Representatives of radio altimeter manufacturers met with FCC staff earlier this month seeking clarity about submitting proprietary data on the safety devices into the public record in the upper C-band proceeding, said a filing posted Monday in docket 25-59. The companies previously met with staff from the Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology (see 2512180040). Commissioners approved an NPRM on an upper C-band auction in November (see 2511200046).
The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau on Monday delayed comment deadlines by two weeks on a further NPRM proposing various changes to the agency's broadband label rules. Under the new deadlines, comments are due Jan. 16, replies Feb. 16, in docket 22-2. That’s less time than the 30-day extension sought by New America’s Open Technology Institute, Public Knowledge, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society and the Utility Reform Network (see 2512220020).
The FCC should take “immediate action” to review network/affiliate contracts and investigate whether the big four networks’ practice of negotiating with virtual MVPDs gives them “de facto control” of local TV stations, said affiliate station owner groups in a joint filing posted Monday in docket 25-322. “Given the state of this relationship, immediate action is necessary so that local broadcast stations can continue to serve local communities with critical news and information,” they said.
The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation announced Tuesday that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit was chosen in a lottery to review the FCC’s recent controversial changes to rules for incarcerated people's communications services. The D.C. Circuit was one of five in which appeals were filed (see 2512230068), with a challenge lodged there by the United Church of Christ's Media Justice Ministry (see 2512160048). IPCS providers wanted the conservative 5th Circuit to hear the case.
Citing a need for more spectrum to keep up with mobile satellite service (MSS) competition, Iridium asked the FCC to update its rules for and give the satellite operator more access to the 1.6 GHz band, including spectrum used by Globalstar.
The full FCC rejected Skywave Networks’ appeals of several Office of Engineering and Technology decisions on redacting confidential information from Freedom of Information Act requests, according to an order released Tuesday. Skywave had sought access to commercial information redacted from publicly available experimental license applications from RCA Telecom, M-Wave Networks, Alpha Bravo Communications, Skycast Services, County Information Services, Rockland Wireless and Toggle Communications. Skywave argued that the redacted information was necessary for it to evaluate the Shortwave Modernization Coalition's petition for rulemaking on using the 2-25 MHz band for fixed, long-distance, non-voice communications. OET ruled that there was no connection between the information sought by Skywave and the petition. “We affirm OET’s conclusion that the information redacted from these applications merits protection from disclosure,” the order said.
FirstLight Fiber told the FCC last week that it shouldn't approve EchoStar's spectrum license sales to SpaceX and AT&T without first getting EchoStar's Dish Wireless to pledge that it will fulfill its contractual obligations to tower and fiber vendors. In a docket 25-302 filing, FirstLight said Dish's claims to vendors that the spectrum sales were unforeseeable events outside its control are "laughable." EchoStar negotiated those spectrum sales in a way "that yielded it a considerable return on its investment." Letting Dish default on its contractual agreements would hurt the wireless infrastructure ecosystem, the FCC's spectrum assignment process and fiber deployments, FirstLight added. Wireless industry groups and other Dish suppliers have made similar arguments (see 2512160006).
The National Association for Amateur Radio (ARRL) met with an aide to FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez to ask for action on several proposals before the commission. They discussed “the need to modernize the amateur service rules (Part 97) to strengthen the basis and flexibility needed to foster experimentation with modern digital techniques and to advance skills in both communication and technical development,” said a filing last week in 25-133 and other dockets.
The FCC Wireline Bureau last week approved the National Exchange Carrier Association’s annual average schedule company high-cost loop support (HCLS) formula modifications. The bureau found that NECA’s results and cost-per-loop calculations “appear to be accurate and complete, and the proposed HCLS formula should reasonably approximate the CPL of the sample average schedule companies, and thereby allocate funds appropriately.”
A recent filing at the FCC from state attorneys general on wireline infrastructure changes confirmed that the states remain concerned about federal preemption of state AI laws, Robinson & Cole’s Linn Foster Freedman said in a blog post Wednesday. “Ultimately, there will be a battle between the federal government and state legislatures over AI regulation,” she wrote. “It is clear that the Trump administration seeks minimal regulation, despite the known risks, and state Attorneys General, charged with protection of consumers, feel very differently. I suspect we will see how it plays out in court.”