Groups opposed to the order giving the FirstNet Authority, and indirectly AT&T, control of the 4.9 GHz band through a nationwide license (see 2410220027) and the Public Safety Spectrum Alliance (PSSA), which had only a few quibbles with the order, clashed in briefs filed this week at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Oral argument has yet to be scheduled in the case (docket 24-1363). The FCC approved the order during the last administration with support from current Chairman Brendan Carr (see 2411130027).

A handful of right-leaning groups are pressing strongly for a bipartisan congressional working group to recommend funding USF via the appropriations process as part of a potential legislative revamp of the program, but other stakeholders said they still they favor various expansions of the initiative’s contributions base. Comments to the working group were due late Monday night as part of its recently relaunched bill consultations (see 2508010051). The right-leaning groups also called for the most far-reaching changes to the program’s governance and structure, in some cases seeking to ax the high-cost fund.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said Tuesday that he’s generally satisfied with how Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is playing out and raised doubts about whether the agency will plow further into the issue. The debate over Section 230 “is still alive,” but given changes by social media companies, Carr is in a “trust-but-verify posture,” he said at a Politico summit focused on AI.

As policymakers look at reforms to the USF, they need to examine why so many people who are eligible for support don’t enroll in Lifeline and other programs, experts said Monday during an event hosted by Georgetown University's Center for Business and Public Policy. The session coincided with Monday's deadline for responding to the congressional USF working group's request for comments and proposals on USF reform.

Forced to abandon its plans for a terrestrial mobile network of its own, EchoStar is pivoting to what CEO Hamid Akhavan calls a "hybrid MVNO" (mobile virtual network operator) model, where its Boost Mobile business will use AT&T's mobile network and SpaceX's direct-to-device capacity.

With NTIA in the 90-day curing stage for states that submitted their revised final BEAD proposals by the Sept. 4 deadline, some broadband access advocates are claiming that the agency is requiring states to conduct another "Best and Final Offer" round based on price caps. They said a spreadsheet obtained by BroadbandMarketer's Doug Adams containing excessive cost thresholds suggests that NTIA will require states to reengage with subgrantees with overly high project costs.

Michael Powell is leaving NCTA on a high note, with net neutrality -- an issue he has dealt with and opposed for decades -- seemingly dead. "It was going to be really dispiriting to me if I retired, and we were now in a Title II environment, and I'm super excited that no, I can say that we slayed that dragon," the group's outgoing leader told us.

Despite continuing questions about how quickly major wireless providers really want the next major spectrum auction, the FCC is under the gun to hold an upper C-band auction in just two years. But industry experts told us that, as was said of the baseball field in 1989’s Field of Dreams, if the FCC holds an auction the carriers will come.

Competitive Carriers Association membership is shrinking, but the remainder are hopeful about future spectrum auctions and policy calls that could mean the difference between life and death for many small players, CEO Tim Donovan said in an interview Thursday.

SpaceX’s $17 billion purchase of EchoStar’s AWS-4 and H-block spectrum rights is a disruptive hit to L- and S-band satellite operators and their direct-to-device (D2D) plans, Iridium CEO Matt Desch said Thursday at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce aerospace and space event in Washington. Also at the event, Rep. Brian Babin, R-Texas, chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, said overregulation is one of the chief issues facing the commercial space industry.