Consumers should be on the lookout for phone and text message scams during the holidays, said the FCC’s Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau in an alert Monday. Avoid calls or texts from unknown parties, avoid mysterious links and keep an eye out for requests for payment by gift card, the alert said. The bureau also warned about holiday charity scams using phone calls or texts to solicit donations and about package delivery scams claiming that a consumer owes a tariff on an item. “Watch out for text notices saying your purchase is ‘stuck in customs’ or your order will not be delivered until a tariff is paid.” Consumers should check directly with the retailer if they suspect something is wrong, the agency added.
The FCC needs to do more to verify spending program participation and eligibility requirements, said an Office of Inspector General report on the agency’s top management and performance challenges for FY 2026. The report prioritized protecting FCC programs from abuse, safeguarding national security and strengthening cybersecurity as the top three challenges. The FCC’s “widespread reliance on unvalidated, self-certified eligibility criteria for participation in and seeking reimbursement from FCC programs is a significant vulnerability” that leads to abuse of FCC programs, the report said. “A systemic failure to verify program requirements through reliable source records encourages bad actors to do business with the Commission and allows unscrupulous program participants and their partners -- telecommunications providers, sales agents, consultants, and vendors -- to easily commit fraud against FCC programs,” the report said. The agency should incorporate “common sense verification measures before program funds are disbursed,” the OIG report said. FCC rules don’t currently apply federal regulations for suspending or debarring fraudulent entities to its subsidy programs, the report said. “Thus, as highlighted in all our Semiannual Reports to Congress for the last eight years, FCC should implement regulations necessary for the suspension and debarment guidelines to be applicable to its subsidy programs and other nonprocurement transactions, such as grants or loans, to protect itself and the entire government from fraud and misconduct,” the report said.
President Donald Trump jokingly questioned Wednesday how 6G will be an upgrade over previous wireless technologies during a roundtable with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and tech companies. “So you’re into 6G now?” Trump asked Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon. “I was a leader on 5G, getting that done [during his first administration], and now they’re up to 6. What does that do, give you a little bit deeper view into somebody’s skin? See how perfect it is? I like the cameras [in the old days]. Now they cover every little” detail. Trump suggested that wireless companies would soon enough begin to develop an additional 7G iteration “before 6[G] gets old.”
The FCC on Wednesday released its schedule of open meetings for 2026. The first one is set for Jan. 29.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr condemned Free Press as a “radical group” in a post Monday on X after the organization issued a report on President Donald Trump’s “war on free speech,” which called Carr a “sycophant” willing to act against Trump’s critics. The report “analyzes how President Trump and his political enablers have worked to undermine and chill the most basic freedoms protected under the First Amendment,” Free Press said.
Countries all over the globe are competing to advance in the fields of technology, and the U.S. needs to be engaged internationally and to be constantly working to win that race, said FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty in remarks Tuesday at the International Institute of Communications' North America Digital Communications & Media Forum. Trusty’s speech focused on what she learned by speaking with communications regulators from around the world while recently representing the U.S. at the World Telecommunication Development Conference. “These conversations reinforced for me that the work we do at the FCC has implications far beyond our borders, and that staying engaged internationally is not optional, it is essential,” she said. “These global lessons are a wake-up call: U.S. leadership in communications policy is not guaranteed. Initiatives like Delete, Delete, Delete show we are taking steps to modernize our rules and procedures, but we must continue to act with intention to remain the global benchmark.”
The House plans to vote this week on a compromise version of the FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, released Sunday night. The compromise bill omits Senate-passed language from its earlier version (S-2296) that would have given the DOD and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman authority to essentially veto commercial use of the 3.1-3.45 and 7.4-8.4 GHz bands (see 2510160057). The House’s NDAA version (HR-3838) didn't include similar language. The compromise NDAA, filed as an amendment to shell bill S-1071, also omits language to preempt states’ AI laws amid GOP divisions on that issue (see 2512030038).
The U.S. Supreme Court should resolve a circuit split over whether the FCC properly handed down fines against AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile for violating FCC data rules, AT&T said Friday in a filing at the court. Verizon challenged at SCOTUS a September decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit upholding a $46.9 million fine (see 2511170035). In August, the D.C. Circuit upheld a similar fine against T-Mobile (see 2508150044), while the 5th Circuit earlier rejected one imposed on AT&T (see 2504180001).
The FCC will relinquish the third floor of its Washington headquarters and 33 parking spaces to be occupied by the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General, according to an internal email obtained by Communications Daily. An FCC spokesperson confirmed the move Thursday.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has lifted the stay in Consumers’ Research’s latest challenge to the USF, according to an order Wednesday in docket 25-60535. The FCC previously requested the stay during the government shutdown and earlier this week asked for it to be lifted (see 2512020011).