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).
Tribune’s $1 billion breach of contract lawsuit against Sinclair (see 1808090042) is expected to end with a settlement, and Sinclair would seek to conclude it relatively quickly, said analysts, attorneys and academics in interviews. Since Sinclair/Tribune deal was valued at $3.9 billion, Tribune’s seeking more than a quarter of the value as damages is likely “posturing,” leading to a much smaller payout, said George Mason University School of Business assistant finance professor Derek Horstmeyer.
Public interest groups, think tanks and antitrust scholars are backing DOJ's appeal of the U.S. district court ruling letting AT&T buy Time Warner (see 1807120068), in amicus briefs filed Monday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. They follow DOJ's appellant brief filed last week (see 1808070025). New AT&T's appellee brief is due Sept. 20, with amicus briefs in support due Sept. 27. AT&T didn't comment Tuesday.
More than 100 small radio broadcasters want the FCC to create a new C4 class of full-power FM stations, which NAB and some larger groups oppose. C4 will "increase congestion on the already crowded FM band and escalate the risk of interference to other FM services, especially FM translators,” NAB commented in docket 18-184 in response to a notice of inquiry. “There is no chance of increased interference as a result of the proposal,” said SSR Communications, the petitioner behind the C4 proposal. The plan would consume only “previously-unused, available bandwidth,” SSR said.
The Department of Homeland Security’s new National Risk Management Center (see 1808070032) will test the willingness of industry and the federal government to collaborate on cybersecurity defense, experts said this week. The U.S. government is hesitant to share classified information with national security implications, and the private sector is reticent for fear of reputational damage or increased scrutiny from regulators, they said.
APCO conference attendees agreed numerous questions remain on FirstNet, in interviews there last week. APCO featured FirstNet and partner AT&T (see 1808090002). Many predicted FirstNet’s growth will be relatively slow and a large number of agencies will stick with their current providers. FirstNet is in the first year of its five-year buildout plan. The network is growing since it launched last year, with 110,000 subscribers at the most recent count, and board members expressed optimism during their meeting Monday (see 1808130063).
Parties urged the FCC to ensure a Lifeline national verifier has electronic interfaces that will ease verification of consumer low-income eligibility. State regulators and consumer advocates were supportive, and the National Lifeline Association (NaLA), Sage Telecom, Sprint and TracFone Wireless expressly backed Q Link Wireless' emergency petition to direct Universal Service Administrative Co. to implement machine-to-machine application programming interfaces for the national verifier (see 1807050046). No opposition was filed in comments posted Friday and Monday in docket 17-287. The FCC and USAC declined comment Monday.