DOD's fretting about GPS interference from Ligado was a ruse to hide that the agency had undisclosed systems using or depending on Ligado spectrum, while not compensating the company for that use, Ligado said Thursday in a complaint filed with U.S. Court of Federal Claims. Named as defendants were the U.S., DOD, Commerce Department and NTIA. Commerce and Defense didn't comment Friday. Calling it "the largest uncompensated taking of private property by our nation’s government in modern times," Ligado said in the 69-page complaint its spectrum rights had an assessed value of $39 billion -- "all of which value has been destroyed by the United States’ unconstitutional taking of Ligado’s property." The litigation doesn't specify what the supposed systems are and indicates they could involve transmitters, receivers or both. Ligado said DOD has indicated it needs exclusive, permanent use of the company's spectrum authorized for wireless terrestrial 5G services. That Defense use "has prevented, and will continue to prevent, Ligado from using its duly and exclusively licensed spectrum for terrestrial services," Ligado said. It alleged uncompensated physical, categorical, regulatory and legislative takings. "If left unchecked, such uncompensated and unfettered appropriation of a company’s FCC license by other government agencies will detrimentally undermine the authority of the FCC to exclusively regulate commercial spectrum, cast doubt on the finality of FCC decision-making and regulatory processes, and create a dangerous precedent of governmental seizure of private property," it said. In its suit, Ligado cites an unnamed DOD whistleblower who allegedly shared internal emails and conversations, plus the company's own talks with current and former government officials. The whistleblower and those talks "lay bare how [Defense and Commerce] fabricated arguments, misled Congress in testimony supporting anti-Ligado legislation, and orchestrated a public smear campaign, which included repeating those false claims to the public and threatening Ligado’s business partners with canceling their own government contracts if they worked with Ligado," the company said.

Internet service costs in the U.S. in September were up 5% year over year, and residential phone service costs rose 5.1%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index unadjusted data released Thursday. Cable, satellite and livestreaming TV service costs were up 6.6%. Wireless phone service costs were down 0.7% year over year. Smartphones prices dropped 15.4%, and computers, peripherals and smart home assistants fell 5.2%, it said. September prices overall were up 3.7% year over year before seasonal adjustment, BLS said.

The FCC’s Wireline Bureau granted “several” participants in the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program six-month extensions of their mandate to remove and replace Huawei and ZTE equipment from their networks, amid Congress’ failure to appropriate an additional $3.08 billion needed to fully satisfy participants’ approved costs, Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in letters to Capitol Hill leaders released Thursday. The 2020 Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act mandates participants rip and replace suspect equipment within one year of receiving a first tranche of reimbursement money. Rosenworcel and others repeatedly prodded lawmakers this year to supplement Congress’ initial $1.9 billion funding for the program, warning the FCC would otherwise have to prorate reimbursements. Rosenworcel addressed the issue during a September Senate Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee hearing (see 2309190075). Wireline granted some participants the extensions after “finding that the lack of full funding had slowed their removal, replacement, and disposal processes,” Rosenworcel wrote Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.; Senate Appropriations Financial Services Chairman Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.; House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash.; and others. “It is important to note, however, that the grant of these extensions does not lessen the urgency for a fully funded Reimbursement Program. Indeed, the lack of full funding means that insecure equipment will remain in our Nation’s communications networks for a longer period.”

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Brendan Carr released opposing fact sheets on the net neutrality NPRM set for a commissioner vote Oct. 19 (see 2309280084). “Open internet protections have long had widespread -- upwards of 80% -- support from the American people who have come to expect that they will be able to access all lawful content on the internet uninhibited by their broadband service provider’s business decisions,” Rosenworcel said: “Across administrations from 2005 to 2018, it was the clear policy of the FCC to enforce open internet standards.” Rosenworcel said the rules would reinforce the values of openness, free speech, fair service standards and privacy and help protect against robocalls and robotexts. The FCC would “establish a uniform national standard for internet openness rather than a patchwork of state-by-state approaches,” she said. Carr questioned the need to impose Title II regulations on the internet. “Title II is not net neutrality,” Carr said: “Title II imposes a host of sweeping, utility-style controls on the Internet that have nothing to do with net neutrality rules like no blocking or throttling. The federal government has many options for codifying net neutrality rules without Title II. Far from requiring neutrality, Title II lets the government decide what Internet conduct is reasonable.” Carr questioned whether proposed rules would bolster national security or help law enforcement.

