President Joe Biden signed off Saturday on the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act FY 2024 minibus spending package (HR-2882), the White House said. The Senate voted 74-24 Saturday morning on the measure, which allocates $390.2 million to the FCC, $425.7 million to the FTC and $535 million in FY 2026 funds for CPB. Congressional leaders omitted stopgap funding for the FCC's affordable connectivity program and money for the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program, despite repeated calls from the initiatives' backers (see 2403210067).

The American Consumer Institute Center for Citizen Research (ACI) urged the FCC against reclassifying broadband as a Communications Act Title II telecom service. Reclassification would "lead to a decline in consumer welfare" due to the "increased tax exposure" ISPs will face at the state and local level, the group said in a letter posted Friday in docket 23-320 (see 2403210026). ACI also noted that some states "consider intangible property to be taxable property" and "the taxation of broader telecommunications property could represent a major increase in the property taxes assessed on licensed spectrum." The impact will be "significant," ACI said, noting broadband services "are not highly inelastic."

Policymakers shouldn’t forget the potential of very high frequency spectrum, the mmWave Coalition said last week in response to the National Science Foundation’s request for information (RFI) on the national spectrum research and development plan, which is part of the national spectrum strategy. The comments have yet to be posted by NSF. Most 5G and 6G discussions so far are focused on lower frequencies, the coalition said. “A key reason for this is that it is hard to justify a business case for sub-THZ mobile spectrum use at present as there are now basic technical questions, technological hurdles, and cost issues, yet these are fertile and active areas of research which may eventually lead to compelling opportunities for mobile use in this spectrum,” the group said. The coalition cited a growing need for wireless backhaul, “especially in rural, underserved areas often where fixed wireless access is vital for rural households, and often backhaul requirements cannot always be implemented in fiber technology, due to installation urgency requirements, local terrain features that delay or block installation, cost, or short term requirements that make fiber optic installation uneconomical.” The Dynamic Spectrum Alliance said the RFI is on target in the areas it suggests for research. “Efficiency, dynamic spectrum access and management, automated interference mitigation, and coexistence modeling are all areas in which the DSA and our members have keen interest and extensive experience,” the alliance said: “We also fully support efforts to study the economic-, market-, social-, and human-centric aspects of increasing spectrum access.” DSA called on the NSF to take into account innovative licensing frameworks that are already working, including the citizens broadband radio service band and 6 GHz. “Given the historical success of the variety of spectrum sharing techniques in different bands designed to protect different incumbents … there is no one size fits all solution to spectrum sharing,” DSA said. AT&T urged the administration to more clearly define the term dynamic spectrum sharing. The definition should include an “examination of full-power licensed use” and “development of a basis for predictable times and/or geographies in which dynamically shared spectrum can be used,” AT&T said. The carrier urged more work on interference mitigation techniques and not restricting research to “mere ‘on/off’ spectrum access controls.” The definition should seek “to define co-channel and adjacent channel interference environments to incorporate into network design and operation.”

The FCC proposed a total $1.2 million forfeiture for Nexstar and a $612,395 forfeiture for Mission Broadcasting (see 2403210078).

The FCC should ensure that connected technologies keep pace with other industries in transitioning to clean energy, said FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks in remarks Thursday at the 2024 U.S. Tech for Climate Action Conference. “We have to make sure that next-generation standards -- 6G and beyond -- double-down on energy efficiency,” Starks said. “As work on 6G standards-setting continues, now is exactly the right time to throw your weight behind sustainability.” Starks also said that the tech industry should bring clean energy “capabilities we know are possible to market three, five, or seven years earlier than they would have been otherwise.” Tech companies “have to be a backer, not a bottleneck,” Starks said.

Hamilton Relay, a telecommunications relay service (TRS) provider, seeks to intervene in support of the Ohio Telecom Association’s petition for review challenging the FCC’s Dec. 21 order modifying and expanding the commission’s data breach notification rules on telecom carriers, VoIP providers and TRS providers (see 2402210026), said its unopposed motion Wednesday (docket 24-3133) in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Hamilton provides TRS to individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, DeafBlind or have difficulty speaking, said its motion. The company provides intrastate and interstate text telephone, speech-to-speech and captioned telephone services in numerous states through individual state TRS contracts, nationwide relay service through its internet protocol captioned telephone service, which is regulated by the FCC, it said. Hamilton is entitled to intervene because it was a “party in interest” in the proceeding leading to the adoption of the order and the order’s changes to the FCC’s data breach notification rules adversely affect its interests, said the motion. Hamilton submitted comments in February 2023 in the FCC’s NPRM in the run-up to the order, it said. The order expands reporting obligations to the FCC and law enforcement agencies and imposes certain other duties on TRS providers pertaining to unauthorized access to or disclosure of customer proprietary network information and personally identifiable information, it said. In its February 2023 comments, Hamilton urged the FCC to consider how TRS providers are different from common carriers in the services they provide and the information they collect from their customers. The commission should ensure that any reporting obligations imposed on TRS providers “allow for the necessary flexibility to report relevant and actionable information to the appropriate law enforcement agencies and to customers,” it said then. It also urged the commission “to consider how its proposed rules will align, or potentially conflict, with existing state and federal privacy regimes,” it said.

