A draft notice of inquiry on 12.7-13.25 GHz portrays the band as potentially providing part of the answer to the wireless industry’s quest for more mid-band to refill the spectrum pipeline. The NOI was among four items Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel circulated Thursday for a vote at the Oct. 27 commissioners' meeting (see 2210050065). Also circulated: a Further NPRM that would give two more years of life to the FCC’s support for wireless carriers in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands rebuilding after the 2017 hurricanes, an NPRM on emergency alerting, and a Stir/Shaken NOI.
ACA Connects is backing NCTA's request that the FCC delete the fair market value language from its in-kind contribution rules to align with the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision on the agency's cable local franchise authority order (see 2205100051). In a docket 05-311 filing Tuesday, ACA said arguments that the agency instead begin a rulemaking to revisit that language haven't shown why that approach is necessary, nor have they challenged NCTA's position that the agency can make the change ministerially.
Industry continued to disagree whether the FCC should revisit its cost allocation framework for utility pole replacements or attachments, in reply comments posted Monday in docket 17-84 (see 2206280066). Central to the debate was whether pole owners directly benefit from pole replacements and how much information owners should be required to disclose to requesting attachers.
The FCC “must enforce the law by collecting and publishing equal employment opportunity data by broadcasters and cable operators,” in a rulemaking within the next six months, said joint supplementary comments posted Wednesday in docket 98-204 from diversity and public interest groups including the National Urban League, the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council and the United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry. The collection of the data was teed up by a Further NPRM voted by the agency in July 2021 (see 2107260059). “To avoid any hint of the constitutional questions” raised by broadcast commenters on the FNPRM, the agency should rule that statistical EEO reports alone can’t be used to initiate an inquiry into a licensee’s EEO compliance,” the groups said. The agency needs to act soon so OMB can approve the data collection within one year, allowing data collection by the end of 2023 and results by mid-2024. The groups want the data to be collected in a public digital portal that can also be used to show results by company and on regional and state by state bases. Many other federal agencies collect similar data from companies, and the FCC collection could stimulate research and create more industry transparency, the groups said. The FCC should also move to adopt a series of diversity proposals long requested by MMTC, the groups said. Those proposals include creating a civil rights section of the Enforcement Bureau and more extensive EEO enforcement and requiring certifications that job postings at FCC licensees preceded hiring decisions. The agency “has fallen far behind standard industry practices and is depriving itself and the public of the most basic and least regulatory tools” to ensure equity and diversity in the communications workforce, the groups said.
Phone and cable companies sought to stop California from adopting affordability metrics for the communications sector. The California Public Utilities Commission plans to vote Thursday on a June 10 proposed decision to apply an affordability framework across its regulated industries. In Friday reply comments in docket R.18-07-006, consumer advocates urged the CPUC to reject the communications industry’s due process and other concerns.
Keep things simple when weighing possible changes to the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) broadband infrastructure account, Frontier Communications cautioned the California Public Utilities Commission. The CPUC received replies Tuesday to last week’s comments in docket R.20-08-021 (see 2206280032). Historically CASF has been underutilized, said Frontier. “The more contingencies and complexities are attached to grant applications, the less accessible the funding will be.” The California Cable and Telecommunications Association urged the CPUC not to be swayed by consumer advocates asking to shift focus from unserved communities to “separate issues like affordability and adoption.” While important, addressing those subjects here would exceed the scope of the infrastructure account, CCTA said. The CPUC’s independent Public Advocates Office urged the commission to reject Verizon claims that providing an incentive for offering a low-income broadband plan would be rate regulation. “Participation in CASF is optional,” PAO replied. Also, the CPUC should keep a proposed $15 monthly low-income broadband plan requirement and reject Verizon’s recommendation to allow a CASF grantee to get additional funding if its subsidiary provides state or federal Lifeline services.
Broadcasters, MVPDs, ISPs and other entities argued over the state of competition in the broadband and video marketplaces and how to address it, in comments posted by Friday’s deadline in docket 22-203 for the agency’s biannual State of Competition in the Communications Marketplace report to Congress, due in Q4. Regulations premised on lack of competition “should be repealed,” said NCTA. The FCC “must consider the real-world consequences of imposing, in a highly competitive marketplace, a burdensome and outdated regulatory regime,” said NAB.
The House Consumer Protection Subcommittee plans to mark up privacy legislation next week, Chair Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., told reporters Tuesday, as expected (see 2206080054). An aide said those details aren’t yet official.
Pole policies and participants must respond to climate change, said current and former state utilities regulators during an FCBA virtual event Monday. Pole replacement backlogs and insufficient information about attachments are challenges, they said. Florida could finalize its process this summer to become the 23rd state, in addition to Washington, D.C., to reverse preempt FCC pole attachments authority, said Berger Singerman cable attorney Floyd Self on another panel.
The FCC needs to ax only the phrase "at their fair market value" from its in-kind contribution rules to align with the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision on the agency's cable local franchise authority order (see 2105260035), NCTA, Charter Communications, Comcast and Cox Communications representatives told Media Bureau and Office of General Counsel staffers, per a docket 05-311 filing Tuesday. The cablers said that can be done via ministerial order not requiring notice and comment, and there's no need for a new rulemaking. Localities interests and advocates pushed the agency to open a proceeding about fair market vs. marginal costs (see 2204110042).