Public Notice

President Donald Trump issued a pair of executive orders that will impose new limits on Chinese social-media apps TikTok and WeChat, effectively setting a 45-day deadline for an American company to purchase TikTok’s US operations. The orders bar people in the US or subject to US jurisdiction from transactions with the China-based owners of the apps, effective 45 days from Aug 6. That raises the possibility that US citizens would be prevented from downloading the apps in the Apple or Google app stores.

The following items have been adopted by the Federal Communications Commission and deleted from the list of items scheduled for consideration at the Thursday, Aug 6, 2020, Open Meeting.

Common Antenna Siting Rules (MB Docket No. 19-282); Modernization of Media Regulation Initiative (MB Docket No. 17-105): The FCC will consider a Report and Order that would eliminate the common antenna siting rules for FM and TV broadcaster applicants and licensees.

President Donald Trump signed a new Executive Order to further expand access to telehealth services during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in rural communities.

The Federal Communications Commission announces the opening of the nomination period for the Ninth Chairman’s Awards for Advancement in Accessibility (“Chairman’s AAA”). The nomination period opens on Aug 3, 2020 and continues through 11:59 p.m. EDT on Sept 4, 2020.

In 2019, Network Communications International Corporation petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to forbear from its obligation to contribute to the Universal Service Fund (USF) with respect to inmate calling services it provides in jails and prisons. More recently, another inmate calling services provider, Securus Technologies, LLC (Securus), sought a waiver from contributions obligations for all inmate calling services providers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the critical role that the USF plays in bringing connectivity to rural and low-income Americans, schools, libraries,

The Federal Communications Commission grants the request of Kuiper Systems LLC (Kuiper or Amazon) to deploy a non-geostationary satellite orbit (NGSO) system to provide service using certain Fixed-Satellite Service (FSS) and Mobile-Satellite Service (MSS) Ka-band frequencies with conditions adopted. We conclude that grant of Kuiper’s application would advance the public interest by
authorizing a system designed to increase the availability of high-speed broadband service to consumers, government, and businesses.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau clarified that 

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) respectfully requests that the Federal Communications Commission initiate a rulemaking to clarify the provisions of section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934. Specifically, per President Donald Trump's Executive Order No. 13925: Preventing Online Censorship (EO 13925), NTIA requests that the FCC propose rules to clarify:

The Federal Communications Commission's Office of Economics and Analytics (OEA), in consultation with the FCC's Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB), initiated the urban rate survey for 2021. The FCC will be collecting the rates offered by a random sample of providers of fixed services identified using December 2019 FCC Form 477 data. The Commission will collect separate samples for fixed voice and fixed broadband services with up to 500 urban Census tracts in each. Because some providers serve many urban Census tracts, these providers may receive surveys for multiple Census tracts.

Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr announced that the FCC, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP), and the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers (NCSHPO) have reached an agreement that will support wireless infrastructure builds while continuing to protect historic properties. It does so by amending the Nationwide Programmatic Agreement for the Collocation of Wireless Antennas (Collocation NPA) that the FCC, ACHP, and NCSHPO entered into in 2001.