Public interest groups, MVPD groups and low-power TV broadcasters opposed to NAB’s petition for a mandatory ATSC 3.0 transition are “protecting their turf” rather than the public interest, said NAB Chief Legal Officer Rick Kaplan in a blog post Monday. Kaplan was responding to a June ex parte filing from the Consumer Technology Association, NCTA, ACA Connects, Public Knowledge, the Advanced Television Alliance and the LPTV Broadcasters Association, which said NAB’s request goes against both the public interest and the Trump administration’s push for deregulation (see 2505090060).

California broadband advocates and industry clashed over how the state should treat fixed wireless and other non-fiber technologies in its BEAD plan, as the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) races to finalize a revised proposal by Sept. 4. In reply comments posted Wednesday (docket 23-02-016), commenters disagreed on whether fixed wireless can serve as a viable long-term solution for bridging the digital divide.

Now with a Republican majority, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr on Wednesday laid out policy priorities that range from accelerating and easing broadband infrastructure deployment to tackling blue-collar workforce issues.

The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday it would hear Cox Communications' challenge of a 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision regarding willful contributor copyright infringement. Cox filed a cert petition in August (docket 24-171) over the 4th Circuit upholding a lower court's copyright infringement finding against Cox for the piracy of some of its internet subscribers (see 2408160034). Cox argued there was now a circuit court split over willfulness standards in secondary-infringement cases. The cert petition had been challenged by music label plaintiffs in the original litigation (see 2410160045).

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the FCC’s USF contribution scheme in a 6-3 opinion Friday in Consumers’ Research v. FCC, but dissenting and concurring opinions from several conservative justices appeared to invite future challenges, attorneys told us.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said Thursday that he's “open-minded” about the result of the agency’s proceeding on modifying the national broadcast-ownership cap (see 2506180082), while Commissioner Anna Gomez denounced it as “a sweeping effort to tip the scales even further in favor of a handful of powerful corporations.” Gomez said she knows broadcasters are facing economic pressures and the FCC may need to provide relief, “but this is where we need a scalpel, not a chain saw.” Broadcast officials told us that keeping the ownership cap in place only for network-owned stations -- as the public notice suggests -- could make the rule change more vulnerable in court.

NTIA released Friday its long-awaited plan for awarding $42.45 billion in BEAD program money, reversing much of what the Biden administration developed in the initial rules. Delaware, Louisiana and Nevada, which have completed state plans, will have to relaunch the process. Fiber will no longer get priority under the plan. NTIA called the guidance a “BEAD Restructuring Policy Notice,” rather than a new notice of funding opportunity.

The FCC on Thursday posted the three items set for votes at the commission’s June 26 meeting, all of which are aimed at cutting regulations. It will consider cutting cable TV rules and an engineering requirement tied to the agency’s broadband data collection, as well as addressing text telephone-based telecom relay service rules.

Thursday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision limiting the scope of environmental reviews could ease permitting for infrastructure projects, including broadband buildout, said advocacy groups and policy analysts.

Rate regulation would harm competition in the broadband marketplace and undermine efforts to close the digital divide, said ACA Connects in a new study released Thursday. The study, conducted in partnership with Cartesian, found four "cascading" effects of rate regulation: less investment, less competition, a slowdown in pricing declines and harm spillover.