The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition urged the FCC to support managed internal broadband services (MIBS) in comments on a Wireline Bureau public notice asking about the proposed eligible services list for FY 2026. Filings from SHLB and others were posted last week in docket 13-184 after the federal government reopened.
The FCC received mostly support for a proposal to allow correctional facilities to jam cell signals, with an eye on curbing contraband phones, according to comments filed during the federal government shutdown. Wireless carriers have long opposed jamming but haven't filed comments. The FCC unanimously approved a further NPRM in September, with Commissioner Anna Gomez calling on the agency to move cautiously as it revisits the issue (see 2509300063).
For wireless carriers today, the move to 5G stand-alone service is a critical next step, said Peter Jarich, head of GSMA Intelligence, during a Mobile World Live virtual conference Thursday. Questions remain about what happens as carriers move from 5G to 5G advanced and 6G and whether that can be done as “an evolution” and not a “big bang” change that will “saddle” operators with huge costs to upgrade their networks, he said.
The Safer Buildings Coalition (SBC) got support for its July petition asking the FCC to launch a rulemaking on guidelines for getting consent from licensees to install signal boosters. Comments were due Oct. 16, replies Oct. 31, in docket RM-12009, but that schedule was disrupted by the federal government shutdown (see 2511130050). Many of the filings, which were posted Thursday, raised public safety concerns.
The telecom industry will see further consolidation of smaller carriers, similar to what happened 20 years ago, Recon Analytics’ Roger Entner said Wednesday during a webinar hosted by Georgetown University's Center for Business and Public Policy. There are still about 1,300 ISPs left in the U.S., which is “a staggering” number, Entner said. He cited examples of the deals being made, including T-Mobile’s purchase of stakes in fiber-based providers like Metronet and Lumos (see 2507090034). There’s a “tremendous amount of activity here underneath the surface" that only sometimes makes headlines.
This year has proven “tough” for open radio access network (ORAN) deployments, said James Joiner, GSMA's lead analyst for network strategy, during a Mobile World Live virtual conference Tuesday. With developments such as EchoStar’s decision to decommission part of Boost’s ORAN, “market sentiment” has “cooled” but “hasn’t collapsed completely.”
Arpan Sura, an aide to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, warned Wednesday that the agency faces a huge amount of work to meet a congressional mandate to auction the upper C band in two years. “It’s a very aggressive timeline,” Sura said during a Center for Strategic and International Studies conference. Other speakers said federal spectrum work has continued despite the longest federal shutdown in history. Commissioners are to vote next week on an upper C-band NPRM (see 2510290047).
Congress, and the FCC, may face reduced pressure to reform the USF with an expected drop in its contribution factor, but calls for change won’t go away, experts said Monday. The USF contribution factor is expected to decline from 38.1% in Q4 to 30.9% in Q1, as projected demand decreases, analyst Billy Jack Gregg said Saturday in an email. That’s based on new numbers from the Universal Service Administrative Co.
As the longest federal government shutdown in history likely nears an end, industry lawyers who depend on FCC decisions said there’s no question the companies they represent have taken a hit. Among the biggest problems, they said, are that everything the FCC has done has taken longer, while some transactions and license applications aren’t being processed with key systems offline.
The FCC on Thursday advised the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which heard oral argument last month on a challenge to the 2024 incarcerated people's communications services (IPCS) order, that the rules have changed. FCC commissioners significantly revised calling rates in an order approved 2-1 at the October open meeting (see 2510280045). The agency also released the final version of the order Thursday with some changes from the draft that was previously circulated by Chairman Brendan Carr, mostly benefiting IPCS providers.