Communications providers are taking steps to prepare for Hurricane Milton while recovery from Hurricane Helene continues. SpaceX and T-Mobile have accelerated the rollout of Starlink direct-to-device connectivity for hurricane-affected areas, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote Wednesday on X. SpaceX posted that it and T-Mobile have activated SpaceX's D2D satellites to provide emergency alerts for phones in hurricane-affected areas. The D2D activation comes atop more than 10,000 Starlink kits delivered in response to Hurricane Helene, it said. SpaceX has enabled SMS testing for people on T-Mobile phones in hurricane-affected areas, it said. In addition, it said users "may have to manually retry text messages if they don't go through at first, as this is being delivered on a best-effort basis." T-Mobile said it had activated its emergency operations and preparedness plan in anticipation of Milton. That work, it said, includes emergency response teams preparing portable generators and network equipment to provide support. Its emergency response teams also are working with federal and state public safety agencies and Florida's State Emergency Operations Center to identify early prioritization needs following the storm. The carrier also said it has temporarily closed stores and other operations in Milton's path. Verizon said it was staging its mobile network solutions fleet, including portable generators and satellite assets, as part of prep for Milton. It said it had readied network engineers and crisis response team members to deploy to the region and begin restoration work as soon as it is safe. Multiple wireless carriers said they were temporarily waiving some charges and fees for hurricane-impacted areas. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement's communications strike team is ready to support local law enforcement agencies in ensuring 911, internet and radio communications work after Milton, according to the governor's office. Wednesday's disaster information reporting system update showed 11% of cellsites down in the North Carolina and Tennessee counties affected by Hurricane Helene, an improvement over the 12.5% reported down Tuesday. Wednesday's report listed 68,602 cable and wireline subscribers without service in the affected counties, compared with 84,085 Tuesday. The report also listed two TV stations out of service, both in North Carolina. DIRS reports for Hurricane Milton are due to the FCC starting Thursday morning.

The FCC activated the disaster information reporting system and mandatory disaster response initiative for Hurricane Milton, which is expected to strike Florida's west coast Wednesday. “In preparation for this latest storm, we continue to coordinate with industry and government partners at all levels to prevent as many communications networks from going offline as possible,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in a Tuesday release. “We've deployed FCC staff to conduct pre-landfall baseline surveys and provide on-the-ground support in targeted areas to assess the post-landfall impact to critical communications services and infrastructure.” Rosenworcel also urged communities in the path of the storm to opt in to wireless emergency alerts and said the agency is also keeping staff on the ground in North Carolina to continue assisting recovery efforts following Hurricane Helene. Tuesday's DIRS update for Hurricane Helene showed 12.5% of cellsites down in the affected area, which now covers 21 counties in North Carolina and 7 in Tennessee. There are 84,085 cable and wireline subscribers without service, and two TV stations and one FM station are reported down. The FCC activated DIRS and MDRI for 52 counties in Florida for Milton, said a public notice Monday. Reports are due from communication providers starting Thursday. The FCC also issued public notices on priority communications services, FCC availability and emergency communication procedures for licensees that need special temporary authority. The Public Safety Bureau also issued a reminder for entities clearing debris and repairing utilities to avoid damaging communications infrastructure.

