Update: Deadlines for Indecency Comments Extended
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If you have the vague sense that you might like to file comments in response to the bizarre invitation for comments relative to the FCC’s indecency policies, but you’re still trying to figure out exactly what those policies are in the first place, you're in luck. The General Counsel’s office and the Enforcement Bureau have extended the deadlines. Comments are now due by June 19, 2013 and reply comments by July 18. Unfortunately, the public notice announcing the extensions does not shed any more light on the indecency inquiry. As previously reported here, the inquiry posed on April Fool’s Day is, at best, cryptic and unilluminating, so much so that it’s difficult to imagine that anything useful could possibly come from it. But for those of you who may be champing at the bit to toss in your two cents’ worth, you now have a little more time within which to hone your prose.
FiberTower loses again. The 
In 
In December of last year 
Although perhaps not widely acknowledged or often discussed, the problem of “blocked” or unsuccessful long-distance telephone calls to rural customers is a serious one. For at least a couple of years interested parties have urged the Commission to do something about it. And now the FCC thinks that it’s come up with a way to begin to address this 
With just 12 days to go before Auction 94 is set to kick off, the FCC has identified t
If you’re an active Lower 700 MHz band B Block licensee with an interim four-year construction benchmark deadline before December 13, 2013, here’s some good news: unless you happen to fall within a couple of exceptions, 
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Attention all full-power and Class A TV licensees!!! The 
We’ve got good news for you if (1) you’ve got an FM translator application still pending from the 2003/Auction 83 filing window and (2) you identified yourself as a noncommercial educational (NCE) applicant when you first filed the application. The .jpg)
Remember the Commission’s 
As we have previously reported, FM translator applicants whose applications are still alive and kicking are subject to a variety of filing deadlines looming in the very near future. Different deadlines apply, based on whether the application has been identified by the Media Bureau as (a) one of 
Attention, everybody who is currently sitting on, or may someday be sitting on, a construction permit for a new radio station. The FCC’s 
The 
Last September we reported
In most parts of the country, the frequency band 470-512 MHz, also called the “T-band,” is better known as TV channels 14-20. But 11 major metropolitan areas use parts of the band for public safety communications, like the two-way radios in police cars, ambulances, and fire vehicles. These users include some of the nation’s biggest first responders, such as the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the New York City Police Department. Other licensees also use the band for two-way communications.
We’re presenting a webinar this Thursday, February 14 at 3:00 p.m. EST in cooperation with a number of our state broadcast association friends. It turns out that we have a limited number of open spaces – so if you would like to listen in, for free, here’s your chance.
The FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) wants to sharpen its pencil when it comes to predicting TV station coverage. The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) doesn’t think that that’s a good idea – not just now, at least.
If you happen to be subject to Section 
That loud flushing noise you may just have heard was the sound of about 3,000 FM translator applications heading down the tubes. Having analyzed the various 
Looks like it’s full speed ahead for another aspect of the Commission’s overhaul of the wireless backhaul regime. As 
Full-service and Class A TV licensees take heart! The Media Bureau may have let many of you off the hook with respect to one component of the online public inspection file requirement. In particular, 
If you’ve got a TV pickup license in the 6875-7125 MHz or 12700-13200 MHz bands, you’ll be needing to register your stationary receive-only sites in the Commission’s Universal Licensing System (ULS) in the near future (if you haven’t done so already). 
According to famed lyrical poet Paul Hewson (“Bono” to his millions of friends), “
If you’re a telecommunications carrier or interconnected VoIP provider, now’s the time to get out your calendar, turn it to early February or so, and mark in big red letters: “
Nearly a year ago Congress passed, and President Obama signed into law, the 
With the 2012 book now closed on several acquisitions and mergers in the communications field, the federal government has performed its annual ritual of announcing the thresholds it will use for automatic federal review of mergers and acquisitions. The FCC worked on several 2012 “Big Ticket” transactions including the Verizon spectrum shuffle with assets from Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, Leap, several cable companies and others. Still under review by the FCC is the Liberty Media acquisition of Sirius/XM. 
If you’re a “small” TV station or MVPD operator who missed the October deadline for filing for waiver of your obligations 
The 
Not surprisingly, the 
Overwhelmed by the enormity and complexity of the 
Last January, we wrote about 
The FCC has requested comment on a 
It’s undeniable that a small handful of carriers control an overwhelming amount of mobile spectrum in the U.S. Many observers of the communications landscape believe that that intense concentration has reached alarming proportions. Unfortunately, to date federal regulators have not tended to be among those hand-wringers.
As 
Sometimes technology just takes a wrong turn. Yes, it has vastly improved our lives. No one wants to go back to the days before smallpox vaccine, or power steering, or 
In George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, the ironically-named Ministry of Love oversees the torture of people disloyal to Big Brother. Within that ministry is Room 101. And inside Room 101 is the worst thing in the world, according to the private terrors of each offender. No one reading the book can help wondering what he or she would find there. 
