Interconnected TMT

On June 5, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released a tentative agenda for its next Open Meeting, which is scheduled to take place on Thursday, June 26 at 10:30 AM ET. This release occurred a day before Commissioners Simington and Starks stepped down from their roles at the FCC, leaving the Commission with only two sitting commissioners—Chairman Carr and Commissioner Gomez. A quorum of three commissioners is required in order for the FCC to conduct Commission-level business. While the Commission will be able to continue with bureau-level proceedings, the lack of quorum raises legal and practical questions about the Commission’s ability to adopt new rules, such as the rules contained in the two draft Report and Orders below. Quorum, however, can be regained if Congress can confirm President Trump’s nominee, Olivia Trusty, as a new Republican Commissioner prior to the June Open Meeting. Recognizing this, on June 12, Senate Majority Leader Thune filed a “notice of cloture” that will allow the Senate to debate, and then vote, on Trusty’s nomination by the end of next week. Trusty’s appointment would allow the Commission to act on three items that are expected to be considered at the Open Meeting, which are detailed below:

Olivia Trusty, nominee for the open Republican Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) Commissioner position, appeared before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Trusty has significant telecommunications experience on Capitol Hill and is a longtime protégé of Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS). She is the Republican staff lead for the Senate Armed Services Committee, working with the Cybersecurity Subcommittee, where she has worked on issues related to spectrum allocated to military and national security uses. She was also a policy director for the Senate Commerce Committee, and specifically worked with the Communications, Media, and Broadband Subcommittee. Additionally, she was previously a legislative assistant to Sen. Wicker, focusing on matters related to communications, technology, innovation and the internet.

On April 7, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) released a tentative agenda for its next Open Meeting, which is scheduled to take place on Monday, April 28 at 10:30 a.m. ET. The Commission released public drafts of four items that are expected to be considered at the Open Meeting, which are detailed below:

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) held its March Open Meeting last Thursday, March 27, during which it voted to adopt the three items discussed in our last blog post and recent client alert: (1) a Notice of Inquiry (NOI) exploring alternatives to Global Positioning Technology (GPS), (2) a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNPRM) containing proposals to ensure the reliability and interoperability of Next Generation 911 (NG911) networks, and (3) an FNPRM seeking comment on proposals to strengthen caller location accuracy requirements for wireless calls to 911. The final versions of these documents reflected several changes from the drafts that were circulated in early March, as detailed below:

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), with new FCC Chairman Brendan Carr at the helm, will be holding the agency’s first Open Meeting on Thursday, February 27 from 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. ET amidst uncertainties related to independent agencies and presidential power as reflected in a recent Executive Order. The FCC has released an agenda for the meeting, which is available here, along with public drafts of the five new items that will be up for consideration by the FCC:

Under Commissioner Brendan Carr’s leadership, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will likely focus on expediting the review and approval process for applications to launch new satellites.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit heard oral arguments on a challenge to the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) net neutrality rules, which reclassified broadband Internet access services under Title II of the Communications Act, on October 31. The court has already issued a stay of the rules’ effectiveness pending its decision on the merits, citing the “major question” doctrine. The rules, originally adopted under Obama-era FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, later repealed by Trump-appointed FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, and readopted under current FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, if upheld by the court or remanded to the agency for further action, will almost certainly be repealed under Commissioner Brendan Carr.

The new Trump administration will likely take a deregulatory approach to artificial intelligence (AI). President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to repeal President Joe Biden’s AI executive order, which imposed new reporting requirements on developers of advanced AI models and laid the groundwork for future rules. Scaled-back regulation could be paired with slashed research funding for AI.

Expect to see new entities added to the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) “Covered List” of communications equipment and services deemed to pose an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States (U.S.) under a Republican-led FCC. Commissioner Brendan Carr has been particularly vocal on this issue, urging that the FCC “must do a better job of ensuring that its Covered List stays up to date and accounts for changes in corporate names and forms,” and suggesting that the new administration “should create a more regular and timely process for reviewing entities with ties to the Chinese Communist Party’s surveillance state.” Expect FCC staff to take a more proactive role in investigating companies for ties to prohibited entities, and working with other agencies focused on national security to add them to the Covered List. While the FCC has so far only banned Covered List companies from obtaining FCC authorizations, Commissioner Carr has proposed revoking the existing authorizations of Covered List companies. Additionally, Commissioner Carr could be expected to prohibit U.S. providers from interconnecting with Covered List companies, in order to prevent those companies from continuing to offer service on a private, unregulated basis.