FCC Drafts Detail TV Channel Reg Changes, COVID-19 Telehealth

An order on updating the table of allotments would incorporate changes from the broadcast incentive auction, the repacking, and from after a freeze on changes was lifted in November, says the draft the FCC released Tuesday. The order is set for commissioners' Oct. 26 meeting (see 2110040068). The table was last updated in 2018. The order would remove language in regulations that became outdated with the auction’s reallocation of channels and the DTV transition. The order doesn’t stem from a preexisting notice and comment process because the revisions “merely correct outdated information from the 2018 Table as a result of channel reassignments and/or community of license changes that have already been approved by the Commission,” the draft says. A third round of connected care pilot program winners will treat "high-risk pregnancy/maternal health, mental health conditions, opioid dependency, COVID-19, and chronic conditions," says a draft public notice on docket 18-213. Selected participants would have six months to file their initial funding requests with Universal Service Administrative Co.