An FCC draft order on improving the accessibility of Emergency Alert System messages is expected to be unanimously improved at Thursday’s meeting, but it isn’t clear if proposed deadlines for updating MVPD set-top equipment will change before the item is adopted, said industry and FCC officials. NCTA and ACA Connects seek changes to the draft language. The agency is also expected to unanimously approve an uncontroversial draft NPRM on removing references to analog TV in the agency’s rules now that there are no more remaining analog TV services.
Country of origin cases
FCC commissioners approved 4-0 an NPRM, released Tuesday, which proposes to require mobile wireless providers to block illegal text messages, similar to the agency’s approach on illegal and unwanted robocalls. Commissioners approved the NPRM Friday. Comment deadlines will come in the Federal Register.
NAB took direct aim at geotargeted radio proponent GeoBroadcast Solutions founder and CEO Chris Devine, detailing in an ex parte filing “credible and public accusations” of “fraudulent and deceitful conduct” against Devine and alleging the company’s support among smaller broadcasters may not be as broad as it appears. The FCC should “take a close and exacting look at the record and proceed with extreme caution,” before authorizing the changes to FM booster rules called for by GBS and other geotargeted radio supporters, NAB said in the filing posted in docket 20-401 Friday.
Frontier Communications sought rehearing Friday of an amended Arizona Corporation Commission order on the carrier’s June 911 outage. The ACC on Tuesday modified a July 27 decision requiring the company to invest in redundancy (see 2208160042). The commission removed a requirement that Frontier disseminate its emergency response plan to public safety agencies and the state 911 office, but left the rest of the order intact. Frontier supported the change but maintains objections to the original order, which was unlawful and issued without affording the company due process, it said in docket T-20680A-21-0198.
The House voted 361-69 Tuesday to pass the Russia Cryptocurrency Transparency Act (HR-7338), Securing Global Telecommunications Act (HR-8503) and Countering Untrusted Telecommunications Abroad Act (HR-8520) as part of an en bloc package. The three measures originated in the Foreign Affairs Committee and mandate new State Department actions on cryptocurrency and telecom security matters (see 2209190058).
Industry groups continued to disagree whether the FCC should impose stricter requirements on certain voice service providers to curb illegal robocalls (see 2207150053). Some said the commission should extend Stir/Shaken obligations to all providers, while others sought continued flexibility and a technologically neutral approach on which industries any new rules would apply to.
House Agriculture Committee leaders eyed how to address broadband issues in the 2023 farm bill during a Thursday hearing, with panel ranking member Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., and some others noting dissatisfaction with the degree to which the $65 billion in connectivity money included in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act would affect rural areas. “Rural broadband will continue to be a major focus” for House Agriculture despite House passage of IIJA’s connectivity money instead of the panel-approved Broadband Internet Connections for Rural America Act (HR-4374), which included $43 billion to Rural Utilities Service programs for FY 2022-29 (see 2107140061), said panel Chairman David Scott, D-Ga.
Senate Commerce Space Subcommittee Chairman John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., said Tuesday he and ranking member Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., led filing of the Orbital Sustainability Act in a bid to create a "demonstration program" to partner with industry in developing technology for remediating space debris objects. Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., signed on as original co-sponsors. The measure would require the Commerce Department to work with the FCC and National Space Council on developing and promoting standard practices for avoiding collisions and near hits between spacecraft in orbit. It would require the Space Council to update its orbital debris mitigation standards and encourage the FCC to use those updated standards as the basis for its own space-related regulations. Hickenlooper eyed space debris legislation earlier this year following House Commerce Committee leaders' circulation of two draft bills to revamp the FCC's low earth orbit satellite licensing rules (see 2202180044). "Our society is reliant on satellites in orbit, yet space junk is a constant, growing threat,” Hickenlooper said: “Space debris endangers everything from global communications to advanced weather forecasting to human space exploration."
Snake River Radio is unable to produce files showing when photos of its broadcast facilities for KPCQ(AM) Chubbuck, Idaho, were taken, the broadcaster said in a filing posted Wednesday in docket 22-53. The proceeding concerns KPCQ’s period of silence and whether Snake River’s tower was removed during some of that time (see 2205190048). “Snake River understands that absent the original digital files for the Site Photos, the only other evidence as to the date the site photos were taken” is a from declaration Snake River Managing Member Ted Austin, “under penalty of perjury,” which Snake River "understands the Enforcement Bureau may find not probative or argue is not sufficient,” the filing said. Snake River previously missed an Aug. 12 deadline to provide the evidence.
The FCC canceled the North American Numbering Council's Oct. 4 meeting (see 2207150066). The next meeting will be announced in a future Federal Register publication, said a public notice Tuesday in docket 92-237. The Wireline Bureau broadened the numbering administration oversight working group's scope of work and extended its deadline to submit a report to March 2. The working group "will need more time as a result of the amended referral," emailed a spokesperson on Wednesday, so the meeting, "which was intended to focus on the original charge, is no longer needed."