Broadband providers invested $94.7 billion in communications infrastructure in 2023, said USTelecom in a new report Friday. The capital expenditures were largely "expansion of fiber deployments, integration of fiber and mobile networks, increased rural broadband construction, and network capacity additions to keep pace with advances in artificial intelligence and other applications," the report said. "This level of investment demonstrates how fiercely broadband companies are competing for customers," said USTelecom President-CEO Jonathan Spalter. He added it's "critical policymakers" are "constructive partners" to "finish the job of connecting communities and showing greater discipline by resisting carbon-dated regulatory models that hinder our continued progress."

The FCC added five state attorneys general to the commission’s privacy and data protection task force Monday. Massachusetts' Andrea Campbell (D), Maine's Aaron Frey (D), Vermont's Charity Clark (D), Delaware's Kathy Jennings (D) and Indiana's Todd Rokita (R) joined AGs from five other states and the District of Columbia on the task force, enabling collaboration among the AGs and FCC Enforcement Bureau on privacy and cybersecurity investigations, the FCC said. “Success on this front requires strong partnerships between federal enforcement officials and state leaders,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.

The American Bankers Association, CTIA, Electronic Privacy Information Center, National Consumer Law Center and USTelecom asked the FCC to extend until Nov. 25 the reply comment deadline for its NPRM and notice of inquiry aimed at reducing unwanted AI robocalls (see 2410110039). The current Oct. 25 deadline "provides very little time" to "thoroughly review and respond to the large volume of comments," the coalition said in a joint motion posted Monday in docket 23-362.

The FCC's over-the-air reception devices (OTARDs) rule clearly requires a regular human presence at an antenna's location, and the agency had plenty of evidence that Indian Peak Properties failed to argue its antenna fell within the rule's scope, the commission told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Friday. Indian Peak is appealing an FCC order denying Indian Peak's petitions for declaratory ruling seeking a federal preemption under the OTARDs rule of a decision by Rancho Palos Verdes, California, to revoke, under local ordinances, the company’s conditional use permit for the deployment of rooftop antennas on a local property (see 2405060035). In a docket 24-1108 respondent brief, the FCC said Friday that using the service provided by the antenna requires a human presence. It "does not mean it can put an antenna on an empty building and claim the Rule’s protection from valid zoning laws," the FCC said. The commission said that while Indian Peak argues the FCC should have put the company's petitions on public notice, initiating a proceeding, not doing so didn't deprive Indian Peak of the antennas' use, as it was the city, using California courts and their due process, that resulted in Indian Peak removing its antennas.

SpaceX's claims that EchoStar's Dish Network's proposed terrestrial fixed wireless service can't coexist with Starlink operations in the lower 12 GHz band (see 2409040035) are "a textbook example of how to manipulate a technical analysis to reach a predetermined conclusion," EchoStar said Friday in docket 20-443. A SpaceX study randomly places fixed 5G base stations, ignoring that their location is the key to sharing, and its analysis "was designed to fail," EchoStar said. The SpaceX analysis assumes fixed 5G systems must operate constantly at full power, when they actually can dynamically adjust their power output. EchoStar also submitted a study simulating a denser distribution of Starlink terminals than SpaceX's analysis, but with EchoStar fixed 5G base stations deliberately placed to minimize interference. It said the results show coexistence without interference is "widely feasible." Consultancy RKF Engineering conducted EchoStar's study.

The FCC offered demonstrations of new and existing features of its mapping broadband health in America platform, in a letter Thursday from Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel to Senate Commerce Committee Chair Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. The agency will release the updates next month, allowing users to "delve deeper into the intersection of broadband connectivity and health" throughout the country, Rosenworcel said. Commissioners heard details about the update's inclusion of maternal health data from the Connect2Health Task Force during their open meeting Thursday (see 2410170026). The platform updates "represent a significant step forward in our work to understand the intersection of broadband connectivity and maternal health," Rosenworcel said.

High-power, two-way fixed operations in the 12.2-12.7 GHz band would cause harmful interference to DirecTV receivers 100 to 1 million times the limits in place to protect direct broadcast satellite (DBS) customers, according to DirecTV. In docket 20-443, it submitted an engineering study by consultancy Savid to counter Dish Network's submitted study by consultancy RKF that backs DBS and fixed wireless coexistence in the band (see 2311160032). The Savid study shows interference extending well beyond the intended coverage area of the base stations, contrary to RKF's "misleading depictions," and allegations of "wreak[ing] havoc" on DBS subscribers, DirecTV said in the filing posted Friday. Separately in docket 22-352, DirecTV recapped calls with aides to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioners Anna Gomez, Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington. It discussed concerns about opening the adjacent 12.7-13.25 GHz band to terrestrial wireless and the likelihood of harmful interference to DBS operations.

USDA Rural Development awarded nearly $173 million across 10 states in the fifth round of the ReConnect program Thursday. Companies in Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Kansas, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota and Virginia were awarded funding. NTCA members received more than $150 million in the latest distribution, the organization said.

A coalition of 14 states challenging an FCC order on incarcerated people's communication services asked the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a filing Monday not to transfer the case to the 1st Circuit (docket 24-2983). The states sought reconsideration of the order's per-minute rate caps for intrastate services (see 2410020039). They argued that the order at issue, which was published in the Federal Register Sept. 20, wasn't the same as the order published Aug. 26, which addressed petitions from several groups. If the court determines the orders are the same, the states asked that the transfer be stayed until the 1st Circuit rules on Securus' motion to transfer its challenge to the 5th Circuit.

The Alaska Telecom Association asked the FCC to include certain language in its pending rulemaking on next steps for the Alaska Plan's Alaska Connect Fund (see 2409130026). In a letter posted Tuesday in docket 23-328, ATA urged the FCC to account for the "unique circumstances facing each provider in the state," including geographic challenges and the availability of infrastructure. The group encouraged the FCC to "carefully determine the milestone dates for key assessments and measurements" for participating providers. "Any milestones set before 2031 risk ignoring that many [broadband, equity, access, and deployment] projects will require three or four years of permitting," the group said. The Alaska Remote Carrier Coalition raised similar concerns in a separate letter.