As of the end of Q1 2024, the C-Band Relocation Payment Clearinghouse cumulatively has received 4,405 claims totaling $3.52 billion, with nearly $3.3 billion of that from satellite operators, it said Wednesday in docket 18-122. It said as of Q1's end, it had approved 96% of lump sum claims, and cumulatively approved claims totaling $2.64 billion. A cumulative $2.51 billion in claims were paid.

FCC commissioners will vote at their May 23 open meeting on an NPRM proposing labs from companies on the agency’s “covered list” of unsecure firms be barred from participating in the equipment authorization process. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Republican Commissioner Brendan Carr announced the NPRM Wednesday. “This new proceeding would permanently prohibit Huawei and other entities on the FCC’s Covered List from playing any role in the equipment authorization program while also providing the FCC and its national security partners the necessary tools to safeguard this important process,” a news release said. “We must ensure that our equipment authorization program and those entrusted with administering it can rise to the challenge posed by persistent and ever-changing security and supply chain threats,” Rosenworcel said. The NPRM is “another significant step in the FCC’s work to advance the security of America’s communications networks,” Carr said: It proposes “to ensure that the test labs and certification bodies that review electronic devices for compliance with FCC requirements are themselves trustworthy actors that the FCC can rely on.” The NPRM builds on a 2022 order, which bans FCC authorization of gear from companies including Huawei, ZTE, Hytera Communications, Hikvision and Dahua Technology (see 2211230065). Last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit remanded part of that order to the FCC to further develop the definition of critical infrastructure (see 2404020068). Commissioners will also consider an adjudicatory matter from the Media Bureau, and four items from the Enforcement Bureau as part of the abbreviated agenda, per Rosenworcel's note. She thanked other commissioners for their work on national security issues. “Working together, we have enacted and enforced rules to safeguard our wired and wireless networks from communications equipment that has been determined to pose an unacceptable risk to national security,” she said.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr appeared on a News Nation broadcast Tuesday to opine on protests at Columbia University over the conflict in Gaza, according to a Carr X post Wednesday. On the broadcast, Carr said he was in New York for work and “thought it was important to express some appreciation for what the NYPD is doing out here,” and witness the protest. He said the First Amendment protects political speech but not violent conduct. “That includes storming buildings,” he said. “Everyone here has the right to express their viewpoints, however vile,” Carr tweeted.

NTCA takes special interest in the impact of the FCC’s Nov. 20 digital discrimination order on its small-business members, the association’s amicus brief argued in the 8th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court (docket 24-1179) said Monday. The brief supports the 20 industry petitioners that want the order vacated as unlawful (see 2404230032). The “potential adverse effects” of the order implementing Section 60506 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act “risk particular impact to small businesses that generally lack access to resources and economies of scale that can enable larger businesses to absorb substantial market or regulatory changes,” NTCA’s brief said. But those impacts “are neither envisioned nor authorized by the statute, whose language contemplates a far more limited scope of implementation,” it said. Compliance with certain of the standards presented in the FCC’s order “is effectively impossible since the processes by which those measures can be achieved are wholly inconsistent with the normal and ordinary practices within which NTCA members conduct their business,” it added. The standards contemplate the ability of small private businesses “to have access to the confidential business considerations of other businesses,” it said: “This result, too, is neither contemplated nor accommodated in the statutory language.” The 8th Circuit should hold the order as "unlawful" and set it aside, said NTCA.

The FCC's supplemental coverage from space (SCS) licensing framework that commissioners adopted 5-0 in March (see 2403140050) becomes effective May 30, according to a notice for Tuesday's Federal Register. Comments are due May 30 and replies July 1 in a Further NPRM adopted with the order, said a separate notice. The NPRM asks questions about SCS delivery of 911 service and protection of radio astronomy.

A final bipartisan, bicameral bill reauthorizing the FAA includes a provision directing the Government Accountability Office to undertake a study of airspace congestion and DOT's inspector general to audit the FAA's internal processes for communicating civil aviation operators' positions to NTIA when it comes to spectrum reallocation or auctions. The FAA Reauthorization Act, released Monday, says the GAO will examine issues including commercial space launch and reentry activity. The bill directs the DOT IG to "improve internal processes by which proposed spectrum reallocations or auctions are thoroughly reviewed in advance" to ensure civil aviation stakeholders' stances get submitted to NTIA and then the FCC. The IG also must seek ways of improving communication with those aviation stakeholders about proposed spectrum reallocation or auctions that could affect the national airspace system, the bill says. It directs the FAA to conduct R&D in consultation with NTIA and the FCC on "effective and efficient use and management of radio frequency spectrum in the civil aviation domain." The legislation also directs that the FAA, with NTIA and FCC consultation, start an R&D program for development of standards for next-generation radio altimeters.