The FTC proposed new rules for junk fees Wednesday in an effort to "eliminate these unfair and deceptive charges," said a news release. The agency would ban companies from advertising prices that "hide or leave out mandatory fees." Companies would also be banned from misrepresenting fees known as bogus fees. "By hiding the total price, these junk fees make it harder for consumers to shop for the best product or service and [they] punish businesses who are honest upfront," said Chair Lina Khan: "The FTC’s proposed rule to ban junk fees will save people money and time, and make our markets more fair and competitive.” The agency said the proposed rule would save consumers "more than 50 million hours per year" on "searching for the total price in live-ticketing and short-term lodging alone." The agency wants comments 60 days after Federal Register publication. At the FCC, Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel noted the commission's broadband consumer labels will "increase price transparency and reduce cost confusion." Consumers "deserve to know exactly what they are paying for when they sign up for communications services," Rosenworcel said. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce criticized the proposed rule. “Every minute of every day, Americans engage in close to 400,000 transactions, buying and selling goods and services," said Chief Policy Officer Neil Bradley: "It is baffling that the administration believes it is going to help consumers by regulating how businesses price all of those transactions."

Broadcasters, tech policy groups and press freedom organizations said DOJ should explain a May FBI raid on an independent journalist, in an open letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland last week. DOJ’s lack of transparency about the search and seizure of computers and video equipment from journalist Timothy Burke’s home “leaves journalists unable to discern whether newsgathering activities they previously considered routine might trigger an investigation,” said the letter from Nexstar, Gray Television, Free Press, Tech Freedom, the ACLU, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Media Institute, the Center for Democracy and Technology, and others. The warrant affidavit for the raid on Burke’s home is sealed, but it's believed to be connected to Burke’s obtaining and then circulating outtake footage from then-Fox News personality Tucker Carlson’s interview with musician Ye (formerly Kanye West) in 2022. Burke said he obtained the footage by using a demo account to download it from a public website where Fox had uploaded it without encryption. The demo account login came from another public website where the demo account holder had posted login information. The FBI said it raided Burke’s home on suspicion that he violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and wiretapping laws. “It would be extremely problematic -- and unconstitutional -- to criminalize access to publicly available information simply because powerful people would prefer it be kept private,” said the letter. “Prosecuting Burke under the CFAA for obtaining publicly available newsworthy materials implicates the First Amendment.” The government argued Burke isn’t entitled to protections under the DOJ’s policy for searches of news media because he hasn’t recently published under his own byline, doesn’t work for a news organization, and has used other job titles than journalist. “We are deeply concerned by the government’s attempts to minimize the import of the News Media Policy,” the letter said. “We implore the DOJ to release adequate information so that the public can understand the legal basis behind the seizure of Burke’s newsgathering materials and the processes that were followed to avoid undue interference with press freedom.”

Reclassifying broadband as a Title II service would give the FCC more authority to do national security and public safety oversight, said a commission fact sheet released Thursday. "Currently, no federal agency can effectively monitor or address broadband outages that threaten jobs, education, and public safety," the release said, and "while the FCC has acted on a bipartisan basis to secure our communications networks against companies controlled by hostile foreign governments, the lack of specific authority over broadband leaves open a national security loophole." The proposal would allow the agency to require providers to report and fix internet outages as it does for voice services, ensure the FCC can "deny companies controlled by hostile foreign governments access to our broadband networks," and support ongoing efforts to enhance the resiliency of broadband networks. A USTelecom spokesperson said extending Title II to "critical issues involving national security and cybersecurity is proof positive that this is a major question that must be dealt with by Congress.” Former Commissioner Mike O’Rielly, meanwhile, sees the draft NPRM, released last week, as “mostly old rhetoric.” The commission “is just going through the motions via a retread of stale arguments and disproven claims, parts seem almost lazy and unthoughtful,” O’Rielly emailed: “I am somewhat surprised by the bizarre add of [Section] 214, which brings a world of unnecessary messiness, and privacy/security, [over] which the agency has no authority left. It may be just an NPRM but biting off those issues and others while not fully closing the door to rate regulation are substantive and tactical mistakes. Overall, the text doesn't fill in the intellectual missing pieces.”

