Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

CTA warned that one of the proposals in the FCC's “bad lab” NPRM could hamper the commission's authorization of some wireless devices. Other groups also raised concerns. Approved by commissioners 5-0 in May, the NPRM proposes barring test labs of entities on the agency’s “covered list” of unsecure companies from participating in the equipment authorization process and other changes in gear authorization rules (see 2405230033). Comments were due this week in docket 24-136.

CTIA presented a 109-page argument against California regulating wireless service quality. Comments were posted through Tuesday at the California Public Utilities Commission. The commission is weighing a staff proposal that moves away from the CPUC’s light-touch approach to wireless and interconnected VoIP. While industry widely panned the plan and hinted at lawsuits, public advocates said expanding regulation of newer voice services is a must.

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.

The White House Office of the National Cyber Director released guidance Tuesday, dubbing it a "roadmap," addressing "key vulnerabilities" in border gateway protocol (BGP) security. ONCD urged "every network operator use a risk-based approach to address BGP vulnerabilities" through the adoption of resource public key infrastructure (RPKI), which includes route origin authorization and origination, calling it a "mature, ready-to-implement approach to mitigate BGP’s vulnerabilities."

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 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.