CTA urged President-elect Donald Trump's administration to move with care on proposals for imposing higher tariffs on imports, warning they could result in sharp declines in the purchases of smartphones and other devices. With CES beginning in Las Vegas, CTA also projected retail revenue in the consumer tech industry of $537 billion this year, up 3.2% over 2024.
The FCC commissioners' unanimously adopting a retransmission consent blackout reporting requirement for multichannel video programming distributors (MVPD) likely doesn't mean the agency will also mandate rebates for subscribers due to those blackouts anytime soon, pay-TV and broadcast experts tell us. The blackout reporting order was released Friday. The FCC is unlikely to push rebates during the last days of outgoing Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's administration and incoming Chairman Brendan Carr is unlikely to consider rebates, some pay-TV watchers say. Neither Rosenworcel's nor Carr's offices commented Monday.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit should consider the 6th Circuit’s recent ruling against the FCC’s net neutrality rules as it weighs Radio Communications Corporation’s legal challenge against the agency’s implementation of the Low Power Protection Act (see (2411180040), RCC said in a letter filed in docket 24-1004 Thursday. The ruling, in Ohio Telecom v. FCC, said that the agency can’t alter a statutory definition by adding to it when trying to determine what the best reading is, RCC said. The FCC “altered the LPPA, which on its face protects Low Power Licensees, to protect full-power licensees who are not even referenced in the statute,” said RCC. The low-power broadcaster has argued that the FCC’s implementation of the LPPA protects full-power stations by limiting upgrades to Class A status to a narrow selection of low-power TV stations in small markets. The limits on market size in the FCC’s rules directly mirror the language of the LPPA, the agency has said. A previous attempt by RCC to add to the record in the case after oral argument led to dueling letters between the broadcaster and the FCC and a motion to strike (see 2411250053).
The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau on Friday approved the applications of Applied Development and Sorenson for access to the telecommunications relay services numbering directory as qualified direct video entities. The agency allows TRS direct video providers to seek access to the directory “to enable more effective direct video communication using American Sign Language between consumers with hearing or speech disabilities and customer support call centers,” said the notice about Sorenson. Qualified providers must demonstrate “a legitimate need for such access and an awareness of its regulatory obligations,” it added: “These obligations include compliance with the rules and regulations governing [video relay services] providers’ access to and use of the Directory, the instructions of the TRS Numbering administrator, and the applicable standards pertaining to privacy, security, reliability, and interoperability.” The Applied Development notice has the same language.
Parts of the FCC’s website appeared down Friday. Throughout much of the day, attempts to access the Daily Digest yielded the messages: “FCC Website Error" and "An unexpected error occurred with your request. Please check back later.” An agency spokesperson didn’t comment.
Two law professors told the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday it should reverse the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' 9-7 en banc decision, which found the USF contribution factor is a "misbegotten tax.” SCOTUS has agreed to hear the case, FCC v. Consumers’ Research, which potentially has broad implications, experts say (see 2412100060). Look no further than a 1938 brief by then-Solicitor General Robert Jackson, urged Gerard Magliocca, professor at the Indiana University Law School, and John Barrett, professor of law at St. John’s University, in an amicus brief Friday. They wrote that Jackson, later appointed to SCOTUS, “proposed an elegant solution to the issue now before the Court" when he argued in Currin v. Wallace that "the non-delegation doctrine applies only when Congress delegates power to the President" and "that congressional delegations to federal agencies, independent boards, and private actors are not subject to" the doctrine. Acknowledging that SCOTUS decided Currin without addressing Jackson's theory, they said the court should read his "thoughtful brief" and reverse the 5th Circuit.
Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., slammed the ruling of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (see 2501020047) vacating the FCC’s April net neutrality order. In a statement released Thursday, the lawmakers said, “Without net neutrality, consumers, small businesses, and innovators alike will face increased costs, reduced choice, and less competition. It is a lose-lose-lose.” They added, “This ruling upends the fundamental principle that internet service providers should not act as gatekeepers, favoring certain users, content, or services over others." Markey and Wyden said the decision also shows why the U.S. Supreme Court was wrong when it overturned the Chevron doctrine. The opinion “makes basic errors about communications technologies, neatly illustrating why expert regulators, not judges, are best positioned to make complex public policy decisions.” Andrew Schwartzman, senior counsel at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, in an email wrote that the opinion “misreads” the 1996 Telecom Act “in finding that broadband internet service is not subject to the regulatory requirements of Title II of the Communications Act.” Among other concerns, “that deprives the FCC of the power to protect national security, insure that competitive broadband suppliers can have access to necessary distribution outlets and endangers wireless access programs for low-income consumers.” The “good news” was in the judges didn’t do, Schwartzman said. The three-judge panel “gave a narrow reading to the impact of the recent Supreme Court’s Loper Bright decision overruling the Chevron doctrine,” he said. The court also didn’t “rely on the carriers’ ‘major question doctrine’ arguments, so that the FCC will retain the power to regulate various aspects of broadband service without future Congressional action.” But Seth Cooper, Free State Foundation director-communications policy studies, said the court offered a “straightforward reading” of the Communications Act. The opinion was “refreshing because it shows how traditional tools of statutory interpretation can be used to resolve even seemingly technical questions like the regulatory classification of broadband,” Cooper emailed: “It’s the type of decision that eluded us so long as lower courts were subject to the ‘Chevron doctrine’ and effectively required to rationalize even far-fetched agency interpretations or re-interpretations of supposed ambiguous statutory provisions.”
Petitions denying Skydance Media's proposed $8 billion purchase of Paramount Global lack standing, call for conditions that would violate the First Amendment, and also raise concerns that are outside FCC jurisdiction, said Paramount and Skydance in an opposition filing posted Thursday in docket 24-275.
NTIA’s Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee may have fallen by the wayside, with many questions about its future unanswered heading into the second Donald Trump presidency. Several CSMAC members told us they reapplied for membership but have heard little in response.
Federated Wireless representatives offered their take on proposed changes to citizens broadband radio service rules during a meeting with an aide to FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez (see 2408160031). They expressed “support for codification of the processes that are being used to manage CBRS spectrum access, greater harmonization of the CBRS rules with adjacent bands, and strengthening of the rules regarding coexistence management,” said a filing this week in docket 17-258. The changes “will preserve the core principles of spectrum sharing, encourage continued investment, and ensure that CBRS remains a flexible, forward-looking platform for wireless innovation,” Federated said.