Impact on telecommunications from the Los Angeles County wildfires are “minimal so far,” but the FCC will continue monitoring the situation, said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in a statement Thursday. If the fires begin affecting “residents’ ability to receive the information they need to stay safe” the FCC “stands ready to support in any way it can,” Rosenworcel said. That could include requests to deploy FCC staff to help with communications network recovery, she said. “Our hearts remain with everyone impacted by the wildfires ravaging Los Angeles County and the first responders answering the call during this time of emergency.”
With the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling overturning the FCC’s latest order (see 2501020047), the U.S. has likely seen the last gasps of net neutrality, Free State Foundation President Randolph May said in the Yale Journal on Regulation. “Because of Loper Bright’s burial of Chevron deference, there’s a good chance that the ‘net neutrality’ saga, finally, may be over, at least in the courts,” May wrote. “With the impending change in the FCC’s makeup, there’s virtually no chance the agency will seek reconsideration or appeal to the Supreme Court,” he added. Other parties in the litigation “favoring regulating ISPs like public utilities could pursue those avenues, but it’s unlikely they will want to risk a Supreme Court decision affirming the Sixth Circuit decision.” Congress, not the FCC, is “the appropriate forum for the debate regarding adoption of a proper policy framework for broadband providers.” Daniel Lyons, a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, also praised the 6th Circuit decision. “The court eschewed the easier path of ruling under the Major Questions Doctrine and instead tackled the complex and often contradictory language of the Communications Act,” Lyons wrote in a Thursday blog post. He saw the decision as a win for industry and innovation. The FCC can no longer “impose a one-size-fits-all business model on broadband providers, allowing them to explore innovations like 5G network slicing without fearing regulatory backlash,” he said: ISPs “are no longer at risk of rate regulation and other regulatory requirements that come with Title II classification, a category originally designed to discipline the telephone system.”
The NAB’s ATSC 3.0 task force, The Future of TV Initiative (see 2408300030), is expected to produce a final report “soon” members said, but broadcasters told us much of the impetus behind the effort has faded due to the coming leadership change at the FCC. Commissioner Brendan Carr, the agency's chairman-designate, is seen as more favorable to the 3.0 transition, broadcasters said. The task force first met in June 2023, and members said it would issue a final report in fall 2024. “It is a daunting effort to put that report together in a way that everyone can sign off on the language,” said Robert Folliard, a task force member and Gray Media senior vice president-government relations and distribution. “We expect the report to come out very soon,” an NAB spokesperson said.
The FCC in a U.S. Supreme Court filing defended the USF in general, and the contribution factor more specifically, as the justices prepared to hear what could be the most consequential FCC case in years (see 2412100060). SCOTUS agreed in November to review the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' 9-7 en banc decision, which sided with Consumers' Research and found that the USF contribution factor is a "misbegotten tax.”
Former FCC Adviser Evan Swarztrauber launches telecom public affairs firm CorePoint Strategies ... The Nebraska Public Service Commission elects Tim Schram chair and Kevin Stocker vice-chair for 2025 ... Montana Public Service Commission elects Brad Molnar president and Jennifer Fielder vice-president ... E.W. Scripps promotes Lyn Plantinga to senior vice president-local media.
The FCC Space Bureau has rejected Sateliot's application to provide a satellite-based IoT service in the 2 GHz mobile satellite service band (see 2406060057). In an order Wednesday, the bureau dismissed Sateliot's U.S. market access petition, saying the 2 GHz bands aren't available for additional MSS applications. The agency similarly has denied SpaceX use of the band for direct-to-device operations (see 2403270002).
As it reviews SpaceX's requested modification for its second-generation satellites, including the company's authorization request for 22,488 pending satellites (see 2410150002), the FCC Space Bureau is seeking clarification on spectrum and orbital altitude issues. In a letter dated Tuesday, the commission asked SpaceX to elaborate on additional frequency needed for the 7,500 previously-authorized satellites. It also asked whether any of its second-generation satellites would operate at 525-535 km or if they would all be in orbital shells of 475-485 km. Moreover, it asked whether the company could comply with existing ITU equivalent power flux density limits with the proposed upgrades to its system. And it asked that SpaceX provide its calculations of interference levels into geostationary orbit operations for the authorized 7,500 satellites and the 29,988-satellite system. It asked for answers to its questions by Feb. 7.
