Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel now expects a final estimate of demands for money from the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program to repay U.S. carriers for removing from their networks equipment made by companies deemed a national security risk to be ready on or soon after July 15. The House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee, meanwhile, advanced by voice vote Thursday its FY 2023 bill with FCC and FTC funding mirroring what President Joe Biden is seeking for the agencies (see 2203280069). The Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee advanced by voice its FY23 bill Thursday with funding for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency well above what Biden sought.

The California Public Utilities Commission threatened action against several large phone and cable companies that the agency says didn’t fully comply with a March 15 request for granular deployment data needed for a state map required for California’s $6 billion broadband effort. The CPUC seeks responses by Friday to similar warning letters sent June 10. ISPs said privacy and confidentiality concerns stopped them from sharing all data sought by the state commission.

Top members of the House and Senate Commerce committees are having varying levels of success in moving forward in the coming weeks on spectrum legislation. The House Communications Subcommittee plans to mark up a revised version of the Extending America’s Spectrum Auction Leadership Act (HR-7783) Wednesday along with other legislation, subpanel Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., said in an interview. Senate Commerce leaders, meanwhile, told us they're still grappling with how to move forward on the Improving Spectrum Coordination Act (S-1472) after an amendment fight prompted them to remove it from a markup last month (see 2205250063).

Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Roger Wicker of Mississippi and other panel Republicans criticized NTIA’s plans for rolling out its $48 billion share of broadband money from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act during a Thursday hearing with agency Administrator Alan Davidson, as expected (see 2206020070). Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico and other panel Democrats delivered more positive, but not universally complimentary, reviews of NTIA’s work. There was significantly less focus on the agency’s government spectrum coordination role.

Minnesota’s attorney general supported revisiting LTD Broadband’s eligible telecom carrier (ETC) designation. So did some local governments and consumer and municipal broadband advocates, in comments due Wednesday in docket M-21-133 at the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. LTD urged the PUC to reject the request by Minnesota Telecom Alliance (MTA) and Minnesota Rural Electric Association (MREA) to revoke the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) winner’s ETC status (see 2205170058).

Disability rights advocates and digital navigators on Wednesday urged the FCC to emphasize accessibility in its forthcoming consumer broadband labels. Several panelists at the commission’s third public hearing on the labels highlighted the need for multiple languages and alternative formats for individuals who may not understand technical language (see 2204080027).

House Communications Subcommittee members voiced strong support during a Tuesday hearing for the Extending America’s Spectrum Auction Leadership Act (HR-7783) and two NTIA-focused spectrum bills, echoing expected backing from Wiley’s Anna Gomez and CommScope Business Development and Spectrum Policy Director Mark Gibson (see 2205230061). Lawmakers broadly supported elements of the Safe Connections Act (HR-7132), but opinions on the Ensuring Phone and Internet Access for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Recipients Act (HR-4275) divided along party lines.

Wiley’s Anna Gomez, former acting NTIA administrator, backed the Extending America’s Spectrum Auction Leadership Act (HR-7783) and two NTIA-focused spectrum bills in written testimony ahead of a Tuesday House Communications Subcommittee hearing (see 2205170081). HR-7783 is one of five wireless-focused bills House Communications will examine during the Tuesday hearing. The others are: the Ensuring Phone and Internet Access for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Recipients Act (HR-4275), the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences Codification Act (HR-4990), the Simplifying Management, Reallocation and Transfer of Spectrum Act (HR-5486), and the Safe Connections Act (HR-7132). The partly virtual hearing will begin at 11 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn.

An administrative law judge dismissed AT&T’s challenge of Florida Public Service Commission pole attachment rules Wednesday. The failure of AT&T’s appeal means the PSC could approve a certification to reverse preempt the FCC’s pole attachment authority as soon as its July 7 meeting (see 2205160059). The Florida commission "properly engaged in rulemaking, considered the interests of regulated entities and their consumers, made changes to the rule based thereon, and ultimately approved the Proposed Rule based on that robust process," said Florida Division of Administrative Hearings ALJ Andrew Manko. The carrier had said the PSC should explicitly use FCC rules as the default. But Manko said the PSC "reasonably chose not to include methodologies so that it could develop precedent on those substantive standards through the unique adjudicatory process mandated by the Legislature." Florida's pole attachment rules aren't "illogical, unreasonable, despotic, or arbitrary and capricious," said Manko: Nothing in the federal Communications Act Section 224(c) "requires a state to adopt a specific methodology in its rules, much less to certify that it has done so," and not adopting a specific method doesn't contravene Florida law's requiring the state rules, "even if that statute were interpreted to require compliance with the federal certification standards,” he said. The Florida commission filed the rule Thursday with the state department, and it will take effect June 8, said a PSC spokesperson: Florida still must certify its pole attachment authority to the FCC. AT&T didn’t comment.

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.