FCC commissioners approved fines against the then four national wireless carriers for failing to safeguard data on their customers' real-time locations, industry officials said Wednesday. Commissioners were reportedly still finishing their statements. The notices of apparent liability were approved in 2020 under former Chairman Ajit Pai (see 2002280065). The FCC proposed the largest fine, $91 million, against T-Mobile, followed by AT&T, $57 million; Verizon, $48 million; and Sprint, $12 million. T-Mobile subsequently acquired Sprint. “It’s time to hold [the carriers] accountable and make them pay for this behavior -- and by that I mean the more than $200 million in fines proposed by the last administration,” Rosenworcel said last year (see 2306140075). The FCC didn’t comment.

Public Knowledge, the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates and several other groups want the FCC to grant a two-week extension of comment deadlines for responses to the agency’s outage reporting Further NPRM (see 2401250064), which proposes requiring broadcasters, satellite companies and broadband Internet access service providers to make reports to the disaster information reporting system. The groups, which also include New America’s Open Technology Institute, The Utility Reform Network and Communications Workers of America, want the extension to push the deadlines after the FCC’s upcoming net neutrality vote and to account for the Passover holiday. Currently, comments are due April 29, just four days after the net neutrality vote. “The subject matter is intimately tied to the Commission’s scheduled vote on the reclassification of broadband as a Title II service,” said the joint motion for extension. “A brief delay of two weeks will permit parties to review the Reclassification Order, and reflect the legal authorities and discussion relating to network resiliency included in the final Order.” The current comment day also falls on the seventh day of Passover, “a religious day when work is prohibited,” the joint filing said. If granted, the extension would move the deadline for comments to May 13 and replies to June 11.

Amazon is increasingly sure that its Prime Video streaming service "can be a large and profitable business on its own," CEO Andy Jassy wrote in a shareholder letter Thursday. He said that confidence comes from the addition of ads on Prime Video and subscribers' engagement with its exclusive content. The company's ad revenue grew 24% year over year in 2023, said Jassy, with Prime Video and Amazon's Kuiper broadband satellite system "investments that have the potential to be important to customers and Amazon long-term." He said Kuiper remains on track to launch its first production satellites this year. In its 2024 proxy statement, the Amazon board recommended shareholders vote against all 14 shareholder proposals set for this year's annual meeting. Those 14 include proposals that the board create a public policy committee to assist it in overseeing public policy issues including human rights, diversity, renewable energy and charitable giving; commission an independent report assessing the company's due diligence process to determine whether customers' use of its products and services with surveillance and computer vision capabilities contributes to human rights violations; and prepare a report, to be updated annually, disclosing Amazon policies and procedures governing lobbying and grassroots lobbying communications, as well as payments Amazon uses for lobbying or grassroots lobbying communications.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr on Thursday slammed the agency's draft order that would restore net neutrality regulations (see 2404040064). In a new statement, Carr said reclassifying broadband as a Communications Act Title II telecom service is "a solution that doesn't work to a problem that doesn't exist." He also pushed back on claims that Title II reclassification is necessary for public safety. The 2018 Mendocino Complex Fire in Santa Clara County, California, which Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has cited as justification for net neutrality, "has nothing to do with the FCC's Title II net neutrality rules," Carr said, noting the fire department "purchased a data-limited plan that cost less than an unlimited data plan" and experienced a speed reduction "as outlined in its plan" when the department reached its plan limit (see 2404080068). The federal government "already has ample authority to advance its law enforcement goals without Title II" and the FCC has "identified no gap in national security that Title II is necessary to fill," Carr said.

Most ISPs began displaying consumer-friendly labels at their online and in-store points of sale Wednesday, the day the FCC required compliance for providers with more than 100,000 subscribers. Smaller providers have until Oct. 10 (see 2310100058). The new labels, mandated by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, are based on the FCC's 2016 voluntary labels. "Consumers across the country can now benefit from consistent, transparent, and accessible point-of-sale information about broadband prices and services," said Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. The new disclosures are "designed to make it simpler for consumers to know what they are getting, hold providers to their promises, and benefit from greater competition," Rosenworcel said. "This new and important tool empowers consumers with clear, consistent, easy to understand and accurate information about current internet service offerings and allows them to make an informed choice that best meets their household needs and their long term budget," Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau Chief Alejandro Roark told reporters Tuesday during an embargoed news conference. Current subscribers will have access to labels describing their existing plans "wherever they pay their bill," Roark said. The new label is "a tool that can help consumers," said White House National Economic Council Deputy Director Jon Donenberg. It "will make sure that you have a clear, straightforward explanation of your home internet and mobile plans and services before you sign up for anything," Donenberg said, calling the move "common sense." Labels are required for all stand-alone home or fixed broadband and mobile broadband services. ISPs are required to include in their labels introductory rates, speeds, data allowances and links to additional information about network performance and privacy policies. Providers will also be required, beginning Oct. 10, to make the labels machine-readable to "enable third parties to more easily collect and aggregate data for the purpose of creating comparison-shopping tools for consumers," said an FCC consumer advisory Wednesday.

