SES' proposed $3.1 billion purchase of Intelsat (see 2404300048) could mean more C-band spectrum becomes available for 5G, New Street’s Jonathan Chaplin said in a Thursday investors note. Chaplin said questions have been asked about the spectrum implications since the deal was unveiled April 30. “We think the merger could result in 100 MHz [of C-band spectrum] being released relatively soon,” he said.

The FCC's rules reclassifying broadband as a Communications Act Title II telecom service and reestablishing net neutrality are effective July 22, according to a notice in Wednesday's Federal Register (see 2405080044). Also, China Mobile International, China Telecom, China Unicom, Pacific Networks and ComNet "shall discontinue any and all provisions of broadband internet access service" as of Sept. 19, the notice said.

ISP groups and New York state might soon reach agreement and avoid an appeal of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision to uphold New York state’s Affordable Broadband Act (case 21-1975). The 2nd Circuit previously granted an extension to file for rehearing or rehearing en banc until Friday (see 2405010005). In an unopposed motion on Wednesday, the industry groups asked for a two-week extension until June 7. The plaintiffs and state “are discussing and anticipate reaching within the next two weeks an agreed-to stipulation regarding the New York law at issue … that would obviate the need for Plaintiffs-Appellees to file a rehearing petition before this Court,” the ISP groups wrote. “Following diligent and repeated discussions, the parties reached tentative agreement on the outline of this agreed-to stipulation -- by which Plaintiffs-Appellees would agree to forgo filing a petition for rehearing or rehearing en banc in exchange for certain agreements from Defendant-Appellant.” The plaintiffs said the “parties expect to reach final agreement as to that agreed-to stipulation before June 7, 2024, but not before” this Friday when the rehearing petition is currently due.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court erred when it ruled that E-rate reimbursement requests to the Universal Service Administrative Co. (USAC) are actionable claims under the False Claims Act (FCA), Wisconsin Bell’s U.S. Supreme Court reply brief said Monday (docket 23-1127). The reply brief supported Wisconsin Bell's April 15 cert petition to reverse the 7th Circuit’s decision. In holding that the FCA’s treble damages and civil penalties apply to submissions made to USAC -- a private corporation paying private funds -- the 7th Circuit “explicitly acknowledged” that it was taking a “contrary view” from the 5th Circuit “about the identical program,” the reply brief said. The circuit split “directly affects billions of dollars distributed each year under the E-rate and three other universal service programs," it said. The acknowledged conflict “casts a shadow of extraordinary liability over a massive number of transactions involving numerous private entities that are subject to government supervision,” said the reply brief. SCOTUS should grant Wisconsin Bell’s cert petition “to resolve the circuit split and restore clarity to the scope of the FCA as applied to government-adjacent programs funded with private money,” it said. SCOTUS distributed Wisconsin Bell's cert petition for the justices' June 6 conference, said a text-only docket entry Tuesday.

The annual cost of maintaining AT&T’s copper network is more than $3 billion, not the $10 billion figure that Chris Sambar, executive vice president-technology operations and head of network, mentioned Tuesday (see 2405210059), an AT&T spokesperson wrote in an email Wednesday.

Mediacom is testing a mobile service with its employees as beta users, and plans a public launch in June, a company spokesperson told us. Mediacom didn't say which mobile virtual network operator it's partnering with.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr took the unusual step of praising, ahead of Thursday’s vote by commissioners, a draft NPRM proposing to bar test labs from entities on the agency’s “covered list” of unsecure companies from participating in the equipment authorization process. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel noted Carr’s work on the rulemaking when she announced it last month (see 2405010073). Industry officials expect the draft will receive unanimous approval Thursday. They note no one has visited the commission to protest or offer changes, based on filings in docket 24-136. “I am pleased we are taking the step of proposing that the test labs and certification bodies that review devices before they can be used in the U.S. are themselves trustworthy actors that we can rely on, including by barring those with risky ties” to China, Carr said Tuesday: “The proposal is based on time-tested precedent. The FCC has long limited foreign control of U.S. licensees in other contexts." He called it the FCC’s “Bad Labs” proposal.

The FCC came in 13th out of 26 midsize federal agencies in the best places to work in the federal government rankings released Monday. Its 2023 employee engagement and satisfaction score, 73.6, was almost identical to its 2022 score. The FTC ranked 9th out of midsize federal agencies, with an engagement and satisfaction score of 75.4, jumping notably from 2022's 67.3. Among subcomponent agencies, NTIA ranked 180 out of 459, with an engagement and satisfaction score increasing to 74.8, compared with 2022's 65.3. The rankings, by the Partnership for Public Service and Boston Consulting Group, largely rely on Office of Personnel Management data obtained through its Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey.

Even in the face of slowing subscriber additions in Q1 for telcos' fiber service and fixed wireless access (FWA), cable net additions worsened, likely due to the affordable connectivity program (ACP) ending new enrollments and reenrollments for households that had received ACP support and then moved to a new address, MoffettNathanson's Craig Moffett wrote Monday. He said home broadband penetration stalled and perhaps even declined in the quarter, especially when adjusted for rural home growth subsidized under the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund and for unsubsidized edgeouts. The FWA peak "has passed," with Q1 bringing its first year-over-year decline in subscriber net adds, he said. Fiber overbuilders are challenged as capital and labor costs are higher than when numerous projects were planned, while the most attractive areas are steadily being built out, he said. The U.S. broadband industry's total net adds in Q1 were the slowest since before the COVID-19 pandemic, he said. Broadband penetration increases during the pandemic were likely due to government subsidiary programs at the state and federal level, increasing affordability and bringing in numerous households that otherwise would have found the service outside their price range, he said.

AT&T and AST SpaceMobile signed a commercial agreement for a joint supplemental coverage from space service, the carrier said Wednesday. The agreement runs through 2030, and builds on the companies' existing memorandum of understanding, it said. AT&T Network President Chris Sambar will join AST's board, it said. In addition, the two companies will continue partnering on developing, testing and troubleshooting SCS technology.