The FCC should adopt an intent-based definition of digital discrimination to avoid "imposing liability for unintended differences in broadband access outcomes," said an analysis Tuesday by Seth Cooper, Free State Foundation director-policy studies. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act mandated the agency to adopt rules combating digital discrimination by Nov. 15 (see 2302220045). Cooper warned that a disparate impact standard would "create uncertain legal risks for broadband providers and reduce investments in service deployments." The law gave the FCC "clear authority" to prohibit "intended discrimination against protected classes," he said, allowing the commission to "hold broadband providers responsible for their actions and promote timely deployment of broadband networks to all."

Consumers' Research filed its second challenge of the FCC's quarterly USF contribution factor in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Monday. Oral argument for its challenge of the Q1 2022 contribution factor was heard during an en banc hearing in September (see 2309190072). In a new challenge of the Q4 2023 contribution factor, the group said the USF factor is an illegal tax and should be rejected. The petition was posted Tuesday in case 23-60525.

The FCC and Department of Health and Human Services are pushing the wireless industry for a means of 988 georouting that could be deployed nationally. "We strongly encourage your members to take the necessary steps to identify and develop a 988 georouting solution that could be deployed in their wireless networks within a reasonable time," said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Miriam Delphin-Rittmon, HHS assistant secretary-mental health and substance abuse, Thursday in letters to CTIA CEO Meredith Atwell, Competitive Carriers Association CEO Tim Donovan and Rural Wireless Association President Jack Baldwin. In similar letters to T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert, Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg and AT&T CEO John Stankey, the agencies say FCC Wireline Bureau staff will contact the companies in coming days "to discuss your plans to move toward a georouting solution for 988."

The FCC Precision Ag Task Force will meet in person Nov. 6 at 10 a.m., said a notice for Friday's Federal Register. The group will vote on "reports and recommendations discussed during the task force's term."

NTIA awarded 28 tribes more than $74 million in additional tribal broadband connectivity program grants Wednesday (see 2308250055). The new funding fulfills the program's equitable distribution requirement, which ensured all eligible federally recognized tribal governments that submitted a qualifying application received funding, said a news release.

Representatives of Cisco, Fortinet and Microsoft supported a pilot program that would invest in cybersecurity services for eligible K-12 schools and libraries (see 2307120027), in a meeting with aides to FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington. The companies urged the commission “to act quickly to advance the proposal to a formal rulemaking,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 13-184.

ClearCaptions raised concerns about the FCC's ratemaking for IP captioned telephone services, in a meeting with FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics staff, said an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 03-123. The company said it "has every economic incentive not to provide purpose-built customer premises equipment" because it "has to absorb the expense" of training and installing the equipment. ClearCaptions said it preferred providing IP CTS "through end of life" and with the use of communications assistants (CA) because "they perform better on some calls" than automatic speech recognition (ASR). The company also backed the use of a blended rate for IP CTS, saying it "makes continued provision of CA IP CTS possible because retaining customers, and the margin on ASR, offsets any loss on those calls that require CAs to maintain service quality."

Public Knowledge urged the FCC to adopt a disparate impact standard in its rules combatting digital discrimination, in a meeting with the task force to prevent digital discrimination (see 2302220045). "There is no case law that suggests ... that disparate impact on the basis of income discrimination would be unconstitutional," the group said in an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 22-69. PK asked the commission to make the disparate impact standard severable if a court prohibits use of the standard on the basis of race. It also raised concerns about the rule applying to all ISPs in a service area, saying numerous ISPs have "suggested that as long as a single carrier is available in the area subject to digital discrimination, then all other carriers should be free to discriminate by refusing to serve the area."

Calix, working with manufacturer Jabil, is committed to helping ISPs address the Build America, Buy America (BABA) requirements imposed on participants in the broadband, equity, access and deployment program, Calix said Friday. “With an initial investment from Calix of $4 million to $6 million and an ongoing spend for operations of $10 million to $15 million per year, Calix manufacturing solutions providers will hire workers in manufacturing, operations, engineering, quality assurance, and administrative roles as they ramp US production of Calix optical solutions -- a first step in the company’s BABA initiative,” the company said. Jabil will produce optical network terminals (ONTs) and optical line terminals in Michigan, Gemtek will produce ONTs at a California facility and Hisense Broadband will produce optical modules at a New Jersey plant, Calix said.

The FTC and FCC signed a renewed memorandum of understanding with members of the Unsolicited Communications Enforcement Network (UCENet), a network of global agencies and organizations working to combat unsolicited messages, said a news release Thursday (see 1606140041). The MOU will "promote cross-border collaboration to combat unsolicited communications, including email and text spam, scams, and illegal telemarketing." UCENet is "a critical forum for regulatory enforcers to learn from each other and build impactful, cooperative relationships," FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Loyaan Egal said. The FTC is "committed to using all of its tools to fight robocalls and other unsolicited communications that try to prey on consumers,” said Chairwoman Lina Khan.