As President Donald Trump's administration approaches the end of its second month, many questions remain about what it will do concerning the national spectrum strategy and the studies of the lower 3 and 7/8 GHz band started under former President Joe Biden. Most of the news out of NTIA so far has been about BEAD's future, with little on spectrum.

Cable broadband subscriber losses should moderate this year, with fiber and fixed wireless providers' gains plateauing, LightShed Management wrote Monday. In addition, there could be renewed M&A interest in cable, LightShed said, triggered by slower growth across all connectivity companies and favorable regulatory sentiment. However, none of the three major wireless carriers seems a likely buyer. Moreover, LightShed sees the possibility of a U.S. Supreme Court stay preventing the TikTok divestiture/ban from taking effect Jan. 19. The Trump administration will likely devise terms that safeguard users' data security and mitigate national security concerns. Also expect rollout of a more-robust direct-to-device service via SpaceX and T-Mobile as additional satellites are launched and FCC power restrictions are resolved, it said. LightShed predicted the next FCC will provide a waiver of the power limits. It said with more satellites and higher power, the service could extend to IoT. After the Skydance/Paramount deal closes in the first half, Paramount will likely slash its linear cable network operations, shedding some networks, LightShed predicted, and it will invest those savings into streaming. A Trump administration ban on pharmaceutical advertising on TV could drive TV station group M&A, it added.

Industry groups and ISPs sought several adjustments in FCC requirements on broadband data collection (BDC). Some asked the FCC to permanently remove the rule requiring that a professional engineer (PE) certify availability data. Others sought clarification on the process for providers seeking to restore locations on their availability maps after a challenge process removed such locations. Comments were posted through Tuesday in docket 19-195 (see 2408300036)

Critics of aspects of SpaceX's direct-to-device service continue pressing the FCC. In a docket 23-135 filing Tuesday, AT&T said it supports prompt approval of SpaceX secondary supplemental coverage from space (SCS) service that meets FCC power limits, but opposes the elective power boost that would increase its throughput at the expense of AT&T's primary incumbent terrestrial PCS C-block network. "Secondary service cannot degrade primary service, especially a primary service with the myriad established public interest benefits of terrestrial mobile," AT&T said. An AT&T analysis of how the elective power boost would affect its Tucson, Arizona, PCS C-block network predicts "a devastating" 18% degradation in average downlink throughput due to SpaceX's elective power increase, and in some areas on the network's edge coverage might be out altogether. Verizon challenged T-Mobile's throughput calculations that back granting a waiver of FCC out-of-bound emissions (OOBE) limits (see 2408230013), saying they weren't applicable to SCS service. Omnispace said the 1990-1995 MHz block is allocated for mobile satellite service uplink use both in the U.S. and internationally, and SpaceX has yet to meaningfully address concerns about it using that band for downlinks. It said SpaceX's rebuttal "is more ad hominem than rigorous." The FCC's aggregate OOBE limits in its Part 25 rules don't need relaxing for SCS service, AST SpaceMobile CEO Abel Avellan told Commissioners Geoffrey Starks, Anna Gomez and Nathan Simington, said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 20-32. Avellan said AST and numerous mobile network operators (MNO) believe that OOBE levels need to be maintained to protect incumbents' use of spectrum. He said AST will meet aggregate OOBE limits in low- and mid-band spectrum. AST said it has agreements and understandings with more than 45 MNOs with roughly 2.8 billion subscribers. It said its SCS service has a 120 Mbps peak data rate.

SpaceX and European mobile network operators are at odds over the out-of-band emissions waiver SpaceX is seeking for its supplemental coverage from space service (see 2408130008). In a letter to the FCC Space Bureau this week, Vodafone, Orange, Liberty Global, Telefonica, PPF, Telenor and United Group said they were "gravely concerned" about proposed lower safeguards protecting terrestrial MNOs from interference. They said the current aggregate out-of-band emission limit "represents the bare minimum level of protection that mobile network operators require from spurious emissions" in low- and mid-band spectrum. That current limit, they added, "should be regarded as a 'best case,'" as terrestrial MNOs could experience amplified interference when multiple competing direct-to-device satellite systems operate, or an individual D2D operator expands the number of satellites in orbit, prompting more coincident interference. In docket 23-135, SpaceX said the MNOs, all investors in rival D2D operator AST SpaceMobile, are on a "scorched-Earth campaign to hamstring" competition. They "provide zero technical support for their opposition" and don't address SpaceX and T-Mobile technical assessments showing adjacent-band terrestrial networks would be protected, SpaceX said. Nor do they provide any technical support for their "specious" best-case claims, it added. If the best-case claims are correct, SpaceX said, AST operations would cause far more interference to users than the protection level being demanded of SpaceX.

