CommLawBlog

A recent D.C. Circuit Court decision may significantly impact the access charges billed by over-the-top VoIP carriers. In 2015 the Commission issued a declaratory ruling (In re Connect America Fund, 30 FCC Rcd. 1587 (2015) regarding the classification of end office local switching when internet service providers (“ISPs”) collaborate with over-the-top VoIP providers to complete interexchange … Continue Reading

In a unanimous decision, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals this week rejected a claim by small wireless carrier NTCH, Inc. the FCC had unlawfully awarded thousands of licenses to Verizon Wireless in violation of the Communications Act. The case arose out of Verizon’s application in 2012 to acquire numerous licenses from SpectrumCo, a consortium … Continue Reading

(Speculation Abounds, But Much Will Stay the Same) A new administration always brings many questions from clients about how their FCC issues may be impacted. A Trump presidency brings even more questions than usual, because his campaign did not set out detailed proposals on telecommunications and spectrum policy. While much speculation brews inside the Beltway, … Continue Reading

(Notice of Inquiry latest opportunity to weigh in on the future of the DMCA Safe Harbor) “I was dreamin’ when I wrote this, so sue me if I go too fast…” Those are lyrics from the dearly beloved and extremely talented musician Prince’s epic 1982 hit “1999” from the album of the same name. He … Continue Reading

But EAS Participants have a year to advise their SECCs of what, if anything, they’re doing to provide EAS alerts to non-English speaking audiences. As we reported last spring, the FCC declined to require that non-English language announcements be provided by Emergency Alert System participants. But the Commission did decide that all State EAS Plans … Continue Reading

There are a number of upcoming FCC filing deadlines over the next three months that are relevant to broadcasters. You should review these carefully, as some are only applicable to certain licensees while others (the EEO-related and noncommercial ownership reports) are state-specific. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. November … Continue Reading

As we notified our readers in December 2015, the FCC created two filing windows for AM licensees to file for an FM translator. The first window (available only to licensees or permittees of Class C or D AM stations) ran from January 29, 2016 to July 28, 2016. The second window (available to any class … Continue Reading

A Hotly Contested Proceeding Expands the Commission’s Regulatory Authority, But Will Likely End Up in Court After a massive Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, extensive and contentious advocacy from all sides, and public revision of its own proposals, the FCC has just approved an Order enacting rules that impose a wide range of new regulations on Internet … Continue Reading

On October 26, 2016, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) announced agreements it had reached with two major record labels that relieve radio broadcasters from certain compliance conditions associated with the sound recording streaming statutory license that are inconsistent with traditional broadcasting practices. They do not, however, alter radio broadcasters’ royalty payment obligations under the … Continue Reading

Completing a process which began one year and one week earlier, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published a final rule in the Federal Register on October 21, 2016 which will change the fees for forty-two different trademark filings. The upshot is that anyone in the very small universe of people who still … Continue Reading

Input sought on revised catalog of likely repack expenses As we all know, TV stations forced by the Incentive Auction/spectrum repack process to modify their facilities will be entitled to reimbursement of their reasonable repacking-related costs. And as we reported a couple of years ago, to give everybody – FCC and affected broadcasters (and MVPDs) … Continue Reading

As we had anticipated, the Commission has officially activated its Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS) in connection with the arrival of Hurricane Matthew. Because of the urgency of the situation, the FCC has asked the NAB to get the word out to broadcast stations, and we here in the CommLawBlog bunker are more than happy … Continue Reading

On September 30 the Commission released a public notice soliciting comment on a plan for the post-Incentive Auction transition. As you might expect, the plan is complicated and dense with detail – we here in the CommLawBlog are still working our way through it – but the FCC’s initial plan is to get the public’s … Continue Reading

With Matthew, the first big hurricane to threaten Florida and the Carolinas in several years, barreling up the coast, the FCC has started its anticipatory disaster response. A public notice released this afternoon alerts the public that Commission personnel will be available, 24/7, to assist communications providers as they deal with the effects of the storm. … Continue Reading

By agreeing to hear “The Slants” case, Court may decide whether USPTO can cancel “Redskins” trademark registrations. [Blogmeister’s Note: To say our blogger, Kevin “The Swami” Goldberg, is opinionated is something of an understatement. One particular bug up his butt: the NFL team which is titularly Washington, D.C.’s, even though it practices in Virginia and … Continue Reading

As we all know, the FCC has been planning the second nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System for months. To monitor how the test goes, the Commission developed a whole new online reporting system – the EAS Test Reporting System (ETRS) – for which all EAS participants had to register separately a month ago. … Continue Reading

Just a quick reminder for all EAS participants. The second-ever nationwide test of the EAS system is still set for Wednesday, September 28, 2016 at 2:20 p.m. (ET). This is a command-performance-all-hands-on-deck gig for all participants, so you should be sure that your EAS gear is ready to go and your staff has been alerted … Continue Reading

Many FCC forms completed on a “routine” basis may need extra attention. Anyone who fills in pretty much any FCC form should be familiar with the certifications required by those forms. Anyone who “signs” an FCC form (whether electronically or otherwise) must be familiar with them; more importantly, the signatory must be sure that the … Continue Reading

In migration to cloud-based platform, FCC stops mailing some ULS, ASR notices. If you’re a frequent flyer in the FCC’s Universal Licensing System (ULS) or Antenna Structure Registration (ASR) system, don’t panic if you notice a sudden drop-off in hard-copy letters from the FCC. The FCC is moving both systems to a cloud-based platform and, … Continue Reading

