Government speech coercion might be unconstitutional, but companies with business before the government aren't going to push back, panelists said Wednesday during a conference about online speech organized by the Center for Democracy & Technology and Stand Together. Free-speech advocates also criticized the FCC and FTC for increasingly weaponizing their regulatory powers.

The FCC would seek comments on options for the upper C band, including an auction of up to 180 MHz of it, in an NPRM to be voted on at the agency's Nov. 20 meeting. Congress has directed the FCC to auction at least 100 MHz of upper C band by July 2027. "We have no time to spare," agency Chairman Brendan Carr said Wednesday. "So it is now time to start making important decisions on how best to unleash new wireless services quickly in the band."

NTIA is making it explicitly clear to states that they can't impose rate regulation on BEAD projects, Administrator Arielle Roth said Tuesday. In a Hudson Institute address, Roth said the agency is telling states that providers must be protected from rate regulation and state-level net neutrality rules during the BEAD period of performance. Without those protections, state broadband regulations "could create perverse incentives" that push providers to move resources from BEAD commitments to other areas, she said, which would in turn raise the likelihood of defaults.

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).