Pointing to growing U.S. concerns about increased cybersecurity risks and threats, the FCC's Enforcement Bureau is adding to its cybersecurity and privacy resources, bureau Chief Loyaan Egal said Thursday at a Media Institute lunch. The bureau has "more than doubled" staff handling these types of cases, with a number of hires having privacy and data projection experience, he said. By early next year, the bureau will have four senior officials with significant DOJ and interagency experience in national security, data protection and cybersecurity, he said. The $150,000 FCC fine against Dish Network for improper disposal of a satellite (see 2310020049) "made clear that the U.S. government is serious about enforcing the rules governing satellite orbital operations" and orbital debris, he said. The FCC's investigation into and nearly $300 million fine against perpetrators of scam auto warranty robocalls (see 2212210054) resulted in a 99% decline in those types of calls, he said. Asked about the challenge of collecting fines bought by the bureau, Egal said DOJ has "a ton of priorities." He added, "But we believe this is a priority." Egal said access to Bank Secrecy Act information, as Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has urged (see 2306080043), would allow for expanded FCC investigations related to finances of bad actors and let the agency rebut arguments about inability to pay.

Several groups met individually this week with FCC staff regarding the agency's draft rules on digital discrimination that will be considered during the commissioners' Nov. 15 open meeting, per filings posted Wednesday in docket 22-69. In a meeting with the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance sought clarification on how the FCC will address "present conditions" if retroactive liability won't apply to any final rules. NDIA also urged the adoption of a formal complaint process "to ensure consistency in how the commission handles digital discrimination complaints, regardless of staff or leadership changes." Verizon raised concerns in separate meetings with Wireline Bureau staff and an aide to Commissioner Nathan Simington about the "expansive list" of factors in the definition of "other quality of service metrics" in the draft order. The FCC should "include language in the order stating that neither the scope of the order nor any of its other provisions or rules is intended to limit a provider’s ability to improve its customers’ experience," Verizon said. NCTA warned in separate meetings with a Simington aide and an aide to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel that the lists of covered entities and services "will make the draft order unworkable in practice." ACA Connects said in a letter that the draft order would "chill investment and innovation" if adopted in its current form. It asked the FCC to clarify that it will assess providers' technical and economic feasibility based on their "industry-standard, multi-year upgrade and build cycles." NTCA raised similar concerns, saying "disparate outcomes may emerge from technological and economic considerations." The Wireless ISP Association raised concerns about the use of "subjective terms" in the draft's definitions, saying the draft is "impermissibly broad." WISPA urged the FCC to "reverse course" by limiting provider's obligations to its own "similar circumstances" and "prior success" to prove technical or economic infeasibility rather than requiring it to obtain information from other covered entities.

NTCA and the Fiber Broadband Association unveiled an updated playbook Wednesday with guidance for state broadband offices as they work toward meeting NTIA's Dec. 27 deadline to submit initial proposals for the broadband, equity, access and deployment program (see 2203040049). To date, 51 states and territories have submitted volume one of their proposals and 43 have submitted volume two, per an NTIA dashboard. The playbook, written by telecom consulting research firm Cartesian, highlights four of the "most challenging BEAD proposal requirements," the groups said. It includes guidance on permitting, achieving digital opportunities, broadband mapping challenges, and cybersecurity and supply chain risk management. The playbook is "fundamental to every state’s funding implementation plans, so we want to ensure each state broadband office is able to address these policy elements confidently and correctly,” FBA CEO Gary Bolton said: "Our goal is to ensure that states can implement BEAD in ways that will have meaningful and lasting impacts.” NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield said the playbook "contains critical guidance for state broadband offices as they craft their initial proposals and look to make a lasting impact on broadband access.” The BEAD program is "a historic opportunity to deliver broadband to unserved and underserved areas, and it is critical that we leverage these resources to build networks that will keep pace with consumer needs for decades to come," Bloomfield said.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology extended until Dec. 22 the deadline for comments on an implementation plan for a U.S. national standards strategy for critical and emerging technology (see 2305230061). The strategy is intended to support “existing private sector-led activities and plans … with a focus on critical and emerging technology,” said NIST in a Monday Federal Register notice. Comments had been due that day.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr won't be backing a Dahua request that would let it sell its video surveillance equipment to nonsensitive central government sites such as police stations or to private buyers. "That is going to be a no from me," Carr posted Friday on X. In docket 21-232 last week, Dahua requested that commission restrictions on use of its equipment in government facilities be aligned with similar restrictions the U.K. government adopted in 2022 but that restrict use only at sensitive central government facilities.

Harmonize FCC Part 25 rules governing satellites so that out-of-band-emission limits for non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) earth stations in motion are consistent with emissions limits for terrestrial wireless, Verizon representatives told FCC Space Bureau Chief Julie Kearney, per a docket 18-315 filing Friday. That harmonization would promote regulatory parity and efficient spectrum sharing between ESIM and upper microwave flexible use service operators, the wireless carrier said. But absent that harmonization, Verizon said it was "amenable" to keeping the current 50 MHz guard band between UMFUS operations in the 27.5-28.35 GHz band from NGSO ESIM operations in the adjacent 28.35-28.6 GHz band.

Epic Systems, not the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), sent a representative to Wednesday’s Senate AI forum (see 2311010045).

Mobile supplemental coverage from space, while promising, "must be treated as a supplement, not a substitute, to terrestrial wireless services" and shouldn't be allowed to present any risk to terrestrial wireless, AT&T representatives told Wireless and Space Bureau staffers, per a docket 22-271 filing Wednesday. SCS service should only be authorized if it can comply with "robust technical safeguards" in the form of Wireless Bureau waivers, the carrier said, adding that the Wireless Bureau is the best overseer of SCS deployments because of its exclusive-use terrestrial licensing expertise.

Congress "handed over its taxing power without statutory limits" to the FCC, an agency "constrained only by its own precatory 'aspirations', and then for good measure let the agency redefine its own scope of taxing authority," Consumers' Research told the U.S. Supreme Court in a cert petition Friday (docket 23-456) challenging the FCC's USF contribution factor (see 2308030071). The group warned that the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision upholding the 2021 Q4 contribution factor and the 5th Circuit's rehearing of the Q1 2022 USF contribution factor were "portending" a circuit "split." It asked SCOTUS to "grant review and reverse" the lower court's decision upholding the contribution methodology, calling USF the "poster child for the problems that result from the delegation of constitutionally vested authority."

Low-income households and populations of color point more to lack of interest and affordability concerns than to lack of access as being the big drivers of broadband non-adoption, so digital discrimination rules won't go as far as improving the efficacy of the Affordable Connectivity Program in closing the adoption gap, the Phoenix Center said Tuesday in a paper. The draft digital discrimination rules provide no evidence of digital discrimination, "probably because this lack of evidence conflicts with its aggressive regulatory agenda,” says study author Phoenix Chief Economist George Ford.