Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

Debate over the best plan for clearing spectrum on the 3.7-4.2 GHz C-band is expected to be the big draw for stakeholders during the House Communications Subcommittee's Tuesday hearing on spectrum policy issues. It won't be the only focus. Six other bands are known to be on subcommittee members' radar amid ongoing Capitol Hill interest in U.S. strategy for taking a lead role in 5G development, lawmakers and lobbyists said in interviews. The panel is set to start at 10:30 a.m. in 2322 Rayburn (see 1907100069).

Consumer and public interest groups said the FCC should deny a petition by the P2P Alliance asking to clarify peer-to-peer text messages to cellphones aren't subject to Telephone Consumer Protection Act restrictions (see 1805040028). It's late in the game. Industry and agency officials said Chairman Ajit Pai supports acting on the P2P petition, likely with the support of the other Republicans. Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks haven't staked out a position.

Lawmaker interest in the draft order on improving its broadband coverage data collection practices continued Wednesday and Thursday before its afternoon release (see 1907110071). The order and broadband mapping legislation came up repeatedly during a House Agriculture Commodity Exchanges Subcommittee hearing. A day earlier, the Senate Commerce Committee scuttled a planned markup of the Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability (Data) Act (S-1822), one of several measures seen as potentially influencing the proposal's direction (see 1907100061).

The FCC’s Aug. 1 commissioners’ meeting will be headlined by proposed rulemakings on robocalls and the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, per the tentative agenda and drafts released Thursday late afternoon. Members will vote on an NPRM on low-power FM technical rules, orders on 911 location and small satellites, plus items on a toll-free number auction and local franchising authority over cable.

FCC preliminary numbers show about 12 percent ​of Lifeline subscribers de-enrolled in states where the national verifier is reaching final steps in the reverification process. Lifeline providers saw many Lifeline de-enrollments in recent weeks in some of the first states where the NV launched, but carrier application program interface remains unavailable and Universal Service Administrative Co. still lacks access to many state databases or the national Medicaid database, said John Heitmann of Kelley Drye, counsel to the National Lifeline Association. At least 2 million could be de-enrolled due to difficulties verifying, he said.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and other telecom-focused lawmakers are expected to move on legislation to improve FCC broadband coverage data collection process despite commissioners' planned Aug. 1 vote on a yet-to-be-released order on producing more-granular maps (see 1906120076). Officials and lobbyists believe further advancement of legislation like the Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability (Data) Act (S-1822) could influence the direction in the pending order.

Electric utilities asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to use its influence to urge the FCC to go slow on opening the 6 GHz band for unlicensed use, which was controversial when the FCC took comment this year in docket 18-295 (see 1903180047). Utilities warned FERC of their concerns during a technical conference last week. Energy industry officials said this was the first time the regulator made communications a separate part of that conference. Wi-Fi advocates see the 6 GHz band as critical to meeting the growing demand for unlicensed spectrum (see 1906250015).

California regulators should pause reviewing T-Mobile/Sprint until a federal court decides on the state attorneys general lawsuit to block the deal, said Communications Workers of America. CWA met Thursday with Commissioner Martha Guzman Aceves, said a Monday filing in docket A18-07-011 at the California Public Utilities Commission. “The case is scheduled to begin in October and last a few weeks,” CWA said: “If the court blocks the merger, there would be no need for a Commission decision on this very controversial merger.” The CPUC must issue proposed decisions 30 days before they can be voted upon at a meeting, so Tuesday is the deadline to get a T-Mobile/Sprint item on the Aug. 1 meeting agenda. The following two CPUC meetings are Aug. 15 and Sept. 12. “I would be surprised if a proposed decision approving the deal was issued this week,” Tellus Venture Associates President Steve Blum emailed Monday. “Under normal circumstances, i.e. the facts are known and the record is closed, I'd be expecting a proposed decision from the ALJ anytime now,” but deal parameters are in flux and California AG Xavier Becerra (D) opposes it, said the local government consultant. The AG suit “changes the dynamics and speaks volumes about how this Commission should move forward,” The Utility Reform Network (TURN) Managing Director-San Diego Christine Mailloux emailed Friday. If a proposed decision or ruling on the carriers’ motion on FCC commitments doesn't come soon (see 1905210001), TURN “will consider further action to request to put more detail into the record in response to any new information presented by the carriers,” she said. Some expect Becerra and other AGs’ suit to mean more scrutiny by California commissioners (see 1906200015). T-Mobile declined comment Monday.

Localities and broadcasters have many options to offer some multilingual emergency alerts, but none is comprehensive, and federal rules requiring them are unlikely to help, said alerting officials Friday during the FCC Public Safety Bureau's Multilingual Alerting Workshop. “There's enough toys in the toy box, let us fit them together,” said Sage Alerting Systems President Harold Price on the event's final panel. “Multilingual still has a long way to go, but there are still things you can do,” said Public Safety Bureau Attorney Adviser David Munson.

The telecom industry is eager to help mitigate national security threats stemming from equipment installed on its networks that could be compromised by vendors' ties to the Chinese government, executives said Thursday. Stakeholders wanted to reassure Commissioner Geoffrey Starks at an FCC workshop on his "find it, fix it, fund it" proposal to address vulnerabilities in communications networks (see 1906190050). But carriers, especially those with small, rural subscriber bases, said "rip-and-replace" missions for companies that have Huawei or ZTE equipment installed on their wireless, wireline or broadband networks would be neither quick nor inexpensive. Some estimates place the cost to remove and replace the compromised equipment at well over $1 billion.