Amateur radio operator Hunter Reed asked the FCC to launch a rulemaking on expanding agency rules from 40 years ago, which require local governments to reasonably accommodate amateur radio installations, to clarify that they apply to homeowners associations (HOAs). The current rules don’t “extend to private land-use restrictions enforced by HOAs,” said the petition posted Monday in docket 25-133. “In an era where a significant portion of residential housing is governed by HOAs, this omission critically hampers the ability of many licensed operators to install antennas and fulfill their public service and emergency communication roles.”
Microsoft representatives spoke with an aide to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr on submarine cable rules, according to a filing posted Monday (docket 24-523). The company explained "the importance of avoiding a reduction in the term of submarine cable landing licenses, noted that third-party [submarine line terminal equipment] does not constitute cable ownership or control and ought not be licensed as such, and described the challenges of imposing license and reporting requirements on third party vendors like datacenter owners and those holding [indefeasible rights of use] and other submarine cable capacity leases.”
Thursday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision limiting the scope of environmental reviews could ease permitting for infrastructure projects, including broadband buildout, said advocacy groups and policy analysts.
The end of reciprocal tariffs and tariffs imposed over fentanyl smuggling from China, Canada and Mexico is on hold until an appellate court decides if the use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act was illegal for those purposes.
A U.S Supreme Court decision Thursday requiring judicial deference to agency environmental reviews of infrastructure projects could have implications for broadband deployment, drawing attention from FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. “For too long, America’s infrastructure builds have been held back by reams of red tape,” wrote Carr in a post on X about Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, Colorado. “But today, the Supreme Court helps to correct course -- eliminating needless environmental hoops. As the FCC works to unleash more infrastructure builds, permitting reforms like this are key.”
The end of reciprocal tariffs and tariffs imposed over fentanyl smuggling from China, Canada and Mexico is on hold until an appellate court decides if the use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act was illegal for those purposes.
The FCC Wireline Bureau on Tuesday reversed four Universal Service Administrative Co. audit decisions denying reimbursements for Lifeline support that Verizon/Alltel provided to eligible residents of tribal lands in North Dakota and South Dakota in 2007. Verizon Wireless acquired Alltel Wireless in 2008.
A trade group that requested antidumping and countervailing duties on glass wine bottles brought a 27-count complaint to the Court of International Trade on May 21. The petitioner challenged the International Trade Commission’s determination that bottle imports weren’t harming the domestic industry (U.S. Glass Producers Coalition v. United States, CIT # 25-00076).
Oklahoma is aiming to bring high-speed internet to 95% of its residents by 2028 in a major push to close the digital divide, said Oklahoma Broadband Office Executive Director Mike Sanders during a Fiber Broadband Association webinar Wednesday. Sanders outlined how the state is using a mix of federal funding, tribal partnerships and strategic planning to expand fiber coverage (see 2505050060). "We'll be north of that" 95% mark, Sanders said, "but it's going to take all the other federal programs and the flexibility for our state to achieve that."
The top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, is leading a delegation to Ottawa this weekend. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who led the effort to end 25% tariffs on Canadian goods, and Sens. Peter Welch, D-Vt., and Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., also are going.