The ultimate makeup of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel that hears the review of the FCC’s net neutrality order may not make much difference, some legal experts told us, in the wake of recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions. They doubted that the panel (docket 24-7000) will delve deeply into case law, instead simply deciding that going forward it's Congress, not the FCC, that must address any case that raises "major questions." Oral argument is scheduled for Oct. 31.
Progeny stressed in a progress report on the status of the construction and operation of its multilateration location and monitoring service licenses that its parent NextNav is seeking revisions to the rules for that spectrum. The changes “would enable highly accurate, widescale geolocation services, greatly enhancing the efficacy and utility of Progeny’s terrestrial position, navigation, and time (PNT) services as a complement and backup to the Global Positioning System,” said a filing Friday in docket 12-202. NextNav’s proposal for the 902-928 MHz band has proven controversial. Amateur radio operators have opposed NextNav’s request, making hundreds of filings ahead of a Thursday deadline for initial comments (see 2408120024). “The Commission’s action on the Petition will enable the deployment of a widescale terrestrial PNT complement and backup without the need for federal funding,” Progeny said. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority also raised concerns. The authority’s licensed RFID devices “are tuned to different frequencies on a site-by-site basis to avoid interference with existing operators,” said a filing posted Friday: “If all existing licensed and unlicensed users of the lower 900 MHz frequencies are compressed into a significantly reduced portion of spectrum, Metro will face potential significant difficulties identifying frequencies that can be used for its transponder communications without being subject to interference moving forward.” The authority also questioned the lack of a guardband to protect its operations and NextNav's real-world testing. NextNav’s plans “call for higher-powered devices (two orders of magnitude more powerful) and significantly larger volumes of traffic than are currently in use on these frequencies” and the potential impact on Metro’s roadside antennas, readers and in-vehicle transponders “have not been properly evaluated,” the authority said. The band provides connections for “tens of millions” of smart-home and smart-building devices and industrial solutions, said Reliable Controls, which offers products that use the frequencies, including its EnOcean line. “The reallocation of this spectrum would potentially render these devices inoperative, potentially causing widespread disruption and resulting in billions of dollars in economic loss to schools, hospitals, government buildings, offices, companies, industry and individuals,” the company said.
ISPs challenging the FCC’s updated data breach notification rules made their case at the 6th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court about why the rule should be overturned. The filing elaborates on their argument that the agency exceeded its Communications Act authorities when it adopted the rule in December. The Ohio Telecom Association (docket 24-3133), the Texas Association of Business (docket 24-3206) and CTIA, NCTA and USTelecom (docket 24-3252) brought the challenge. The 6th Circuit is considered among the most conservative federal circuits.
The California Public Utilities Commission proposed $174.4 million in federal broadband grant awards for 15 last-mile projects in Santa Clara and four other counties. Recommended grantees include three tribal entities, the CPUC said Friday. The commission has a vote planned for its Sept. 26 meeting on two draft resolutions (T-17845 and T-17846) including the recommended awards. The CPUC recommended a $91 million round of federal grants earlier this month (see 2408090016). Commissioners last Thursday agreed on another $237 million in grants using money from 2021's American Rescue Plan Act and the state's general fund (see 2408220044). CPUC members may also vote Sept. 26 on a proposed decision approving volume two of the CPUC’s proposed rules for NTIA’s broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program. The CPUC submitted both volumes of its initial plan to NTIA on Dec. 26, 2023, the draft released Friday noted. During the NTIA’s review of California’s volume two, the federal agency requested changes “on seven separate occasions,” it said. “The deadlines for submitting BEAD applications will be announced by the [CPUC] Communications Division Staff, after the NTIA approves the final eligibility map.” California still needs NTIA volume-two approval to access its $1.86 billion BEAD allocation.
The FCC addressed several pending petitions for reconsideration concerning the commission's rules for incarcerated people's communications services. In a notice for Monday's Federal Register, the commission granted Hamilton Relay's petition on certain aspects of the 2022 IPCS order. Hamilton sought reconsideration of the requirement that an incarcerated person's video relay service and IP-captioned telephone service registration information be updated within 30 days of the user being released from incarceration or transferred to another facility. It dismissed the United Church of Christ and Public Knowledge's joint petition on the commission's 2021 order (see 2302240041). It also dismissed Securus' petition for clarification regarding site commissions in the 2021 order and dismissed in part and otherwise denied Securus' waiver request for alternative pricing plans.
House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz of Texas and six other top GOP lawmakers urged the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Monday to strike down the FCC’s April net neutrality rules and reclassification of broadband as a Communications Act Title II service (see 2408140043). FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel separately told Rodgers, Cruz and other Republican lawmakers she remains “confident that the Commission’s rules and decisions will withstand judicial review under the [U.S.] Supreme Court’s decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and other applicable precedent.”
Shortwave Modernization Coalition (SMC) representatives told the FCC the group met with other federal agencies about the group’s proposal that the commission launch a rulemaking to amend eligibility and technical rules for industrial/business pool licensees to authorize licensed use of frequencies above 2 MHz and below 25 MHz for fixed, long-distance, non-voice communications (see 2305010053). The proposal has faced pushback, particularly from amateur radio operators (see 2308180033). SMC met with spectrum officials at NTIA “and based on those discussions reached out to several federal spectrum users and were successful in having meetings with the spectrum staff” at NASA, NOAA, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the U.S. Coast Guard, a filing posted Monday in RM-11953 said. SMC “explained that the shortwave band has been used for nearly nine years through multiple experimental licenses granted to several parties, and that multi-year experience mirrors the use that would be authorized by the pending proposal.”
ASPEN -- Finding a way to restore the affordable connectivity program (ACP) is a high priority for the end of 2024 and social media-related advertising revenue could provide potential solutions, FCC Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Anna Gomez said Monday.
California appropriators last week halted multiple telecom-related bills meant to help vulnerable communities. Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D) blamed the broadband industry after the Senate Appropriations Committee held back her bill that would have banned digital discrimination as the FCC defines it (AB-2239). However, that committee and its Assembly counterpart advanced several other telecom and privacy bills to final floor votes.
Charter Communications agreed to charge $15 monthly for a low-income broadband plan in New York state under a settlement the Public Service Commission approved Thursday, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said Thursday. The New York PSC in its 2016 order approving the company’s acquisition of Time Warner Cable required Charter to sell a $14.99 monthly plan with at least 30 Mbps download speeds (see 1601270028). The New York Department of Public Service alleged that Charter violated the order when it increased the price to $24.99 for 50 Mbps without PSC approval. Under the settlement, Charter will provide 50 Mbps speeds for $15 monthly for four years to New Yorkers who participate in the National Free School Lunch Program or receive supplemental security income benefits. For years two through four, Charter may raise the price only to account for inflation. The settlement is important because the federal affordable connectivity program has expired and litigation has delayed New York state’s Affordable Broadband Act (see 2408130021), PSC Chair Rory Christian said in Hochul’s news release. “The only low-income broadband requirements that currently exist in New York are the low-income program conditions in the PSC’s orders approving certain mergers. By approving this settlement, the PSC will make affordable broadband available to eligible New Yorkers in Charter's service territory while the litigation is resolved and/or federal funding for ACP is reinstated or federal broadband policy is clarified.” Hochul applauded the news. “This settlement directly benefits thousands of low-income New York families.” A Charter spokesperson said the company's "prices and speeds are competitive and affordable" in urban, suburban and rural areas, with no modem fees, annual contracts or data caps.