New regs for Tuesday: Cellphones, royalties, penalties

Tuesday’s edition of the Federal Registercontains new rules for cellphone service providers in rural areas, royalty rates and civil penalties.

Here’s what is happening:

Cellphones: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is moving forward with new rules for the Connect America Fund “to help ensure rural consumers will be adequately served by mobile carriers”

Under the rules, the FCC will provide funding to “assist in the deployment of 4G LTE to areas that are so costly that the private sector has not yet deployed there and to preserve such service where it might not otherwise exist,” the agency said Monday.

The rules go into effect in 30 days.

Roads: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is further delaying new civil penalties.

The NHTSA originally delayed an Obama-era inflationary increase in civil penalties in January, and is now delaying the rules for a second time.

The new civil penalties will go into effect on June 26.

Royalties: The Library of Congress is setting royalty rates for phonorecords, such as CDs or vinyl records.

The Library’s Copyright Royalty Board announced Monday it is moving forward with rates for “nondramatic musical works to make and distribute phonorecords of those works.”

The rates go into effect immediately.