Consumers' Research told the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a letter filed Monday (docket 22-60008), that it disagrees with the 11th Circuit's Dec. 14 opinion that Communications Act Section 254 contains a "sufficient 'intelligible principle'" (see 2312140058). The group said Section 254 is unconstitutional because it allows the FCC to "daisy-chain its power." Consumers' Research also disagreed with the 11th Circuit's ruling on its nondelegation challenge, saying that "letting private proposals automatically become binding ... is the definition of a private nondelegation violation."

CEOs of Google Fiber, Allo Fiber and Ting Internet urged the FCC to update the definition of broadband standard to 100/100 Mbps in a letter posted Tuesday in docket 22-270. "American families today need a standard that will allow them [to] fully function in today’s society," the letter said: "An asymmetrical standard implies that entertainment use cases for the internet are more important than productivity uses that consistently require more upload bandwidth." Adopting the standard would also ensure "certain low-income and rural America will not be getting internet that is already antiquated the day it is installed," the CEOs said.

Establishing broadband as a Title II service would deter investment, according to a Phoenix Center study released Tuesday. Conducted by Phoenix Center Chief Economist George Ford, the empirical analysis found the "looming threat of Title II regulation" is "a chronic obstacle to infrastructure investment as periods of lighter regulation are perceived as temporary." Ford also argued that the FCC's rules on digital discrimination are a "threat to economically rational investment decisions and discourage investment."

National Emergency Number Association representatives met with FCC Public Safety Bureau staff on the group’s i3 standard and an ATIS standard for IP multimedia subsystems (IMS), in an attempt to offer clarity, said a filing posted Friday in docket 21-479. “There is some confusion with respect” to next-generation 911 standards, NENA said. “The IMS911 specification, ATIS 0500036, implements the NENA i3 standard in an existing IMS … system,” the group said: “It is a standard targeted towards existing IMS systems to offer i3 based NG9-1-1 services over their existing network. IMS911 and NENA i3 are complementary, and not competing, specifications and systems implementing them are expected to be fully interoperable.” NENA said all known NG-911 systems in the U.S. are using only the i3 standard at this point.

Verizon agrees with concerns that CTIA and USTelecom raised on draft data breach rules, teed up for a Wednesday FCC commissioner vote (see 2312070034), said a filing posted Friday in docket 22-21. A Verizon representative spoke with an aide to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “The description in the draft of what constitutes ‘sensitive personal information’ is extremely broad and is inconsistent with other data breach reporting and privacy regimes,” Verizon said.

A new NTCA study found that its members offer fiber services with average downstream speeds of at least 100 Mbps to about 84% of their customers, the group announced Wednesday. More than 67% of customers have access to Gigabit downstream speeds. "This year’s survey reinforces and underscores NTCA members’ abiding commitment to the communities they serve, advancing broadband built to last in rural America, and highlights how rural consumers are making greater use of these services," NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield said. Conducted in August by Association Research, the study found that nearly 60% of the respondents’ customers subscribed to downstream speeds of at least 100 Mbps compared with about 49% in the 2022 survey.

The FCC's rules implementing the Safe Connections Act take effect Jan. 14, said a notice for Tuesday's Federal Register. Commissioners adopted the item in November (see 2311150042).

FCC staff granted USTelecom and the Competitive Carrier Association's petition to extend for three additional filing periods the FCC's waiver of broadband data collection rules allowing filers to submit information by a nonlicensed professional engineer, said an order Thursday (see 2309120062). Adopted by the chiefs of the Wireline Bureau, Wireless Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics, the order required filers to also preserve "additional network information for expeditious submission to the commission upon request."

OMB approved for three years an information collection associated with the FCC's rural healthcare (RHC) program, according to a notice for Friday's Federal Register. Commissioners approved an order in January revising existing information collection requirements associated with the RHC telecom program to simplify support calculations and streamline invoicing (see 2301260041).

Elliott Investment Management Monday called for "significant changes" to Crown Castle's executive and board leadership. The firm, which manages a roughly $2 billion investment in Crown Castle, cited in its letter to Crown Castle a "history of underperformance" and "profound lack of oversight by the board." "After spending $19 billion on its fiber strategy, performance remains poor and the company's fiber investments now generate yields that are not only below its cost of capital, but astoundingly, also below the risk-free rate of return," the letter said. Elliot called for "comprehensive leadership change," a reevaluation of the company's fiber strategy and "improved corporate governance." Crown Castle said it "remains confident" in its executive leadership. "We look forward to reviewing Elliott’s materials and are open to commencing a constructive engagement with Elliott," it said.