A YouTube video by ComplaintBox attacked Crash Proof Retirement by falsely stating that the plaintiff “exists to exploit seniors,” said a complaint Nov. 17 (docket 2:23-cv-04546) in U.S. District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania in Philadelphia brought by Crash Proof and parent company Retirement Media Inc. (RMI).

Smith Bagley Inc. (SBi), which serves tribal lands in the Four Corners region of the U.S., called for a tribal 5G Fund of at least $2.5 billion. Reply comments as the FCC considers a proposed 5G Fund (see 2310240046) were due Tuesday in docket 20-32. Other comments urged the FCC to move forward on a fund.

The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated Nov. 16-21 with the following headquarters rulings (ruling revocations and modifications will be detailed elsewhere in a separate article as they are announced in the Customs Bulletin):

Deere & Company asked that agricultural interests be taken into account as the FCC considers a 5G Fund (see 2310240046). Deere noted that the Rural Wireless Association and the Wireless Infrastucture Association mentioned agricultural land in their comments. “Deere has pioneered state-of-the-art precision agriculture technologies that provide growers with unprecedented efficiencies in managing inputs, such as seed, fertilizer, herbicides, pesticides, and water, as well as significant labor costs associated with operational delays and downtime,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 20-32: “These precision agriculture technologies are heavily dependent on the availability of mobile broadband service in fields where our customers work.”

The World Radiocommunication Conference opened in Dubai Monday, with remarks by ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin, who insisted global cooperation will benefit the many unserved and make the most of increasingly congested spectrum. The ITU said about 4,000 delegates and others are expected to attend the WRC, which runs through Dec. 15. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Anna Gomez are among those attending the start of the conference this week.

AT&T is asking U.S. Magistrate Judge Mustafa Kasubhai for Oregon to reconsider and reverse his Oct. 25 opinion and order granting summary judgment for Lane County, Oregon (see 2310260038), and that he approve AT&T’s application that the county denied to build a 150-foot cell tower on a five-acre parcel of land near Oregon’s Pacific Coast, said AT&T’s motion Friday (docket 6:22-cv-01635). In dismissing AT&T’s case, the judge held that AT&T failed to exhaust its remedies under Oregon’s administrative land use process. Despite Lane County's final action to deny the tower application, Kasubhai ruled that AT&T was required to take yet another administrative step, and appeal that local decision to Oregon’s land use board of appeals before AT&T could present a federal claim under the Telecommunications Act. But the judge’s decision “was incorrect and should be reconsidered and reversed,” said AT&T’s motion. The “plain language” of the TCA, plus a “clear reading” of Oregon statutory law, “all dictate that Lane County’s decision was the required final action for a TCA claim,” it said. AT&T’s claims “are ripe for adjudication,” it said.

The Commerce Department imposed an "onerous level of certification" on countervailing duty respondent Risen Energy Co. regarding its supposed use of China's Export Buyer's Credit Program, the Court of International Trade ruled in a Nov. 17 opinion. Judge Jane Restani said that all the factors considered together, which included the provision of non-use certificates from Risen's U.S. buyers and government intrusion into these companies' financial records regarding years-old transactions, resulted in an "unnecessary level of verification."

The FCC’s August public notice on spectrum access in tribal and native Hawaiian areas is part of the agency’s broader focus on closing the digital divide, Wireless Bureau Deputy Chief Susan Mort said during an FCC webinar Thursday. Mort said she realized timing was tight on responding to the notice, with comments due Nov. 30 (see 2308040039). “To assess current and future policy efforts in furtherance of this goal, we kind of need to know what the current lay of the land is,” she said. The FCC collects some information through its licensing forms but wants to improve its understanding of how tribes may be accessing spectrum, including through leasing or by using unlicensed or lightly licensed bands, she said. “We do not currently have specific, granular answers that help us … to better identify and/or track tribal or native applications,” she said. Once the FCC decides what categories it might be able to add to licensing forms, “then there are both legal and technical steps that we must undertake,” Mort said. Clearance is faster if the FCC adds to existing questions rather than posing completely new questions, she said. “We do have to run those traps,” she said: “We’d like to move … forward as quickly as we can." No comments were filed so far in the docket on the inquiry, 23-265. “We want to be as comprehensive as we can be without being confusing,” Mort said.

The Court of International Trade in a Nov. 17 opinion remanded parts of the Commerce Department's 2017 review of the countervailing duty order on solar cells from China. Judge Jane Restani again sent back Commerce's use of adverse facts available against respondent Risen Energy for its supposed use of China's Export Buyer's Credit Program, saying the agency imposed an "onerous level of certification" on Risen because the requirements "impede good faith efforts by respondents to comply." In addition, Restani sent back Commerce's land benchmark formula, which the agency came up with on remand, for violating the remand order's scope.

To facilitate wider adoption of school bus Wi-Fi in 2024, the FCC needs to clarify E-rate eligibility issues before year's end, Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband Coalition Executive Director John Windhausen said Wednesday during an SHLB webinar. A divided FCC last month approved a declaratory ruling 3-2 clarifying that the use of Wi-Fi on school buses is eligible for E-rate funding (see 2310190056). Comments are due Nov. 30 about the addition of services and equipment needed to use Wi-Fi service on school buses, the Wireline Bureau ordered. With the agency's declaratory ruling, legislation from Congress about bus eligibility issues is unlikely to be forthcoming, said Jeff Lopez, senior policy adviser for Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M. Lopez said past bus eligibility bills faced pushback from questions about USF's limited resources. He said the USF working group started by Lujan and others (see 2305110066) is focused on broader revisions to the program. Farmington (New Mexico) Municipal Schools Supervisor Billy Huish said its adoption of bus Wi-Fi "was kind of a no-brainer" because all students have a take-home electronic device and often face rides of 90 minutes to two hours each way. He said there aren’t gaps in connectivity coverage, though buses going to tribal lands require installation of dual wireless carriers, with coverage toggling depending on which has a stronger signal. The costs the FCC cited in the declaratory ruling -- $1,840 per bus per year -- are "pretty close to what we're paying," Huish said. The typical bus setup involves a cellular modem, which converts LTE or 5G signals into Wi-Fi, and an antenna, with the system wired into the vehicle's power supply, said Ben Weintraub, CEO of Kajeet, a school bus Wi-Fi provider.