House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told reporters Tuesday that a compromise version of the FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act still under negotiation won’t include language to preempt states’ AI laws, amid ongoing concerns about proposals tying such a pause to funding from the $42.5 billion BEAD broadband program. President Donald Trump has been eyeing a draft executive order that could force NTIA to deny non-deployment BEAD funding to states with AI laws that the administration deems overly onerous (see 2511200057).
California’s continuing interest in VoIP regulation is a concern, and the lack of FCC preemption of state VoIP oversight is proving to be a problem, speakers said Wednesday at a vCon conference about AI and telecom issues. Also at the event, Ecommerce Innovation Alliance (EIA) President David Carter said the e-commerce industry, faced with rocketing amounts of “shakedown litigation" about texts sent during quiet hours, is anxiously hoping that the FCC will act soon on the group's 9-month-old petition for a declaratory ruling (see 2503030036). An agency affirmation that prior consumer consent means those texts don’t violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) “should have been a no-brainer,” Carter said.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier (R) issued a subpoena to California Wi-Fi router maker TP-Link Systems as part of a consumer protection investigation of the company’s relationship with China and handling of consumer data, said a release Tuesday.
New Era Broadband, a wireless ISP in Ohio, opposed any move to relocate the citizens broadband radio service band or raise power levels (see 2511260031). Moving the band would “basically put us out of business,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 17-258. “Drastically changing the CBRS rules could cost our business, which would directly impact 7 jobs, nearly 800 internet users, multiple first responders, firehouses, township operations.”
A new study by researchers at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia found a link between cellphone ownership and higher rates of obesity and insufficient sleep among children. Owning a phone at age 12 “was associated with increased risks of depression, obesity, and insufficient sleep, with younger age of acquisition linked to additional risks of obesity and insufficient sleep.” The study was done in collaboration with the University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University in New York.
NTIA conditioning any state receiving BEAD funds on not imposing rate regulation or net neutrality-like rules on a BEAD subgrantee or on not regulating AI is of "dubious legality," New Street Research's Blair Levin said Wednesday. He told us much the same earlier this week (see 2511250076). Levin said there have been numerous cases where courts have held that the president can't condition the grant of funds appropriated by Congress in ways that coerce the states. The major questions doctrine and its limit on executive power also could be a route to challenging the conditions, he said. States "would have a material chance of overturning" those executive actions. NTIA head Arielle Roth said last month that the agency was telling states they can't put rate regulation and state-level net neutrality rules on BEAD-funded projects (see 2510280051).
House leaders intend to hold a floor vote on the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act (HR-979) in early December, lead sponsor Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., and National Religious Broadcasters CEO Troy Miller separately confirmed to us. HR-979 and Senate companion S-315 would require the Department of Transportation to mandate that future automobiles include AM radio technology, mostly affecting electric vehicles. Supporters are optimistic that House passage of HR-979 could increase momentum for the measure, as that would represent the first time the lower chamber has cleared the legislation. The House Commerce Committee advanced HR-979 in September (see 2509170068), while the Senate Commerce Committee advanced the slightly different S-315 in February.
Verizon's plans to cut about 13,000 jobs (see 2511200054) will affect only management in California, not union-represented employees there, company representatives told California Public Utilities Commission President Alice Reynolds. In a CPUC ex parte filing posted Monday, Verizon said the workforce reduction won't affect its obligations or performance under settlement agreements in its pending acquisition of Frontier Communications.
Children’s Health Defense (CHD) urged the FCC to back off its review of how the commission can further reduce wireless red tape and instead address the Environmental Health Trust’s August RF safety petition (see 2508070032). The group's filing came as the FCC is hit with hundreds of submissions -- ahead of any comment deadline -- opposing changes in a wireless infrastructure NPRM that commissioners approved at September's meeting.
The California Public Utilities Commission has rejected the Center for Accessible Technology's (CFAT) petition seeking an examination of diversity-related conditions in T-Mobile's purchase of Sprint. In a decision last week, CPUC said that while it was denying the petition, it has ways of monitoring and ensuring compliance with the merger approval terms. The CPUC's 2020 approval of the deal included the requirement that the combined company "strive to achieve and maintain a diverse board of directors that includes substantial representation by people of color" and that it increase the diversity of its California workforce and its suppliers. The CPUC said the center's April petition didn't provide any specifics about how its interests are affected by T-Mobile’s alleged noncompliance, but it can talk to the CPUC about the compliance monitor's work to make sure T-Mobile is in compliance.