SpaceX has dropped its 2024 rulemaking petition pushing for changes to the 2 GHz band licensing and sharing frameworks to allow new entrants and coexistence (see 2402230027). The company notified the FCC on Tuesday that it was withdrawing the petition. EchoStar was the sole 2 GHz licensee at the time of the filing, but the two companies have since agreed to a deal in which SpaceX would buy spectrum licenses, including the 2 GHz band license, from EchoStar.
Petitions to deny are due Oct. 30 on AT&T’s proposed purchase of EchoStar spectrum for $23 billion, said an FCC notice released Tuesday in docket 25-303. The deal, announced in August (see 2508260005), would give AT&T licenses for 600 MHz and 3.45 GHz. EchoStar will continue to offer wireless service, but primarily as a mobile virtual network operator riding on AT&T’s network. Oppositions are due Nov. 14, replies Nov. 24, the notice said. “According to the Applicants, the transaction will provide significant public interest benefits by improving AT&T’s service and making both companies stronger competitors.”
Verizon is in discussions with EchoStar about buying the company’s AWS-3 spectrum, Bloomberg News reported Monday, citing unnamed sources familiar with the talks. AT&T announced an agreement in August to buy EchoStar’s 600 MHz and 3.45 GHz licenses for $23 billion (see 2508260005). Dish Network, which is now part of EchoStar, was the third-highest bidder in the 2015 auction, with bids of more than $13 billion. Dish returned some of the licenses to the FCC, which will sell them in an upcoming auction.
Dean Bubley, founder of Disruptive Analysis, argued in an opinion piece Monday that private 5G will be critical to providing the bandwidth needed to handle the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. Private 5G “is increasingly used for connecting broadcast cameras, devices such as drones, handhelds for security staff, wireless payment terminals, and entry/exit gates” and “can be configured for the venues’ specific needs, with dedicated coverage and local control,” Bubley wrote in RCR Wireless. Carrier networks “will be insufficient to simultaneously meet all the requirements for the diverse Olympic venues and specialized applications, visiting fans, and non-participating LA citizens and businesses,” he wrote. Even using advanced 5G techniques like network slicing, “public networks’ limitations will likely require deployment of dedicated ‘private’ 5G networks.”
Groups opposing an FCC order giving the FirstNet Authority control of the 4.9 GHz band through a nationwide license (see 2410220027) Monday slammed Public Safety Spectrum Alliance (PSSA) and Public Safety Broadband Technology Association (PSBTA) challenges of part of the order. The Coalition for Emergency Response and Critical Infrastructure (CERCI) and other groups filed a brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which is scheduled to hear the case Nov. 24. The FCC and DOJ, meanwhile, defended the order.
CTIA Monday filed in support of a T-Mobile petition asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to rehear en banc the August decision by a three-judge panel upholding the FCC’s data fines against it and Sprint, which it subsequently purchased (see 2509220056).
An upper C-band auction is unlikely to start in FY 2026, the FCC Office of Economics and Analytics said in an annual update on projected auction activity in the next fiscal year, which begins Wednesday. The report projected that the AWS-3 reauction will get underway but didn’t provide additional timing details. The report was posted in Monday’s Daily Digest. “In the next twelve months, the Commission will also consider competitive bidding for licenses for spectrum in other services in its inventory that is well-suited for 5G and has been licensed in prior auctions, such as, without limitation, 600 MHz spectrum,” the report said.
The Utilities Technology Council and several of its member companies met with FCC Wireless Bureau staff to express support for a proposed rulemaking to authorize 5/5 MHz broadband deployments in the 900 MHz band (see 2505190025) and to discuss other spectrum issues. “Utilities need access to licensed spectrum to ensure mission critical communications reliability using frequency bands that provide favorable propagation for wide area coverage without line of sight issues,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 24-99.
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr (R) added his voice Friday to calls for the FCC to approve an NPRM aimed at allowing corrections officials to jam cellphone signals (see 2509240028). Commissioners vote Tuesday. “We have heard from law enforcement across the state that this is one of the biggest challenges they face each day, and jamming the signal of these contraband cell phones is the most effective solution,” Carr said.
The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology has sent letters denying applications for recognition from four labs “controlled by the government of China,” the agency said in a news release Friday. Earlier this month, OET started proceedings to withdraw recognition from seven test labs with China ties. The commission “has now begun proceedings to withdraw recognition or denied applications from 15 China-controlled ‘bad labs,’” the release said. “Foreign adversary governments should not own and control the labs that test the devices the FCC certifies as safe for the U.S. market,” said Chairman Brendan Carr.