Industry officials continue weighing the net effect of Friday night's presidential memo on spectrum for full-power licensed use, though its overall importance appears to remain unclear. Federal agencies have already started lining up funding to do various band studies, as directed by the reconciliation package's goal of finding 800 MHz of midband spectrum for 6G, industry and federal officials said. The studies must gain approval as part of the spectrum relocation fund process by a technical panel made up of OMB, the FCC and NTIA.
A top regulatory issue for VoIP providers remains federal preemption of state rules and what that means in states like California, said Brendan Kasper, data protection officer at telecom provider 8x8, during a webcast with former FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly, part of a series for the Free State Foundation. Kasper, the former president of the Voice on the Net Coalition and a former Vonage executive, noted that the FCC has yet to respond to California actions.
The initial round of 2022 quadrennial review comments last week included Fox seeking elimination of the dual network rule and MVPDs advocating for the FCC to adopt DOJ’s market definitions for broadcasting, as well as the expected calls from broadcast station owners to eliminate ownership limits. Opponents of deregulation in docket 22-459 included conservative entities Newsmax and CPAC, along with a coalition of public interest groups, independent film trade groups and academics arguing that the FCC must study broadcast markets.
The New York State Public Service Commission approved Verizon’s purchase of Frontier, it said in a news release and order Thursday. California's public utilities advocate endorsed the deal in a filing Wednesday.
Top Democrats on the Senate and House Communications subcommittees were noncommittal in interviews Wednesday and Thursday about pursuing legislation to address changes that NTIA made to the $42.5 billion BEAD program’s rules in its June 6 restructuring policy notice. The Government Accountability Office ruled Tuesday that the Congressional Review Act (CRA) doesn’t let the Commerce Department unilaterally make such alterations (see 2512170032). Meanwhile, Sens. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., filed the Supporting U.S. Critical Connectivity and Economic Strategy and Security (Success) for BEAD Act on Thursday to allow states to repurpose non-deployment BEAD funding for next-generation 911 technology upgrades and other purposes.
Bidding in the long-awaited reauction of AWS-3 spectrum will start June 2, the FCC Office of Economics and Analytics and Wireless Bureau announced Thursday. That means it would likely occur about a year ahead of the much bigger auction for the upper C band. The AWS-3 auction will be the FCC’s first for full-power licensed use since 2022. The first auction of AWS-3 spectrum was in 2014.
The FCC approved 3-0 Thursday, with few changes, an order and further NPRM on expanding the commission’s VoIP numbering authorization rules (see 2512170039). Also at the meeting, commissioners addressed low-power TV and translator stations in a second item approved unanimously and, for the sixth consecutive month, adopted a direct final rule (DFR) to expunge a set of what the agency said are obsolete and unnecessary rules.
Communications Daily is tracking the lawsuits below involving appeals of FCC actions. New cases are marked with a *.
Few changes are expected to an FCC order and further NPRM to expand the commission’s VoIP numbering authorization rules, which commissioners will vote on Thursday. One of the biggest points of contention has been whether to change language citing a $4.5 million robocall-related fine against Telnyx. There were only three ex parte filings on the item in docket 13-97, and two addressed the Telnyx issue, including a filing by the company (see 2512040005).
The FCC Wireline Bureau released Wednesday the final eligible services list for FY 2026 for the schools and libraries universal service support mechanism program. The bureau declined to make several changes sought by commenters in response to a bureau notice about the list, including those on the treatment of managed internal broadband services (MIBS), a top focus of the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition and other groups (see 2511140019).