Last May 
[Blogmeister’s Note: Peter Tannenwald and Mitchell Lazarus collaborated in the authorship of this post.]
As 
We all know that regulatory fees are imposed annually. The precise fees to be paid each year are proposed in the spring and then, after a notice-and-comment period, finally announced in summer, usually to be paid in September. It happens with mundane regularity. 
The expansion of “grantee codes” (issued by the FCC in connection with equipment certifications) will take effect on August 24, 2012, according to 
A 
Several months ago 
Back in 2008, the 
As July slips into August, it’s time again to remind television broadcasters that Copyright Royalty Claim forms – for cable retransmission copyright royalties and/or satellite copyright royalties earned during 2011 – are due at the Copyright Royalty Board by 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, July 31, 2012. (The 
[Blogmeister Note: As 
You have to admire their persistence. ARRL, the national association for Amateur Radio, has yet again challenged the FCC’s rules for Broadband-over-Power-Line (BPL), just as it has at every opportunity since the FCC first proposed BPL back in 2003.
A couple of months ago, 
The 
Chances are you have forgotten about the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012, passed back in February, ostensibly to extend a cut in payroll taxes. But the FCC hasn’t forgotten. Because the 250+ pages of the Act unrelated to extending tax cuts include a provision telling the FCC to report to Congress next October on a topic that, frankly, we didn’t know Congress cared about: common carrier point-to-point microwave applications in the 11, 18, and 23 GHz bands that fail to make it through frequency coordination. 
Several years ago, with the DTV transition looming on the near horizon, the Commission adopted two rules aimed at easing the anticipated effects of the transition on some cable viewers and cable systems. Since those effects were expected to be relatively short-lived, the rules were set to expire, or “sunset”, three years after the DTV transition. 
Last month 
As 
The 
On July 2, NTIA set to close the door on applications for grants to reimburse costs of digital conversion
In January 
The universe of Internet addresses will soon be expanding. On June 13, the 
When you make an emergency call to 911, it’s helpful – and often crucial – for the person on the receiving end to be able to figure out where the call is coming from, particularly if you the caller can’t speak or aren’t familiar with your surroundings. The receiving operator, stationed at a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP), generally sees both the number from which the incoming call is made and the address associated with that number in a database available to the PSAP. This occurs through the magic of Automatic Number Identification, similar to the Caller ID system with which we’re all familiar. Even cellphones must report their location to the PSAP, meeting 
The Commission’s initial, bare-bones 
Last month 
In its sprawling 
Following up on the 
Back in January the 
Do you operate a commercial or public safety private land mobile radio system in the VHF (150-170 MHz) or UHF (450-470 MHz) bands? If so, you must convert your systems to “narrowband” operation 
The FCC’s 
If you’re a noncommercial educational (NCE, a/k/a “public”) broadcaster, heads up. The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) has 
Now that the DTV transition has been in effect for almost three years, multi-channel TV broadcasting is fairly commonplace. But what about FM radio? Thanks to digital FM technology designed by iBiquity and authorized by the FCC, FM stations have for years been able to provide up to two additional programming streams beyond their main channel. And yet, development of an economically sound model for multi-channel audio services has been much slower than on the TV side..jpg)
A week or two ago 
Less than two weeks ago the FCC released its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) exploring 
Last month 
Long-time readers will recall the individual who, as of last July, had been turned down by the FCC 
That “other” April deadline is right around the corner: all telecommunications carriers are required to file FCC Form 499-A by April 2, 2012. If you’re an intrastate, interstate or international provider of telecommunications in the U.S., this probably means YOU (but check below for the short list of exemptions).
OMG!! 40+ abbrvs?!? YGTBK . . .
“White space” wireless operation on locally vacant TV channels requires that devices consult a database of users entitled to protection, including broadcast TV stations and some wireless microphones. 
In the ongoing dispute between LightSquared Inc. and the GPS industry, LightSquared has requested an FCC ruling that GPS users are not entitled to protection from LightSquared’s interference. And the FCC’s International Bureau, in turn, has 
Cellular tower builders and wireless companies can breathe a sigh of relief: the “shot clock” presumptions imposed by the FCC on local government permitting processes have been 
Late last month 
Last August 
If you happen to be one of the 298 television programmers who lost closed captioning exemptions last October, heads up – your programming must be fully compliant with the closed captioning rules beginning January 19, 2012. But take heart, you can re-apply for your exemptions. The deadline for re-filing is January 18, 2012.
Earlier this month 
The November 21, 2011 Federal Register includes a 
Back in July, 
Like Santa Claus, Oskar Schindler, David Letterman and Joe McCarthy, the Copyright Office (CO) has a list. The CO’s list consists of TV stations which claim to be “specialty” stations, a desirable status for some in the copyright world (more on that below). The CO is in the process of updating its list, and