The FCC and a coalition of industry and consumer groups urged the U.S. Supreme Court to grant their pending petitions for a writ of certiorari regarding the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling in Consumers' Research's challenge of the Universal Service Fund contribution mechanism (No. 24-354). The FCC, in a reply brief Thursday, said the two pending petitions are "better vehicles for clarifying the law in this sphere" than Consumers' Research's petition of the 6th and 11th circuits' rulings (see 2410010024). The 5th Circuit addressed whether Congress delegated legislative power to the FCC, whether the agency delegated governmental power to a private entity, and whether the combination of the two violates the Constitution. The 6th and 11th circuits "did not specifically discuss whether the combination of the two alleged delegations violates the Constitution, and the petitions seeking review of those circuits’ decisions do not raise that question," the FCC said. The 5th Circuit is the only court to have found a nondelegation violation, the commission noted. "Granting certiorari in this case would allow the Court to directly review the 5th Circuit's reasoning," the FCC said. The agency also noted that SCOTUS has already denied petitions seeking review of the 6th and 11th Circuit decisions. Consumers' Research said in a reply brief to the coalition petition that there wasn't a reason to grant it "as their interests are adequately represented by the government" (No. 24-422). NTCA, the Competitive Carriers Association, USTelecom, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, and Media Justice petitioned SCOTUS to review the 5th Circuit ruling. Consumers' Research noted the coalition didn't seek to intervene in subsequent challenges it filed since that ruling, "apparently confirming their interests are adequately represented by the government."

The FCC’s Disability Advisory Committee met for the last time Friday under its current charter, approving reports from its three working groups (WGs), none of which was immediately available. The next DAC is slated for December, FCC officials said. A report from the WG on Best Practices for Quality Telecom Relay Service for Individuals with Multiple Disabilities emphasized that “functional equivalence does not mean the same thing to two people,” said co-Chair Cristina Duarte, InnoCaption director-regulatory affairs. “It is highly unique and what one person needs for accessibility in telecommunications is not necessarily what another person needs.” The report underlined the importance of offering flexible features, which can work with other app-based solutions. It also noted the need for education and outreach about services that are available and the importance of security, Duarte added. Another report, from the WG on the Use of AI to Caption Live Video Programming, examines the state of automatic speech recognition (ASR) and potential use of evolving technologies, said co-Chair Shadi Abou-Zahra, Amazon principal accessibility standards and policy manager. It considers cloud-based and on-premises ASR, examining “the pros and cons” of ASR based on the principles of accuracy, synchronicity, program completeness and placement, he added. A third report reviews online gaming accessibility for people who are blind or have low vision. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel told the DAC an order that commissioners approved Thursday mandating 100% hearing-aid compatibility for phones sold in the U.S. (see 2410170030) is “a big deal” and “historic.” The HAC order “means that in the not too distant future hearing aid users will be able to consider any handset model for purchase rather than just a limited number of phones.” Rosenworcel noted she has backed the mandate for nearly 10 years. Change takes longer than the two-year term of any DAC, she said: It requires "a special level of patience and special kind of perseverance.” Technological innovation, said FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, potentially can “close the digital divide ... implement creative spectrum solutions ... improve public safety systems and ... foster a vibrant media ecosystem.” Everyone must feel these benefits, "including the disability community.” Gomez stressed the importance of “accessibility by design” for communications products and noted the HAC order. “This is a big deal, and it’s a crucial way that the FCC acted to make communications services accessible to all.” DAC last met in May (see 2405160051).

Dealing with false or malevolent online misinformation that can spur violence means taking "a meaningful precaution" that nonetheless still allows free expression, Brian Leiter, director-University of Chicago's Center for Law, Philosophy and Human Values, wrote this week in the Journal of Free Speech Law. Regulators could be empowered to close particular sites such as Google, Facebook and YouTube temporarily during emergencies, he said. But a better approach might be reducing the number of sites that offer incitement, though that "would require a significant change to First Amendment jurisprudence in the United States, which is particularly permissive." Online sites also should be subject to tortious liability for harm that a reasonable person would see as a foreseeable consequence of speech they knew or should have known was false, he said. The Communications Decency Act's Section 230 is a large obstacle to legal remedies for harmful online misinformation, and its protections for websites should be revoked, Leiter said. "The idea that website owners get a free pass on hosting tortious wrongdoing, but not on hosting copyright violations, is prima facie bizarre."