Industry officials urged policymakers to consider the impact of the costs of make-ready work, pole attachments and replacements on broadband deployment projects funded by federal investments, including NTIA's broadband, equity, access and deployment program. Panelists during a Broadband Breakfast webinar Wednesday (see 2309080027) also raised concerns about whether any potential revisions and pending FCC proceedings on the issue could affect deployment efforts. Pole attachments are infrastructure that "often gets overlooked ,but it's crucial in connecting us," said Crown Castle Managing Counsel David Van Fleet Bloys. The FCC should allocate costs "fairly" between pole owners and attachers when a pole must be replaced, he said, noting the commission sought comments on the issue last year (see 2206280066). "There's a very real sense amongst utilities that we need to get ready to be able to process pole attachments on a timely basis" with the forthcoming funding through NTIA's broadband, equity, access, and deployment program, said Brett Kilbourne, Utilities Technology Council senior vice president-general counsel. Utility companies replace poles voluntarily, Kilbourne said, "but there are costs associated with that" and "folks want to try and place that burden on utilities" when the current practice works well. Pole attachments involve a "complex process," he said, and efforts to regulate it could ultimately create more delays.

The Technology Policy Institute (TPI) created a generative AI chatbot, ChatBEAD, as a tool for helping implement the broadband equity, access and deployment program, it said Monday. Users can query ChatBEAD and get answers to questions about NTIA instructions and state BEAD plans, TPI said, noting ChatBEAD provides links and page numbers for all of its sources so users can check them. "A key part of ensuring that BEAD is successful is making the program as transparent as possible," TPI President Scott Wallsten said. "We believe this tool will help make the program more coherently accessible to everyone."

The Federal Emergency Management Association and the FCC will test the emergency alert system and wireless emergency alerts at 2:20 p.m. EDT Wednesday (see 2308180037), the agencies said in a reminder release and background press call Tuesday. During the call, senior FCC and FEMA officials said they don’t expect audio issues with the test's broadcast portion. They also said the WEA test is expected to reach hundreds of millions of phones. “The purpose of the test is to ensure that the systems continue to be effective means of warning the public about emergencies, particularly those on the national level,” said the release. The WEA test will be received by all WEA-compatible phones that are switched on and in range of a cell tower during the 30 minutes the test is active, said the FEMA official. The message will display in English or Spanish depending on the phone’s menu settings, and be accompanied by unique tones, the FEMA official said. Users who are concerned the tones could reveal the location of a concealed cellphone, such as domestic abuse victims, can avoid the message by keeping their phones off while the message is active, the FEMA official said. The EAS message will be delivered through the internet-based common alerting protocol system rather than solely through the broadcast-based “daisy-chain” of several previous EAS tests, and thus should have improved audio quality, FEMA and FCC officials said. Both messages clearly say they're tests, and that no action is necessary, the release said. On the press call, the senior FEMA official pushed back on rumors around the test, saying it won’t knock phones and smart TVs off the internet. On the X platform, formerly Twitter, posts claimed the test will be used to turn the vaccinated into zombies, or is planned to coincide with a Russian nuclear test. The nationwide tests use the same technology and systems as the more familiar and local tests, and the idea that they're in some way separate may contribute to misunderstandings around the tests, said the FEMA official. He said it's not clear if the test would have continued if the test date had fallen during an ongoing federal shutdown, as appeared likely last week.