Free market-oriented groups filed an amicus brief in support of Consumers' Research's challenge of the FCC's method for funding the USF, the subject of an upcoming en banc rehearing of the group’s challenge of the USF and how it’s funded by the FCC (see 2306290074). “Only Congress has the power to lay and to collect taxes for the universal welfare of all Americans. Regardless of the public policy that it seeks to advance, Congress cannot delegate this power to the FCC or any other executive branch agency,” said an amicus brief by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Free State Foundation and former Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth, among others. Consumers’ Research argued the statutory framework for the fund unconstitutionally delegates legislative or taxing authority, and the FCC’s use of the Universal Service Administrative Co. is an impermissible delegation of regulatory authority to a private company. A three-judge panel ruled against Consumers' Research in March (see 2303240049). Said the filing Friday in case 22-60008: “The Constitution does not permit Congress to circumvent the legislative process by allowing an independent agency (guided by a private company owned by an industry trade group) to raise and to spend however much money it wants every quarter for ‘universal service’ at the expense of every American who pays a monthly phone bill. Elected representatives of the people, not the [FCC], must be responsible for making the difficult decisions to raise the revenue that funds this program.”
The FCC's robocall response team signed a memorandum of understanding with attorneys general in Hawaii and New Mexico Thursday to investigate illegal robocalls, bringing the total to 48 states and territories. Robocalls are "a tool for scammers to commit serious financial harm,” Hawaii First Deputy Attorney General Matt Dvonch said: “We welcome this new partnership with the FCC to better expand our reach and pool our resources in the fight against robocalls.”
The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau sought comment by Aug. 21 on a petition for limited waiver filed by T-Mobile Accessibility seeking waiver of the requirement that text telephone (TTY)-based relay service be capable of communicating with the American Standard Code for Information Interchange format. Replies are due Aug. 31. “T-Mobile contends that the ASCII format is now obsolete and has very few users” and that “continued compliance with the requirement inhibits innovation and imposes significant near-term costs,” the bureau said Friday in docket 03-123.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh granted a Consumers Research request to extend until Oct. 27 the deadline to file a petition for writ of certiorari Tuesday (see 2307310061). The group sought the extension for its challenge of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision upholding the FCC's USF 2021 Q4 contribution factor. Kavanaugh is the justice assigned to the 6th Circuit.
UnitedHealth Group (UHG) raised healthcare industry concerns on a June NPRM on giving consumers more choice on the robocalls and robotexts they receive (see 2306080043). “UHG supports the efforts by the FCC to protect consumers from unwanted robocalls and robotexts,” the company said in a filing Monday in docket 02-278: “We agree that consumers have the right to revoke their prior consent and that callers should adopt and maintain reasonable standards to comply with such requests. We ask the FCC to frame its rulemaking in a manner that does not unduly limit or discourage the use of telephone and text contacts in the context of health care.”
The FCC Disability Advisory Committee will meet in person at 9 a.m. Sept. 7 at FCC headquarters, said a Friday notice in the Federal Register. This is the second meeting of the current DAC, after one in April (see 2304260060).
Rollout of Gogo's terrestrial 5G system for business aviation has been delayed to mid next year due to a design error in a non-5G component of its chip, the company said Friday. The chip was designed by a third-party subcontractor, it said. It said its suppliers did extensive testing successfully of the 5G components of the chip.
The FTC withdrew its proposed rulemaking on reviewing the effectiveness of its pay-per-call rule, said a notice for Friday's Federal Register. "While comments received during this review were supportive, technological changes have muted the impact of the proposed revisions," the notice said.
Most carriers will phase out their legacy time-division multiplexing operations by about 2030, said Francois Caron, senior director-product management, at network solutions provider Ribbon, on a Light Reading webinar Thursday. “We’re going to run out of people who can operate existing TDM networks,” Caron predicted. TDM technologies are at a point where they have “outlived” the people who built them, understand them and know how to operate them, he said. “Finding someone with TDM knowledge who can continue to operate the gear that’s in today’s networks is going to be a massive challenge,” he said: “You don’t have that much time left to determine what you’re going to do with those legacy assets.” Carriers need to ask, “Do I really need a TDM copper network. What if we just bypassed the entire copper network if and when possible,” Caron said.
The FCC Wireline Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics extended until Sept. 15 the deadline for broadband data collection submissions of availability data as of June 30 (see 2307030033). The extension will give providers additional time to incorporate updated broadband serviceable location fabric data into their submissions, per a public notice Wednesday in docket 19-195. "These updates were necessary to correct a processing error that occurred during the production of the June 2023 fabric," the notice said. Already uploaded or submitted fixed broadband availability data must be reuploaded or resubmitted based on the updated fabric.