Today:  Court Denies Rehearing of ICS Case, FCC To Eliminate Cable Paper Copy Rule, FCC Updates Satellite Rules

Court Denies Rehearing Of ICS Case

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied the Wright Petitioners request for a rehearing en banc of its decision overturning various portions of the FCC’s 2015 Order on inmate calling service rates.  See the Regulatory Mix dated 6/14/17.  The Order indicated that no judges on the court asked for a vote on the en banc request.  

FCC To Eliminate Cable Paper Copy Rule

The FCC voted to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would eliminate rules requiring broadcast and cable entities to keep paper copies of FCC rules.  Because the rules are now readily accessible online, many parties believe that the paper copy requirements are outdated and unnecessarily burdensome.  While regulated entities would still be required to be familiar with the rules governing their services, elimination of the paper copy requirements would give them flexibility to determine how to fulfill that obligation.  The rules apply to  low power TV, TV and FM translator, TV and FM booster stations, cable television relay station (CARS) licensees, and cable operators with more than 1000 subscribers.  More information.

FCC Updates Satellite Rules

The FCC voted to issue a Report and Order that updates, clarifies, and streamlines the rules governing non-geostationary satellite orbit (NGSO) fixed-satellite service (FSS) systems to better reflect current technology and promote additional operational flexibility.  Among other things, the order:

• Amends the Table of Frequency Allocations to better accommodate NGSO and geostationary satellite operations in the Ka-band (20/30 GHz);
• Streamlines the NGSO milestone rules for deployment and eliminates the international geographic cover requirements to provide greater flexibility to NGSO FSS operators, and
• Adopts a new threshold to characterize circumstances where–absent a coordination agreement between operators—a default mechanism will govern spectrum sharing between operators.

The item includes a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.  More information.

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The Regulatory Mix, TMI’s daily blog of telecom related regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of a TMI Briefing.