Californians can't combine their state and federal Lifeline subsidies for stand-alone wireline broadband service, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) said in a decision published Tuesday (docket 20-02-008). The commission's Public Advocate Office and the Utility Reform Network petitioned the CPUC in April 2024 while the FCC was sunsetting the Affordable Connectivity Program. Residents were eligible during the program to combine their subsidies. Several ISPs, including AT&T, Charter, Cox, Consolidated Communications and Frontier, opposed the petition and cited legal, policy and procedural issues. "While we deny the petition based on these procedural flaws, we agree with the petitioners that the commission should explore ways to make broadband more affordable to Californians," the decision said.
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The FCC Wireless Bureau on Tuesday approved an order it proposed in December granting a request from GeoLinks that it surrender some local multipoint distribution service (LMDS) licenses in return for others from the commission’s inventory (see 2412120057). GeoLinks proposed using federal funding to serve some 47,000 locations across Arizona, California and Nevada that now lack high-speed broadband access. The bureau sought comment on the request last year (see 2405170028).
Wireless carriers and industry groups warned the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) against expanding its nearly 30-year-old carrier of last resort (COLR) rules to cover broadband, citing legal and technical limitations, in comments filed Friday (docket R.24-06-012). The filings came in response to an administrative law judge’s request for comment on two April workshops about proposed changes and the current landscape. While AT&T and others pushed to eliminate COLR obligations in areas with competition, consumer advocates argued that the rules remain essential to ensure universal access to basic voice service as the CPUC weighs changes.
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez said Thursday that during a two-week trip to California, she talked to Apple about its partnership with Globalstar to provide emergency satellite connectivity to iPhones. She also met with TV studio executives from ABC, NBC and Fox; entertainment-sector labor union representatives from the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of TV and Radio Artists and the Writer’s Guild of America, West; and space industry companies Planet, Astranis, Rocket Lab and K2 Space, as well as NASA’s Ames Research Center.
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., continued Thursday to criticize panel Republicans’ proposed spectrum language for the chamber’s budget reconciliation package (see 2506060029). She argued during a Center for Strategic and International Studies event that the spectrum proposal would leave DOD and aviation stakeholders more vulnerable to China and other malicious actors. House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Doris Matsui of California and 30 other chamber Democrats also urged Senate leaders to jettison language from the reconciliation package that would require governments receiving funding from the $42.5 billion BEAD program to pause enforcing state-level AI rules.
Midjourney's generative AI service is "a virtual vending machine, generating endless unauthorized copies of Disney’s and Universal’s copyrighted works," the studios told a federal court Wednesday in a complaint alleging direct and secondary copyright infringement. The suit, filed with the U.S. District Court for Central California (docket 2:25-cv-05275), called Midjourney "the quintessential copyright free-rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism." The plaintiffs said they have asked Midjourney to adopt the same technological measures that other AI services have to prevent generation of infringing material. Instead, they said, Midjourney's forthcoming commercial AI video service apparently "will generate, publicly display, and distribute videos featuring Disney’s and Universal’s copyrighted characters." The suit asks for unspecified damages and an injunction stopping Midjourney from copyright infringement or offering its image or video services "without appropriate copyright protection measures to prevent such infringement." Midjourney didn't comment.
Communications Daily is tracking the lawsuits below involving appeals of FCC actions.
The House Rules Committee was still considering Tuesday whether to allow floor votes on a pair of Democratic amendments to the 2025 Rescissions Act (HR-4) that would strip out its proposed clawback of $1.1 billion of CPB’s advance funding for FY 2026 and FY 2027 (see 2506090036). Panel Republicans and Democrats sparred over CPB funding during the hearing, reflecting growing GOP interest in revoking federal support for public broadcasters over claims that their content has a predominantly pro-Democratic bias (see 2503210040). Meanwhile, Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., told us he's still undecided about supporting a CPB funding rollback once the upper chamber considers HR-4.
Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., co-chairman of the Congressional Public Broadcasting Caucus, is seeking to strip out a proposal to claw back CPB’s $1.1 billion in advance funding for FY 2026 and FY 2027 from the 2025 Rescissions Act (HR-4). The lower chamber moves toward GOP leaders’ expected push to pass the measure this week (see 2506030065). Meanwhile, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Sunday rejected a preliminary injunction request from a trio of CPB board members who are challenging Trump’s disputed April move to fire them (see 2504290067).