Consumer, financial and other groups largely supported a draft FCC order on robotexts and robocalls that was pulled from a vote at the September FCC open meeting (see 2409240068). They reported on a meeting with an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “The Organizations joined together for this meeting because they are united in their commitment to combating criminals who attempt to defraud consumers by impersonating legitimate businesses through illegally spoofed calls and text messages,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 17-59. Among the groups at the meeting were the National Consumer Law Center, the American Bankers Association, America’s Credit Unions, ACA International, the Bank Policy Institute, the Mortgage Bankers Association and Edison Electric Institute. Bank impersonation texts were the most common form of text scam reported to the FTC in 2022, they noted. A community bank located in the Midwest with less than $500 million in assets was a target of a mass texting campaign two weeks ago, the filing said. “A criminal sent a fake fraud alert to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of the bank’s customers,” the groups said: “If the customer replied to the fraud alert, the criminal called the customer, displaying the bank’s phone number on the customer’s Caller ID (i.e., an illegally spoofed call) and claiming to be from the bank. The criminal then used social engineering (i.e., publicly available information about the customer) to persuade the customer to reveal their banking log-in credentials.” The bank fielded approximately 600 calls from customers and others targeted by the scam.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr “has gone full-on Fox News fire-breather in a despicable-if-calculated attempt to get a promotion,” wrote Free Press co-CEO Craig Aaron in an op-ed for nonprofit news outlet Common Dreams Thursday. Carr’s “actions and associations should disqualify him from ever serving as FCC chairman, no matter who the president is in 2025,” Aaron added. Carr is widely seen as the likely chair if Republicans win the White House in the election. Carr’s office didn't respond to a request for comment. In the column, Aaron says Carr’s authorship of a chapter in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 book "Mandate for Leadership" is unethical. He notes Carr is the only in-office federal official to do so. By working with Project 2025, Carr has associated himself with “an array of anti-abortion zealots, anti-vaxxers, Big Liars, book banners, climate deniers, conspiracy theorists, immigrant bashers and other assorted haters,” Aaron said. The Heritage Foundation didn’t comment. The post also describes Carr as “fawning over” Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump and “buttering up” Space X CEO Elon Musk. Carr is “too busy licking Musk’s cybertruck shoes to worry about his hypocrisy,” Aaron wrote. The column, Digital First Project Executive Director Nathan Leamer said, is “par for the course with that organization," which "routinely pushes myths and hyperbole to their far left activist audience.” Leamer, like Carr, served as an aide to former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. Aaron’s post has the “same energy” as a 2021 Free Press petition submitted to the FCC (see 2109150060) that included comments about shooting Republicans, Leamer said. “Carr’s record," Aaron wrote, "is beginning to get some attention from members of Congress — but more need to speak out about his dalliances with the far right and his trouble telling the truth.”

Cellular service in the areas affected by Hurricane Helene improved Wednesday, according to the FCC’s most recent Disaster Information Reporting service update. It showed 11.3% of the cell sites in all the affected counties down, an improvement from the 21.7% reported out of service in Tuesday’s update. The most affected state in the DIRS coverage area is North Carolina, with 38.3% of cell sites without service in its affected counties. There are 654,220 cable and wireline subscribers without service, as compared to 750,761 in the previous update. The DIRS update shows 6 TV stations out of service and 38 radio stations down across the affected areas. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel will visit Asheville and Charlotte, North Carolina, Friday "to gain a firsthand account of communications recovery efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene," said a release Thursday. Rosenworcel is scheduled to meet with FCC Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau staff deployed to North Carolina, visit a federal assistance center and an emergency operations center, and go to a local library that serves as a community Wi-Fi hub, the release said.

The FCC's reclassification of broadband as a Title II telecom service under the Communications Act is a "straightforward" violation of the major-questions doctrine, ISPs told the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a reply brief filed Wednesday (docket 24-7000). USTelecom, NCTA, CTIA, ACA Connects, the Wireless ISP Association, and several state telecom groups argued the provision of internet access has "always been the core driver of the information-service classification and that function remains unchanged today" (see 2409120032). The FCC "offers little more than its say-so to support its contrary view," the coalition said, adding that its "forced forbearance and strained reclassification of mobile broadband" underscores "how poorly broadband fits into the Title II scheme." The groups argued that the FCC "lacks any good explanation from departing from its prior view" that the costs of reclassification outweigh any benefits and hasn't addressed the major questions doctrine's "obvious political salience." Congress didn't clearly authorize the FCC to classify broadband as a telecom service, the groups noted, adding it should remain a Title I information service because it includes domain name systems and caching, which are "integral information-processing components." The coalition also argued the FCC lacked statutory authority to classify mobile broadband as a commercial mobile service under Title II because it's not part of the public switched network, or the ten-digit telephone network, which is "distinct" from the public internet.

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel on Thursday appointed Ira Keltz acting chief engineer, leading the Office of Engineering and Technology. Keltz, an electrical engineer, replaces Ron Repasi, who left the agency last month (see 2409160032). Deputy chief of OET, Keltz has worked on spectrum policy issues at the agency for 30 years, the FCC said. Repasi replaced longtime OET Chief Julius Knapp, initially in an acting capacity, in late 2019.

