The FCC will focus on making GPS and 911 calls more reliable at its March 27 open meeting, Chairman Brendan Carr announced Wednesday. The meeting will be the second with Carr at the helm. Draft meeting items are expected to be posted Thursday.

The satellite industry hopes for a better reception from President Donald Trump's administration than it got under former President Joe Biden concerning satellite broadband as a part of the BEAD program (see 2412130011), Boston Consulting Group’s Mike French said Wednesday. His comments came as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick promised a “rigorous review” of the BEAD program (see 2503050067).

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Wednesday he’s launching a “rigorous review” of NTIA's $42.5 billion BEAD program and will be “ripping out … pointless requirements” that the Biden administration included in the initiative’s original notice of funding opportunity, which Republicans repeatedly criticized last year. House Communications Subcommittee members divided sharply along party lines during a Wednesday hearing over Republicans’ push to revamp BEAD, including the newly filed Streamlining Program Efficiency and Expanding Deployment (Speed) for BEAD Act from subpanel Chairman Richard Hudson of North Carolina and other GOP lawmakers.

The move to open radio access networks (ORAN) is happening, but it will require continuing focus on interoperability and scale, O-RAN Alliance Chair Abdurazak Mudesir said Tuesday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. “If we’re not able to scale the commercial deployment,” ORAN won’t “be worth the effort,” said Mudesir, group chief technology officer at Deutsche Telekom. The alliance held a separate event as part of MWC.

Ligado and Inmarsat contractually agree to use different parts of the L band for mobile satellite service (MSS) operations, but they were at loggerheads during oral argument Tuesday in federal bankruptcy court over whether that contract constitutes a lease. Inmarsat is asking the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware overseeing Ligado's Chapter 11 reorganization to rule that federal bankruptcy law requires Ligado to make its quarterly lease payment to Inmarsat (see 2502070026).

ACA Connects CEO Grant Spellmeyer and two other communications industry executives set to appear at a House Communications Subcommittee hearing Wednesday urge lawmakers in written testimony to revamp the NTIA-administered, $42.5 billion BEAD program. Some also say they want quick congressional action on a potential U.S. Supreme Court overturn of USF’s funding mechanism. Sarah Morris, acting deputy NTIA administrator during the Biden administration, is also set to testify. Her written statement wasn’t available Tuesday afternoon. The panel will begin at 2 p.m. in 2123 Rayburn.

The FCC shouldn't act as a “Ministry of Truth,” and there isn't a constitutional basis for the agency to go after local broadcasters, said Commissioner Nathan Simington during an interview Tuesday that seemed aimed at soothing broadcasters' concerns about the FCC's new direction. “I’m not in the business of deciding who’s telling the truth and who’s not,” Simington said onstage at the NAB State Leadership Conference. “And what’s more, [FCC Chairman Brendan] Carr thinks the same way." Carr said last week that FCC precedent set by the previous administration supports proceedings he has opened against broadcast networks over their programming and news content.

The American Geophysical Union (AGU) and other users of the 1675-1680 MHz band raised interference concerns in response to a January notice from the FCC (see 2501080067). The agency is seeking to refresh the record on the future of the band for shared use between federal incumbents and nonfederal fixed or mobile operations. It initially received comment in 2019 on reallocating the band for 5G, as urged by Ligado (see 1905090041). Comments were posted Monday in docket 19-116.

The FCC and two groups that support FirstNet asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit not to stay the FCC’s order giving use of the 4.9 GHz band to the FirstNet Authority, and indirectly AT&T. The briefs were filed in response to the request for a stay by the Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART), the National Sheriffs' Association and the California State Sheriffs' Association.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr told the Mobile World Congress on Monday that he will push to simplify the regulatory regime that carriers face in the U.S. The FCC also must make enough spectrum available for 5G so that “billions and billions of dollars” are invested in networks, he said. “We need more certainty both in America and Europe."