News Editors’ website highlights post addressing permissible media use of “user-generated” photo/video content obtained from social media and other Internet sources. I’m fortunate to represent a number of press-related trade associations. As part of my work for them, I provide a “Legal Hotline” service through which association members get to ask me questions without incurring massive … Continue Reading

BMI strategy begins to pay dividends. You may recall our report last August that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) had closed a two-year inquiry into the ASCAP and BMI Consent Decrees by determining that no changes to the Decrees were necessary. DOJ also weighed in on a particularly controversial issue – the licensing of … Continue Reading

It’s official. The Commission has finally let us all know that we will have to have this year’s regulatory fees paid no later than September 27. Fee Filer is now up and running (you can get there at this link), so anyone so inclined can get a jump on things right away. But don’t forget … Continue Reading

On the Friday before Labor Day weekend, the Commission released the final listing of regulatory fees for 2016. Those fees will have to be paid sometime before September 30, but as of September 4, the Commission had neither announced the deadline nor opened up its Fee Filer system for acceptance of reg fees. Maybe the … Continue Reading

Supposedly wrapping up 2006, 2010 and 2014 reviews, FCC leaves most media ownership restrictions in place, adds some new burdens As we have observed more than once (here and here, for example), the FCC’s quadrennial media ownership review process is Sisyphean in nature: even before the Commission can complete one review, the next begins, and … Continue Reading

But success will be limited if the FCC approves mobile usage in the 70/80 GHz segments. The FCC rules mandate a lot of different techniques to keep radio communications from interfering with each other. One of the more unusual applies to the “nosebleed spectrum” way up at 71-76, 81-86, and 92-95 GHz – the highest … Continue Reading

Modified programmer compliance certifications, complaint procedures, to take effect September 22, 2016 For nearly two decades the FCC has been working to insure that television programming is appropriately accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing through closed captioning technology. In 2014 it finally got around to developing quality control standards which it applied not … Continue Reading

Attention all you EAS participants. The deadline for registering with the Commission’s EAS Test Reporting System (ETRS) AND submitting your ETRS Form One is fast approaching. We alerted you to the August 26, 2016 deadline a couple of months ago – but, what with the distractions of summer and all, we figure it’s a good … Continue Reading

Last month we reported on the addition of three new event codes (those would be EWW, SSA and SSW) and two revised location codes to the laundry list of EAS-related codes to be used in the headers of emergency announcements. As we noted back then, the FCC’s original order didn’t seem to mention exactly when … Continue Reading

Siding with music users, DOJ concludes that Decrees call for “full-work” – rather than “fractional” – music licensing; ASCAP and BMI head to court and Congress. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has formally closed its two-year-long review of the decades-old ASCAP and BMI Consent Decrees. Those Decrees mandate federal court oversight of the rates … Continue Reading

Novel consent decree provision requires company to “share information” with third-party software developers and others. In what might ordinarily have been a run-of-the-mill consent decree between Wi-Fi equipment manufacturer TP-Link and the FCC, the company has admitted to selling potentially overpowered Wi-Fi routers and has agreed to pay a fine of $200,000 – toward the … Continue Reading

$202k fine reduced to $40k … but there’s a catch. Three years ago – doesn’t the time just fly? – we told you about Towerstream, a wireless Internet service provider (WISP) whose transmitters had caused interference to airport weather radars. The FCC proposed a fine of $202,000, apparently in keeping with its rumored policy of … Continue Reading

A couple of weeks ago we reported on the FCC’s adoption of a new schedule of application fees. Since the new schedule ups fees across-the-board, anybody who was planning to file a fee-able application in the near term might want to file sooner rather than later, to take advantage of the outgoing fees before they, … Continue Reading

But no, the licenses aren’t yet available. The FCC’s roll-out of its three new types of experimental licenses – “program licenses” for large-scale innovators, “medical testing licenses” for clinical trials, and “compliance testing licenses” for compliance test labs – has been frustratingly slow. The original order authorizing these categories came out early in 2013, followed … Continue Reading

U.S. aims to get ahead of the rest of the world in advanced wireless technology. As we’ve reported, the FCC has been hard at work on the regulatory regime for future wireless “5G” technologies, which promise blindingly fast data speeds. Would-be 5G wireless providers and device manufacturers particularly want wide swaths of millimeter wave (mmWave) … Continue Reading

Last month we reported on a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) through which the FCC is seeking comment on the way it processes proposals involving reportable levels of foreign ownership. The NPRM has now wended its way into the Federal Register, which means that the deadlines for comments and replies have been set. Get out … Continue Reading

While supporting the decision, Commissioner O’Rielly criticizes FCC’s “cost/benefit” analysis In what four out of five FCC Commissioners seem to view as a no-brainer, the Emergency Alert System just got three more event codes and two slightly-revised geographic location codes. The odd man out? Commissioner O’Rielly. He doesn’t question the potential utility of the new/revised … Continue Reading

Normally non-controversial biennial action spiced up this year by partial dissent from Commissioner O’Rielly Thanks to Congress, the FCC has got to charge application fees and, also thanks to Congress, those fees have got to be adjusted every two years in light of changes in the Consumer Price Index. The last time the Commission tweaked … Continue Reading