Internet service and traditional pay-TV costs rose faster than the rate of inflation in March, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index unadjusted data released Wednesday. Internet service costs in the U.S. in March rose 4.2% year over year, while cable, satellite and livestreaming TV service costs were up 3.8%, according to BLS data. BLS said March prices overall rose 3.5% year over year before seasonal adjustment. The agency said residential phone service jumped 3.4% year over year, while wireless phone service costs dropped 2.7%. It said smartphone prices dropped 9%, and computers, peripherals and smart home assistants fell 3.8%. Video purchase/subscription/rental rose 8.1%.

President Joe Biden called out congressional Republicans Saturday for Capitol Hill's failure so far to allocate stopgap funding for the FCC's ailing affordable connectivity program. The funding would keep ACP running through the end of FY 2024. Congress approved the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act FY 2024 minibus spending package last month without ACP money (see 2403210067). Advocates are eyeing other vehicles for appropriating the funding ahead of ACP's existing allocation running out in May (see 2403280001). “For months, I've called on Congress to extend the program,” but “Republicans in Congress still haven't acted, putting millions of their own constituents in a position where their internet costs could go up -- or they could lose connection altogether,” Biden tweeted. He proposed an additional $6 billion for ACP in an October supplemental domestic Appropriations request (see 2310250075). Republicans "have called the program ‘wasteful,’ and now threaten to cut it,” Biden said: “We can't let that happen” given it has “helped over 23 million households save $30-$75 each per month on their monthly internet bills.” House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., later echoed Biden, tweeting “House Republicans are playing political games and refusing to extend this vital program before it runs out of funding.”

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel circulated for a commissioner vote initial rules allowing drone use of the 5030-5091 MHz band (see 2303100028), the commission said Monday. If approved, the order would allow operators to obtain direct frequency assignments in a portion of the band for non-networked operations, the FCC said. The band is one of the five targeted for study in the national spectrum strategy (see 2403120056). “The FCC must ensure that our spectrum rules meet the current -- and future -- spectrum needs of evolving technologies such as uncrewed aircraft systems [UAS], which can be critical to disaster recovery, first responder rescue efforts, and wildfire management,” Rosenworcel said. The proposal relies on dynamic frequency management systems (DFMSs) “to manage and coordinate access to the spectrum and enable its safe and efficient use,” said a news release: “These DFMSs would provide requesting operators with temporary frequency assignments to support UAS control link communications with a level of reliability suitable for operations in controlled airspace and other safety-critical circumstances.” During an interim period, users could obtain early permission to use the spectrum, coordinating with the FAA and filing an online registration form with the commission. Under the spectrum strategy, the FCC, in coordination with NTIA and the FAA, is to “take near-term action to facilitate limited deployment of UAS in the 5030-5091 MHz band, in advance of future study of the band,” the FCC said. Under the strategy, work on future use of the band is supposed to start next March and be completed in March 2027.

Consumers' Research asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse the FCC's USF contribution factor for Q2 of FY 2024 (see 2401100044). In a filing posted Wednesday (docket 24-60160), the group repeated its claim that USF contributions are illegal taxes that the Universal Service Administrative Co. collects and "should be rejected."

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management released a final rule Thursday intended to clarify and reinforce protections for career civil servants and defend against future versions of former President Donald Trump’s Schedule F executive order (see 2010300048). “This final rule honors our 2.2 million career civil servants, helping ensure that people are hired and fired based on merit and that they can carry out their duties based on their expertise and not political loyalty,” OPM Director Kiran Ahuja said in a news release. Trump’s Schedule F order, which was reversed in the first week of President Joe Biden’s administration, would have reclassified many career civil servants, making it easier to terminate them and transfer their positions to political appointees. Trump’s campaign and the Republican Party have announced detailed plans -- partially authored by FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr -- to make sweeping changes to federal agencies, including the FCC, during a second Trump term. Thursday’s final rule is aimed at preventing another Schedule F order, and clarifies that a career federal employee who has earned civil service protections retains them until the worker voluntarily waives them. The order also establishes a transparent, appealable process for changing which positions receive civil service protections. “With these regulations, President Biden’s administration has strengthened the guardrails around the merit-based civil service,” said NTEU National President Doreen Greenwald in a release. “It will now be much harder for any president to arbitrarily remove the nonpartisan professionals who staff our federal agencies just to make room for hand-picked partisan loyalists.” An “independent federal workforce ensures that our government works for all of us, not for one party or one person,” said Bitsy Skerry, regulatory policy associate for Public Citizen, in an emailed release. The final rule will be published in the Federal Register Tuesday, OPM said.