A draft FCC Further NPRM to seek comment on resolving pole attachment and replacement disputes would expedite the broadband deployment to come through programs funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, industry experts told us. Commissioners will consider the draft during the agency's March 16 meeting, which would seek comment on several concerns raised in a 2020 NCTA petition and costs associated with pole replacements or attachments (see 2007170023).

ACA Connects, the Competitive Carriers Association and six other communications groups urged the House and Senate Appropriations committees Thursday to give the FCC additional funding for its program to reimburse U.S. carriers for removing Huawei and ZTE equipment from their networks under the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act. Congress allocated $1.9 billion to the program via the FY 2021 Appropriations and COVID-19 aid omnibus law (see 2012210055), but carriers’ reimbursement requests totaled almost $5.6 billion by early February, the groups wrote House and Senate Appropriations leaders. “Barring further resources, the FCC will be forced to implement prorating available funding using the prioritization process directed by Congress,” the groups said. “Due to the significant amount of shortfall from current appropriations, prorating funding without additional resources threatens to significantly limit” the FCC program’s ability “to complete its mission. Service providers, which have already expended or committed significant resources under the assurance that reimbursements would be available, could be left unable to complete the removal and replacement of covered equipment and services, or be forced to shutter their business entirely, threatening the availability and security of advanced communications across the country, particularly in rural America.” Delays “in providing additional resources could have a chilling effect on accomplishing the goals directed by Congress to secure our nation’s communications networks,” the groups said.

A draft FCC notice of inquiry seeking comment on how to combat digital discrimination could shed light on the issue's severity, given the limited information currently available, public interest organizations told us. Commissioners will consider the item during its March 16 meeting (see 2202220069). Some advocates disagree how the FCC should define the term and say ISPs may push back on claims they may be engaging in digital discrimination.

State regulation of interstate broadband rates is unlawful, said ISP groups in a Wednesday brief at the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in case 21-1975. The court should affirm a lower court’s rejection of New York’s law requiring $15 monthly plans (see 2107230044), said CTIA, NTCA, USTelecom, ACA Connects, the Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association and the New York State Telecommunications Association. New York’s law conflicts with the FCC’s 2018 net neutrality order and “intrudes on an exclusively federal field,” said the industry groups: Multiple federal programs and voluntary industry services give New Yorkers many affordable broadband options.

The FCC doesn’t have the authority to require easy access to closed captioning display settings and doesn’t need to, said NCTA, ACA Connects and CTA in comments posted Friday in docket 12-108 in response to the Media Bureau’s call for a refreshed record (see 2201100052). A host of consumer groups disagreed, according to a joint filing from groups including Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, the Helen Keller National Center, the National Association of the Deaf and the American Association of the DeafBlind. The problems highlighted in the FCC’s previous caption display settings round of comments have gotten worse, the groups said. “Apparatus and navigation devices still implement caption display settings through obscure, hard-to-find, hard-to-use, and inconsistent interfaces.” NCTA’s members already “have devoted significant resources to ensuring that the captioning features they provide are straightforward and simple to use,” NCTA said. The consumer tech industry “continues to innovate in user interface design” and “such advances demonstrate that the proposed mandate is unnecessary,” said CTA. The 1990 Television Decoder Circuitry Act “does not authorize the Commission to adopt rules regulating the provision of ‘ready access’ to closed captioning display settings by MVPDs,” said ACA Connects. Enabling viewers to easily access caption display settings is “required by the letter and spirit” of the Television Decoder Circuitry Act “as originally drafted” and consistent with other captioning rules, the consumer groups said. If the agency adopts a display setting requirement, it should include a “reasonable” compliance period and “narrowly tailored exemptions,” said CTA.

Commenters on the Universal Service Fund generally agreed its funding system is unsustainable and in need of changes but disagreed on the solution, in comments posted Friday in docket 21-476 (see 2112220051) as the FCC prepares its report to Congress on the future of USF.

ISP associations challenging California’s net neutrality law will seek rehearing en banc at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said a Thursday stipulation by California and ACA Connects, CTIA, NCTA and USTelecom at the U.S. District Court for Eastern California. The parties agreed discovery at the lower court (case 2:18-cv-02684) should be stayed until the 9th Circuit rules on the rehearing petition. The appeals court last month upheld California’s law (see 2201280035).

State and local governments sought close coordination as billions of broadband dollars come from the federal infrastructure law, in comments we received. Comments were due Friday on NTIA’s request for comments on implementing broadband programs in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). Industry groups sought NTIA assurance the broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) and middle mile programs would be technologically neutral. Advocacy groups wanted maximum stakeholder participation and a focus on equitable deployment.

Cable operators have instituted the transparency requirements mandated in the Television Viewer Protection Act "in the way that best suits their customers and existing sales and billing systems," NCTA said Friday in FCC docket 21-501. Comments on TVPA implementation by MVPDs were due Thursday (see 2112200057). NCTA said some cablers "go beyond the [truth-in-billing] requirements" in providing similar information for all their services. It said TVPA implementation in some cases required development, lab testing, field testing, and rollout of new billing and other software that could pull required disclosure data from various sources. ACA Connects said TVPA's retransmission consent “buying group” provisions "have largely served their limited purpose" because small MVPDs were able to facilitate deals in the past year between the National Cable Television Cooperative and large broadcasters. ACA said the retrans market "remains broken" and cited FCC data showing small MVPDs pay substantially more per subscriber than large operators, with that disparity widening. It said the buying group terms meant smaller transaction costs for broadcasters and MVPDs and likely meant lower prices for very small cable systems, but that didn't and couldn't narrow the gap between what big and small MVPDs pay.

California’s net neutrality law survived an appeal by ISP associations at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The panel’s Friday opinion that the FCC can’t preempt states after giving up its own broadband authority could affect ISP challenges of Vermont net neutrality and New York state affordable broadband laws, said legal experts.