CTIA and USTelecom urged the California Public Utilities Commission not to give commission staff full authority over the state's BEAD subgrantee scoring and selection process. The groups also raised concerns in separate comments posted Friday (docket 23-02-016) about the CPUC not holding public comment or providing more information about its scoring criteria.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., several Senate Democrats and the Writers Guild of America are questioning whether CBS’ Thursday announcement that it’s canceling The Late Show, hosted by Stephen Colbert, stemmed from Trump administration pressure related to the federal review of Skydance’s $8 billion purchase of network owner Paramount Global. That company recently reached a $16 million settlement in President Donald Trump's lawsuit over CBS’ editing of a 60 Minutes interview last October with former Vice President Kamala Harris. Some attorneys see that settlement as aimed at easing the path to FCC approval of Skydance's deal, but Paramount has denied those claims (see 2507020053).
An FCC draft order on the July 24 open meeting agenda that would give the bureaus authority to delete FCC rules without seeking notice and comment is drawing warnings from public interest groups, but communications industry officials told us they aren’t concerned. The agency has also recently skipped notice and comment while shifting the language of existing rules.
Representatives of public interest and tribal groups met with an aide to FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty to ask that the FCC change course and create a tribal window prior to the AWS-3 reauction (see 2507140042). Commissioners are to vote July 24 on auction rules (see 2507030049). Attending the meeting were representatives of Public Knowledge, X-Lab, the Navajo Nation and the Southern California Tribal Chairmen’s Association.
The News Media Alliance is looking to state laws, legal action and licensing deals to protect its news publication members from AI exploitation and tech company competition, said NMA President Danielle Coffey at a Media Institute luncheon Wednesday. “We are in the business of news. But no matter how important that news is, it's unsustainable if the business side is struggling, and right now, business is being impacted by difficulties in monetizing our content,” she said.
Communications Daily is tracking the lawsuits below involving appeals of FCC actions.
Charter Communications says growing incidences of deliberate damage to its network in Missouri constitute domestic terrorism. It said Monday it has seen 148 outages in the state so far this year due to attacks on its network -- a 200% year-over-year increase. Charter said 28 states, including Missouri, have passed legislation making attacks on critical communications infrastructure a felony offense, with 11 this year. The cable ISP also labeled June network damage in California domestic terrorism (see 2507010014).
AT&T called on California lawmakers Tuesday to grant it and other carriers relief from carrier of last resort (COLR) obligations. A state bill, AB-470, is "only focused on COLR relief in those well-served areas or areas with no population," said Terri Nikole Baca, AT&T vice president of legislative affairs, during a California Senate, Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee hearing. The "idea of a COLR obligation is outdated," she argued. Meanwhile, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and The Utility Reform Network (TURN) urged the committee to maintain its nearly 30-year-old rules.
Several industry groups urged the California Public Utilities Commission to abandon a proposal to assess telecom user fees based on access lines. In reply comments posted Wednesday (docket 21-03-002), CTIA said access-line-based assessment has "resulted in inequitable distribution of the surcharge burden, placing an undue share of the burden on wireless consumers and increasing the burden on residential and low-income users." Verizon agreed, saying the commission should instead assess the "reasonableness of the current per-line surcharge mechanism in this phase of the proceeding." The user fee, or public purpose program surcharge, is "operating effectively" as is and doesn't need further modifications, said the California Broadband & Video Association. AT&T suggested the commission "defer consideration of the modification of the user fee funding mechanism until the legislature authorizes" it to make changes.
Communications Daily is tracking the lawsuits below involving appeals of FCC actions. New cases are marked with a *.