A joint proposal from NCTA and several consumer groups representing the hearing impaired “does not solve all technical issues” involved in improving closed caption display settings accessibility, but is enough for the FCC to move forward, NCTA said in reply comments posted Friday in docket 12-108. The Joint Proposal “at least provides a mechanism to deliver device-level caption display settings to applications hosted on the device” and could “provide a path” for eventually tackling “more complex issues.” Responding to CTA concerns about the proposal (see 2404170061), NCTA said that each entity in the video production chain would be responsible for its products and that cable operators will consult with consumers and train customer care and support employees to help subscribers adjust their caption displays. In their own joint reply comments, several consumer groups representing the hearing impaired said FCC action is the only way to get better caption display accessibility. “Market forces have simply failed our constituency – not now, nor ever over the past twenty years” since the FCC adopted rules on digital TV closed captioning display settings “have these settings been readily accessible to television viewers,” said the filing from the National Association of the Deaf, the Hearing Loss Association of America, Communication Service for the Deaf, and TDIforAccess. The groups also called for the FCC to apply similar accessibility requirements to other entities beyond the cable companies covered in the joint proposal and to give any new rules an implementation deadline no longer than two years.

Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said Thursday Nese Guendelsberger, from the Office of International Affairs, will serve as his acting adviser for wireless, space and international issues. She replaces Shiva Goel, now at NTIA (see 2404240059). Guendelsberger “brings deep knowledge of international spectrum issues, which I got to see firsthand on the ground at [the World Radiocommunication Conference] in Dubai,” Starks said: “She is a true public servant, and I am glad to have her counsel.”

Instead of considering opening the 1.6/2.4 GHz band to mobile satellite systems, as SpaceX has argued (see 2403270002), the FCC should investigate whether SpaceX should even keep its FCC licenses, the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America said Wednesday. If the FCC doesn't revoke the company's licenses, it should restrict CEO Elon Musk's control and management of SpaceX, said UCCA, an umbrella group of Ukrainian-American organizations. "Musk cannot use FCC licenses to militarily aid Russia, a state that is subject to U.S. sanctions," UCCA said. UCCA pointed to SpaceX allegedly refusing a Ukrainian government request to allow the Starlink satellite constellation to be used in Sevastopol to aid in an attack on Russia's fleet and Musk allegedly directing the disability or impediment of Starlink terminal functions that Ukrainian armed forces use. It alleged Musk made Starlink available to the Russian military, as it purchases terminals through other countries, and that its use in Russia-occupied Crimea is allegedly no longer geofenced. Beyond what it called unreliable Starlink service, UCCA said evidence of Musk's "illegal drug use and his erratic behavior is overwhelming." It added, "Simply stated, there is much more than smoke, there is a fireball of evidence that Musk lacks the basic qualifications to remain a Commission licensee." Accordingly, the commission should hold a hearing to determine if Musk can remain an FCC licensee, it said. SpaceX didn't comment. UCCA in 2022 petitioned for a hearing on the licenses of the owners of a Washington, D.C., area station that airs Russia's Radio Sputnik network (see 2203230054).

Nokia became the first vendor to announce the availability of buy America-compliant fiber broadband network electronics and optical modules ahead of NTIA's broadband, equity, access, and deployment program Wednesday (see 2402230064). The company, which powers 70% of fiber broadband lines in North America, said its products "have rolled off the Sanmina manufacturing line." Nokia will "self-certify each product according to NTIA specifications to ensure that listed vendors comply with the final guidelines," it said, adding its optical line terminal cards, which connect users to gigabit data services, "can be ordered as individual products or as part of Nokia’s Network-in-a-Box program." NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson, who traveled to Wisconsin to see the new equipment and meet workers who manufactured it, praised the milestone. “President Biden challenged industry to create good-paying manufacturing jobs in support of our major infrastructure investments, and companies like Nokia have risen to that challenge,” Davidson said.