Municipal interests are on one side, telecom interests largely on the other, over a Mediacom petition seeking FCC preemption of a deal between Google Fiber and West Des Moines, Iowa, on constructing a conduit network to provide broadband in unserved parts of town, per comments last week in docket 21-217.

The Court of International Trade does in fact have jurisdiction to hear a case over denied attorney access to confidential information in a safeguard proceeding at the International Trade Commission, counsel for LG Electronics told the court in an Oct. 6 reply brief. The denial of access to the proceeding constitutes a final agency action, making the denial eligible for judicial review, the brief said (LG Electronics USA, Inc., et al. v. United States, CIT 21-00520).

Republicans are unlikely at this point to actively aid or diminish the chances of a possible 2-1 GOP-dominated FCC (see 2110080046), with acting Chairman Geoffrey Starks at the helm, come January, Senate Majority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., said in an interview. Such a scenario appears to be a growing possibility given the evenly divided Senate and a White House that hasn’t nominated anyone to the FCC almost nine months into Joe Biden's presidency. Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel’s term expired in June 2020, meaning she would have to leave Jan. 3 absent Senate reconfirmation.

FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has been “very aggressive” working with other countries to reach agreements on robocall enforcement, and the Enforcement Bureau is paying more attention to accessibility issues, a virtual FCBA CLE heard Wednesday. Such agreements “come up routinely,” when the agency meets with foreign regulators, said her aide David Strickland. “A lot of these robocalls are coming from overseas.”

The Court of International Trade allowed a company accused of transshipping aluminum extrusions from China in an Enforce and Protect Act investigation to participate in a case over the evasion finding, in an Oct. 7 order. Having previously ruled that the alleged transshipper, Kingtom Aluminio, could not intervene in the case for lack of a legally protectable interest in the case, Judge Richard Eaton ruled that Kingtom's contractual arrangements provide an interest in the transaction at issue that has a direct relationship to the litigation and the existing parties don't adequately represent Kingtom's interests.

The 3.45 GHz auction opened Tuesday with $672.4 million in gross bids after the first two rounds. That compares with $1.9 billion in bids in the C-band auction after the initial day in December (see 2012080040). The bidding after the first round “suggests all four national carriers are bidding for 40MHz in the auction, meaning the auction is on the right track to close,” New Street’s Philip Burnett told investors. Three rounds are scheduled for Wednesday. The auction has to raise almost $14.8 billion to close and cover the expected sharing and relocation costs for federal users. “We are moving with record speed and collaboration to free up more mid-band spectrum for 5G,” said FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, announcing the start of the auction.

A petition challenging the FCC USF Q4 contribution factor is likely to fail on procedural grounds but may be part of a bigger challenge to dismantle USF entirely, legal experts said in recent interviews (see 2110010062). Some said it may be an effort to force a reevaluation of the nondelegation doctrine that prohibits Congress from delegating legislative powers to executive branch agencies.

Companies claiming they’re protecting student safety might be surveilling them inappropriately instead, three Democratic senators wrote Monday. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, both of Massachusetts, and Richard Blumenthal, Conn., wrote to the owners of Gaggle, Bark Technologies, GoGuardian and Securly about their use of AI "and algorithmic systems to monitor students’ online activity.” They raised concerns the companies’ monitoring practices violate federal law, compound “racial disparities in school discipline” and drain “resources from more effective student supports.” GoGuardian said in a statement it received the letter and is looking forward to responding. It said it’s a “proud signatory of the Student Privacy Pledge, certified as [Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act]-compliant by the Internet Keep Safe Coalition, and trusted by schools and districts across the U.S. to help protect their students.” Gaggle said it "takes privacy and student safety seriously; the company has a robust privacy policy that strictly limits students’ personally identifiable information (PII) to students’ names and school districts (in other words, Gaggle does not collect any data related to students’ race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation) and layers its artificial intelligence with a team of trained content reviewers to analyze context and help prevent false flags." The other companies didn’t comment.

Companies claiming they’re protecting student safety might be surveilling them inappropriately instead, three Democratic senators wrote Monday. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, both of Massachusetts, and Richard Blumenthal, Conn., wrote to the owners of Gaggle, Bark Technologies, GoGuardian and Securly about their use of AI "and algorithmic systems to monitor students’ online activity.” They raised concerns the companies’ monitoring practices violate federal law, compound “racial disparities in school discipline” and drain “resources from more effective student supports.” GoGuardian said in a statement it received the letter and is looking forward to responding. It said it’s a “proud signatory of the Student Privacy Pledge, certified as [Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act]-compliant by the Internet Keep Safe Coalition, and trusted by schools and districts across the U.S. to help protect their students.” Gaggle said it "takes privacy and student safety seriously; the company has a robust privacy policy that strictly limits students’ personally identifiable information (PII) to students’ names and school districts (in other words, Gaggle does not collect any data related to students’ race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation) and layers its artificial intelligence with a team of trained content reviewers to analyze context and help prevent false flags." The other companies didn’t comment.

Holding China accountable for its commitments under the January 2020 phase one trade deal (see 2001160022) will be the “starting point” of “realigning” U.S. trade policies toward China, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai told a Center for Strategic and International Studies conference Monday. “We will discuss with China its performance” under the phase one deal, she said. Her prepared remarks and the Q&A that followed were peppered with strong talk toward Beijing.