Q Link Wireless CEO Issa Asad faces years in prison and a fine of more than $100 million after pleading guilty to fraud tied to the FCC’s Lifeline program. Asad also pleaded guilty to money laundering through the COVID-19-era Paycheck Protection Program. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel on Wednesday welcomed the guilty pleas. Dania Beach, Florida-based Q Link offers coverage throughout the U.S. Asad and Q Link “engaged in multiple tricks designed to mislead the FCC about how many people were actually using Q Link’s Lifeline phones, and to prevent customers who did not want the phones from ending their relationship with Q Link (which would have prevented Q Link from billing the program for them),” said a DOJ news release: “The Defendants manufactured non-existent cellphone activity and engaged in coercive marketing techniques to get people to remain Q Link customers.” Asad admitted that he received approximately $15 million from Q Link as a result of the fraud. Asad’s plea agreement includes a joint recommendation that he serve the statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison on the fraud charge, the DOJ said. The statutory maximum sentence on the money laundering charge is 10 years. “Asad’s exact sentence will be determined by the Court after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors,” DOJ said. U.S. District Judge Rodolfo Ruiz set a sentencing hearing for Jan. 15. “Deceptive schemes that exploit at-risk communities and manipulate federal support for phone and broadband services should not go unpunished,” Rosenworcel said. Asad and Q Link “purposefully defrauded two critical federal programs helping individuals and businesses suffering financial hardship, unlawfully taking hundreds of millions of dollars for their own use and profit, while obstructing the United States’ ability to help people who, unlike the Defendants, needed it,” said Markenzy Lapointe, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida.

The FCC deactivated the disaster information reporting system and mandatory disaster response initiative for Hurricane Milton on Monday, said a public notice Monday. The agency is still taking outage reports on nine counties in North Carolina and seven counties in Tennessee. Tuesday’s update showed 10.6% of cellsites in the affected area without service, and 40,963 cable and wireline subscribers without service.

Three judges that Republican presidents appointed will handle the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ review of the FCC’s net neutrality order. The panel includes Judges Richard Griffin and Raymond Kethledge, who are appointees of President George W. Bush, and John Bush, one of six 6th Circuit judges that President Donald Trump appointed. Oral argument is scheduled for Oct. 31 in Cincinnati in the 6th Floor West Courtroom, starting at 8:30 a.m. EDT (docket 24-7000). Each side was allocated 20 minutes for argument. Some legal experts say it seems likely the 6th Circuit will reject the order as raising major questions that should be left to Congress and the panel's makeup may not prove critical (see 2409030030). Ten of the 6th Circuit's 16 full-time judges are Republican appointees.

The Biden administration is moving forward on the national spectrum strategy, in some cases more quickly than is widely recognized, Shiva Goel, NTIA senior spectrum adviser, told the Mobile World Congress in Las Vegas last week. Goel’s comments build on the remarks of NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson at MWC (see 2410090045). “We're hard at work already on lower 3 and 7 and 8 [GHz],” Goel said. “We're bringing lower 37 [GHz] to a close” and “18 GHz is in full swing already, and then there's everything else.” Goel said DOD, which is working with NTIA on the lower 3 GHz study, hasn’t been “secretive” about its “preference for a … solution” based on dynamic spectrum sharing. “We're supporting” DOD “in building a demo of that capability,” but “that doesn't mean we can't also collaborate on other options for the band.” The strategy’s research and development plan is in its final stages, he said. On staffing, “we're getting the agencies together to spot gaps and ways to fill them to make sure we have people in government able to do this work far into the future.” Goel continued: “Our spectrum problems aren't getting any easier.” The relationship between NTIA and the FCC “is as good as I've ever seen it,” said Ira Keltz, the commission’s new acting chief engineer. The No. 1 priority is the proposed spectrum pipeline and the FCC’s Spectrum Steering Team, which he co-chairs, is hard at work, Keltz said. “We've got plenty of staff at the commission completely engaged in all the activities that are going on.” The top priorities are the lower 3 and 7.8 GHz studies, but the FCC is also focused on 37 GHz, he said. “There's still a ways to go” on the strategy, said Will Johnson, Verizon senior vice president-federal regulatory and legal affairs, “but there [are] also things to celebrate.” The wireless industry knows it will need about 1,500 MHz of mid-band spectrum over the next 10 years, and the pipeline “still remains fairly uncertain,” Johnson said: “We know some bands that are being studied. … But in terms of knowing which bands are actually going to make their way all the way through to commercial use, to auction, we're pretty far from having that kind of clarity at this point.” Luciana Camargos, GSMA head of spectrum, called for more leadership from the U.S. During the World Radiocommunication Conference last year, the U.S. message was that it didn’t want international mobile telecommunications in the 6 GHz band, but it failed to offer alternatives, Camargos said. The U.S. “didn't even support the new agenda item” looking at 4, 7 and 15 GHz, she said: “To me, that's very relevant. … If you don't support looking forward, how can you lead on this?” Keltz said the FCC understands wireless industry concerns about a spectrum pipeline. "We need high-powered dedicated spectrum," he said: "I think we need a little of everything. ... We need to make sure that our unlicensed industry has spectrum they can use." CTIA and GSMA co-sponsor MWC.

