The federal indictment of Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., won’t set back growing momentum to end 911 fee diversion, with House Communications Subcommittee Vice Chairman Leonard Lance, R-N.J., and Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., ready to keep Collins’ 911 Fee Integrity Act (HR-6424) moving, FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said in an interview. Increasing national attention by Congress and the FCC is putting pressure on states to stop using 911 funds for unrelated purposes, lawmakers and other officials told us.
Republican senators distanced themselves from far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who's the subject of widespread social media censorship and an FCC lawsuit (see 1808100025) and 1808150047). Some lawmakers said Thursday they don’t pay any attention to the InfoWars creator or were unfamiliar with his work.
The Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee could be hard pressed to wrap up a report on infrastructure and disasters by the beginning of March when its two-year charter expires, industry officials said. The FCC is soliciting members of a new BDAC working group, with nominations due Sept. 6. If the group starts meeting in October, it would have to turn around a report in five months, which would be unusually fast for a report by a Federal Advisory Committee Act committee.
White House Counsel Don McGahn phoned FCC Chairman Ajit Pai shortly after the chairman announced a hearing designation order in review of Sinclair's doomed deal to buy Tribune Media, Pai said during a Senate Commerce Committee hearing Thursday. Sinclair faces a $1 billion breach of contract lawsuit from Tribune (see 1807160048 and 1808090042).
An industry-led cyber advisory board expects to deliver a final report to President Donald Trump in mid-November establishing cybersecurity as a “national strategic imperative,” officials said Wednesday. The National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee is finalizing its Cybersecurity Moonshot study, members said during a conference call.
The FCC Wireless Bureau posed 49 paragraphs of questions to T-Mobile on its proposed buy of Sprint. The FCC also asked Sprint for information spanning 48 paragraphs. Bureau Chief Donald Stockdale said in cover letters the agency needs more information to properly review the takeover. This appears typical of what's asked of companies in the middle of a similar big transaction, industry lawyers said. Both companies filed a public interest statement in June (see 1806190062). Many say the deal could face a tough time before federal regulators. The letters were posted Wednesday in docket 18-197.
The FCC adopted rural call completion rules to oversee intermediate providers used by larger telecom companies to complete many calls. "We establish a registry for intermediate providers and require intermediate providers to register with the Commission before offering to transmit covered voice communications," said the unanimous two-order item issued Wednesday in docket 13-39 to implement part of the Improving Rural Call Quality and Reliability Act. The RCC orders took other measures to enhance the effectiveness of call completion rules, and denied a USTelecom petition to stay an April order's "covered provider" duties to monitor intermediate providers, pending completion of act implementation.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied a motion to stay the FCC’s March infrastructure order, leaving it in place with the broader court challenge pending. United Keetoowah Band v. FCC & USA, No. 18-1129, consolidates tribal challenges to the March order, which was approved 3-2 over dissents by Democrats Jessica Rosenworcel and Mignon Clyburn (see 1803220027).
Odds are good the FCC will let cable operators opt for electronic notifications instead of the mail for some customer notifications, agency and industry officials told us. Unclear is how far the agency will go. How the agency will deal with the more contentious issue that's part of the same NPRM about carriage election notifications isn't clear, and the agency itself might not have a direction, they said.
Pointed questions on contested claims a May 2017 a distributed denial-of-service attack cause a breakdown of the electronic comment filing system and the recently aborted Sinclair buy of Tribune appear likely to be a major feature of the Senate Commerce Committee's Thursday FCC oversight hearing, communications lawyers and lobbyists said in interviews. The panel is expected to echo themes of the House Communications Subcommittee's July FCC hearing (see 1807250043), including a focus on 5G deployments and upcoming spectrum auctions. Chairman Ajit Pai and the other three commissioners are expected to testify (see 1808030014).