective Jan. 2, subject to state Senate confirmation … Satellite Industry Association hires Madeleine Chang, ex-Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Aerospace Security Project, as policy director …BigBear.ai promotes Carl Napoletano to COO … Salem Media Group announces Jerry Crowley is stepping down at year’s end as vice president/general manager-New York market.
House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington and 40 other Republicans pressed FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel Monday about why the commission approved radio broadcaster Audacy’s request for a temporary waiver of foreign-ownership requirements to complete a bankruptcy restructuring that includes George Soros-affiliated entities purchasing its stock. The FCC voted 3-2 to approve the waiver, with both Republican commissioners claiming the agency deviated from normal procedure (see 2409300046). “It is highly concerning," Rodgers and other GOP lawmakers said in a letter to Rosenworcel, "that the FCC did not follow regular order for a transaction of this magnitude.” The timing of the FCC’s approval “just before a Presidential election … seems suspect” given Soros is a “Democrat mega-donor.” Licensees “and investors need certainty that the FCC will follow its rules and procedures when approving transactions so that the broadcast industry can have the resources it needs to continue serving the public,” the Republican lawmakers said. They seek a briefing by Oct. 18 “to understand the FCC’s process for granting waivers of the foreign ownership rule, and the decision to grant Audacy’s request, in particular.” The lawmakers in part want to know why the FCC voted on the Audacy waiver at the full commission level. Rosenworcel has said the full vote was taken because of pressure from Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas (see 2408150047). An FCC spokesperson referred us to Rosenworcel’s statement on the Audacy decision, in which she said claims that the broadcaster received special treatment are “cynical and wrong.” House Oversight Committee Republicans launched a probe of the Audacy matter in late September (see 2409270053).
Consumer, financial and other groups largely supported a draft FCC order on robotexts and robocalls that was pulled from a vote at the September FCC open meeting (see 2409240068). They reported on a meeting with an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “The Organizations joined together for this meeting because they are united in their commitment to combating criminals who attempt to defraud consumers by impersonating legitimate businesses through illegally spoofed calls and text messages,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 17-59. Among the groups at the meeting were the National Consumer Law Center, the American Bankers Association, America’s Credit Unions, ACA International, the Bank Policy Institute, the Mortgage Bankers Association and Edison Electric Institute. Bank impersonation texts were the most common form of text scam reported to the FTC in 2022, they noted. A community bank located in the Midwest with less than $500 million in assets was a target of a mass texting campaign two weeks ago, the filing said. “A criminal sent a fake fraud alert to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of the bank’s customers,” the groups said: “If the customer replied to the fraud alert, the criminal called the customer, displaying the bank’s phone number on the customer’s Caller ID (i.e., an illegally spoofed call) and claiming to be from the bank. The criminal then used social engineering (i.e., publicly available information about the customer) to persuade the customer to reveal their banking log-in credentials.” The bank fielded approximately 600 calls from customers and others targeted by the scam.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel visited Asheville, North Carolina, on Friday and met communications providers and emergency response officials in the wake of Hurricane Helene. Relief efforts at the FCC and communications companies continue, even as Florida is preparing for a second storm. “I saw firsthand how the public sector and private sector are working together to help with recovery,” said Rosenworcel in a news release Monday. “We must use [Hurricane Helene] to understand ways we can make this infrastructure more resilient and more accessible in the future.”
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr and former Federal Election Commission Chairman Bradley Smith disagreed with Public Knowledge CEO Chris Lewis Monday about the FCC’s authority to require disclosures on political ads created with generative AI. During a Federalist Society virtual discussion, Carr and Smith said the FCC was stepping onto the FEC’s turf and going beyond the intent of statutes giving the agency regulatory power on political ads. However, Lewis said the FCC effort would be complementary to FEC rules. “If we don't have these rules, it is critically important that those who are critical of them come up with solutions to solve this threat,” Lewis said.
The FCC narrowed the scope of outage reporting for Hurricane Helene Thursday, deactivating the Disaster Information Reporting System for Florida and Virginia, as well as 16 counties in Georgia and one in Tennessee. However, the system remains active for numerous counties in Georgia, Tennessee and both Carolinas. Thursday’s DIRS update showed 598,411 cable and wireline customers without service in the affected area, and 8.4% of cell sites down. Those numbers are improved from the previous day, when 11.3% of cell sites were down and 654,220 subscribers were reported as without service. The update showed 5 TV stations down, compared to 6 Wednesday, and 22 radio stations down, compared to 38. FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr visited the North Carolina Emergency Operations Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, to meet officials and telecom providers who are coordinating disaster response efforts, a release from Carr's office said Friday. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel also visited North Carolina Friday (see 2410030051). Carr discussed coordinating communications restoration efforts with representatives of federal, state and local government agencies during the visit, including FCC actions to promote roaming across networks, the release said. "Ensuring the quick restoration of communications services remains a top priority for government agencies," Carr said. "I am grateful for the work that these government officials and service providers alike are doing to help restore communications services in the wake of Hurricane Helene."
SpaceX representatives met with aides to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Anna Gomez as they made the rounds at the FCC about company concerns over interference from high-power terrestrial operations in the lower and upper 12 GHz band (see 2409260036). “SpaceX’s studies of interference in the upper and lower 12 GHz bands demonstrate that a high-power terrestrial service -- either mobile or fixed -- would devastate the next generation satellite service of Americans who rely on the 10.7-12.7 GHz band for high speed, low latency broadband connectivity,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 22-352. EchoStar disputes those arguments (see 2409050040).
UScellular CEO Laurent Therivel met with FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and agency staff to make the case for T-Mobile’s proposed buy of “substantially all” of his company’s wireless operations, including some spectrum (see 2405280047), a deal announced in May. Therivel and others company officials also met with Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington, aides to Commissioner Geoffrey Starks and top officials in the Wireless Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics, said a filing posted Friday in docket 24-286. By total handset connections nationwide, UScellular is “the seventh-largest wireless provider and accounts for approximately one percent of connections,” the filing said. Competitive pressures are ramping up in its markets, and it’s losing subscribers “despite deploying a variety of strategies to attempt to arrest that decline,” the carrier said: “Subscriber losses accelerated in 2022, a year that UScellular invested heavily on promotions. UScellular anticipates that it will continue to lose subscribers going forward.” It assumed “significant debt to purchase the mid-band spectrum needed to compete in 5G,” it said. “While UScellular has been pulling back on its network investments, its competitors have been spending more to expand their networks and enhance their network quality and customer experience in UScellular’s footprint.”