GOP running mate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, railed against major tech companies’ content regulation during the Tuesday night vice presidential debate as he attempted to deflect questions about whether he would challenge the Nov. 5 presidential election results if he and former President Donald Trump lose to Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Vance said “big technology companies silencing their fellow citizens” and Harris “saying that rather than debate and persuade her fellow Americans, she'd like to censor people who engage in misinformation” are bigger issues. Harris “is engaged in censorship at an industrial scale,” he said: “She did it during Covid, she's done it over a number of other issues. And that, to me, is a much bigger threat to democracy than what [Trump] said when he said that protesters should peacefully protest” during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Vance alluded to Murthy v. Missouri, in which the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a preliminary injunction that barred dozens of White House officials and four federal agencies from coercing social media platforms to moderate their content. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed the decision in June (see 2406260034). Walz said Jan. 6 “was not [about] Facebook ads” and Vance’s description of the 2021 attack is “revisionist history.” Social media platforms remove content when a user is “threatening to kill someone, threatening to do something, that's not censorship," Walz said. "Censorship is book banning. We've seen that.”

Cellular service in areas affected by Hurricane Helene worsened Tuesday, according to FCC outage reports, as communications companies and the FCC announced further relief efforts. Tuesday’s Disaster Information Reporting Service update showed 21.7% of cell sites down in the affected areas, an increase from the 9.1% reported Monday. Cable and wireline companies reported 796,999 subscribers without service, an improvement from the 886,139 Monday. The FCC voted Wednesday to temporarily waive some Lifeline program eligibility requirements to allow households receiving federal disaster assistance to also benefit from Lifeline assistance, said a release. "In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, our thoughts are with the communities that need to rebuild and the residents who have lost loved ones or are enduring the unbearable wait to hear from family members," said Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in the release. The FCC Public Safety and Wireless Bureaus also announced Wednesday that regulatory filing deadline extensions would apply in the additional Hurricane areas, which include Tennessee, Virginia and parts of South Carolina. The extension -- which moves regulatory deadlines between Sept. 23 and Oct. 28 to Oct. 29 -- already applied to numerous counties in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida. The Wireline Bureau also partially waived telephone number aging rules to make it easier for customers affected by Helene to disconnect or restore their service. The waiver will allow service providers to temporarily disconnect the customers' telephone service to avoid billing issues and then reinstate the same numbers when service is reconnected, according to a public notice. SpaceX’s Starlink said on its website homepage Wednesday that it was making service free for the first month in areas affected by Helene. Spectrum said it committed $250,000 in cash contributions to hurricane relief efforts and opened nearly 90,000 out-of-home WiFi access points across affected states. The access points will be available to all users at no cost through Oct. 7, Spectrum said. The company is also offering $750,000 worth of public service announcements for free to charities assisting with hurricane relief. Sinclair Broadcast launched a fundraising partnership with the Salvation Army at sinclaircares.com and pledged to donate up to $50,000, Sinclair said.

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel considers fixed wireless access important to competition and 6G helping the wireless industry cope with growing data demands, she said in a recent interview with the San Francisco Examiner. “We’re going to see more activities in the [IoT], more monitoring of industrial equipment, opportunities for smarter cities and smarter services,” Rosenworcel said, adding that the business models are developing. 6G will help “when we get to a point where we’re capacity-constrained on 5G and need to start thinking about what new technologies can assist us with the new loads.” Fixed wireless “is providing some real competitive pressure on a lot of incumbent broadband providers today.” Asked if FWA is a “true alternative” to wired broadband, Rosenworcel said, “the numbers suggest it is” and “a lot of households are signing up.” She touched on some of her top priorities, including the importance of Congress renewing FCC auction authority. The FCC is trying to develop “a legal and social norm” for when AI is used in communications, she said: “You should expect to be told.” On the use of AI in political campaigns, she acknowledged that “there’s a whole world online that’s outside of our purview.” But “waiting for a law that’s perfect, that captures every platform and venue, is waiting too long,” she said. “When I look at the Communications Act, I see principles of competition, universal access, public safety and consumer protection,” Rosenworcel said: “Those values have stood the test of time. So how do we take this law and make sure it meets this moment?” Rosenworcel declined comment when asked whether she would stick around if Kamala Harris is elected president. “Let’s see how the election goes,” she said.