It may be the doldrums of summer, but our friends at the FCC have not been resting. Here are some of the agency’s recent highlights:

Establishes the Digital Opportunity Data Collection: At its August meeting the FCC finally responds to the widely known defect in its broadband maps that overstate functional broadband service. In a Report and Order in Docket 19-195 it establishes a new data collection that will collect geospatial broadband coverage maps from fixed broadband Internet service providers in areas where they make fixed broadband available. This data will help develop high-quality fixed broadband deployment maps, which should improve the Commission’s ability to target broadband support dollars more efficiently.

The Commission also adopts a new process to collect public input on the accuracy of these ISP generated broadband maps that will be facilitated by a crowd-sourcing portal that will gather input from consumers as well as from state, local, and Tribal governments.

Bans Malicious Caller ID Spoofing of Text Messages and Foreign Robocalls: The RAY BAUM Act in 2018 extended the 2009 Truth in Caller ID Act to text messages and international calls. That Act prohibits anyone from causing a caller ID service to knowingly transmit misleading or inaccurate caller ID information (“spoofing”) with the intent to defraud, cause harm, or wrongly obtain anything of value. The FCC writes rules to implement these prohibitions to text messages, calls originating from outside the United States to recipients within the United States, and additional types of voice calls, such as one-way VoIP calls. The Commission states that these new rules will allow it “to bring enforcement actions against bad actors who spoof text messages and those who seek out victims in this country from overseas.”

Proposes $20.4 Billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund: The Commission begins a Rulemaking to establish The Rural Digital Opportunity Fund to bring high-speed broadband to areas currently served by price cap ILECs along with other areas that do not currently receive any high-cost universal service support. It seeks industry comments on raising the standard for broadband deployment from the Connect America Fund’s 10 Mbps/1 Mbps minimum to at least 25 Mbps/3 Mbps, with incentives for faster speeds. It also proposes to allocate support dollars through a multi-round reverse auction.

Receives Comments on Establishing an Overall Cap on the Four Programs in the Universal Service Fund: On July 29, 2019 the industry filed comments in a Rulemaking proceeding in Docket 06-122 designed to implement an overall cap to more efficiently run the various universal service programs. According to the Commission, a “cap could promote meaningful consideration of spending decisions...limit the contribution burden borne by ratepayers, provide regulatory and financial certainty, and promote efficiency, fairness, accountability, and sustainability of the USF programs.” Not surprisingly, while commenters paid lip service to making the Fund more efficient, most gave a thumbs down to an overall cap for fear that they themselves would lose funding if an overall cap was established. At a minimum, commenters claimed that if a cap is established, they should never receive less money than they receive today.

DC Circuit Rejects FCC Attempt to Exempt 5G Development from Historic and Environmental Reviews: On August 9, 2019, the DC Circuit partially overturned a March 2018 FCC Order in Docket 17-79 which exempted most small cell construction needed to deploy 5G networks from a historic-preservation review under the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and an environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The Order was appealed by the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma, the Blackfeet Tribe, and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). They claimed the Order reduced their ability to evaluate the effects of construction on sites of religious and cultural importance to federally recognized Indian Tribes. The Court found that “the Commission failed to justify its confidence that small cell deployments pose little to no cognizable religious, cultural, or environmental risk, particularly given the vast number of proposed deployments and the reality that the Order will principally affect small cells that require new construction." The decision could ultimately slow down 5G network deployment.

White House May Seek to Have FCC and Federal Trade Commission Regulate Social Networks: The Trump administration and Republicans in general believe that social networks such as Facebook and Twitter systematically discriminate against conservatives. Politico and CNN claim they have seen a draft order which would require the FCC to develop new regulations clarifying how and when the law protects social media websites when they decide to remove or suppress content on their platforms. It would also require the FTC to take those new policies into account when it investigates or files lawsuits against misbehaving companies. In other words, the proposal would seek to regulate speech by private companies. While many of these sites do appear to have developed algorithms that favor liberals, this is not the way to stop it. Aside from violating the Constitution, the agencies involved are woefully unprepared to regulate speech. This is a horrible idea and it will justifiably get nowhere.