The Better Business Bureau's National Advertising Division is referring Charter Communications ad claims regarding T-Mobile's 5G Home Internet Service to the FTC for review. NAD said Thursday that T-Mobile challenged the ads as misleading or false. Because Charter opted out of NAD's self-regulatory process, the division said it referred the claims to the FTC. A person involved in the NAD proceeding told us Charter's objections were procedural and concerned NAD conducting an expedited review. In an email, Charter wrote it "stand[s] by the claims ... about the service limitations of cell phone internet, and we welcome the opportunity to fully defend our claims."

The FCC should "reinstate strong net neutrality rules" and reclassify broadband internet access service as a Communications Act Title II telecom service, NTIA said Thursday. "Fair and open access to the Internet underpins virtually every aspect of American life," said NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson: "The Biden Administration supports the FCC’s efforts to put rules in place that preserve an open Internet, promote national security and protect consumers." The agency agreed in an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 23-320 that a "limited use of Title II authority" is necessary for national security (see 2310050063). "The lightning-fast evolution of our communications technologies and our growing dependence on these offerings necessitate a whole-of-government approach to security that engages all available federal government resources," NTIA said.

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel on Wednesday circulated for a commissioner vote an order that would launch a 5G Fund Phase I multi-round reverse auction, making $9 billion available to target 14 million homes and businesses lacking mobile 5G coverage. The fund includes up to $900 million in “incentives” for incorporating open radio access network technologies in fund-supported networks, said a news release. The fund will rely on the FCC’s updated broadband coverage map. The order “would take a number of steps to improve the program, including: modifying the definition of areas eligible for the auction and ensuring that areas in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands that meet the criteria would be included in the 5G Fund auction; increasing the budget for Phase I of the 5G Fund auction and the Tribal reserve budget -- a set-aside portion of the fund to support connecting Tribal communities; and requiring 5G Fund support recipients to implement cybersecurity and supply chain risk management plans as a condition of receiving support,” the FCC said. Commissioners unanimously approved a Further NPRM in November (see 2309210035). Commissioners initially approved a proposed $9 billion fund in 2020, over partial dissents by Rosenworcel and Commissioner Geoffrey Starks (see 2010230056). “For the first time in our history … this agency has comprehensive data about where service is and is not all across the country,” Rosenworcel said: “This will be the foundation of our plan to expand the 5G service in rural America to where it is needed most -- where people live, work and travel.” CTIA raised concerns in a filing posted Wednesday, before the order was announced. The FCC should schedule a 5G Fund auction only after final funding decisions are made in the broadband access, equity and deployment program, CTIA said in a meeting with staff from the FCC Wireless Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics. “While BEAD will not directly fund mobile broadband deployment, it is likely to result in the deployment of fiber broadband backhaul facilities and fixed wireless services that will facilitate the expansion of unsubsidized 5G coverage in rural areas,” said a filing in docket 20-32. Even if the FCC adopts rules in the near term on issues raised in an FNPRM, “the Commission should wait to schedule the ... auction until the impact of BEAD deployments on 5G availability becomes clearer,” CTIA said.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied the motion of 20 industry and business groups for expedited briefing and oral argument on their 16 consolidated petitions to vacate the commission’s Nov. 20 digital discrimination order (see 2403140042), said the court’s order Wednesday (docket 24-1179). The 8th Circuit granted unopposed motions for leave of two petitioners -- the Media Alliance and Great Public Schools Now and of the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society -- to intervene on the FCC’s behalf to prevent the order from being completely vacated, though they do oppose portions of it. In their motion, the industry petitioners argued that an expedited briefing would ensure the 8th Circuit has adequate time to render a decision on the petitions for review before the digital discrimination order takes effect Sept. 22. The FCC opposed the motion, arguing that “accelerating this highly complex proceeding” prejudices the government (see 2403190041).