The metaverse is often cited as driving the eventual need for fiber networks, but generative AI alongside the metaverse "will really be a catalyst" for the higher speeds and improved latency and reliability fiber brings, Dell'Oro Group's Jeff Heynen blogged Thursday. Broadband service providers increasingly are introducing machine learning and AI platforms with the goal of anticipating and correcting network issues before they have notable impact, he said: "Self-healing broadband networks are the goal." He said AI also will likely be leveraged for broadband mapping as nations increasingly push for investments to expand broadband availability and affordability.

The Better Business Bureau's National Advertising Review Board referred some Xfinity ad claims to the FTC after Comcast declined to modify or drop ad claims as recommended, NARB said Wednesday. It said Comcast appealed a National Advertising Division recommendation that the Xfinity ads be modified or pulled (see 2305160005), and an NARB panel hearing the appeal sided with NAD. NARB said since Comcast isn't complying with the panel recommendation, it "is referring the advertising to the FTC for possible enforcement action." Comcast didn't comment Wednesday.

The FCC should extend by 45 days the comments and replies deadlines for lower and upper 12 GHz band proceedings, satellite interests urged Monday in docket 20-443. The questions posed have long-term implications for multiple industries and "require significant and thoughtful analysis that merits providing additional time," they said. They said the satellite industry is also under a time crunch with another comment deadline coming at about the same time. Signing the filing were the Satellite Industry Association, Eutelsat, Hispasat, Intelsat, Ovzon, SES, SpaceX and OneWeb.

Federal offices in the Washington, D.C., region closed early Monday because of concerns over a severe storm approaching the area. The National Weather Service issued an unusual Level 4 risk warning for the area. “Employees of Federal agencies in the Washington, DC area are authorized for Early Departure,” said a notice from the Office of Personnel Management: “Employees should depart 2 hours earlier than their normal departure time and may request Unscheduled Leave to depart prior to their staggered departure time. All employees Must Depart no later than 3:00 at which time Federal offices are Closed.”

The FCC agreed Thursday to a Federal Emergency Management Agency request (see 2308020047) for a waiver to do a national test of the wireless emergency alert system Oct. 4. FEMA will also do a nationwide emergency alert system test the same day. All commercial mobile service (CMS) providers that participate in the WEA program are required to participate, said a notice from the Public Safety Bureau. “FEMA will initiate the test of WEA at 2:18 pm EDT ... using the National Alert classification of Alert Message,” the bureau said: “Members of the public with mobile device service from a CMS provider that participates in WEA in their areas will receive the test message, which will read ‘THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.’ The WEA alert will be transmitted in both English and Spanish in both 90 and 360 character sets.” The nationwide test of the EAS starts at 2:20 p.m. EDT. The test will use the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System and “be disseminated in English and Spanish as a Common Alerting Protocol message using the Nationwide Test of the Emergency Alert System code," the bureau said. If conditions on that date require rescheduling of the tests, they will be done Oct. 11, the bureau said.

The C-band overlay licensees have been sent a billing statement for $653 million for Phase II accelerated relocation payments for Telesat, Eutelsat and Embratel, all of which certified their relocation from the band, the Relocation Payment Clearinghouse said in a report posted Tuesday in docket 18-122. The clearinghouse said it received 499 claims totaling $295 million during Q2 2023 for lump-sum payments and relocation reimbursement costs. It said it cumulatively has received 2,766 claims for $3.01 billion.

Consumers' Research asked the U.S. Supreme Court to extend the deadline to file its cert petition challenging a 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision upholding the FCC's USF 2021 Q4 contribution factor (see 2305300009). The group asked in an application posted Friday that the court extend the Aug. 28 deadline by 60 days, to Oct. 27, to file its petition. The group noted the 5th Circuit's decision to grant rehearing for its challenge of a separate contribution factor, saying it "signals that it may soon split from the Sixth Circuit on these important nondelegation matters" (see 2306290074).

Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn is a Republican (see 2307270058).

The FCC is working with the White House's interagency Task Force on Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks to Children regarding concerns about environmental and health risks potentially posed by telecommunications companies' lead cables, agency spokesperson emailed us Friday. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said the agency has offered assistance to EPA (see 2307210004). "We take seriously the concerns raised about potential lead exposure from communications lines," she said. Meanwhile, the EPA, the FCC and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration should form a joint task force with the aim of mapping lead cable deployments nationwide and prioritizing remediation, former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Blair Levin, who oversaw development of the agency's National Broadband Plan, wrote for the Brookings Institute Friday. "One would hope [the three] along with the White House are already coordinating such a response," as such a task force could give guidance on remediation strategies and exposure risks, they said. Wheeler, a Brookings visiting fellow, and Levin, a nonresident senior fellow, said the first step must be mapping where and how the lead cables are deployed, and then prioritizing the different installations where remediation is necessary. If there are debates and litigation about what science says about the actual threat, as well as about ownership liability, "the matter will drag on unresolved for years," they said. Other states are likely to follow New York and require telcos to provide an inventory of lead-affected cables, they said. But only the federal government "has the combination of skills and resources to orchestrate an acceptable resolution," they said. The EPA will be a focus of discussions, though the FCC has the authority to demand such information as data about previous testing and the location of lead sheathed cables, they said. Having taxpayers foot remediation costs seems unlikely, but it's probably the best path to accelerated remediation of sites where the cables present an immediate or near-term risk, they said. The FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program "provides a model for addressing common practices that in the fullness of time created risks that America broadly wants to be eliminated," they said. Since billions spent on cleanup by telcos could affect their broadband deployment activity, "we need the federal government to map, prioritize and fund the solutions."

SpaceX use of T-Mobile's PCS G Block spectrum for mobile supplemental coverage from space won't cause satellite in-band interference, and cross-border and adjacent band users will be protected, representatives of the companies told FCC Space and Wireless Bureau staffers, per a docket 23-135 filing Thursday. They said Omnispace claims of likely uplink interference (see 2305190057) were based on faulty assumptions and aggregate interference of SpaceX's SCS downlink to Omnispace uplink will be well below internal noise power. They said SpaceX's system is designed to dynamically avoid international borders and will comply with out-of-band emissions limits. While claiming they won't be the cause of interference, the companies don't give any evidence to back that, Omnispace Chief Regulatory and International Strategy Officer Mindel de la Torre told us. Their internal noise power claims similarly don't come with any evidence, she said.