Radio transmission equipment can’t function when filled with mud, said KSBJ FM Humble, Texas, Senior Director-Technology Steven Thompson. “It was a very ugly picture,” he said of the scene he found at the station’s transmitter site when he was finally able to get there via fan boat after Tropical Storm Harvey. Knocked off the air for days by the flooding damage, KSBJ -- like many other broadcasters affected by Harvey and storms Irma and Maria -- learned a lot of lessons this hurricane season. Comments are due Jan. 22 on an FCC proceeding and planned workshop to gather that collective wisdom and help broadcasters better cope with future storms. Though they all told us planning and preparation are important, broadcasters and engineers in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico agreed the best way to make it through a hurricane was the tip offered by Fletcher Heald attorney Davina Sashkin, who had clients affected by all three big storms. “Have a lot of money,” she said.
The Trump White House specifically mentioned 5G deployment last week in its National Security Strategy (see 1712180071). The mention is important as it's the first time the administration issued a policy statement on spectrum, industry officials said. They told us the administration’s decision to focus on 5G reflects concerns that next generation of wireless is still being launched and industry needs to be on top of security threats before they develop.
Staff departures from the Environmental Protection Agency could slow FCC work on RF issues, industry officials said. The New York Times reported that 700 people, including more than 200 scientists, have left EPA since President Donald Trump took office in January, about a quarter of the staff reductions planned by his administration. In the last major development from the FCC, the Office of Engineering and Technology launched an inquiry to gather more comments on RF safety in 2013 (see 1304010037). The notice of inquiry was the agency’s first on the biological effects of RF since 1979. The FCC didn't comment.
Legal challengers to FCC net neutrality deregulation face some tough tactical calls, including whether to seek a court stay and their preferred circuit venue, attorneys told us. It's tempting to seek a stay that would block the "internet freedom" order from taking effect while the case is heard on the merits, but such a request must clear a high bar and the prospects for success are dim, several said. On the venue, the calculus is complicated, given the past open internet rulings of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the attorneys said. The Republican-majority FCC commissioners voted 3-2 along party lines Dec. 14 to jettison Title II net neutrality regulation under the Communications Act (see 1712140039).
Local governments opposed to the FCC rescinding Title II protection are weighing legal and other options to protect neutrality and local authority, local representatives said. Some see municipal broadband as an answer, though few can buy such service today. Local government “has long supported enforceable net neutrality protections,” said Best Best attorney Gerard Lederer. State-level Democrats also seek to counter the FCC action through a planned multistate lawsuit by attorneys general, some governors mulling ways to use their state’s buying power to require net neutrality, and a flurry of state legislation predicted for 2018 (see 1712150042, 1712140044 and 1712210034).
Two energy associations jointly urged the FCC to back away from proposals to sell priority access licenses (PALs) in the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service (CBRS) band in geographic sizes much larger than census tracts. Various wireless ISPs also raised objections. The FCC adopted an NPRM in October on several potential changes, including selling the PALs using partial economic area (PEA) licenses (see 1710240050). The Telecommunications Subcommittee of the American Petroleum Institute and the Regulatory and Technology Committee of the Energy Telecommunications and Electrical Association (ENTELEC) said larger license sizes would be detrimental to critical infrastructure companies.
Critics of the FCC’s net neutrality order say it reveals problems with Chairman Ajit Pai’s proposed Office of Economics and Data (OED). Supporters of keeping in place the 2015 rules said the recently approved order appears to rely on industry analysis rather than the commission's existing economists, and it’s not clear that putting economists in a single office would have meant a more rigorous, independent examination of the economic implications. Supporters of the Pai moves on net neutrality said making the FCC more focused on economics will take time. The FCC hasn't released the Dec. 14 order (see 1712140039).
Comcast/NBCUniversal likely doesn't have much to fear about the looming expiration of conditions on that 2010 deal, with it being unlikely either the DOJ or FCC will seek behavioral or structural conditions beyond that time, experts told us. But there's disagreement whether Justice's bid to block AT&T's buy of Time Warner (TW) (see 1711210005) indicates the agency should be doing something on Comcast/NBCU. The FCC conditions expire Jan. 20, and DOJ conditions expire in September. Public Knowledge (PK) on Friday became the latest party to call for Justice action on the expiring conditions.
The FCC is in a strong position to defend its Title II net neutrality repeal in court, said Chairman Ajit Pai, as well as attorneys and observers sympathetic to or neutral about his cause. They said the "internet freedom" order's broadband reclassification as a lightly regulated Communications Act Title I information service is backed by clear Supreme Court precedent.
The full FCC voted 3-2 -- as expected -- to propose a $13.4 million forfeiture for Sinclair Broadcast for more than 1,700 instances of improperly identified paid content (see 1712180064), but the FCC’s Democrats say that’s too little for a $2.7 billion company. “The proposed forfeiture of over $13 million is more than three times any penalty that has ever been imposed for violating our sponsorship identification rules,” Chairman Ajit Pai said in a statement released with the notice of apparent liability. “Does this mark yet another example of special treatment by the FCC majority? You decide,” Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said in her statement.