The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline has created a channel for people in crisis to get "potentially unwanted" responses "such as non-consensual emergency interventions, police involvement, forced hospitalization [and] privacy violations" that can cause harm or discourage them from reaching out for help, according to Trans Lifeline. In a report Thursday, the transgender community hotline operator said 988's report that fewer than 2% of calls to the Lifeline result in emergency interventions appears to be "a significant underestimation." It said help-seekers can have significantly different experiences depending on which Lifeline crisis center they reach because of the "disjointed police landscape of crisis hotlines in the United States." It criticized the Lifeline for lack of transparency concerning how many calls result in emergency interventions or what factors prompt emergency intervention. "Though emergency interventions are not the outcome of all hotline calls, the frequency of the practice, the lack of transparency surrounding it, and the harms reported by people and communities who have experienced non-consensual interventions demand greater attention," Trans Lifeline said. Vibrant Emotional Health, the 988 Lifeline administrator, didn't comment.

Communications providers are taking steps to prepare for Hurricane Milton while recovery from Hurricane Helene continues. SpaceX and T-Mobile have accelerated the rollout of Starlink direct-to-device connectivity for hurricane-affected areas, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote Wednesday on X. SpaceX posted that it and T-Mobile have activated SpaceX's D2D satellites to provide emergency alerts for phones in hurricane-affected areas. The D2D activation comes atop more than 10,000 Starlink kits delivered in response to Hurricane Helene, it said. SpaceX has enabled SMS testing for people on T-Mobile phones in hurricane-affected areas, it said. In addition, it said users "may have to manually retry text messages if they don't go through at first, as this is being delivered on a best-effort basis." T-Mobile said it had activated its emergency operations and preparedness plan in anticipation of Milton. That work, it said, includes emergency response teams preparing portable generators and network equipment to provide support. Its emergency response teams also are working with federal and state public safety agencies and Florida's State Emergency Operations Center to identify early prioritization needs following the storm. The carrier also said it has temporarily closed stores and other operations in Milton's path. Verizon said it was staging its mobile network solutions fleet, including portable generators and satellite assets, as part of prep for Milton. It said it had readied network engineers and crisis response team members to deploy to the region and begin restoration work as soon as it is safe. Multiple wireless carriers said they were temporarily waiving some charges and fees for hurricane-impacted areas. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement's communications strike team is ready to support local law enforcement agencies in ensuring 911, internet and radio communications work after Milton, according to the governor's office. Wednesday's disaster information reporting system update showed 11% of cellsites down in the North Carolina and Tennessee counties affected by Hurricane Helene, an improvement over the 12.5% reported down Tuesday. Wednesday's report listed 68,602 cable and wireline subscribers without service in the affected counties, compared with 84,085 Tuesday. The report also listed two TV stations out of service, both in North Carolina. DIRS reports for Hurricane Milton are due to the FCC starting Thursday morning.

The FCC activated the disaster information reporting system and mandatory disaster response initiative for Hurricane Milton, which is expected to strike Florida's west coast Wednesday. “In preparation for this latest storm, we continue to coordinate with industry and government partners at all levels to prevent as many communications networks from going offline as possible,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in a Tuesday release. “We've deployed FCC staff to conduct pre-landfall baseline surveys and provide on-the-ground support in targeted areas to assess the post-landfall impact to critical communications services and infrastructure.” Rosenworcel also urged communities in the path of the storm to opt in to wireless emergency alerts and said the agency is also keeping staff on the ground in North Carolina to continue assisting recovery efforts following Hurricane Helene. Tuesday's DIRS update for Hurricane Helene showed 12.5% of cellsites down in the affected area, which now covers 21 counties in North Carolina and 7 in Tennessee. There are 84,085 cable and wireline subscribers without service, and two TV stations and one FM station are reported down. The FCC activated DIRS and MDRI for 52 counties in Florida for Milton, said a public notice Monday. Reports are due from communication providers starting Thursday. The FCC also issued public notices on priority communications services, FCC availability and emergency communication procedures for licensees that need special temporary authority. The Public Safety Bureau also issued a reminder for entities clearing debris and repairing utilities to avoid damaging communications infrastructure.