The government's Alaska USF plan wouldn’t preserve universal service, Alaska Communications Systems (ACS) said in Tuesday comments at the Regulatory Commission of Alaska (RCA). The carrier lambasted the staff proposal to extend the AUSF sunset by two years to June 30, 2025, while reducing support (see 2210260076). The Alaska attorney general’s office sought a longer sunset, and CTIA urged the commission not to let up.

The FCC Wireline Bureau denied Primary Healthcare Centers' request for review of eight funding requests denied by the Universal Service Administrative Co. for FY 2016. In an order Monday in docket 02-60, the bureau agreed with USAC's decision that PHC "failed to comply" with the rural healthcare telecom program rules because "the rates for the funding requests were not calculated consistent with commission rules." The bureau also denied PHC's request for a waiver of telecom program rules that prevented it from receiving support.

A three-judge panel on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans questioned the procedure of Consumers’ Research’s challenge of the FCC’s method for funding the Universal Service Fund under the nondelegation doctrine, during oral argument Monday. Judges also pressed the FCC on whether Congress should be tasked with setting specific funding limitations and how the FCC reviews the quarterly contribution factor calculations made by the Universal Service Administrative Co.

The FCC Precision Ag Task Force unanimously adopted its working groups’ reports and recommendations Friday at a virtual meeting that also heard updates from the Broadband Data Task Force on how agricultural lands are accounted for in the broadband serviceable location fabric.

Chinese companies appear likely to take the FCC to court with the commissioners approving, as expected, a draft order to further clamp down on gear from Chinese companies, preventing the sale of yet-to-be authorized equipment in the U.S. The order, circulated by FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel Oct. 5, bans FCC authorization of gear from companies including Huawei, ZTE, Hytera Communications, Hikvision and Dahua Technology.

MVPD and telecom groups don’t agree with broadcasters on the practicality of revamping the FCC’s regulatory fee system, said reply comments filed in docket 22-301. NAB, a group of 57 smaller broadcasters and nearly all state broadcast associations filed replies in support of proposals from NAB and the Satellite Industry Association to rethink how the FCC parcels out the fees, but the Wireless ISP Association, NCTA and CTIA panned the idea. “The proposals of NAB and SIA are self-serving, impracticable, and would be unmanageable,” said NCTA.

Consumers’ Research's challenges to several of the FCC’s Universal Service Fund contribution factors may be an attempt to force a decision by the Supreme Court on the nondelegation doctrine, said academics and attorneys in interviews. Some said the group brought the exact same argument in multiple courts of appeals to forum shop and engineer a circuit split.

Chinese companies appear likely to take the FCC to court with the commissioners approving, as expected, a draft order to further clamp down on gear from Chinese companies, preventing the sale of yet-to-be authorized equipment in the U.S. The order, circulated by FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel Oct. 5, bans FCC authorization of gear from companies including Huawei, ZTE, Hytera Communications, Hikvision and Dahua Technology.

Industry officials and broadband experts said the FCC will likely get many challenges to its broadband availability maps and broadband serviceable location fabric (see 2211100072). Most challenges will likely come from providers rather than consumers, we’re told.

The FCC's method of funding the Universal Service Fund "violates the original understanding of the nondelegation doctrine," Consumers' Research told the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a brief posted Tuesday in case 22-13315. The group challenged the commission's USF 2022 Q4 contribution factor in October (see 2210070072). "From start to finish, every aspect of the Universal Service Fund is designed to be as obscure, unresponsive, and opaque as possible," the group said, adding the FCC's delegation of administering USF to the Universal Service Administrative Co. "severely damages separation of power." Consumers' Research argued USF programs should be funded through Congressional appropriations. "Deciding how much money to raise is quintessentially a legislative policy choice," it said, and the FCC "unconstitutionally re-delegated its authority over the Universal Service Fund to USAC."