With one of the FCC's largest monthly agendas in recent years -- nine items -- the commissioners on Tuesday unanimously approved everything from a major revamp of the agency's satellite and earth station approvals process to a proposal to end simulcast requirements for the ATSC 3.0 broadcast standard. But three items were adopted Tuesday over the dissents of minority Commissioner Anna Gomez. She said the broadband labels further NPRM was "one of the most anti-consumer items I have ever seen." She also dissented on the prison-calling order and NPRM (see 2510280045) and the wireless direct final rule.
The FCC commissioners were booed and hissed by prisoner advocates at the agency’s open meeting Tuesday as they voted 2-1 to approve an order that will increase rates for incarcerated people’s communications services (IPCS) on an interim basis.
Lynk Global's pending merger with Omnispace marks yet another direct-to-device (D2D) satellite operator dropping plans to rely on reusing terrestrial mobile spectrum and instead incorporating mobile satellite service (MSS) spectrum. Space spectrum consultants and analysts told us it illustrates the challenges of a terrestrial-mobile-alone model. Lynk didn’t comment. Under the Lynk/Omnispace deal, announced last week (see 2510240004), the combined company will use Omnispace’s S-band spectrum for D2D service. That follows AST SpaceMobile's plans to use Ligado's L-band spectrum for its D2D service and SpaceX's proposed purchase of the rights to EchoStar's MSS spectrum.
NPR and CPB are battling in court over the disbursement of interconnection funds, according to documents filed Friday with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. NPR wants a federal judge to force CPB to distribute public radio interconnection funds to NPR stations, it said in motions for a preliminary injunction and summary judgment. CPB filed its own motion for summary judgment the same day, arguing that NPR’s lawsuit would prevent CPB from “serving its Congressionally mandated role to serve as the steward of public dollars for public media.”
Advocates for incarcerated people, corrections trade groups and prison-calling companies disagree about the FCC’s draft order on incarcerated people’s communications services (IPCS), according to filings last week in docket 23-62. Thirty-five House Democrats panned the item in a letter (see 2510220049) and advocacy group FWD.us said the proposed rule would increase rate caps by up to 83%, “is based on misleading information, and unfairly shifts facility costs onto the families of incarcerated people.” Securus, meanwhile, said the rule revisions in the draft “make considerable progress towards placing IPCS on a sustainable path, both economically and legally, a critical outcome to all stakeholders.”
The FCC is expected to hold its open meeting Tuesday as scheduled, despite the government shutdown, said Chairman Brendan Carr and other agency officials in interviews. “The plan is to move forward with an in-person October open meeting as scheduled,” an FCC spokesperson told us.
Fixed wireless access (FWA) isn't a temporary product "but something that's here to stay," as improving mobile technology means more "fallow capacity" that T-Mobile can use, COO Srinivasan Gopalan said Thursday as the carrier announced quarterly results. His comments came a day after AT&T told analysts that it plans to beef up its FWA service starting next year using EchoStar's 3.45 GHz band spectrum. Cable ISPs have said they expect to see FWA competition ebbing as wireless carriers deploy their spectrum more for mobile uses (see 2501310005).
The suspension of most FCC functions as part of the broader government shutdown (see 2509300060) is already generating “a fair number of negative consequences” for the agency, and the gridlock will worsen the longer the closing lasts, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said Thursday during a USTelecom event. Meanwhile, Senate Communications Subcommittee Chair Deb Fischer, R-Neb., and Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., raised continued concerns about how NTIA’s June 6 policy restructuring notice for its $42.5 billion BEAD program (see 2506060052) is affecting their respective states’ plans for their allocation of the connectivity money.
Communications Daily is tracking the lawsuits below involving appeals of FCC actions.
The increasing adoption of AI and U.S. leadership in the technology require massive investments in wireless infrastructure, a focus on making more spectrum available, and attention from Congress and regulators on making those things happen, said speakers at the Wireless Infrastructure Association's Building the AI Future event Wednesday in Washington, D.C. “The bricklaying for AI that telecom provides is really, really important,” said Deputy NTIA Administrator Adam Cassady, while Crown Castle COO Cathy Piche told the panel that “wireless infrastructure is really AI infrastructure.”