The full FCC has voted 4-1 to propose a $369,190 penalty for a broadcaster that used outdated emergency alert system messages recorded from the internet rather than actual EAS tones in multiple nationwide tests and submitted false information to the FCC, said a notice of apparent liability in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. Commissioner Nathan Simington dissented from the NAL against Corridor Television, as he promised to do for votes involving monetary penalties in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s SEC v. Jarkesy decision (see 2409060054). Corridor’s TV station, KCWX Fredericksburg, Texas, didn’t transmit correct audio and other information in the 2018, 2019 and 2021 nationwide EAS tests, according to the NAL. The matter was brought to the FCC’s attention by a complaint, and Corridor “admitted that in 2018, it created EAS segments relying on a previous year’s test, and that in 2019 and 2021, it downloaded EAS headers, test script audio, crawls, and activation codes from the Internet to create its own test segment,” it added. Corridor blamed the error on its small staff, its inexperience and lack of knowledge about operating the station’s EAS equipment. Corridor “claimed that it made a ‘good faith effort’ to comply with its EAS obligations and thought it had done so,” the NAL said. “Corridor’s noncompliance over multiple years based on its staff’s claimed ignorance of the law shows minimal effort on the Station’s part and hardly constitutes a ‘good faith effort.’” Corridor didn’t file a 2018 emergency test system report and submitted false information on other nationwide test reporting filings certifying compliance with FCC EAS rules, the NAL said. Corridor’s “inaccurate reporting of its participation and performance during the 2018, 2019, and 2021 Nationwide Tests of the EAS undermined the Commission’s ‘ability to collect, process and evaluate data about EAS alerting pathways’” and “detracted” from the FCC’s public safety goals. The agency’s calculation of Corridor’s proposed forfeiture includes a 100% upward adjustment to reflect “particularly egregious conduct” involving emergency messaging and a $61,238 penalty for Corridor’s five incorrect test reporting filings.
FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington on Wednesday lauded an ATSC 3.0 datacasting joint venture from the country’s largest broadcasters. Gray Media, Nexstar, E.W. Scripps and Sinclair Broadcast on Tuesday announced the creation of Edgebeam Wireless (see 2501070079). “One-to-many over-the-air data distribution is several orders of magnitude more efficient than one-to-one transmission,” Simington said in an emailed statement. “From over-the-air firmware updates to pre-cached content, ATSC 3.0 holds the promise of playing an important role in any future mix of data delivery. And now, with a nationwide footprint, broadcasters are poised to deliver on that promise.”
The FCC tightened filing requirements for the Robocall Mitigation Database “to better ensure widespread compliance and heightened awareness of provider responsibilities to protect consumers,” said a news release and order Wednesday. “We are tightening our rules to ensure voice service providers know their responsibilities and help stop junk robocalls,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. The database’s “continued effectiveness relies on information submitted by providers being complete, accurate, and up to date,” the order said. “Yet a review of filings in the Database indicates a lack of thoroughness and diligence by some providers and, in some cases, malfeasance by bad actors.” The new rules include a $100 filing fee, requirements that providers promptly update the database with changes, higher forfeitures for false or inaccurate information, an annual recertification requirement, and a two-factor authentication process for logging into the database. Incompas, NCTA and others had objected to the filing fees and higher penalties for inaccurate submissions (see 2410160037). “Through these actions, we strengthen the Robocall Mitigation Database as a compliance and consumer protection tool,” the order said. In addition, it directs the Wireline Bureau to “establish a dedicated reporting mechanism to facilitate shared oversight of the database among all stakeholders” and issue additional guidance and best practices for companies that use it.