ISP groups and New York state might soon reach agreement and avoid an appeal of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision to uphold New York state’s Affordable Broadband Act (case 21-1975). The 2nd Circuit previously granted an extension to file for rehearing or rehearing en banc until Friday (see 2405010005). In an unopposed motion on Wednesday, the industry groups asked for a two-week extension until June 7. The plaintiffs and state “are discussing and anticipate reaching within the next two weeks an agreed-to stipulation regarding the New York law at issue … that would obviate the need for Plaintiffs-Appellees to file a rehearing petition before this Court,” the ISP groups wrote. “Following diligent and repeated discussions, the parties reached tentative agreement on the outline of this agreed-to stipulation -- by which Plaintiffs-Appellees would agree to forgo filing a petition for rehearing or rehearing en banc in exchange for certain agreements from Defendant-Appellant.” The plaintiffs said the “parties expect to reach final agreement as to that agreed-to stipulation before June 7, 2024, but not before” this Friday when the rehearing petition is currently due.

The FCC's rules reclassifying broadband as a Communications Act Title II telecom service and reestablishing net neutrality are effective July 22, according to a notice in Wednesday's Federal Register (see 2405080044). Also, China Mobile International, China Telecom, China Unicom, Pacific Networks and ComNet "shall discontinue any and all provisions of broadband internet access service" as of Sept. 19, the notice said.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court erred when it ruled that E-rate reimbursement requests to the Universal Service Administrative Co. (USAC) are actionable claims under the False Claims Act (FCA), Wisconsin Bell’s U.S. Supreme Court reply brief said Monday (docket 23-1127). The reply brief supported Wisconsin Bell's April 15 cert petition to reverse the 7th Circuit’s decision. In holding that the FCA’s treble damages and civil penalties apply to submissions made to USAC -- a private corporation paying private funds -- the 7th Circuit “explicitly acknowledged” that it was taking a “contrary view” from the 5th Circuit “about the identical program,” the reply brief said. The circuit split “directly affects billions of dollars distributed each year under the E-rate and three other universal service programs," it said. The acknowledged conflict “casts a shadow of extraordinary liability over a massive number of transactions involving numerous private entities that are subject to government supervision,” said the reply brief. SCOTUS should grant Wisconsin Bell’s cert petition “to resolve the circuit split and restore clarity to the scope of the FCA as applied to government-adjacent programs funded with private money,” it said. SCOTUS distributed Wisconsin Bell's cert petition for the justices' June 6 conference, said a text-only docket entry Tuesday.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr took the unusual step of praising, ahead of Thursday’s vote by commissioners, a draft NPRM proposing to bar test labs from entities on the agency’s “covered list” of unsecure companies from participating in the equipment authorization process. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel noted Carr’s work on the rulemaking when she announced it last month (see 2405010073). Industry officials expect the draft will receive unanimous approval Thursday. They note no one has visited the commission to protest or offer changes, based on filings in docket 24-136. “I am pleased we are taking the step of proposing that the test labs and certification bodies that review devices before they can be used in the U.S. are themselves trustworthy actors that we can rely on, including by barring those with risky ties” to China, Carr said Tuesday: “The proposal is based on time-tested precedent. The FCC has long limited foreign control of U.S. licensees in other contexts." He called it the FCC’s “Bad Labs” proposal.

Mediacom is testing a mobile service with its employees as beta users, and plans a public launch in June, a company spokesperson told us. Mediacom didn't say which mobile virtual network operator it's partnering with.

The FCC came in 13th out of 26 midsize federal agencies in the best places to work in the federal government rankings released Monday. Its 2023 employee engagement and satisfaction score, 73.6, was almost identical to its 2022 score. The FTC ranked 9th out of midsize federal agencies, with an engagement and satisfaction score of 75.4, jumping notably from 2022's 67.3. Among subcomponent agencies, NTIA ranked 180 out of 459, with an engagement and satisfaction score increasing to 74.8, compared with 2022's 65.3. The rankings, by the Partnership for Public Service and Boston Consulting Group, largely rely on Office of Personnel Management data obtained through its Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey.

Even in the face of slowing subscriber additions in Q1 for telcos' fiber service and fixed wireless access (FWA), cable net additions worsened, likely due to the affordable connectivity program (ACP) ending new enrollments and reenrollments for households that had received ACP support and then moved to a new address, MoffettNathanson's Craig Moffett wrote Monday. He said home broadband penetration stalled and perhaps even declined in the quarter, especially when adjusted for rural home growth subsidized under the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund and for unsubsidized edgeouts. The FWA peak "has passed," with Q1 bringing its first year-over-year decline in subscriber net adds, he said. Fiber overbuilders are challenged as capital and labor costs are higher than when numerous projects were planned, while the most attractive areas are steadily being built out, he said. The U.S. broadband industry's total net adds in Q1 were the slowest since before the COVID-19 pandemic, he said. Broadband penetration increases during the pandemic were likely due to government subsidiary programs at the state and federal level, increasing affordability and bringing in numerous households that otherwise would have found the service outside their price range, he said.

AT&T and AST SpaceMobile signed a commercial agreement for a joint supplemental coverage from space service, the carrier said Wednesday. The agreement runs through 2030, and builds on the companies' existing memorandum of understanding, it said. AT&T Network President Chris Sambar will join AST's board, it said. In addition, the two companies will continue partnering on developing, testing and troubleshooting SCS technology.

A petition challenging FCC equipment testing rules should be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction and standing, the agency said in its respondent brief Monday (docket 23-1311) in the U.S. Appeals Court for the D.C. Circuit. Petitioners iFixit, Public Resource and Make Community allege the FCC violated the Administrative Procedure Act when it amended rules incorporating four new equipment testing standards, and did so without the proper notice and comment protocol (see 2403280002). Their petition asks the D.C. Circuit to remand the rules to the FCC for what they contend should be a proper rulemaking (see 2311090002). But in seeking review, the petitioners don’t address the suitability of updating the standards, the FCC’s brief said. Instead, they contend that by incorporating the standards in the rules by reference to their availability elsewhere, the commission violated the notice-and-comment requirements of the APA, and undermined the public interest in making law available to the public, it said. In its brief, the FCC argued that incorporation by reference “is a longstanding practice that allows an agency to refer, in the text of a published rule, to material available elsewhere instead of republishing that material in the rule itself.” In addition, the FCC said the petitioners aren’t labs engaged in testing RF-emitting equipment. Moreover, they haven’t identified any interest that the rules proposed and adopted by the commission would affect. The petitioners’ challenge fails even if the D.C. Circuit “were to reach the merits of their arguments,” the brief said, arguing the FCC provided the public sufficient notice and an opportunity to comment in the rulemaking. The agency also complied with the law governing incorporation by reference by ensuring that the standards were reasonably available to the class of persons affected, said the brief. That’s “all that the law requires,” it added. Accordingly, the petition for review should be dismissed, it said.

The price of smartphones and TVs dropped notably in the U.S. between April 2023 and last month, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index unadjusted data released Wednesday. Smartphone prices were down 9.8% year over year, while TV prices fell 8.2%, it said. Computers, peripherals and smart home assistant prices dropped 1.6%, while the cost of wireless phone service was down 2.7%, it said. The cost of residential phone service rose 4.2%, while cable, satellite and livestreaming TV service costs were up 3.8% and internet service increased 4.9%. The cost of video purchase/subscription/rental rose 9%. BLS said April prices for all items were up 3.4% year over year before seasonal adjustment.