The FCC Enforcement Bureau on Thursday handed down a $100,000 fine against Pacific Data Systems for allegedly failing to file telecommunications reporting worksheets with the Universal Service Administrative Co. The bureau noted that it proposed the fine in 2023 and the company sought a reduction or cancelation “on the grounds that it experienced personnel issues that were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in a two-and-a-half year period of noncompliance that has since been corrected.” After reviewing the record, the bureau said, “We find no reason to cancel, withdraw, or reduce the proposed penalty, and we therefore affirm the proposed $100,000 forfeiture penalty and reject Pacific’s request to cancel or reduce the forfeiture.” Based in Guam, the company provides local exchange services. The bureau said it failed to file 13 worksheets required by the commission’s rules from Aug. 1, 2019, to Feb. 1, 2022, “despite several reminders from USAC.”
More broadband providers are notifying the FCC that they won't meet their third-year rural development opportunity fund (RDOF) buildout milestones (see 2501150071). Conexon Connect said Thursday it exceeded the 40% milestone in Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi and Missouri as of the end of 2024 but fell short in Arizona, Illinois and Louisiana (docket 19-126). It said it "intends to fully satisfy its RDOF obligations in each of the ten states in which it receives RDOF support." Texas' AW Broadband told the FCC it won't meet its first interim buildout milestone in Texas. It said while it deployed 36% of its RDOF locations as of year's end, it expects to meet the 40% milestone before the end of Q2, and the 60% milestone before year's end. Kentucky's Foothills Connect said it was short of the milestone in that state, and Alabama's Point Broadband Fiber said the same about work in Alabama and Michigan. West Kentucky Rural Telephone Cooperative said it missed its RDOF milestone in Illinois. Cox said it had positive news, exceeding its third-year buildout obligations in six states where it received RDOF awards; however, it's falling short in Louisiana, where it's at 28%, Nebraska (33%) and Arizona (38%). Cox said it's "working to address these shortfalls before the next milestone." Charter Communications, which has asked to return some RDOF census block groups in North Carolina, citing its inability to get tribal consent to build on or across tribal lands, on Thursday added a broadband serviceable location to that list. Charter said it wasn't defaulting on it and the other North Carolina locations but asking that the FCC waive its RDOF rules to remove the locations from its RDOF buildout requirements.
House China Committee Chairman John Moolenaar, R-Mich., urged that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. review Skydance Media's proposed $8 billion purchase of Paramount Global because of Tencent’s investment in Skydance. The Center for American Rights argued earlier this week that Tencent’s status as part of DOD’s list of Chinese military companies operating in the U.S. warrants an FCC probe of Skydance/Paramount (see 2501140048). “We’ve heard from multiple Hollywood executives about rampant self-censorship designed to curry favor with the Chinese Communist Party,” Moolenaar said in a statement Wednesday night. DOD’s recent classification of “Tencent as a Chinese military company” means “CFIUS should closely scrutinize the proposed merger to ensure the Chinese Communist Party is not further solidifying its hold on the American entertainment industry.” Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., in a separate statement, said the “potential for a [People's Republic of China] national champion like Tencent to hold a significant financial stake in a major US content conglomerate raises serious concerns and should absolutely prompt CFIUS scrutiny.”
The FCC on Thursday unveiled its selection of the initial 707 participants for the FCC’s cybersecurity pilot program, including 645 schools and districts, 50 libraries and 12 consortia. The program's future is unclear. Commissioners approved its launch 3-2 in June, with Republican Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington dissenting (see 2406060043). Both questioned whether the FCC had the authority to act. The FCC said Thursday, “Participants in the three-year pilot program will receive support to defray the costs of eligible cybersecurity services and equipment and provide the Commission with data to better understand whether and how universal service funds could be used to improve school and library defenses against increasing cyberattacks.” All 50 states, in addition to Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, and several Tribal lands, "are reflected by the Pilot participants announced today," the FCC said. Illinois had the largest number of winners at 76, 12 more than California, which was second.
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, plans to file a Congressional Review Act resolution next week to undo a July 2024 FCC order that lets schools and libraries use E-rate support for off-premises Wi-Fi hot spots and wireless internet services (see 2407180024), a Cruz spokesperson said Thursday. The E-rate CRA and two unrelated “measures are forthcoming,” the spokesperson added. Cruz has repeatedly opposed proposals expanding E-rate’s scope to pay for off-campus hot spots (see 2307310063). The 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals tossed Maurine and Matthew Molak's challenge to the July order (see 2409260046) but is still reviewing another case the couple brought against the FCC’s 2023 declaratory ruling (docket 23-60641) clarifying that Wi-Fi on school buses is an educational purpose eligible for E-rate funding. Lobbyists said Cruz’s E-rate CRA resolution may not be congressional Republicans’ only bid to undo an FCC rule enacted during the administration of outgoing Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said during a Tuesday American Petroleum Institute event that he and other Republicans “are scrubbing right now to determine what is eligible” for CRA action.
With the FCC considering an NPRM and notice of inquiry as the agency's next steps on AI, the issue of AI and robocalls will only grow in importance, experts said Thursday during an FCBA webinar. They also agreed that generative AI could yield new tools that can help curb unwanted and illegal texts and calls.
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr slammed the FCC’s forthcoming enforcement action in response to the Salt Typhoon cyberattacks, which China's Ministry of State Security allegedly perpetrated. Industry officials note that the disagreement between Carr, who takes the FCC's helm next week, and departing Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel points in part to a long-standing divide between FCC Republicans and Democrats about the agency's role in cybersecurity.
The demand for broadband infrastructure deployment job applicants and the supply of people trained in those fiber installation and construction fields are misaligned to a concerning degree, industry and educational experts warn. Some fear that companies will post many job openings at once, as BEAD money starts flowing to subgrantees, Lindsey Ekstrand, Youngstown (Ohio) State University director-workforce education programs, said. "No one is going to be ready for that," she warned during a Wireless Infrastructure Association event Thursday.
President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday he plans to nominate Senate Armed Services Committee Republican staffer Olivia Trusty to the FCC seat that current Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel will vacate Jan. 20. Multiple former FCC officials and communications sector lobbyists told us they expected Trump would also announce as soon as Thursday that Senate Commerce Committee Republican Telecom Policy Director Arielle Roth is his pick for NTIA administrator. A range of ex-FCC officials and other observers previously named Trusty and Roth as top contenders for the Rosenworcel seat, although some believed Roth’s ties to Senate Commerce Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, made her a slight front-runner (see 2412110046).
The FCC’s bureau-level rejections of four content-based legal challenges against network-owned TV stations Thursday could complicate future agency moves against broadcasters over their reporting but won’t prevent it, attorneys and free speech advocates told us. When he becomes chair next week, Commissioner Brendan Carr could quickly reverse the Media Bureau and Enforcement Bureau decisions rejecting challenges against ABC-, Fox-, NBC- and CBS- owned stations. However, doing so could require the agency to defend upending decades of precedent, broadcaster and public interest attorneys told us. The decisions “draw a bright line at a moment when clarity about government interference with the free press is needed more than ever,” said Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in a release Thursday. “The FCC should not be the President’s speech police.”