SpaceX is facing opposition from wireless and satellite entities over its requested waiver that would allow relaxed out-of-band power flux density limits for the company's proposed supplemental coverage from space service, according to docket 23-135 filings Tuesday. In its June waiver request, SpaceX said its proposed PFD limits would protect adjacent band networks from interference while avoiding too-restrictive limits. Separately, Omnispace petitioned the FCC, urging denial of SpaceX's pending request to add the 340-360 kilometer altitude shells as a deployment option for its SCS service (see 2406210006).

SpaceX's proposed reconsideration of the aggregate out-of-band power flux density (PFD) limits that the FCC adopted in March's supplemental coverage from space (SCS) order (see 2405300044) is seeing some pushback from wireless carriers and EchoStar. SpaceX has pushed for band-specific out-of-band PFD limits, and replies to its petition were posted Monday in docket 23-65. EchoStar said the proceeding's record supports the FCC's aggregate out-of-band emissions limit protecting neighboring licensees. The aggregate interference limit is "reasonable and realistic" as a route to preventing harmful interference, it said. AT&T said the commission should stick with its "balanced, simple, and certain approach" to protecting terrestrial wireless services, "particularly given that SCS technology is still being developed and tested." It said if an SCS applicant can't comply with the PFD limits, it can seek a waiver of the rule and show its proposed deployment won't cause harmful interference. Keeping the uniform out-of-band PFD limit is important, given the nascent development of SCS services, Verizon said in its opposition. T-Mobile, partnering with SpaceX on SCS service, backed SpaceX's recon petition. It said the FCC didn't seek comment on the limit ultimately adopted, and that limit significantly constrains the ability of satellite operators to provide SCS in some frequency bands. "Basic engineering principles require band-specific out-of-band PFD levels," T-Mobile said.

Any FCC Wireless Bureau authorization of commercial supplemental coverage from space (SCS) operations should be through a waiver-based approach, AT&T said Tuesday in docket 23-135. Citing SpaceX's proposed use of T-Mobile spectrum, AT&T said that requires waivers, and SpaceX's special temporary authority application filed last week contains none of the needed waiver requests. It said the novel testing SpaceX proposes should be handled by an experimental license. In its STA application, SpaceX asked for 60 days starting Dec. 1 to launch and test its second-generation satellites with direct-to-mobile payloads as they connect with unmodified mobile phones using T-Mobile's PCS G Block spectrum.

The FCC's proposal to limit mobile supplemental coverage from space (SCS) operations to co-channel licenses held by one party in geographically independent areas (GIA) is getting pushback from some satellite and terrestrial interests, per NPRM reply comments in docket 23-65 Tuesday. There was wireless and satellite disagreement on whether a waiver system suffices or if the agency needs SCS rules. The SCS NPRM was adopted 4-0 in March (see 2303160009) and the wireless industry argued in initial comments SCS rules are premature (see 2305150007).

Concerns raised about SpaceX/T-Mobile joint efforts for mobile supplemental coverage from space (see 2305190057) "rely on either misinterpretations of Commission rules or fundamentally flawed technical 'studies,'" SpaceX said Wednesday in docket 23-135. T-Mobile also dismissed criticisms. Citing out-of-band emissions concerns, SpaceX said it and T-Mobile signed a spectrum manager lease arrangement and agreed to technical limits consistent with rules for PCS G Block spectrum, "even when those rules are more restrictive than comparable satellite rules that could be applied instead." T-Mobile said there's no need for demonstrations on potential interference since the consumer handsets communicating with SpaceX will be the same ones used now with its terrestrial wireless network. It said there also is no basis for requiring either company to demonstrate the potential effect of the SCS service on T-Mobile's network since the wireless carrier "has the discretion, so long as it complies with all relevant rules, to optimize its network configuration to operate in harmony with SpaceX." Both companies said criticism that they requested either too many or too few waivers from the FCC are baseless. TerreStar Solutions, which plans to begin trialing a non-terrestrial two-way messaging service and then offer SCS to Canadians, said the SpaceX/T-Mobile SCS plan raises interference risks for incumbent mobile satellite service (MSS) operators like it. TerreStar said SCS approaches like SpaceX/T-Mobile, which require frequency use waivers, could reduce the amount of spectrum available for terrestrial operations. It said the FCC should instead focus on supporting the use of existing MSS allocations by licensed MSS operators to provide SCS services.