The FCC should approve rules that allow emergency broadband benefit enrollees to easily migrate to the new affordable connectivity program (ACP), CTIA representatives told an aide to Commissioner Nathan Simington. “An affirmative customer opt-in process for ACP,” as proposed in a public notice, “is likely to lead to large-scale de-enrollment of eligible households, which would disserve the program’s goals,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 21-450. Ensure “that a broad cross-section of broadband providers continues to participate in the program, ensuring competition and multiple options,” CTIA urged.
Notable CROSS rulings
Whenever the FCC gets a Democratic majority, broadcasters expect an uncertain environment for potential mergers and acquisitions, possible action on the UHF discount, and potentially two broadcast ownership quadrennial reviews, they said in interviews. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel declined to comment last week on whether the FCC would go after the UHF discount. She said the agency is reviewing some potential broadcast items for 2022 (see 2112140062).
The FCC Media Bureau rejected the latest appeal from Urban One Broadcasting Network managing member William Johnson seeking reinstatement of an FM construction permit for Cross City, Florida, that expired in 2014, said a letter posted Wednesday. The Florida company isn’t connected to large Maryland-based broadcaster Urban One, Johnson told us. Johnson had sought to block FCC Auction 109 (see 2107290070), which was held in July and included that unbuilt FM channel assignment. Winning bidders for the auction, including that permit, were announced in August. A court proceeding on Johnson’s request to block the auction is ongoing in U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. (docket 1:21-CV-02050), and Johnson previously filed a petition to stay in 2016. Johnson’s most recent petition argued his company qualifies as an eligible entity under the revenue-based definition reinstated after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2021 Prometheus ruling. That policy wasn’t in effect “at any time between when Urban One obtained the Cross City construction permit and when that permit was forfeited,” the Media Bureau said. “Urban One offers no Commission precedent for applying the eligible entity policy retroactively over seven years after the Cross City construction permit was forfeited upon expiration as a matter of law.” Johnson said he plans to appeal the bureau decision to the full commission and the courts if necessary.
Dish Network's complaint about supposed good-faith negotiation rules wrongly claims Tegna violations, and Dish's obsession with procedural rules can't hide that it hasn't addressed the charges Tegna brought up in its answer and cross-complaint (see 2111050028), Tegna said in docket 21-413 Tuesday. It said email correspondence it submitted to the FCC shows its transparency. Dish didn't comment.
Wireless interests told the FCC any rules aimed at preventing SIM swap and port-out fraud shouldn't make it too difficult for consumers to change wireless carriers, per docket 21-341 comments that were due Monday. Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy (CITP), citing a study it did of SIM swap safeguards at the five major wireless carriers, said the companies are guilty of "pervasive insecurity." The Rural Wireless Association (RWA) urged reissue of the customer authentication and data encryption measures that were part of 2016's repealed broadband privacy order. The FCC adopted a SIM-swapping/port-out fraud NPRM 4-0 at September's meeting (see 2109300069).
Commenters debated the need for more unlicensed versus licensed spectrum to promote the IoT, in comments posted Tuesday in response to an FCC notice of inquiry, in docket 21-353. Commissioners approved a broad NOI 4-0 last summer, looking at the broader spectrum needs of the IoT (see 2110010046). Multiple satellite operators offering or planning to offer IoT service argued against additional spectrum being allocated specifically for satellite IoT, instead saying there should be access to sufficient spectrum for satellite services overall.
Technologies are emerging to combat deepfakes, but rules might be needed, panelists said at a Tuesday webinar hosted by the Convention of National Associations of Electrical Engineers of Europe (EUREL). Deepfake technology enabled some beneficial uses, but it's increasingly difficult to distinguish between real and fake content and people, said Sebastian Hallensleben, chairman of German EUREL member VDE e.V. One common argument is that AI fabrications aren't a problem because we can use other AI systems to detect them. As deepfakes become more sophisticated, there will be more countermeasures, causing a "detection arms race," said Hallensleben. What's needed is a "game-changer" to show what's real online and what isn't, Hallensleben said. He's working on "authentic pseudonyms," identifiers guaranteed to belong to a given physical person and to be singular in a given context. This could be done through restricted identification along the lines of citizens' ID cards; a second route is through self-sovereign identity (SSI). If widely used, authentic pseudonyms would avoid the "authoritarian approach" to deepfakes, Hallensleben said. SSI is a new paradigm for creating digital ID, said Technical University of Berlin professor Axel Kupper. The ID holder (a person) becomes her own identity provider and can decide where to store her identity documents and what services to use. The infrastructure is a decentralized, tamper-proof, distributed ledger. The question is how to use the technology to mitigate the use of automated content creation, Kupper said. Many perspectives besides technology must be considered for cross-border identification infrastructure, including regulation, governance, interoperability and social factors, said Tanja Pavleska, a researcher at the Joef Stefan Institut Laboratory for Open Systems and Networks in Slovenia. Trust applies in all those contexts, she said. Asked whether the proposed EU AI Act should classify deepfakes as high-risk technology, she said such fakes aren't just done by a single player or type of actor, so rules aimed at single points might be difficult. All panelists agreed the EU general data protection regulation should be interpreted to cover voice and facial data.
A three-month delay in T-Mobile's CDMA shutdown isn’t long enough, and T-Mobile should delay until 2023, a Dish Network official said Monday. Experts said the delay until March 31 likely won’t be enough to mollify other critics or California regulators. Dish bought Boost from T-Mobile to partially resolve regulator concerns about T-Mobile buying Sprint and has raised concerns many of the prepaid service’s customers use 3G phones.
The FCC has the “clearest legal authority and expertise” to “fully oversee” ISPs, Chair Lina Khan said during an FTC meeting Thursday. Trade commissioners voted unanimously to release a staff report on ISP privacy practices (see 2110180046), with all four agreeing it revealed important findings about data collection.
Localities got a second veto of a California small-cells bill. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) rejected SB-556 Monday, after his predecessor Jerry Brown (D) rejected a similar bill meant to streamline wireless infrastructure deployment by preempting localities in the right of way. In a win for the wireless industry the same day, Newsom signed AB-537 to codify a deemed-granted wireless remedy.